It is game dependent. The games have a setup utility to choose the hardware. This is usually invoked from the installation program. If you run the installer from your original media from within DOSBox it should give you the option. It is best to do this anyway as there might be other configurations that need to be made, such as paths.

Also, what are you using for a synthesizer? The built-in Windows one? BASSMIDIDRV? A real hardware synthesizer?

DOSBox does not have a built-in synthesizer, except that some unofficial builds have an MT-32 emulator built-in.

Try entering

MIXER /LISTMIDI

in DOSBox. That should list available MIDI devices.

The games have a setup utility to choose the hardware.

No, they don't. I play games I find on abandonia and such websites. They don't come with an installer. They are preinstalled packages you just unpack to your dos games folder and run the .exe file.

Also, what are you using for a synthesizer? The built-in Windows one? BASSMIDIDRV? A real hardware synthesizer?

Again, keep in mind I'm a dosbox noob. I never had to deal with any kind of software in which you have to deal with midi devices (except for the actual DOS) before. I have no idea how to use any synthesizer. All I can tell you is that I use Windows 7 x64 and that I have Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB sound card.

Try entering

MIXER /LISTMIDI

in DOSBox.

Yeah it shows:

0 Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth

I have no idea how to put it into use though. I assumed that the 0 at the beginning is the ID of the thing so I put it into the midiconfig line in the dosbox configuration file but that didn't make any difference at all.

What I need is a simple step by step instruction what I have to do in order to get this thing to work. I read that the Microsoft midi synth isn't a very good one but I will worry about that later when I actually get it to work.

name all the games where midi doesn't work (and do that in your every future threat too)

I can think of 3 ways games can be configured through midi:

- SETUP.EXE or SOUNDSET or some IMUSE or some other tool
- config file that can be edited
- command line parameter like for Monkey Island or Wing Commander

You also need to be aware that not all games support MIDI. Many have just PC speaker support or Adlib.

Start with testing a game that is known to support MIDI like Doom or Day of the Tentacle. You should hear a difference right away. Windows comes with MIDI support out-of-the-box.

I recommend you read up on some of the MT-32 / General MIDI threads here. They are FULL of great information and should answer all your questions 😀

Well for instance Skyroads. There should be music and jumping sounds but I only get the "wwooooommm" sound at the beginning and nothing else.

Another good example is 1000 Miglia. This game refuses to start. Instead it shows an error message saying that it needs midi.

I can think of 3 ways games can be configured through midi: […]
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I can think of 3 ways games can be configured through midi:

- SETUP.EXE or SOUNDSET or some IMUSE or some other tool
- config file that can be edited
- command line parameter like for Monkey Island or Wing Commander

That's nice but just listing the ways of fixing the problem isn't helping me at all.

Start with testing a game that is known to support MIDI like Doom or Day of the Tentacle.

I have. I once played Skyroads on my old DOS machine and I know for a fact that Skyroads should have sound effects and music. Without midi I get none of that and I know that midi is at fault partly because 1000 Miglia told me that it doesn't work in the error message and partly because I had the same issue on my DOS machine UNTIL I installed a complete package of soundcard drivers (awe64 gold). Before that I had some music only driver I found on the internet. It wasn't until later that I found out that it was incomplete and decided to find a complete image of the original cd that came with the sound card (which I have found after a while).

Midi normally works out of the box for dosbox in Windows. Check your windows mixer settings whether midi volume is not muted.

Also if you only use preconfigured abandonware crap you are mostly on your own because it's not legal and probably badly configured. Nethertheless most dos games still have their installer/setup program with the game exe.

That's nice but just listing the ways of fixing the problem isn't helping me at all.

yes it does if you look whether the game has such a program along withe game exe.

Also if you only use preconfigured abandonware crap you are mostly on your own because it's not legal and probably badly configured.

Execuse me? Abandonware is called abandonware because it has been ABANDONED. That means that there no longer is a copyright owner and that means there is no copyright infringement when I download the game and play it without paying anyone. That's the whole point of abandonia! it's completly legal!

Check your windows mixer settings whether midi volume is not muted.

Maybe it's because I have a USB soundcard but I don't have a volume slider for midi in the mixer settings.

yes it does if you look whether the game has such a program along withe game exe.

I'm sorry but it doesn't and you aren't much help either. I politely ask for step by step instructions how to get midi to work and you basically tell me to help myself.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Start with testing a game that is known to support MIDI like Doom or Day of the Tentacle. You should hear a difference right away. Windows comes with MIDI support out-of-the-box.

Abandonware is still illegal, copyright doesn't end because copyrighted material is no longer sold.

And yes, I'm telling you to help yourself because helping yourself is easier. It's rhe same difference between looking up how to drive to some destination and using a navigation device. You will easier find your way there again when you look it up.

Start with testing a game that is known to support MIDI like Doom or Day of the Tentacle.

Ok I tested Day of the Tentacle... and I do have music.
Why won't it work with Skyroads and 1000 Miglia then?

Abandonware is still illegal, copyright doesn't end because copyrighted material is no longer sold.

You don't get it do you? a piece of software doesn't indeed become abandonware when it stops being sold. It becomes abandonware when the publisher goes bust because the publisher owns the copyright and when there's no copyright owner, there is no copyright itself.

And yes, I'm telling you to help yourself because helping yourself is easier

Please stop responding in this thread then. You are not helping, you fail to understand basic stuff and you contribute nothing.

Yasashii wrote:

You don't get it do you? a piece of software doesn't indeed become abandonware when it stops being sold. It becomes abandonware when the publisher goes bust because the publisher owns the copyright and when there's no copyright owner, there is no copyright itself.

No, copyright does not work that way and "abandonware" is not a legitimate legal term. If nothing else there are innumerable cases where someone other than the publisher owns the copyright. It's possible that no one will particularly care if a piece of ancient software is copied everywhere, but that doesn't mean that the copyright magically vanishes and it's suddenly free for everyone.

This has all been discussed many, many times before. Google got in major hot water when they started up Google Books and tried to freely give away every ancient book they had on hand.

Anyway, the developers of Skyroads did actually explicitly release their game as freeware.
http://www.bluemoon.ee/history/skyroads/

Regardless, if you're running something provided by Abandonia, shouldn't you tell the people over at Abandonia that the package has been misconfigured? It says right here that DOSBox is fully capable of playing the game's music, so it's not a DOSBox problem – or so it seems.

What if you start from scratch with a fresh copy of DOSBox, the download from the developer's website and the 60 Seconds Guide ?

Yasashii wrote:

Ok I tested Day of the Tentacle... and I do have music.
Why won't it work with Skyroads and 1000 Miglia then?

have you configured the game to use midi? maybe try doom as it has more obvious configuration options.

As a moderator, I should lock this thread. Instead, I will give some guidance first:

Please be aware that asking for support for abandonware is against VOGONS forum policy. Despite our personal opinions on the matter, abandonware is a legal grey area; it is expected that forum members will respect VOGONS' desire to avoid having to deal with legal threats on the chance that a company suddenly decides to start selling one of its old games again and finds abandonware discussion about it on here.

Back on topic:

Your problem is that you need to find the way to configure the game itself to use General MIDI. Once you do this, DOSBox knows out of the box how to automatically route it to the Windows GM synth that you listed.

If you are unable to do this because you are using a poor-quality, ambiguously-legal rip of the game that no longer includes a setup/configuration DOS utility, then you might try locating a legitimate copy from eBay or something.

btw midi and music is not the same.

Please stop responding in this thread then. You are not helping, you fail to understand basic stuff and you contribute nothing.

obviously the problem is that you fail to understand basic stuff. Please read the readme and the 60 seconds guide to learn how to use dosbox

robertmo wrote:

btw midi and music is not the same. read sth about it.

In the context of old games, I think it's safe to assume that music is the common application of MIDI. At least, I'm not aware of any games that use MIDI for other hardware automation 😀