VOGONS


First post, by Megadisk

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Is the Adlib sound supposed to be fully compatible in Sound blaster cards?.

I'm experiencing an issue while playing the DOS game "Altered Beast" in the IBM/Sega Teradrive with the recently installed SBPRO2 card.
If at the main options menu I choose the Adlib Sound option, I can hear everything quite nicely through the SBPRO2. The game begins ok no problem, but at the end of the first level after killing the "throwing heads" demon boss, it sounds as if a note hangs of gets stuck, which becomes a humming noise all through the rest of the game.

Thanks for all of your help.

Last edited by Megadisk on 2013-12-30, 02:19. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 16, by Mau1wurf1977

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Another Sega game 😀

I'll test it for you on my 386SX 😀

Any gameplay tips? Not much of an arcade person. What do I need to do to complete the level?

EDIT: Sorry I can't make it to the end of the level. Too hard 😒

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Reply 2 of 16, by Megadisk

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Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I'll test it for you on my 386SX 😀

Any gameplay tips? Not much of an arcade person. What do I need to do to complete the level?

Great I can't thank you enough 😀 .

There isn't much to Altered beast other than not to get touch by anything.

After selecting Video and audio settings, at the main screen press F1; This will give you another options menu such as life meter amount, joystick calibration among other things.

In the first level as you progress, you need to kill the "White" looking dogs which will appear at random (3 of them) each will give you some sort of power up orb. Collect 3 of these orbs so you can transform into a beast with powers. Once you have become the beast, a funny looking character will come to get you so you can fight the demon boss. Avoid the first boss falling heads by constantly moving around while shooting at him.

Thanks again!

Reply 4 of 16, by NewRisingSun

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I don't think the board owners will appreciate you posting a whole game as an attachment.

Is the Adlib sound supposed to be fully compatible in Sound blaster cards?

Yes. Whatever the source of the problem is, it's not caused by AdLib versus Sound Blaster. It might be just sloppy programming, although issues like that also appear if the computer is too fast. Even the OPL3 chip requires just a minimum amount of delay after being written to, compared to the OPL2: if the game waits too little (because it's programmed for slower PCs), strange things can appear. Try slowing down the computer down and see if it makes a difference.

Having just disassembled AD.DRV, I'm positive that this game should have sound problems on faster PCs. Try replacing the game's AD.DRV with the one attached and see if it makes a difference.

Reply 5 of 16, by Megadisk

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NewRisingSun wrote:

I don't think the board owners will appreciate you posting a whole game as an attachment.

My apologies, file has been removed.

NewRisingSun wrote:

Having just disassembled AD.DRV, I'm positive that this game should have sound problems on faster PCs. Try replacing the game's AD.DRV with the one attached and see if it makes a difference.

Will do, thanks!

Reply 7 of 16, by Megadisk

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Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

My hanging note comes a little bit earlier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqM_mzVtIEw

2m45s is when the note gets stuck.

Yes, that's it 😵

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

PS: Don't judge me

😲 , 🤣 .

NewRisingSun wrote:

Try replacing the game's AD.DRV with the one attached and see if it makes a difference.

Just tried this. There was no improvement, sadly 😢 .

Reply 8 of 16, by Great Hierophant

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Another example of the original poster's hardware being capable of so much better than crappy DOS ports.

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog

Reply 12 of 16, by NewRisingSun

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Megadisk wrote:

Just tried this. There was no improvement, sadly.

I am making one last attempt. Please try again the attached AD.DRV as a replacement.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Amiga or Genesis / Mega Drive would be much better options.

The Amiga port is the most unplayable of all ports.

keropi wrote:

I don't even like the genesis port

I don't even like the Arcade original, but it's still the best one of all the available versions. Unfortunately, all the System 16 games are way too bright in MAME, requiring careful adjustment of the Brightness, Contrast and Gamma slider settings.

Reply 13 of 16, by Megadisk

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NewRisingSun wrote:

I am making one last attempt. Please try again the attached AD.DRV as a replacement.

Thank you, I really appreciate your effort.

Also, I definitely think you have the idea of what's going on. I replaced the AD.DRV, installed the game in the HD, and the very first time that I ran the game (I played all through it) the problem went away.

Later on I ran it again, but the issue came back.

Reply 14 of 16, by NewRisingSun

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Today was the first time that I encountered the issue when running the game in DosBox. It is definitely not a hardware issue, but has something to do with the fact that when many sound effects sound at the same time, such as the explosions before and after the boss fight, the game loses track of its voices.

Reply 15 of 16, by Megadisk

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^ Well I guess I can stop blaming the Teradrive for this problem. It's only natural to try to play Sega DOS games in a Sega PC. I'm assuming there is nothing else that can be done, and its probably bad programming altogether.