If removing EMS solves the problem, then you should be able to get it to run under DOSBox by editing the "ems=true" line in your dosbox.conf. I'm not sure if that's what you've tried already because "a modified one" could mean just about anything.

As SBINIT.COM (or SBEINIT.COM) both explicitly rely on EMM386, I don't think there's anything you can do on your real PC except to get a different sound card.

What sound card do you have? A PCI based Creative card?

For DOS games in general you want an ISA card.

A PCI based Creative card?

yeah,and not even a genuine one,is sort of a sond blaster rip off.to be exact its a sound blaster pci 128,but the chipset is not a "true" sb one

Zaxxon wrote:

yeah,and not even a genuine one,is sort of a sond blaster rip off.to be exact its a sound blaster pci 128,but the chipset is not a "true" sb one

This doesn't really make sense. If you want to put it that way, you might as well say that Creative never released a PCI sound blaster card.

Jorpho wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

yeah,and not even a genuine one,is sort of a sond blaster rip off.to be exact its a sound blaster pci 128,but the chipset is not a "true" sb one

This doesn't really make sense. If you want to put it that way, you might as well say that Creative never released a PCI sound blaster card.

Creative SB PCI128 (Ensoniq ES1371) Sound Card PCI,here's the correct model,with ensoniq chipset.so its techincally a sound blaster,but the audio quality is abysmal.hope that clarifies things up

Zaxxon wrote:

...but the audio quality is abysmal.

So it's a Creative after all? 🤣

jwt27 wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

...but the audio quality is abysmal.

So it's a Creative after all? 🤣

back in 1995,when i had my old sound blaster 16,all the games with midi songs i played were fantastic,not even dosbox can replicate the goodness of that sound card,especially in games like duke nukem,fatal racing etc

Zaxxon wrote:

back in 1995,when i had my old sound blaster 16,all the games with midi songs i played were fantastic,not even dosbox can replicate the goodness of that sound card,especially in games like duke nukem,fatal racing etc

Yes, the MIDI on the PCI Sound Blaster cards is rather poor for DOS games (although the sound quality otherwise is pretty decent). I wouldn't have thought DOSBox would be particularly inferior, though. You may want to consider using a build that has MT-32 emulation included.

Jorpho wrote:

Zaxxon wrote:

back in 1995,when i had my old sound blaster 16,all the games with midi songs i played were fantastic,not even dosbox can replicate the goodness of that sound card,especially in games like duke nukem,fatal racing etc

Yes, the MIDI on the PCI Sound Blaster cards is rather poor for DOS games (although the sound quality otherwise is pretty decent). I wouldn't have thought DOSBox would be particularly inferior, though. You may want to consider using a build that has MT-32 emulation included.

well its not really "inferior",as it does a good job,but in games like duke nukem,where i listened to its songs to death, it sounds "different" from what i remember,like some instruments sounding in a different way,lacking that oomph that was present in my original pc.

hmm how can i find such build?i mean,what do i have to include on google for searching beside the mt-32?also,wasn't the mt32 used by roland sound cards?

Zaxxon wrote:

hmm how can i find such build?i mean,what do i have to include on google for searching beside the mt-32?also,wasn't the mt32 used by roland sound cards?

The MT32 is indeed used by Roland sound cards. It is often regarded as providing the finest MIDI output for many DOS games – though of course it won't sound the same as your old card.

MT-32 emulation (also known as "MUNT") should be included in ykhwong's build of DOSBox ( http://ykhwong.x-y.net/ ). You'll need to find the MT-32 ROMs, but that's pretty easy to do.

thanks i'll give it a try