Originally posted by Eli Hmmmmmm. It seems quite a few people are having the same problem I have.

Don't know what to tell you, I never had that problem.
showthread.php?threadid=702&highlight=Dark+Forces

~vladr/list.php?appid=230&PHPSESSID=b92a2d722 … 6e53aead6804702

OK, but I know I'm not the only one with this problem. It seems it not only occurs in Dark Forces:

showthread.php?threadid=1535&highlight=general+midi+crash
showthread.php?threadid=702&highlight=midi+crashes (scroll down)

But also in other LucasArts games that use the iMUSE program:

showthread.php?threadid=1139&highlight=general+midi+hangs

Is there some sort of work-around, or do I just have to take it up the rear and lament the loss of the good-sounding music thanks to increasing technology?

Um, like every LucasArts VGA game released since the beginning of time uses iMUSE (The Dig, Indiana Jones, Sam 'n' Max, Day of the Tentacle, etc etc)... I've never heard of DoTT not working for anyone, so, I'm not convinced that's the relevant link between them.

Originally posted by Snover Um, like every LucasArts VGA game released since the beginning of time uses iMUSE...

Perhaps every adventure game, but not Dark Forces. It used the "Jedi Engine".

.. I've never heard of DoTT not working for anyone, so, I'm not convinced that's the relevant link between them.

Well, there was a DOTT "Easter egg" in Dark Forces apparently...
(Item 9.11)

Originally posted by Unregistered OK, but I know I'm not the only one with this problem. It seems it not only occurs in Dark Forces:...

Maybe so, but it doesn't seem very common either. Hrrmm...

By chance are you using "Yamaha XG" software or hardware for MIDI?

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Perhaps every adventure game, but not Dark Forces. It used the "Jedi Engine".

You're getting your game and sound engines confused. LA adventure games use the SCUMM engine for the main game, and many use the iMUSE engine for sound and music. Dark Forces uses the "Jedi engine" for graphics and the iMUSE engine for sound. You can tell just by the similarity of the sound setup program for Dark Forces to games of the same era such as Full Throttle (they even both say iMUSE I think).

I'm pretty darn sure that I've had DF working under XP+VDMSound with perfect sound and MIDI. I use a SBLive with soundfonts for MIDI on my system, unless I'm feeling silly and decide to pipe it to my Yamaha keyboard.

Originally posted by HunterZ You're getting your game and sound engines confused. LA adventure games use the SCUMM engine for the main game, and many use the iMUSE engine for sound and music. Dark Forces uses the "Jedi engine" for graphics and the iMUSE engine for sound.

Hrmm...Apparently true. Odd. Didn't figure that an adventure game's "change music on the fly" engine would be enough for something like "Dark Forces". I had just copied over my two previous configs for testing.
When I actually ran the setup, it crashed immediately. I'm guessing this had something to do with the Win9x shortcut as the problem disappeared when I deleted it.

You can tell just by the similarity of the sound setup program for Dark Forces to games of the same era such as Full Throttle...

I wouldn't presume too much about that. Sometimes programmers would "tweak" the audio setup without changing the interface. A good example is "King's Quest 5". Used the same type of setup/install as KQ4 and KQ6, but it definitely handled audio differently.

...(they even both say iMUSE I think).

Ok, now that's a giveaway and yes, it was there.

I'm pretty darn sure that I've had DF working under XP+VDMSound with perfect sound and MIDI. I use a SBLive with soundfonts for MIDI on my system, unless I'm feeling silly and decide to pipe it to my Yamaha keyboard.

I didn't know what he meant about the AdLib audio until I tested it out. Woof. He was right. Guess I was fortunate to be running a Gravis Ultrasound at the time.

Hrmm...Apparently true. Odd. Didn't figure that an adventure game's "change music on the fly" engine would be enough for something like "Dark Forces".

More than enough, actually, since Dark Forces rarely changes music (does it even do it at all within a level, or does it just keep looping that level's song over and over?). From what I understand, the way they did it is to insert special MIDI controller events in the songs to tell the engine where in the songs it can jump to something else, and then they made little transition songs that it uses between jumps.

I didn't know what he meant about the AdLib audio until I tested it out. Woof. He was right.

In my DOS days, I used to play on a SB16 so I used OPL3 FM music in the game. It's not pretty but you get used to it when it's all you have. Probably one of the reasons I was obsessed with trying to get DOS games to use the soundfont MIDI synthesizer on my SB Live once I got it (thanks to vlad and the DOSbox team, that is now a reality!)