GUS Daily Digest Thu, 30 Mar 95 9:37 PST Volume 20: Issue 30 Today's Topics: Amiga CD GUS & Avi sound problem GUS Daily Digest V20 #29 (5 msgs) GUSMax Upgrade? GUS with Asus P55TP4 or Gigabyte 586 motherboard Microprose and the GUS X-COM 1.4 and GUS: I got it to work! X-Com 1.4 patch available (GUS Support!) Standard Info: - Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest. - Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 16:26:27 +0300 (EET DST) From: H{m{l{inen Jori Subject: Amiga CD > Date: Wed, 29 Mar 95 10:55:00 BST > From: D.W.Johnson@ppc.icl.co.uk > Subject: Q: Amiga MOD files > I own an Amiga CD32 with several CD-ROMs. Some of these CD-ROMs > contain MOD files which I would like to transfer to my PC to play using > my GUS. When I try to read these files using Windows File Manager, I can > read the CDs directory structure and filename, but not the file itself. This problem comes from mscdex, which isn't supporting ISO9660 rockbridge extension(or what ever?). Problem comes from ISO9660 standart which limits filenames to 8+3 like in MS-DOS filesystem. But there is an extension to this which allows 256(?) characters in filename and Amiga CD-ROMs uses this extension. MSCDEX can read the directory and convert those long names to 8+3 format but cannot read the file from disk. I got this problem also because in BBS, I am cosysopping (running on PC+cdrom+mscdex+msdos), was aminet-cdrom with these longer filenames and that could not be used. I saw the directorys but.. > I assume there is some sort of binary file incompatibility (byte-swap?) > between Amiga and PC files. No there should not be. You can read the files made with amiga trackers which are transfered to you by a modem or a floppy and it works. So why should not CD disk work? > Does anyone know how to convert Amiga files from CD to PC readable format? > I would appreciate any help. Well perhaps better mscdex would do it because it interpretes information read by CDROM to msdos-format. Or install Linux with CD-ROM and mount CD32 disk, copy files to MSDOS partition or if you have a friend with Linux and CDROM.. Linux ISO9660 filesystem supports those longer filenames and my friend has tested that aminet-cdrom and it worked.. --------------------------------- Jori H{m{l{inen, h149373@cc.tut.fi ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 22:18:41 CST From: "STEVE FERNANDEZ" Subject: GUS & Avi sound problem I've been reading about many (ok, most) people having sound problems with AVI's. Well, I too had the same problem and I think I found a way to sort of fix it. Ah, the story goes that I was installing Quick Time 2.00 and trying to get it to work with GUS and it wouldn't. Just flat wouldn't (I forget the symtoms). So I started checking everything and noticed a few things: 1) It doesn't seem like the GUS driver can do stereo sound w/AVI or QTW files, at least it doesn't do any sound when I try to play stereo files. (and still doesn't, anyone? anyone?) 2) When I dropped from a 16-bit DMA channel to an 8-bit, everything started to work. So, now I just run with 240,3,3,5,11 and everything seems to work flawlessly with my system...Oh, I do also have a SB 1.0 @ 220,7,1 and everything is cool. ---Steve p.s. While I'm on this soap box, did the beta release of Mega 3.0x upset anyone else besides me? I seem to remember Gravis making claims that there was NO real difference between board revisions. BUT, there it is in Mega that the Roland emulation won't work with boards older than 3.x (or something like that). Not cool! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 13:19:36 -0600 (CST) From: John Patrick Lestrade Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #29 > Dear anyone concerned, > I'm an e-mail user in Hong Kong. I don't care who are you but I just > know that I was confused with the somewhat DIGESTs received every day > recently. I do also like to meet friends from other parts of the world (I > guess you're from Australia because your e-mail address ends with "edu") but ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > Chrysan Chan Dear Mr. Chan, Just a small correction: "edu" at the end of an address stands for the country of Educasia. It is a small country in South America that lives under a (sometimes) benevolent dictator. Dr. Dean. Hope this helps clear up the confusion. -- John Patrick Lestrade | Begin PGP Public Key cnesta::lestrade or SSL::lestrade | ``Open Sesame'' lestrade@ra.msstate.edu | End PGP Public Key ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 15:27 -0500 From: DANTONIO@PROCESS.COM (Momentary Language, Sexual Situations) Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #29 > From: Sky Woo > Subject: AVI sound playback under Windows [Helpful tips deleted] I'll give this a try, but the odd thing is, once I click pause/resume it's fine UNTIL it rewinds and plays the AVI again. Then the volume is severly muted again...So the problem must be in the code that STARTS the playback. Perhaps it is time to bug the AOL person again... Thanks, DDA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 16:15:49 GMT From: Thomas Lew Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #29 Hi. > Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 22:01:08 CST > From: linfy@iastate.edu > Subject: Please disconnect my acount from GUS > > I am sorry if this is not the right address for this. However, I do not > know where to write as my computer net knowledge is limited. Will you > please disconnect my account for GUS. My boyfriend, the one who usually > read this newsgroup went back already, so he will not read this anymore. > Thank You. Well, that's what you get for letting other people use your account! :) Anyways, this isn't a newsgroup. Its a mailing list. The address to use to unsubscribe yourself is at the end of every mailing: > End of GUS Daily Digest V20 #29 > ******************************* > > To post to tomorrow's digest: > To (un)subscribe or get help: > To contact a human (last resort): Try e-mailing gus-general-request@mail.orst.edu with the word "unsubscribe" in both the subject and body of the message. Hope this helps! Thomas Lew thomas.lew@octel.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 01:20:07 -0330 From: acameron@cs.mun.ca (Aaron Cameron) Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #29 >>Date: Mon, 27 Mar 1995 21:53:48 -0400 (EDT) >>From: SSARTOR@TrentU.ca >>Subject: Panasonic CD-ROM & GUS > >>Good day fellow GUSers. I just had a friend install a PANASONIC >>CD-ROM in my system which has a regular Gravis Ultrasound. When we went >>to plug the cable into the plug on the soundcard it was smaller than the >>plug.... > > Are you talking about hooking up the AUDIO cable to the GUS or the CD > drive CONTROLLER cable? The audio cable that came with my cd drive > was too small for my GUS audio port as well. I have to check out a > Radio Shack or something to get a different one. Why not just plug it into the Mitsumi input? That's what I did with mine (had the panasonic -> creative labs plug on it) and it works fine (there was a manual addendum in the bottom of the box that actually told me to do it, but I only found that after I had it working). Plug it in, and if you don't get any sound, flip it over. No chance of frying your card either. It's MUCH simpler than buying another cord to fit the panasonic input (especially since the bastards here wanted $14.95 for it - no shit!). Good luck. Cheers, AC /---------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | *** ***** WELCOME TO MY WORLD! | | ***** *********** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | ** ** ***** *** It's really not that bad... | | *** *** **** once you get used to it! | | *********** **** | | ************* ***** *** ---------> Aaron Cameron <--------- | | **** **** *********** Memorial University of Newfoundland | | ***** ***** ***** ---> acameron@europa.cs.mun.ca <--- | \---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 09:49:10 -0500 (EST) From: hcpiv@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V20 #29 RE: avi playback problems A big improvement is made by upgrading to Video for Windows version 1.1a. You can grab vfw11a.zip from various sites. Email me if you have trouble finding it. I used archie to find it at freebsd.cdrom.com in /.5/cica/desktop. Using this I can use larger playback buffers and the sound is fine. There is also a SoundMapper which has an ADPCM CODEC driver. I have also found the 5.50 drivers in the gus0048.zip file to make improvements. The volume levels don't do weird things. This improves QuckTime as well. This version of the drivers doesn't distort too bad at 0DB wave volume which is good since most players and games, etc. set the volume to full when playing AVI and MOV files. archive.epas.utoronto.ca has gus0048.zip in /pub/pc/ultrasound/gravis/patches. RE: earthsiege If you have a GUS Max then you should use megaem 3.03b and choose SB/GM. You get good music, the intro and death sequences are smooth and fast, etc. About lockups, I have found that the readme file's note about mouse drivers is not a lie. If you are using an early mouse then the program will lock up solid. I also found that I needed to make a boot disk or clean alternate boot config or else it would still lock up occasionally. My friend with a plain old SB deluxe has the same problem. Harry <:-{} hpulley@uoguelph.ca | This message released to the PUBLIC DOMAIN \ Harry C. Pulley, IV | Mind/Matter=Communication/Transportation --------------------------------+-------------------------------------------- Real programmers don't drink Zima|Read Melissa Scott's Trouble_And_Her_Friends ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 10:53:19 -0800 (PST) From: David Joseph Regeczi Subject: GUSMax Upgrade? I remember that back in December, Gravis was offering an upgrade option from an old GUS to the Max. Do they have any plans to bring this offer back? (I'm stuck with rev. 2.4 of the board) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 11:50:34 -0800 From: Ferdinand Mataragnon Subject: GUS with Asus P55TP4 or Gigabyte 586 motherboard Hello. I'll be going up to Pentium 90 in a few days and will be getting either an Asus PCI P55TP4 (Intel Triton chipset) motherboard or a Gigabyte PCI motherboard which uses the ALI chipset or the Intel Triton chipset. Both use Award flash BIOS. The Asus also has the NCR SCSI BIOS built-in (810 model I believe). Both have on board EIDE ports, serial ports, and parallel ports. Has anyone had experience using a GUS with either motherboard? (I have a GUS v3.7 with 1 meg RAM) Did the motherboard you use have NMI? Any problems using the GUS and megaem with the SCSI BIOS on the Asus? Any other quirks, problems I should know about or watch out for? I'll also be using OS/2 with GUS support via Gravis' alpha drivers. The HD I'm currently using is IDE but I will add (or move to) a SCSI drive soon. Thanks for any help that can keep me from losing too much hair after moving up. =) Ferdinand stud001@athena.bcit.bc.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 00:45:55 +0930 (CST) From: Adrian Vesnaver Subject: Microprose and the GUS Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 04:14:33 -0500 From: Mark <71333.314@CompuServe.COM> To: godfathr@smug.student.adelaide.edu.au Subject: MicroProse considering dropping GUS support in XCOM! Organization: via CompuServe Information Service This is something I received after replying to a usenet post, and I think it is something that GUS owners will find both interesting and dissapointing. >The Gravis Ultrasound support for MicroProse products is not >somthing we have had a lot of fun with so far. >Many of the problems stem from the original Gravis music code, or >the board itself. We have - after a whole year - just finished >creating new drivers for this card, which we are satisfied can be >used with the majority of Gravis cards, and we have included >these with Transport Tycoon, UFO/X-COM v1.4, and XCOM:TFTD. Will >will support the card, only where it is feasible and will cause >the fewest problems. >Note: This only applies to MicroProse-Europe made products. >Those created by MicroProse-USA are unlikly to have Gravis >support. >Regards, >Mark Rich/MicroProse-Europe Well there you have it. On one hand it's good to see that they actually are trying to make an effort to support the GUS, but on the other it seems only a minor effort at that considering Microprose-USA are not following their European counterparts, and that GUS support will be "limited". -- ,-_|\ Adrian Vesnaver MAIL: godfathr@.student.adelaide.edu.au / \ Adelaide, SA c2a_vesn@aelmg.adelaide.edu.au \_,-*_/ Australia PGP Key: finger godfathr@student.......... v ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 11:05:40 -0600 (CST) From: read@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu (Dave Read) Subject: X-COM 1.4 and GUS: I got it to work! I installed the X-COM 1.4 patch two nights ago, and was promptly rewarded with unpredictable lockups, crashes, static from the GUS, squeals, pops, thrumming, off-key music, etc. I farted around with my setup until I got one which worked. I couldn't get XCOM and QEMM to coexist at all after the patch, so I set up a non-QEMM boot disk. That fixed the crashes, but not the static, pops, squeals, etc. When I switched the GUS to use DMA channel 1 instead of the default 6, everything worked fine. I guess XCOM doesn't like 16-bit DMA and the GUS! Anyway, that's what works for me: no QEMM, and DMA channel 1. Good luck, Dave -- Dave Read (read@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu) "When in doubt, sheet it out." UT-Austin Heavy Ion Physics Grad Student PGP public key available by 'finger' G O B R A V E S ! ! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 13:28:09 -0600 (CST) From: read@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu (Dave Read) Subject: X-Com 1.4 patch available (GUS Support!) I got the patch for X-COM: Ufo Defense yesterday, from ftp.cdrom.com: /.14/dresden/incoming/xcom14.zip It patches 1.3 to 1.4. Lots of things changed: some new music & sound effects, no copy protection doc-check, and others. The big one, though, is that X-COM now has native GUS support! :) It's a little buggy (at least on my system) in that the GUS occasioanlly squeals for no reason, and there are intermittent pops & cracks and what-not, but it basically works. Completely different experience than with SBOS! The other big difference is that this version of X-COM crashes horribly if you have QEMM running... Joe Bob sez "Check it out." -Dave -- Dave Read (read@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu) "When in doubt, sheet it out." UT-Austin Heavy Ion Physics Grad Student PGP public key available by 'finger' G O B R A V E S ! ! ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V20 #30 ******************************* To post to tomorrow's digest: To (un)subscribe or get help: To contact a human (last resort): FTP Sites Archive Directories --------- ------------------- Main N.American Site: ftp.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/ibmpc/ultrasound Main Asian Site: nctuccca.edu.tw PC/ultrasound Main European Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound Main Australian Site: ftp.mpx.com.au /ultrasound/general /ultrasound/submit South African Site: ftp.sun.ac.za /pub/packages/ultrasound Submissions: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound/submit Newly Validated Files: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound Mirrors: garbo.uwasa.fi mirror/ultrasound ftp.st.nepean.uws.edu.au pc/ultrasound ftp.luth.se pub/msdos/ultrasound Gopher Sites Menu directory ------------ -------------- Main Site: src.doc.ic.ac.uk packages/ultrasound WWW Pages --------- Main Site: http://www.xmission.com/~grue/gus.html Main European Site: http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/ultrasound/ Main Australian Site: http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/general/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/archive/ultrasound/submit/ http://ftp.mpx.com.au/gravis.html Mirrors: http://www.st.nepean.uws.edu.au/pub/pc/ultrasound/ GUS digest: http://gpu.srv.ualberta.ca/~itam/digest.html MailServer For Archive Access: Email to Email to New Submit Files Mailing List: Email to with content "subscribe epas-list " Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to for info about other GUS related mailing lists (programmers, musicians, etc.).