VOGONS


First post, by Artigkar

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Hello there!

UPDATE: Version 6 of the demopack is uploaded to google drive! There are now just 3 different packs currently: the main pack, one smaller pack meant for 286 machines and older (now called MSDOS 16-bit pack, thanks for the suggestion digger!), another pack with just the games that needs a 386 or better (calling this MSDOS 32-bit pack for now).

The 16-bit pack includes a few non interactive demos from Sierra:
kq4demo - Kings Quest 4
lsl3demo - Leisure Suit Larry 3
pq2demo - Police Quest 2
pq3demo - Police Quest 3

The 16-bit pack also includes a folder and an executable called "choice", this is a freedos related program added to test with pre-286 machines.

This unofficial demo pack is intended for the OPL2LPT and OPL3LPT cards made by Dreamblaster/Serdaco (https://www.serdashop.com/).
Here is a Google Drive link to download the zip archive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MwMkJ … LBv?usp=sharing
(Please report to me if the link does not work!)
Start adpatch.bat and follow instructions (choose decompress before patching for best results!).
Should note that if you place this archive anywhere else other than "C:\" you will have to edit the .bat file for it to work and that is
somewhat less convenient.
Also for the 16-bit and 32-bit versions of the pack its still runme.bat instead of adpatch.bat btw.

Additionally there is now as of version 3 of this pack a new separate folder called "adlipt" for games that only work with the Adlipt driver (thanks to ruthan for the suggestion).
Adlipt.bat launches a menu where you can choose to load the driver with different options or unload it.
- The "opl3" option is for OPL3LPT owners only!
- Nopatch option is useful for those games which are timing sensitive,
usually the games that use Adlib as a Digital sound device work better with this option.
- The Blaster option enables Sound Blaster FM compatability.
- The last option is for combined OPL3 and SBFM. This is for OPL3LPT owners, it enables stereo FM sound in some games (Sam & Max and Cyberspehere for example).

All of the games are legal shareware demos or confirmed freeware games downloaded mostly from the great website called RGB Classic Games.
You can visit that website here: https://www.classicdosgames.com/
Some additional shareware and freeware games downloaded from DOS Games Archive.
URL link: https://www.dosgamesarchive.com/

The patcher program and other OPL2LPT uttility software is made by Peter De Wachter.
Get the newest versions of Adlipt and Adpatch here: https://github.com/pdewacht/adlipt/releases

The executable decompressor being used is UNP made by Ben Castricum.
His website for the program is here: http://unp.bencastricum.nl/

The games featured are the following listed alphabetically after the directories in the pack:

ARENA - The Elder Scrolls: Arena v1.06 Freeware Release (Freeware since 2004) *
atlantis - Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Interactive Demonstration
BLOOD - Blood v1.11 Shareware Episode *
bmfreew - Bio Menace v1.1 Freeware Release (Freeware since 2005)
c2demo - Caesar II playable demo *
COSMO - Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure v1.2 Shareware Episode
dafreew - Dark Ages v1.0 Registered Version (Freeware since 2009)
DESERT - Skunny: Desert Raid v1.0 Shareware
DGDEMO - Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games playable demo *
DOOM - Doom v1.9 Shareware Episode *
DUKE2 - Duke Nukem II v1.0 Shareware Episode
DUKE3D - Duke Nukem 3D v1.3d Shareware Episode *
FOREST - Skunny Back to the Forest v1.0 Shareware *
gkdemo - Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers playable demo *
HERETIC - Heretic v1.2 Shareware Episode *
hexndemo - Hexen: Beyond Heretic Shareware Demo *
HOCUS - Hocus Pocus v1.1 Shareware Episode *
HOSP - Theme Hospital playable demo *
JAGGED - Jagged Alliance playable demo *
jill - Jill of the Jungle v1.2 Shareware Episode
k6demo - Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter! Special Demo Version v1.0
KEEN4 - Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy! v1.4 Shareware Episode
KEEN4C - Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy! CGA v1.4 Shareware Episode
keendr13 - Keen Dreams v1.13 Shareware
Kilo - Kiloblaster v2.0 Registered Version (Freeware since 2008)
lemm2 - Lemmings 2: The Tribes Playable demo
LOSTSPAC - Skunny: Lost in Space v1.0 Shareware
MATH - Math Rescue v2.0 Shareware Episode
mdwfull - The Adventures of Maddog Williams in the Dungeons of Duridian Registered Version (Freeware)
mi1demo - The Secret of Monkey Island Shareware Demo
PIZZA - Skunny: Save Our Pizzas v1.1 Shareware
ramdemo - The Terminator: Rampage playable demo *
RAPTOR - Raptor: Call of the Shadows v1.2 Shareware Episode *
ROC - Realms of Chaos v1.0 Shareware Episode *
ROTT - Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins v1.3 Shareware Episode *
s2gold - The Settlers II Gold Edition playable demo *
s2net - The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici playable demo *
sampler - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Loom Passport to Adventure Sampler v1.0
shadow - ShadowCaster v1.15B Shareware Demo *
shokdemo - System Shock Playable Demo v1.0 *
snmdemo - Sam & Max Hit the Road Interactive Demo Version
SPEAR - Spear of Destiny v1.0 Shareware Demo
strife11 - Strife: Quest for the Sigil v1.1 Shareware Episode *
stryker - Major Stryker v1.4 Registered Version (Freeware since 2006)
SW - Shadow Warrior v1.2 Shareware Episode *
syree102 - The Kingdom of Syree version 1.0.2 (public domain release)
td2192f - Traffic Department 2192 v1.0 Creative Commons Registered Version (Freeware since 2007) *
TIEDEMO - Star Wars: Tie Fighter v1.0 Shareware Demo
tndemo - Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri Demo *
uwdemo - Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss playable demo *
vinyl - Vinyl Goddess From Mars v1.1 Shareware Episode *
WACKY - Wacky Wheels v1.1 Shareware Episode *
WAR2 - Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness Shareware v1.20elc *
WARCRAFT - Warcraft: Orcs & Humans Demo v1.12 *
WILDWEST - Skunny: Wild West v2.0 Shareware *
WOLF3D - Wolfenstein 3D v1.4g Shareware Episode
WORD - Word Rescue v2.0 Shareware Episode
Xargon - Xargon v3.0 Registered Version (Freeware since 2008)
zdemo - Z Virgin Shareware Demo *

* - These games marked with a asterisk are not included in the smaller 16-bit pack.

The following additional games are in the adlipt folder for those games that currently only work with the Adlipt driver:

ALONE - Alone in the Dark Playable demo
BASH - Monster Bash v2.1 Shareware Episode
BSTONE - Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold v3.0 Shareware Episode
cannon - Cannon Fodder Shareware Demo
cengine - The Chaos Engine Shareware Demo
cisco - Cisco Heat Shareware Demo
CybFull - Cybersphere Registered Version (Freeware)
dgendemo - D/Generation Interactive Demo
FB - Flashback Playable demo
gods - Gods Playable demo
lamborg - Lamborghini: American Challenge Playable demo (also known as Crazy Cars III)
lemmi - Lemmings Shareware
LOSTVIK - The Lost Vikings English Demo
lure - Lure of the Temptress v1.0 English (Freeware, game still has copy protection. You need to restart the game ingame.)
mpdemo - Magic Pockets Shareware Demo
nightrad - Night Raid v1.1 Shareware
OverKill - Overkill v2.0 Registered Version (Freeware since 2008)
Pbdreams - Pinball Dreams Shareware Demo
pinbfan - Pinball Fantasies 10 Minute Demo
PlusFull - Cybersphere Plus Registered Version (Freeware)
pop1 - Prince of Persia Shareware
pop2 - Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame Shareware
skyroads - SkyRoads Registered Version (Freeware)
skyxmas - SkyRoads Xmas Special Registered Version (Freeware)
snmdemo - Sam & Max Hit the Road Interactive Demo Version (for OPL3LPT stereo sound)
TFTD - X-COM: Terror from the Deep playable demo
tubworld - Tubular Worlds Shareware Episode
world - Out of This World Shareware (also known as Another World)
xmaslem - Xmas Lemmings: 1991 Christmas Edition Freeware
xmaslm92 - Xmas Lemmings: 1992 Holiday Edition Freeware
xmaslm93 - 1993 Holiday Lemmings Shareware Demo
xmaslm94 - Holiday Lemmings 1994 Shareware Demo
zoolplay - Zool Version 10/02/93 Shareware Demo

Notes:
- Some games will work both in Adlib and Soundblaster FM. Hexen demo seemed to have music on the main menu
in Soundblaster, but not with Adlib for some reason when I tested it.
- D generation demo needs to be run with "dgenvga.exe -a" to enable adlib sound.
Otherwise it will default to PC Speaker sound no matter what.

Enjoy Version 6 of the pack!

Last edited by Artigkar on 2020-03-08, 23:32. Edited 15 times in total.

Reply 2 of 52, by dreamblaster

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FANTASTIC THANKS !!!

Visit http://www.serdashop.com for retro sound cards, video converters, ...
DreamBlaster X2, S2, S2P, HDD Clicker, ... many projects !
New X2GS SE & X16GS sound card : https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE ,
Thanks for your support !

Reply 3 of 52, by ruthan

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Thanks.

Im old goal oriented goatman, i care about facts and freedom, not about egos+prejudices. Hoarding=sickness. If you want respect, gain it by your behavior. I hate stupid SW limits, SW=virtual world, everything should be possible if you have enough raw HW.

Reply 4 of 52, by keropi

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hey this is a great idea, thanks for making it Artigkar!
and a 286 pack would be useful as well IMHO!

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 5 of 52, by Artigkar

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keropi wrote:

hey this is a great idea, thanks for making it Artigkar!
and a 286 pack would be useful as well IMHO!

Which of the listed games above in the first post will work well with a 286 or older?

BTW I have found out what the issue with the sam and max demo is. As far as I can tell Adpatch currently only patches "SCUMM Adlib output" to the file Adlib.ims and the game executable is where you patch for "SCUMM Adlib detection". What this means is that the patch works with Monkey Island 2, Fate of Atlantis and Day of the Tentacle since these games have the Adlib,ims file. Sam and Max demo seems to have a bunch of sound driver files with the file extension names ".MDR" and ".WDR" and no ".IMS" Like for example "FM2.MDR" and "SB16.WDR"

Reply 6 of 52, by matze79

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Cool! CGA Commander Keen also works with adpatch ! 😀

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board

Reply 7 of 52, by ruthan

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From Phils eco ""Greenlist" i think that at least Gods and Prince of Persia 1 have some demo too..

GreenList.png
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With searching of demos and shareware versions could help my list - PCI soundcard comp. matrix - second collumn, i already searched for it for lots of games.
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid= … 04bf92a9209e034

Could someone pleas test Dungeon Master I and Golden Axe I?

Im old goal oriented goatman, i care about facts and freedom, not about egos+prejudices. Hoarding=sickness. If you want respect, gain it by your behavior. I hate stupid SW limits, SW=virtual world, everything should be possible if you have enough raw HW.

Reply 8 of 52, by digger

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Artigkar wrote:

I may do a second smaller pack for 286 users if anyone wants that?

As others here have also said: good idea! 😀

But perhaps not call it a 286 pack? Maybe some more general name such as "MS-DOS 16-bit" or something? After all, pretty much every game that runs on a 286 will run on an 8086/8088 PC/XT system as well.

Reply 9 of 52, by Artigkar

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digger wrote:
Artigkar wrote:

I may do a second smaller pack for 286 users if anyone wants that?

As others here have also said: good idea! 😀

But perhaps not call it a 286 pack? Maybe some more general name such as "MS-DOS 16-bit" or something? After all, pretty much every game that runs on a 286 will run on an 8086/8088 PC/XT system as well.

I have already uploaded a second pack and called it 286 for the time being. I may take your suggestion into consideration for a updated version later.
I have no good way to test if any of the games included work on a real 286 or 8086/8088 PC/XT system so I would appreciate some feedback on how they work.

Reply 10 of 52, by Artigkar

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Ruthan that list from Phils compatability list is most likely including both games that work only with Adpatch and those that work fine with the Adlipt TSR program.
I know that atleast Prince of Persia 1 works flawlessly with adlipt, but have yet to see it working with adpatch.

Reply 12 of 52, by Artigkar

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dreamblaster wrote:

FANTASTIC THANKS !!!

You are welcome 😁

There is one thing I have been wondering about Adpatch. Specifically I see that SimCity 2000 is supposed to work with it on this list:
https://github.com/pdewacht/adlipt/wiki/ADPATCH-Tested-Games

I have been trying to figure out how to patch the Simcity 2000 demo and I am not sure where the sound driver is located.
How do you patch this game?

I see on the wiki it says related to games using Miles Audio Interface Library: "Some games bundle drivers together in one big file. If the file is uncompressed, ADPATCH should still be able to apply the patch. Usually the file will be compressed though, in which case patching is not possible."
Is this the case with SimCity 2000?

Reply 13 of 52, by ruthan

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Artigkar wrote:

Ruthan that list from Phils compatability list is most likely including both games that work only with Adpatch and those that work fine with the Adlipt TSR program.
I know that atleast Prince of Persia 1 works flawlessly with adlipt, but have yet to see it working with adpatch.

I still dont fully understand what is that big deal for separation of Adpatched and Adlipt games?

We need big pack games as possible for testing of this device, if there are 2 different ways what has to be done to execute them. We can 2 sepate directories for each type of games and some text file info why it is divided, or some clever execution *.bat if TSR is unloadable etc..

Im old goal oriented goatman, i care about facts and freedom, not about egos+prejudices. Hoarding=sickness. If you want respect, gain it by your behavior. I hate stupid SW limits, SW=virtual world, everything should be possible if you have enough raw HW.

Reply 14 of 52, by Artigkar

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ruthan wrote:
Artigkar wrote:

Ruthan that list from Phils compatability list is most likely including both games that work only with Adpatch and those that work fine with the Adlipt TSR program.
I know that atleast Prince of Persia 1 works flawlessly with adlipt, but have yet to see it working with adpatch.

I still dont fully understand what is that big deal for separation of Adpatched and Adlipt games?

We need big pack games as possible for testing of this device, if there are 2 different ways what has to be done to execute them. We can 2 sepate directories for each type of games and some text file info why it is divided, or some clever execution *.bat if TSR is unloadable etc..

The thing about Adpatch is that it has to be applied to each game manually, typing in the filelocation for each file to be patched and so on. Also, it is not currently possible to patch every dos game or sound driver out there.
Adpatch has the advantage of working on machines older than the 386 based ones and can run atleast some protected mode games for people with machines newer than 386.

Adlipt is considerably easy to use compared to Adpatch, but requires a memory manager like EMM386 or QEMM that will only run on 386 or newer. With Adlipt you mostly just need to run the program as is, just by typing "adlipt" at the dosprompt in the opl2util folder and then you can run whatever you want as long as the software is not protected mode. To unload it you type "adlipt unload" from the opl2util folder.
Only way Adlipt could be more convenient to use is a .bat file to run it directly from the "C:\" prompt in dos. Maybe even do a menu so you can run it with additional commandline options. In fact I might make a .bat file like that at some point later. At the moment I am more focused on trying to find which exact games works with adpatch.

A whole separate directory for games to test with Adlipt would essentially be all of the games that supports Adlib as a sound option and is not protected mode (as in only requires 640k ram or less to run). Does it make sense to have a separate one like that? Two separate directories would also have a lot of duplicates, same games appearing in both directories.

Reply 15 of 52, by ruthan

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This really depend on point of view..

Is there any incompatibility between those 2 solutions? Can i patch the game and still run it with TSR loaded? It i have choose 1 option?

My point of view what is good package from gamers view, gamer as me not care technical details, unless have to.. or is interested in technical details.
From my gamers point of view, is nice to have biggest as possible compatible testing package - with software compatible with product which he want to buy, or already bought.. I thing is nice from product maker point of view too.

I want to play the games with music or sound and music, as quickly and seamlessly as possible, not fiddle with settings whole day, bigger package with games, bigger change that some my favorite games would be within.

Im old goal oriented goatman, i care about facts and freedom, not about egos+prejudices. Hoarding=sickness. If you want respect, gain it by your behavior. I hate stupid SW limits, SW=virtual world, everything should be possible if you have enough raw HW.

Reply 16 of 52, by Artigkar

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Hmm, I am not sure if there are incompatibilities running adlipt with adpatched games. I haven't tested it out in that way.
I get where you are coming from, having a hassle free experience with the games is definately preferable.
A constant challenge with dos games is that they aren't always straight forward with things.

Speaking of which I just updated the pack with more games compatible with Adpatch. In that process I came across this kinda funny gem in the readme file for the System Shock demo:
"For space reasons, we have not included our install
program which would automatically set your System Shock configuration file
appropriately for your sound card. The demo comes default configured for
no sound or digital effects. If you want either sound or digital effects,
you will have to edit your cyb.cfg file yourself."

Reply 17 of 52, by Artigkar

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I have uploaded a third pack with the working title "Demos that need testing with Adpatch". The point of this pack is these are game demos where Adpatch will patch in something, but the game will not have working Adlib sound no matter what.
These game demos that I found are:

Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold v3.0 Shareware Episode
Blood v1.11 Shareware Episode
Hocus Pocus v1.1 Shareware Episode
Realms of Chaos v1.0 Shareware Episode
Sam & Max Hit the Road Interactive Demo Version

All these games patch into the game executable either "Adlib detection" of some kind or "Adlib output" and none of them work.
Blake Stone seems to be related to the "Early id Software" portion of adpatch which makes sense since its running on Wolf3D engine.
Blood seems to be using at least part of Duke3D sound code, but maybe not to the degree as actual 3D realms games?
The game will complain that the FM chip is not found if you try to start it after applying adpatch.
Hocus Pocus and Realms of Chaos gets "Copysoft Adlib detection" for some reason.
Sam & Max is ofcourse a SCUMM engine game, just like all the 2D Lucasarts adventures.
As mentioned before it does not have the same sound driver setup as Fate of Atlantis and Day of the Tentacle (no adlib.ims) so the patch does not work.

It seems these games are using partial soundcode that the OPL2LPT adpatch program recognises,
but its just different enough that the patching becomes incomplete.
I can't really figure these games out on my own so I am leaving it up in a pack for anyone who wants to check it out.

Reply 18 of 52, by Artigkar

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digger wrote:
Artigkar wrote:

I may do a second smaller pack for 286 users if anyone wants that?

As others here have also said: good idea! 😀

But perhaps not call it a 286 pack? Maybe some more general name such as "MS-DOS 16-bit" or something? After all, pretty much every game that runs on a 286 will run on an 8086/8088 PC/XT system as well.

I have renamed the pack to 16-bit instead of 286 😀

Reply 19 of 52, by pdw

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I found a copy of the Sim City 2000 demo here: https://archive.org/details/Simcity2000Demo, but there doesn't seem to be any sound in that version. At least I can't find a way to enable it. For the full release, the file is sound\a32adlib.dll IIRC. I'll also take a look at the other games.

Back when I created Adpatch it wasn't clear that the TSR was going to work well. As keropi can attest, early versions of the TSR were too slow to be usable on 386 systems. Adpatch was my back-up plan. But the current TSR works pretty much flawlessly for any 16-bit software. So Adpatch is now really only useful for 8086/80286 computers and for 32-bit games... This leads to a pretty odd list of supported games 😉

Unfortunately developing Adpatch turned out to be more troublesome than I expected. My assumption was that all games of a given developer would use pretty much the same Adlib code. That turns out not to be the case, especially not for the early DOS era. (You start getting that kind of standardization of audio code in the mid 90s, but by then hardly any games still supported Adlib hardware.) Also, patching DOS/4GW EXEs turns out to be much harder than ordinary 16-bit EXEs, and I don't really have a solution for that. So the list of patchable games is not that extensive.