Got one of this card. Do you have a link for Fw 010 Keropi ? Thanks

Well I can confirm that it was version 10 that got the Wing Commander fix as I have version V009 and get the crash at the intro fireworks. I wonder how many version of the chip are out there?

I believe 010 is the latest for the Z8 mcu. I have not found yet any newer versions than that.

keropi wrote on 2021-05-04, 11:14:

I believe 010 is the latest for the Z8 mcu. I have not found yet any newer versions than that.

Hello keropi, could you send me a copy of fw v.010 for midi quest? I want to try to build my own, as it not cheap and hard to find it on market. Thank you

Hi there .
A Friend gave me a bad music quest midi ,is it possible for someone to sell me a pal chip programmed.
I would pay postage and charges.

Kind Regards

I used my midi quest in ms dos for a while but I want to use under dos but most of times ,other sound cards give their midi port conflito with music quest.
Is there a sound card that can avoid this?
I thought adlib card but I wanted to play games like Duke nukem wich can use soundblaster cards for fx

Anu sugestions?

Kind regards

PC386 wrote on 2022-01-04, 14:46:

I used my midi quest in ms dos for a while but I want to use under dos but most of times ,other sound cards give their midi port […]
Show full quote

I used my midi quest in ms dos for a while but I want to use under dos but most of times ,other sound cards give their midi port conflito with music quest.
Is there a sound card that can avoid this?
I thought adlib card but I wanted to play games like Duke nukem wich can use soundblaster cards for fx

Anu sugestions?

Kind regards

there is no trick, just make sure your soundcard does not use port330 for mpu or completely disable the soundcard mpu
how this can be done varies from card to card, there is no universal instructions

keropi wrote on 2022-01-04, 16:24:

PC386 wrote on 2022-01-04, 14:46:

I used my midi quest in ms dos for a while but I want to use under dos but most of times ,other sound cards give their midi port […]
Show full quote

I used my midi quest in ms dos for a while but I want to use under dos but most of times ,other sound cards give their midi port conflito with music quest.
Is there a sound card that can avoid this?
I thought adlib card but I wanted to play games like Duke nukem wich can use soundblaster cards for fx

Anu sugestions?

Kind regards

there is no trick, just make sure your soundcard does not use port330 for mpu or completely disable the soundcard mpu
how this can be done varies from card to card, there is no universal instructions

Thank you keropi

I am using a ess 1868f
And some times booting windows 98se always give irq issues associated with irq 9 after removing and installing roland mpu compatible device I acomplished to change to a free irq for music quest card.
Windows is a sh. .. And complicate things..

Any info on the ROM versions of the MQX-32M and the old games compatibility?

Thank you guys for the cable pinout scheme! Just got a RA-50 working flawlessly with a IH9MQ9 v.010
A quick reminder for those who decide to change the female to a male connector, please (obviously!) invert the side pins! This will save you a couple hour of troubleshooting 😜

keropi wrote on 2014-02-25, 21:17:

https://i.imgur.com/o8Dd5o4.png […]
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Hiya!

I received a fully boxed Music Quest PC MIDI Card mpu , and I decided to make this thread with as much info as possible about it.
Before anything else I will answer the most important question:

Is this card 100% Roland compatible with intelligent mode?

With rom version 010: 100% YES.
Gateway, Laser Squad, Wing Commander - all work great without any special configuration.

With rom version 004: 99% YES.
Wing Commander crashes near the intro fireworks. For me sometimes before the Origin FX logo, sometimes when the fireworks should start. 😵 Gateway and Laser Squad work fine.

First of all, here is a picture of the card (notice the firmware version, it's v.004) , silkscreened on the pcb is the model of the card: IH9MQ9
Also the DB9 breakout is a cable based one, not a solid block with the ports.

... and here is a picture of the retail box, notice that this is just called the "PC MIDI CARD"

Inside you can find the registration card, an online registration guide, a stapled manual and a driver diskette:

I . Hardware Setup

So how do you setup the card? It's easy, there is only 1 jumper block on the card, here are the configuration options it offers:

Basically, to be Roland compatible you need to jumper "P" and "2" so the card uses port #330 and IRQ 2.

II . Software Setup

The driver disk doesn't really offer a driver as it's not needed for DOS operation. It does offer though a diagnostics program, the metronome setup, a reset program and a PS/2 speed fix among the other things, here is the description of what is included:

This diskette contains several useful programs: […]
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This diskette contains several useful programs:

INSTALL
Installs and sets up your Music Quest MIDI interface, and
all of the utilities and diagnostic programs.

MQDIAG
Support program for all Music Quest interfaces. Allows you
to set up any programmable features (such as the PC MIDI
Card's programmable metronome) and verify general operation.

MQSETUP
Used to initilize the programmable features of your MIDI
interface. This program is particulary valuable for use in
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, where it can be used to set up the
metronome every time you re-boot your PC.

MBATCH
A MIDI batch file utility program. This program provides an
analogous function to the DOS batch file feature. You can
use MBATCH to do many things, including upload and download
system exclusive data.

THRUOFF
Turns off the MIDI-thru function of your interface.
Normally, anything arriving at MIDI-in is passed "thru" to
MIDI-out, thus creating an echo effect.

MQRESET
Resets your MIDI interface to its nominal, power-on state.
This includes turning the MIDI-thru function on.

UPDTPC2
Some versions of Personal Composer System/2 exhibit timing
dependencies on fast PCs, particularly 80386 based machines.
This program removes the timing dependencies.

Download links:
driver disk files - https://www.mediafire.com/?bsng0fb62xv41hv
driver disk image - https://www.mediafire.com/?f0phtt44ft1pdin

You can find the above also attached to this thread , it's an archive containing an image of the driver disk and "just the files" in case you don't want to mess with writing disks.
Remember that the installation program works only if the files are on the A: drive, so either swap drive letters or subst.

III . Manual

Do you need more info? Just grab a .PDF I made of the manual 😊 , the original was just a bunch of stapled b/w pages btw...

Download link: https://www.mediafire.com/?535496top1xzww5 (also mirrored in the thread)

IV . Technical Info

a. Breakout cable schematic:
(rev.2 fixed some stupid mirroring issues 🤣 )

At the moment I don't have anything else to add to the thread, if you know something else to try and verify compatibility please post.
I hope this helps and clears any kind of confusion. 😊

I am a bit late to the party on this topic 😉 But the info I provide here might be useful to somebody.

But I have found some cool info about the issues with Wing Commander, I own 4 of these Music Quest cards ... 3 different models.
When I bought the oldest model of the above it included a floppy and a manual.

Now I have found a directory on the floppy called "WING-MQ" which contains a patch and an instruction to solve the issues mentioned in this thread

The floppy was included with this MQ card

All of my MQ cards, the 8-bit ISA one's are the latest one's .. made in 1993

I lack the breakout cable for the older MQ card, @keropi do you have them in stock? 😀

I have included the floppy image here

Amigaz wrote on 2025-08-06, 16:03:

[...] Now I have found a directory on the floppy called "WING-MQ" which contains a patch and an instruction to solve the issues […]
Show full quote

[...]
Now I have found a directory on the floppy called "WING-MQ" which contains a patch and an instruction to solve the issues mentioned in this thread
[...]
I lack the breakout cable for the older MQ card, @keropi do you have them in stock? 😀

thanks for the image upload Amigaz - it seems to be a lost-in-time workaround
probably this patch got removed at some point because it was not needed, with (atleast) the 010 firmware and beyond Wing Commanders just work
probably this floppy disk was meant for cards that had older fimrware or something , still good to archive it!

the "PCMIDI Quick Setup Guide" in pcmidi site has the port pinout, it is easy to make a cable (for the original MQ cards you only have 1xIN and 1xOUT ports , the 2nd OUT port does not exist for them)
if you cannot solder send me a PM 😉

Recently I got one of these cards in mint condition with all the docs and driver disk, judging by the chips it seems to be from around mid-1991, it has a V.008 ROM.

I imaged the disk, nothing terribly interesting in it but I'll attach it here for archival purposes: