Yesterday I learnt about the Ultimate Talkie edition of Monkey Island for the first time. I wanted to see if I could get General MIDI working with the CD-ROM version and I stumbled on it thanks to a thread here. Everything's been set up correctly using my Special Editions on Steam. Both games have been sorted and added to my retro PC. However, the first time I loaded SOMI up, the intro worked and so did the General MIDI. However, as soon as Guybrush talks to the lookout, the game just froze. Had to reset the PC. Further investigating on here revealed that you need to check the executable's switches and configure the Sound Blaster. Unfortunately, doing that resulted in every line of dialogue getting cut after one word is spoken. Since then I've been experimenting and getting no where. 🙁 I've tried changing the resources for the game, which has still led to the dialogue getting cut, the PC freezing, or the PC rebooting itself.
However, when I configured my Sound Blaster/SB16 Emulation, the speech worked! Albeit, very quiet. So it's my ISA Yamaha that's the problem, which is my primary sound card.

I can only surmise that there's a resource conflict somewhere...? I'm just having problems sorting it out. In Windows, my Yamaha is assigned A220, I5, D1/5. The Yamaha is initialised first in DOS through Unisound and all the correct resources are assigned - A220, I5, D1/5, P330. However, when I check the resources of the SB16, which are assigned A220, I7, D3 in Windows, the same resources are applied as the Yamaha. Before and after initialising it. I've checked through the readme and followed it to the best of my knowledge, but no matter what I set it to, it asks me to reset the PC, and the configurations are exactly the same! No change.

This is the entire readme:

/* ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º Resource Configuration […]
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/*
ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
º Resource Configuration Program º
º for º
º Sound Blaster 16 Emulation º
º (Version 1.01) º
º º
º Document Revision/Date : 0.05/09 September 1998 º
ÈÍÍÍÍ Copyright 1998.(c) Creative Technology Ltd. All Rights Reserved. ÍÍÍͼ

*/ Some program usage information on SBESET.exe.

1. Objective
---------
SBESET.exe is a dos program that can only be executed in Pure Dos Mode/
Shutdown to Dos Mode. Hereinafter, the term Dos Mode is used to indicate
Pure Dos Mode & Shutdown to Dos Mode. The purpose of this SBESET.exe
program is to enable the user to have the flexibility of resolving SBE
resource configurations conflict under Dos Mode. This simple dos program
allows user, with the help of switches mentioned in the following section,
to manually reconfigure SBE resources to the one that user knows that it is
non-conflicting.

2. Program Description and Usage
-----------------------------
SBESET.exe is a simple dos program, that improves the flexibility of SBE on
Dos Mode. It gives the user the ability to manually reconfigure SBE resources
or disable SBE. With the help of these switches mentioned below, user will be
able to reconfigure the SBE resources,
for example, sbeset -A240 -I5 -D3.

The switch command "-A240" indicates changing the SBE base address, with
switch option "-A" indicates changing of Sound Blaster base address, with
the new resource/value "240" follows.
The switch command "-I5" indicates changing the Sound Blaster Interrupt
resources, with switch option "-I" indicates changing Interrupt and the
new resource/value "5" follows.
The switch command "-D3" indicates changing the Sound Blaster Low DMA
resources, with switch option "-D" indicates changing the Sound Blaster
Low DMA and the new resource/value "3" follows.

Usage syntax:
sbeset -[switch option][value] -[switch option][value] ...

switch command descriptions:
-A[value] : (optional)
This switch command indicates a change in SBE's base address.
The switch option "-A" indicates the base address option, with
the "value" indicating the various possible Sound Blaster base
address port, for example, 220, 240, 260, and 280 to be used.
These values are all hexidecimal.

-I[value] : (optional)
This switch command indicates a change in the SBE's Interrupt
resource. The switch option "-I" indicates the Interrupt option,
with "value" indicating the possible Sound Blaster interrupts,
for example, 5, 7, 9 and 10 to be used. These values are all in
decimal.

-D[value] : (optional)
This switch command indicates a change in the SBE's Low DMA
resource. The switch option "-D" indicates Low DMA option,
with "value" indicating the possible Sound Blaster Low DMA,
for example, 0, 1, and 3 to be used. These values are all in
decimal.

-H[value] : (optional)
This switch command indicates a change in SBE's High DMA
resource. The switch option "-H" indicates High DMA option,
with "value" indicating the possible Sound Blaster High DMA,
for example, 5, 6 and 7 or current Low DMA resource to be
used. These values are all in decimal.

-P[value] : (optional)
This switch commmand indicates a change in the SBE's MPU base
port address. The switch option "-P" indicates the MPU base
option, with "value" indicating the possible Sound Blaster
MPU base port address, for example, 300 and 330 to be used.
These values are all in hexidecimal.

-J[value] : (optional)
This switch command indicates a change in the SBE's Joy base
port address. The switch option "-J" indicates the Joy base
option, with "value" indicating possible Joy base addresses,
for example, 200, 208, 210, 218, ..., 800, ... . These values
are all in hexidecimal.

-j[value] : (optional)
This switch command indicates disabling or re-enabling of SBE
Joy Port. When value is "1" will be re-enabled. When value
"0", SBE will be disabled. Any other values are invalid.

-d[value] : (optional)
This switch command indicates disabling or re-enabling of SBE.
When value is "1", SBE will be disabled. When value is "0",
SBE will be re-enabled. Any other values are invalid.

-w[value] : (optional)
This switch command indicates enabling the use of window
assigned resource configurations or user assigned resource
configurations. When value is "1", SBE willuse back intial
window assigned resource configurations. When value is
"0", SBE will use user assigned resource configurations.
Any other values are invalid.

-c : (optional)
This switch command display the current SBE resource
configurations.

-? : (optional)
This switch command indicates launching of help option
listing.

Note :
(i) All switch options are case sensitive.
(ii) Omitted switch options will adopt the previously assigned
values either by windows or user itself.
(iii) A reboot process is required for the new configurations to
take effect.
(iv) All switch commands are optional but when a switch option is
selected, a valid value is expected to follow next. If this
is not so, an invalid message will be prompted.
(v) Spacing is not allowed between a switch option and its value.
An invalid message will be prompt if this is not comply.
(vi) Spacing is essential between two switch commands.

3. Related Programs Notes
----------------------
Note that SBESET.exe program will only work with the undermentioned
release of SBE Dos Drivers or later. Any attempt to run SBESET.exe
with the earlier release of the SBE Dos Drivers will result in unexpected
results.

SBE
Related Dos Drivers File Size Date
------------------- --------- ----
SBECFG.EXE v1.01 27,802 31 August 1998
SBEINIT.COM v2.60 4,427 31 August 1998

4. FAQ
---
a. After changing the resource configuration using SBESET.exe can I type
"Exit" at Dos Mode to go back to windows and than shutdown to Dos Mode
again for the changed resources to take effect ?

Ans: No, for changes to take effect, a cold reboot is currently necessary.

b. After changing the resource configurations using SBESET.exe, I realised
that the SB Emulation resources under Device Manager does not reflect
changes ?

Ans: Yes, that is correct. The resource configurations for Dos Mode is
independent of the resource configurations mentioned in SB Emulation
under Windows Device Manager. SBESET.exe will maintain its own set
of resource configurations separate from that of Windows.

c. Where did SBESET.exe get its other resource configurations(e.g.
Interrupt, Low DMA, ... etc.) when I only first changed the Sound
Blaster base address ?

Ans: When SBESET.exe is run for the first time, it will duplicate a set of
the Windows resources currently assigned for SB Emulation as it
default values. Any further changes using SBESET.exe will be based on
the initial set of resources.

d. How do I use back my windows assigned resource configurations in Dos
Mode ?

Ans: With SBESET.exe, there is a switch option "-w". By executing SBESET.exe
with the command option "-w1" will reconfigure SB Emulation in Dos
Mode to use back windows assigned resources on the next reboot.

So unless I've overlooked something, to my understanding, I'm supposed to put something like: SBESET -A220 -I7 -D3 -H5 -P330...? And needs to be in capitals. But as I say, nothing changes. I've even checked SBEGO.EXE and the manager still lists the same resources assigned as the Yamaha.