SuperHack/SuperHack CD.bin/CODING/SOUND/GUS-701.ZIP/GUS-713.TXT

Text File | 1993-10-20 | 43.3 KB | 1,109 lines

Ultrasound Daily Digest     Thu, 14 Oct 93  0:49 MDT     Volume 7: Issue  13

Today's Topics:
                         2nd Reality (2 msgs)
                2nd Reality, Line Input and the Future
                           Chech this out!
                  division between music and games?
                                 DOOM
                       EA Hockey and back issue
                       Editorial to PC Magazine
                      FC 2nd Reality in Surround
                       Gravis Support BBSes...
                     GUS, SBOS, QEMM and X-Wing?
                            GUS ramblings
                          GUS stuff on BBSes
                         Judgement Rites Demo
                         MEGA-EM Registration
                            Memory Upgrade
                      MISSING NOTES UNDER WINDO
                        More support from EA!
                         NT Drivers and Stuff
                         Origin re-thinking?!
                  Prince of Persia II - system lock
                          Return to Zork CD
                            Sierra Drivers
                       Sigs in this Newsletter
                          Some questions...
               Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #12 (2 msgs)
                     Wanted:1MB Gravis UltraSound
                         WinJammer questions

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: Wed, 13 Oct 93 16:28:54 +0100
From: Steve <[e-mail]>
Subject: 2nd Reality

I've heard so much about this demo, can someone tell me exactly where it is
in the Internet please.  If 2nd Reality is as good as is claimed then I'd
like to see it.

Also,  when I downloaded ultramid from epas I couldn't unzip it.  Has anyone
else had this problem and know how to cure it.

Cheers

Steve

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 12:33:13 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail] (Scott Mark)
Subject: 2nd Reality

Worse luck.

2nd reality is, yes, very cool indeed.

However, for some reason, no matter how I configure my bootup, even if
I bypass all the startup stuff and just do an ultrinit manually...

2nd reality locks up, always in about the exact same spot.  It's after
the spinning head with the magnifying sphere (neat trick, that.  I always
wonder how much of this is precalculated and how much depends on things
being "just so" or taking advantage of restrictions on what is allowed to
happen.  I would really like to believe that all the 3d stuff with flying
around in the little hovercraft is a general-purpose engine -- just because
it would give me hope that the CPU is capable.)

I digress.

After the spinning head, after the box with the shades on the sides, the
screen changes to a horizon, shading toward the back of the screen, and
several small spheres drop from the top.  They get about halfway down.

Then the system freezes.  Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work, I have to bash the
reset button.  Might there be some way to skip over this portion?

It's a great demo, I'd like to see the rest of it.  Of course, I can use
second -4 to see the tail part, but I still miss some things.

For the record, I've got Gravis 1MB, Ati Ultra Pro VESA 2MB, on a
gateway 486-DX2-66V.  16MB.  DOS 6.  386MAX.  When I try without
386MAX, the lockup happens just before those spheres appear- so
evidently 386MAX buys me something.

Any ideas?  Great demo.

Scott

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 14:42:06 +0200 (EET)
From: [e-mail] (Toni Nikkanen)
Subject: 2nd Reality, Line Input and the Future

> From: [e-mail]
> Subject: Second Reality
> It is incredible.. the sound is amazing. it is in DOLBY PRO LOGIC with
> FULL SURROUND SOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> And only on the gus!! :>  (with 512k)

        Also on the SB Pro.. but then it requires EMS!

> From: Bill Norton <[e-mail]>
> Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9
> Do any of you know how to make the GUS come up automatically with Line
> and Mic input enabled?  I currently have to invoke the UltraSound Mixer
> and turn on Line input to play CDs on my system and it is a pain!

        I did just that, read the digest more carefully :=)
        I modified the ultrinit.sys to enable Line input, and wrote
        two small .exe's to enable and disable them. They're available
        in archive.epas.utoronto.ca:/pub/pc/ultrasound/submit as line.zip.


>From: n4zfd!@emsr0.emsr.att.com:frodo
>Subject: The future of sound
>Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
>Forget sending hundreds of letters to game manufacturers to add native
>support to games. What needs doing is for drivers to be written to support
>the multimedia operating systems, and for the game manufacturers to "get
>with it", and start writing multimedia, before *they* are left in the dust.

        The current "multimedia" games I've seen in Windows 3.1
        are not so great, I have yet to see a good game for Windows
        or OS/2. Solitaire just is not enough :)

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 14 Oct 93 01:30:47 EST
From: [e-mail] (Cuthalion)
Subject: Chech this out!

SL> Dear J. Morris,

SL>
SL>    You must feel very much alone these days with your Gravis
UltraSound
SL> card. We here at Interplay hear you loud and clear! Expect to see
FULL
SL> Gravis UltraSound support in our future releases!
SL>
SL> Steve Smith
SL> Interplay Productions

this is a message i got as a reply to a "please support" message to
interplay.  looks good, eh?

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 12:59:00 PDT
From: "Ford, Richard            x2056" <[e-mail]>
Subject: division between music and games?

RE: Music and games

Morning all

Before I launch into boring background and lose anyone who might have a
comment, let me cut to the chase...what are the chances/logistics/other?
involved in splitting the GUS group into music and games?

I'm knocked out with the possibility of having a sampler card in my PC for
musical applications and am waiting for the MAX to arrive.

As a newcomer I was interested to view all aspects of GUS capability,
therefore the digest was more than welcome bedtime reading matter.  Now that
I am a little more versed (pun intended :) ) in the cards generic capability,
I actually find the game-related questions are now redundant (in fact,
annoying:) ).

That's not to say I think that game playing and the game characteristics of
the GUS card are annoying - quite the reverse in fact - 32-channel sampling
and MIDI capability on a card in your PC to render game-sound must be quite
something!  But, there must be bods out there who are using the card for
musical applications and would appreciate a more specific focus - what do you
think?

I look forward to any comments.

Regards - Richard Ford
manager Information Technology Education Centre
CSIR
SA
tel: [phone]
fax: [phone]
internet [e-mail]
post: Computing Services
      building 9
      CSIR              __o
      box 395         _ \<,_
      pretoria    ((((_)/ (_)
      0001

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 17:17:28 +1000
From: David Vu <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: DOOM

[e-mail] (Marius) wrote:

>   This happens every year. I go to Computerfest, the most popular
> computer show in Toronto, and I see always a large number of vendors
> trying to draw the crowds by running games on their computers. One game
> especially, in fact. WOLFENSTEIN. Hmmmm...... Now what do you think is
> going to happen when DOOM comes out? Yes, that's going to be their
> little jewel in catching the buyer's eye! Now if the shareware version
> had GUS support, DOOM would also catch the buyer's EAR! I don't think
> the vendors would think twice about demoing DOOM with A GUS !!!

This would be nice except John Romero of ID said that they were just going
to use 11kHz samples and mixed in software instead of using the multiple
hardware channels on the GUS.  Shame on ID, I'd say! they're planning to
use our GUS just like an SB.  No 3d, no nothing, just like an SB - probably no
stereo effects either.  It's not good then to demo DOOM running on a GUS,
people would be scared off!

The only reason I can think of is that they are don't want the shareware game
getting too large.  I've sent him email telling to put GUS software support in
another seperate zip file so people can have the choice, but no reply :-(

Can you people email him and convince him that games are getting large
nowadays, no need to be shy, just follow the way of Sierra and Origin (
not THAT large).  GUSsers definitely don't mind getting 1 MEG of high
quality 44.1kHz 3D native music and fx, if they know they are going to
enjoy it eh?

-David-

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 9:22:42 EDT
From: Alan Weisberg <[e-mail]>
Subject: EA Hockey and back issue

Help!!  I have this great hockey game EA NHL Hockey, but the
sound is unbearable.  Music is OK, but I can't get any digitized
sounds to play correctly.  Has anyone gotten thsi to work?

I hear that Vol 6 Issue 29 of the U-Sound bulletin has a
recommendation for the fix.  The listing is not complete on epas
or wustl.  Can someone please send it to me if you have it.

--

Alan
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 8:33:05 CDT
From: ibmpa!hartmann.austin.ibm.com![e-mail] (Lance Hartmann)
Subject: Editorial to PC Magazine

While we're on the subject of snail'mailing, emailing, etc. to various
software companies re: support of GUS, I suggest a few of us write a
"Letter to the Editor" of PC Magazine:

   PC Magazine
   One Park Ave.
   New York, NY 10016

In a recent issue (the cover has something to do with PCs with EVERYTHING --
don't know the exact date, but received mine yesterday - Oct. 12 1993), one
of the regular, column writers (Howard maybe?) has a piece about soundcards.
The columnist wrote (paraphrased since I don't have it with me):
"...FM is something out of the past....buy a WAVETABLE soundcard...",
but then only a couple of sentences later he mentions his FAVORITE
medium-priced card as the PAS16.  Someone (us maybe?) should remind
him that the PAS16 isn't a WAVETABLE card and that maybe he should
check out the GUS!  Chances are that if enough of us snail-mail a letter
to PC Magazine, then at least one of 'em might get printed....

--
Lance Hartmann ([e-mail])
               Yes, that IS a '%' (percent sign) in my network address.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All statements, comments, opinions, etc. herein reflect those of the author
and shall NOT be misconstrued as those of IBM or anyone else for that matter.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 8:43:13 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Adrian Kwong)
Subject: Re: FC 2nd Reality in Surround

> as a movie effect, but what do you want?  Through the rest of the
> demo, the surround speakers cranked out the music.  Effective use, I
> would say.Now, anybody know where I can get an NTSC converter for
> real cheap, so I can watch AND hear this thing?  :)

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 16:51:59 PDT
From: [e-mail] (Anthony Tang)
Subject: Gravis Support BBSes...

 To the person complaining about having to call (and pay) a pay BBS
 for Gravis files, Official Gravis distribution nodes are required to
 make all Gravis-related files and messages free and unlimited to all
 users on the first call.  I would check the BBS to see if they have
 done this.  Perhaps only the rest of the BBS is 'pay'.

 And while we're on the topic of Gravis Support BBSes.  My BBS is
 one, now.  And there's instant validation for the Gravis stuff.  Not
 many things coming in, yet, and this probably doesn't even matter to
 all you internet people w/ FTP access.  :-)  Anyway, if you're local
 (or close) to San Diego, CA, give it a try.  Phone number in my
 .sig.

 --
 Anthony Tang                Call The AANThill BBS!
 [e-mail]                [phone]
 [e-mail]             FidoNet (1:202/244)

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 10:28:42 [phone] (CDT)
From: [e-mail] (Dave Read)
Subject: GUS, SBOS, QEMM and X-Wing?

I posted a similar note to USENET, but got no responses, so here goes
again...

I have been using SBOS with X-Wing for a few months, and all runs
well.  A week or two ago I installed QEMM 7.01 on my machine (still
loading SBOS low, however), and now X-Wing stops playing music after a
minute or two of game play...I still get the "doink" laser sounds, but
no music!

Does anyone out there know how to get SBOS and QEMM to coexist?

Thanks,
Dave

--
Dave Read   ([e-mail])      "When in doubt, sheet it out."
UT-Austin High Energy Physics Grad Student
PGP public key available by 'finger'              G O   B R A V E S ! !

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 14 Oct 93 01:35:00 BST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: GUS ramblings

Marius,
        re: Seal Team helicopter sounds
        Yeh, helicopter sounds screwy for me too, but I dunno much about
changing patches yet, I don't even have that new gunshot or whatever.

Phat Tran,
        Seal Team is my first experience with miles drivers, so I dunno
exactly what you mean about it coming with GUS drivers. It has .adv files,
so I went and got ultramid, copied over the relevant .adv files (with
gf1dig.adv and gf1midi.adv), lh ultramid, and voila! Plus the Gravis bbs has
a "Gusseal.zip" that patches the "setup" to give Ultrasound as a selection
for digital and music. Great game turns spellbinding!

        As for Seawolf, well I finally dug up the programmer's message on
Genie. All I know is from this, it was long, but here's some excerpts from
it:
             -----------------------------------------

> Category 9,  Topic 34
 > Message 13        Sat Aug 28, 1993
 > J.RATCLIFF3                  at 00:41 EDT

> Hi.  This is John Ratcliff, author of Seawolf for Electronic Arts...
 > ...In addition, early on I decided to make a
 > major committment to sound and music with this product. I began by writing
 > some sound drivers.  Now 3 years later, I'm still writing sound and music
 > drivers only now for over 20 different sound cards!!!!!!
 > So where does this all leave Seawolf?  Well, it's got absolutely awesome
 > interactive music, composed by The Fat Man, that is linked directly into
> the game's physics model and current game states.  It changes the score
> relative to the action, and your physical state at any give time.  This
> results in a tremendous amount of emotional support for the combat
> situation you are in.
 > ...The Fat Man is the most prominent game musician in the industry.  The
> Fat Man (aka George Sanger) and Team Fat worked on Wing Commander, Ultima
> Underwold, The 7th Guest, Seal Team, and Sewaolf.  The Fat Man is an
> expert at working with a developer to provide strong supporting
> interactive music.
 >
 > The music is composed for general MIDI, the Roland Sound Canvas, the
> Roland MT 32, the Gravis Ultrasound, the Turtle Beach Proteus 1xR, and the
> SoundBlaster. I spent a lot of my time and budget on the music, thinkin
> that the benefit would be greatly realized in game play.  I think it
> shows. On a Roland Sound Canvas the musical score is extremely dramatic.
> And on a SoundBlaster extremely effective.
 >
 > Seawolf supports FULLY supports the following sound cards:
 > Adlib, Adlib Gold, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, ATI Stereo FX,
 > Tandy Senstation, Roland Sound Canvas (with custom score by the Fat Man),
 > Creative Labs Wave Blaster, Ensoniq SQ-1000, Gravis Ultrasound,
 > Sierra Semiconductors Aria based sound cards. Full custom general
 > midi orchestration by the Fat Man and Team Fat. Turtle Beach Multisound.
 > Full custom Proteus 1xR score. Pro Audo Spectrum, Pro Audo Spectrum 16
 > Microsoft Windows Sound System and probably a couple of other sound cards
> I can't remember at the moment. Each version of the music has been patched
> custom for each type of synthesizer.  The sound effects have full stereo
> support on those stereo digital sound cards.

(Hope that wasn't too long an excerpt for y'all.)
        ----------------------------------------------------------

Michael Mcintyre,
        WOW, that was an _incredible_ response from Sierra! Fix the old
stuff that they can, will have native GUS for the new, and __thanx for
bugging us and keeping us on our toes__!?! Think I'll go buy another Sierra
game... Here's what I got back from SSI:

> id AA12792; Tue, 12 Oct 93 13:18:42 -0400
 > Date: 12 Oct 93 13:10:35 EDT
 > From: SSI/Gerry <[e-mail]>
 > To: "INTERNET:[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
 > Subject: Thanx for GUS!
 > Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
 >
 > Yep! I agree. FM is gone wave is here! We do support GUS wave! It's in
 > Darksun and it's here to stay!
 >
 > SSI


Jim Knepley, Dave Debry,
        You're right, of course about snail mail being _far_ better than
email, alas. **Post those snail addresses, somebody.**

Dave Debry,
        Your snail letter sounds good, concise, factual, fits on one page.
Maybe remind them in 10 words or less what the GUS is, _the_ low price
wavetable synthesis card (or such). BTW the digest also goes out to Genie,
but that would be another word <G>.

All concerned with email/snailmail "assault",
        "Assault" is just a handy term. "Flood" is just an attitude! Most of
us hopefully will send short, peaceful, gentle nudges to these companies
(HA, except for Origin maybe, hehe just kidding, no maybe not, well..), just
a few lines. The fact that there may be a coordinated strike (oops,
terminology) of perhaps mass quantities of similar correspondence should
only help keep the issue closer to the front burner, not taint us with
sinister intent.

      *------------------ [e-mail] -----------------------*







------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 11:07 GMT
From: "Jonathan D. Hall" <[e-mail]>
Subject: GUS stuff on BBSes

In yesterday's digest [e-mail] (Marius) wrote:
>        17) JUST A THOUGHT:
> Hey, you guys! If you want GUS to become popular and you got a modem
> then how about calling up some of your bigger local BBS and uploading
> some GUS stuff so that the world in general can learn more about it!

Well I've got all the Gravis Drivers, lots of GUS stuff written by other
people and a fair selection of MIDI and MOD files on my BBS. Yet I get
very few people actually downloading any of it!
Are there any GUS users out there in the UK?

Jon
=======================================================
| Dagonet's Domain | GUS drivers and utilities        |
| [phone]| MIDI and MOD music               |
| 24hrs a day      | TV show guides                   |
| V.32bis V.42bis  | Game Solutions, Hints and Cheats |
=======================================================

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 06:44:41 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Judgement Rites Demo

Has anyone gotten this new demo from Interplay to
work?  It has ail drivers for SB but when I copy
the gus drivers over and run the demo it reports
that a needed file is missing.  I am trying these
ail drivers for the first time, so it is likely that I
am not doing something correctly!

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 09:56:32 CST
From: Jason Bottjen <[e-mail]>
Subject: MEGA-EM Registration

Hey, does anyone know what the deal is with MEGA-EM registration?? I mean
with the talk of Gravis taking it over, and digital FX being worked on, I
was wondering if registered users would be offered upgrades. I really like
usind MEGA-EM when I can, and would like to register it, BUT if a version
with SB support is coming out or something and I would have to pay AGAIN for
that one, I'll just wait.. Thank you.

Also, is there a FAQ somewhere that gives some hints on how to use the GUS
with OS/2 2.1?? I just got OS/2 2.1 and I've heard that you CAN do SOME stuff
with the GUS on it..

ALSO, does anyone know of a good place to get 1 memory upgrade for the GUS?
I saw some places and called around in the (dreaded) Comp Shopper.. But I
was wondering if there was a good cheap Mail Order place to get it??

Jason Bottjen
([e-mail])

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 17:11:15 -0700
From: Bart Larrenaga <[e-mail]>
Subject: Memory Upgrade

Anyone know how much it costs to order memory upgrade chips from Gravis and whee I can get an order form?  My local computer store doesn't have 128K chips, o
only 256K chips, and I doubt those would work :-)

--Bart Larrenaga

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 02:34:58
From: [e-mail]
Subject: MISSING NOTES UNDER WINDO

To: [e-mail]
Subject: Missing notes under Windows

Gravis Ultrasound Lover <[e-mail]> wrote:

>       My computer is a 486-66 and I'm still missing some notes on random
>occasions.  Even if I only have MIDISoft running.  Since I'm using the
>PCTools for Windows desktop, I tried shutting every desktops off and
>the problem still occurs.  Hmmmm.....

Then we may conclude that there're glitches in the current GUS Windows
driver.  Is Forte/Gravis aware of this problem?  I sent a email to
Matthew Arbeid of Gravis and he seemed to have no idea of what this
problem really is.  He told me that his computer can play MIDI
files just fine without notes being dropped.  BTW, where is the new
Windows driver w/ linear volume that Phat mentioned a couple months ago?

---
   ______        __
  (__  __) ~CG~ / /     |  Internet: [e-mail]
 _  / /        / /      |            [e-mail]
( \/ /        / /__     |
 \__/ASON    (_____)IN  |  Fidonet:  1:102/837

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 12:09:36 +0100
From: JO HAAVAR SLANGSVOLD <[e-mail]>
Subject: More support from EA!

  I've got a game from Electronic Arts called Kasparov's Gamebit,
This game has support for the GUS (through Miles drv.) but in the
version I have, they didn't include the Ultramid so I had to fix that for
myself.  In the SoundDevice-library I found INCREDIBLE 25 devices
including some I never had heard of.  The game itself is a
Chess-game wich occupy +10Mb.  Kasparov got me in the easiest
level :-(

Jo H&var

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 17:03:39 -0500 (CDT)
From: User <[e-mail]>
Subject: NT Drivers and Stuff

Windows 3.1 drivers are great, running a SB in an NT box has
a dramatic effect on cpu usage just about as bad as the PC speakers
usage if not worse. (horrid to say the least)

Not only to satisfy my sound I would like to point out that sound
output for NT Os/2 and anything else should not have to be procesor
intensive the CPU is there to do other things, not sound or video
to name a few.

I can wait for NT drivers, OS/2 drivers and any other OS I decide to
use in the mean while DUAL boot, if you really want to do music
composition/listening use dos/win combination cause the drivers are
already there.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 14 Oct 93 02:04:00 BST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Origin re-thinking?!

HMMmmm, check this Genie message out (Origin re:Privateer):

] Scorpia RT
 ] Category 16,  Topic 1
 ] Message 337       Wed Oct 13, 1993
 ] ORIGIN                       at 16:32 EDT

] Mad Gamer
 ] (blah blah)...
 ] it may also have problems with non MS DOS systems.  Since we did not test
 ] using PC DOS, I cannot predict the results.  (And the Magic Eight Ball is
 ] currently on loan to Marketing.  I guess they wanted to get the insight on
 ] the GUS Support issues popping up on the boards.)

] Rebecca The Strange
 ] Origin Product Support
 ] ------------

            Now _who_ was just saying no need ta flood these guys?!

        (..."when the levee braaakes, got NoOO plAaaace to Goooo ...")

     *------------------- [e-mail] ---------------------*


------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 10:01:05 MET-1
From: "Richard van der Veen"  <[e-mail]>
Subject: Prince of Persia II - system lock

Dear GUSers,

I have this strange problem with POPII. When I start the game, I can
hear the sound and the one-liner of speech at the beginning.
Now, when I play the game, I hear the window crash sound but when I
hit one of the 'bad' guys, the system hangs when you should hear a
scream (I now that because it DID work a few weeks ago, at that time I
had only 256Kb on my GUS now I have 1Mb, could that be the
problem?).

Anyway, my configuration is as follows:

Acer 486/33
4 Mb RAM
Cirrus Logic VGA
120 Mb hard disk
GUS settings - all default except DMA is set to 7

I use 'SBOS -o1' for POPII.

All information will be highly appreciated.

Richard

===============================================================================
 ______              _      __       / Richard v.d. Veen                     /
|  __  \          _ | |    / /      / Voice: [phone]               /
| |__| | _   _   | || |   / /  ____/ E-mail: [e-mail]             ____/
|  _  _/| | / /__| || |  / /  /                                       /
| | \ \ | |/ /| __ || |_/ /  /  Me, I'm just a lawnmower,            /
|_|  \_\|___/ |____||____/  /  You can tell me by the way I walk.   /
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
KTI BV, P.O. Box 86, 2700 AB  Zoetermeer, The Netherlands         /
 -----------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 07:57:40 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Return to Zork CD

I'm impressed!  GUS support on the Return to Zork CD.  And it is very easy
to install.  It is available right from the install program.  Activision
is using version 1.2a of Ultramid.  It loads high as part of the rtz.bat file
and unloads itself after the game exits.  And, they are using it with a
file called mt32.ini.  Apparently, this game doesn't do GM, but does MT32
instead.  So, they whipped up their own patch config file.

Well, whatever they did, it works.  The music is the best I've heard.
Especially in the intro.  Makes the 7th Guest sound kind of puny by
comparison.  I'm not kidding!

As for the game, it is pretty good, lots of animations and stuff, but I'm
having a hard time picking up the flow of it.  I keep getting stuck.

--
[e-mail]                \      "Sir, can I help you with your bag?
Senior Operator, NCSU CSC Dept.      \          No, I can handle her, thanks."
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   No one besides me would be caught dead claiming the views expressed here

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 13:53:26 CDT
From: Fitzgerald Jr Steele <[e-mail]>
Subject: Sierra Drivers

Another strange thing happened in my quest to install the Sierra Drivers...
I used pupdate to update all my patches for Ultramid, ok fine.  But now,
when I load Windows, it tells me that each of the 202 patches are "Invalid
Patches" or something like that.  So I have to sit there and press ENTER
through 202 patches -- very annoying.  Did a miss a new version of
something?  I know I'm a registered GUS user, but they must be kinda slow
in getting stuff to me -- I have disk version 2.06, and just got but
haven't installed the update to 2.06a.  Is there any way to fix Windows?

Also, I still can't load Ultramid.  If I type ultramid, the computer
stalls.  If I type lh ultramid -c -m100 (like they say in the Sierra
instructions), it either stalls or reboots -- either way, I can't get
Ultramid into memory.  Any ideas?


Thanks a lot!

Jerry Steele
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 17:05:07 +0930 (CST)
From: Gavin <[e-mail]>
Subject: Sigs in this Newsletter

Could you all please keep your sigs to just one line, rather than it being cool,
it's a pain and just gives me the _impression_ you're conceited. I save all the
past digests (just in case) and I reckon 50% of them are sigs.
 ----------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 15:33:38 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Phil J." <[e-mail]>
Subject: Some questions...

1) I'll ask again, maybe of Francois Dion.. what use are the 727, 808, and
909 patches?  I'd love to start using them, but where...?  Or is the
necessary info in the docs?

2) I will try to use my little-itty-bit of pull as a software reseller to
perhaps talk with my reps about their plans for Gravis Ultrasound support.

3) Why is it that there is so much bs going on?  I can't understand why
everyone is flaming at each other and software companies.  Remember when
questions where actually ANSWERED here?  I have no interest in personal
opinions of how we should bombard XYZ company to support the GUS.  I have
no interest in how one person feels about another person's desire to
bombard XYZ company with email.  Email won't do it anyway.  We can tearr
ourselves away from the CRT to write a letter (remember?  Pens, pencils,
paper..?).

4) The 2nd reality demo is REALLY slick, but mine locks up after, oh...
the part with the multi-colored cube spinning around and stuff..
Has anyone else had this problem?  Help?

*Phil

[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 09:14:13 +0200
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #12

HI,

> Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:53 EDT
> From: [e-mail] (Marius)
> Subject: DOOM
>
> All right. I am glad GUS is going to be supported in the commercial
> version of DOOM but IT MUST BE SUPPORTED IN THE SHAREWARE VERSION
> TOO!!!! Even an add on file that you can get later, like it is in
> Zone66. Here's why:
>
  [Stuff Deleted]
>    This is what I propose: forget Origin. Start an e-mail campaign to ID
> (be nice, they are including it in the commercial version, we are just
> asking them nicely to somehow have it in shareware too) to show how
> great a demand there is for GUS support in that version.

I saw this post yesterday and just though I would comment on it after what I
received in my mailbox yesterday from ID as a result of my mailing assault on
Tuesday.

Quoted text follows:

Dear GUS fanatic,

  Please breathe deeply and think calm thoughts.  John Romero
  commented on the net that the current size of the GUS code was
  obscene, which it is, and that if it didn't get small, it'd be
  the first feature to be cut.  That's all true, but we have not
  decided to pull out GUS support.

  The sound driver is developed off-site, and our sound developer,
  who has done a marvelous job so far, has no experience with
  register-level programming of the GUS.  He therefore got the code
  directly from Gravis in its gigantic, bloated state.  Gravis did
  not realize that it must share a very cramped 1.44 Mb diskette
  with the rest of Doom.

  We have relayed this message to them, and code trimming is under
  way.  If this is completed satisfactorily, we will include GUS
  support with the initial release of Doom.  We realize that GUS
  users have been left out in the cold and want to try to support
  them.  If the GUS support is finished after the release date, we
  will release an updated version.

  We realize that GUS users have been left out in the cold and want
  to try to support them.  I'm personally responsible for integrating
  the sound code into the game and will make an effort to provide
  a path for GUS users to be supported.  But please try to remain
  patient.

  We have received over 40 letters in the last couple of days, and
  it is seriously detracting from our productivity.  Keep in mind,
  the people receiving your mail are the CEO and two of the three
  programmers of Doom, and we're this-far-from-nuts (pinching
  fingers and squinting eyes) trying to finish Doom by Dec. 10.
  Thanks for your consideration.

-Dave Taylor,
 id Software.

End of quoted text.

Sounds pretty good at the moment but it seems that shelling them with e-mail is
not quite what they are needing at this time. Seems to me that it is probable
that GUS support is going to be included but and that ID hear our cries.
Perhaps if we left them to do their pruning operations we might have an
even better chance of hearing it soon?  (Just a thought).

Grant
********************************************************************
*  Grant Carter                           |  Simon says: DIR *.bak *
*  University of Cape Town                |  Simon says: DEL *.bak *
*  South Africa                           |  DEL *.*               *
*  Internet: [e-mail]    |                        *
********************************************************************

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 13:24:19 PDT
From: [e-mail] (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #12

Not the Ultrasound Server once wrote...
$  Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:37:33 EST
$  From: pscs![e-mail] (Perry B. Walker)
$  Subject: Re: 7th guest and gus
$
$  [...]
$  I was also a bit dissapointed when I tried the t7gfix3 and did not find the
$  GUS in the install list.  After searching the t7gfix3 files I found a file
$  called audio.dat.  This is the file the install program reads to obtain the
$  configs for the sounds cards.  If you look at this file (it is an ascii text
$  file) you will see the general format of the file is:
$
$      Name=????
$      Groovie_name=???
$      Pcm_adv_name=???
$      Midi_adv_name=????
$      ---
$      ...
$
$  So I created a section for the ultrasound as shown below:
$
$      Name=Ultrasound & Ultramid
$      Groovie_name=Ultrasound
$      Pcm_adv_name=gf1digi.adv
$      Midi_adv_name=gf1midi.adv
$

None of this is really necessary.   Just make sure that groovie.ini points
to gf1midi.adv for the xmi driver, and to gf1digi.adv for the pcm driver.
The game does not care one way or another what the Name or Groovie_name
are.

$  The game started and was working very well.  I did find that if I pressed
$  a key on the keyboard my system would lock-up (reset or power-cycle to restart)!
$  T7g does not need the key board so I tried again.  The game seems to work
$  fine as long as the keyboard is not used.  Then I quit the game and the system
$  locked-up again.  I tried this again just to be sure and it locked-up again.
$  While restarting the game several times I did notice something different.
$  When I used the groovie.ini from the previous fix the game would start by
$  saying "Please wait while MIDI drivers are loaded".  This was not the case
$  now.  So I whent back to the audio.dat file and created an entry for the
$  Ultrasound as shown below:
$
$      Name=Ultrasound & Ultramid (General Midi)
$      Groovie_name=GeneralMidi
$      Pcm_adv_name=gf1digi.adv
$      Midi_adv_name=gf1midi.adv
$      ---

Nice try, but this all has nothing to do with the lockups.  I get lockups
on exit also, and nothing makes them go away.  I never have seen the
keyboard lockup you described, though.  Just understand that nothing you
did with groovie.ini or audio.dat really had any effect on this.  It's
coincidence that the lockups went away after making those changes.

$  ------------------------------
$
$  Date: Tue, 12 Oct 93 18:53 EDT
$  From: [e-mail] (Marius)
$  Subject: Happy user tells all
$
$          3) I noticed a big change in the amount of time it takes now to
$  load Wind$ws. It takes a lot longer now. Why and is there a way to fix
$  it?

Load time for Windows will increase a little bit, because you now have to
load the GM patch set into the GUS memory.  But it should not be
excessive, and with a disk cache, you should barely notice it.  My guess
why it is slow for you is that you have SBOS loaded in memory.  Windows +
SBOS is a no-no.  Type SBOS -F before starting Windows, see if that helps.
Otherwise, get a disk cache.

$          7) I tried DUNE2 with UltraMID. Works wonderful except it
$  crashes always somewhere in the third battle when there's a lot of
$  digital stuff. It displays a message at the top : "Ultramid already
$  loaded" and screen freezes while the last digital sound effect, usually
$  'Reporting' echoes about 10 times and then white noise / static / hell
$  breaks loose on the GUS. If I turn Sound effects off in the game, it
$  runs no problem.

Dune2 likes to crash a lot.  Save your games often.  Increasing the DMA
buffer on your memory manager will probably help.  For EMM386, add D=128.
For QEMM386, add DMA=128.  You have to run it with a memory manager,
because there isn't enough memory without one when you load UltraMID.   I
don't think its UltraMID's problem, since the game crashes also using
SBOS, or Mega-Em.

$          10) Does anybody know of a better MIDI (DOS only) player?? With
$  a more pleasing play interface?

Playmidi seems to be all there is for DOS and GUS.   There are several
choices in the Windows area, though.  Run Playmidi with no filename
argument.  It will come up with a nice menu interface and file pick list.


--
Mike Batchelor      |
[e-mail]  |                  This space for rent
[e-mail]   |

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 20:25:14 EAT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Wanted:1MB Gravis UltraSound

Are you totally fed up with SBOS?  Is less-than-100% SoundBlaster-
compatibility really getting to you? I am eager to purchase a used Gravis
UltraSound on which is installed 1MB RAM, coming with all original disks
, manuals, and docs.

If you are tired of setting SBOS whenever you get new games or you wanna
change a soundcard for your OS/2, Win/NT and would like to get rid of your
GUS. Please let me know.

Email me to the following account and make me a fair offer.

Hsu

[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 11:07:32 +0000
From: Clarke Brunt <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: WinJammer questions

> Any of you guys use WinJammer??  For some reason I always get a
> 'Can't Load Track 1'.
> ...
> Also, for some reason I can't get WJ to interface with the Patch
> change on the Miracle keybourd. It only plays on Channel 10.

I expect that there are lots of us out here who have used WinJammer
at some time (once upon a time, the Digest seemed more oriented to
this sort of stuff rather than 'Why does/doesn't it work with
game X/Y/Z?').

Do you mean 'Can't load patch x', rather than 'can't load track x'?
The only thing I can think of is that you mention your keyboard
only playing on channel 10. The General MIDI specification (and the
GUS) play percussion on channel 10, with melodic instruments on
all the other channels. The GUS Windows drivers will refuse to load
a melodic patch for use on channel 10, so if you have any program
change messages on channel 10, then WinJammer will produce its
'can't load' message when it tries to cache the patches.

If you really are stuck with a keyboard which only transmits on
channel 10, then you could try selecting MIDI Mapper as your MIDI
output device (rather than UltraSound MIDI Synth), then go into
MIDI Mapper setup (from Control Panel) and assign channel 10 to play
on one of the other (melodic) channels. Sending program change from
a keyboard (with MIDI Thru enabled) will result in silence if the
selected patch has not already been loaded - of course if recorded
into the song, then when you replay, WinJammer will take care of
the loading automatically.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 17:53:26 PDT
From: [e-mail]

S A7971wk.D03 D.netcoA7971wk jaso - D.netcoA7971wk 0666

Received: by support.com
     id A7971wk Wed, 13 Oct 93 17:47:13
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Los Angeles Valley College BBS [phone]
X-Mailer: TBBS/PIMP v2.46
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 17:47:13
Subject: SOUND CARD ARTICLE
To: [e-mail]


To: [e-mail]
Subject: Sound Card article

Okay everyone.  Here's the reply I got from CGW regarding their October
issue of From jason.lin Wed, 13 Oct 93 17:47:13  remote from support.com
Received: by support.com
     id A7971wk Wed, 13 Oct 93 17:47:13
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Los Angeles Valley College BBS [phone]
X-Mailer: TBBS/PIMP v2.46
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 93 17:47:13
Subject: SOUND CARD ARTICLE
To: [e-mail]


To: [e-mail]
Subject: Sound Card article

Okay everyone.  Here's the reply I got from CGW regarding their October
issue of soundcard review:

>Date: 12 Oct 93 21:46:10 EDT
>From: Computer Gaming World <[e-mail]>
>To: Jason Lin <[e-mail]>
>Subject: Sound Card article
>Message-Id: <[e-mail]>

>Jason,

>We're sorry to hear you were disappointed with our recent sound card
>survey. We've received several messages from others who, like yourself,
>feel the report was inadequate. All we can do is offer our apologize and
>tell you that we hope to rectify any aggregious errors in future issues.

>We hope you have not lost faith in our general critical perspective. We do
>our damnedest to been as objective and fair as possible, but we
>occasionally come up short.


>Chris Lombardi
>CGW

I'm a bit disappointed at this reply.  There's no mention of the
rumoured new soundcard review in the upcoming December issue of CGW.
Well, at least they did admit that they're not perfect.. :)

---
   ______        __
  (__  __) ~CG~ / /     |  Internet: [e-mail]
 _  / /        / /      |            [e-mail]
( \/ /        / /__     |
 \__/ASON    (_____)IN  |  Fidonet:  1:102/837

------------------------------

From: (null)

Adrian Kwong

------------------------------

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #13
*************************************

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