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Apparently-To: john.smith@gravis.com Ultrasound Daily Digest Sun, 10 Oct 93 0:48 MDT Volume 7: Issue 9 Today's Topics: GUS AND ORIGIN GUS Assault - Part 1. GUS Assault - Part 2. GUS Assault - Part 3. GUS Blues. GUS card interfering with 16550 UART?? Happy with my GUS I like my GUS! info NHL hockey origin email address Piano 1.0 SECOND REALITY - Sounds great, runs BADLY (386/40) Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #7 Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #8 (2 msgs) UMID102.zip We need to speak to someone higher at Origin 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: Sat, 09 Oct 93 18:20:39 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: GUS AND ORIGIN Message-ID: <9310091820.A0694wk@gravis.com> I see from the digest that many of you are concerned about Origin and GUS support. Well how about I tell you what we've been doing about this and let you guys be the judge. a) Forte has FLOWN out to Origin at least once that I know of it. To try and sit down with the Origin programmers to work on a GUS driver. This was around the time you were all talking about that Strike Commander patch. b) Gravis/Forte approached Origin/EA at about the same time when it looked as though Origin wasn't going to be able to do the drivers for their source code to there sound system and we would write it for them. But the EA lawyers said no way. c) Recently (when Privateer came out, yes we were also told that it would most likely have GUS support) we approached them again about the source code issue. Still no answer. d) After talking to Origin again about this issue the answer was that we did not have any AIL/Miles drivers. Hmm... Makes you wonder. This was the answer we had last week. e) I wasn't too happy about the CGW review either. But look for some news about us in their December issue. Actually look for some REALLY hot stuff in a few LARGE magazines about us in their XMas/January issues. For those of you on the ball, you may have also noticed that in Europe we are the #2 sound card and quickly rising to the top. The Computer Shopper UK voted us the #1 sound card in the world! Not to mention the other great reviews in PC Format, Future, and a ton of other European magazines. Hmm... another thing for you all to think about. So as for Origins response about the CGW review last month. Ask them what they have to say about the CGW GUS articles in December. So there is the truth. I'll probably have to explain myself on Monday but I HATE to see the GUS getting a bum rap out there. The GUS is alive and doing well. Many things are being worked on/fixed/improved. It is going to be a very interesting XMas this year. One last thing. I'd just like to thank all of you for your support. The GUS is an amazing product for the price. The word of GUS is spreading. With your help we CAN make the GUS the standard! So keep up those email/snail mail campaigns to the magazines/publishers and users. With all of us working together we can succeed! John ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 16:33:59 +1000 (EST) From: int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Shan Yap) Subject: GUS Assault - Part 1. Message-ID: <9310100634.AA29163@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au> Greetings, I have seen a lot of grumbling going on about not being able to stir up Origin's interest in GUS, I would like to justify this situation, and I am sure that many of you would like that too. Some of you have been urging other readers to write to Origin, but I am sure there are still a lot of you who haven't done that (hence that daunting response from Origin). Maybe it's just because you are too lazy to write or most probably it's because you are not sure if your writing is going to have any effects or not. Well if we are going to do it, why not do it the proper way and do it Once And For All. Here's what I have in mind, when the GUS Digest reaches your site on TUESDAY (12/10/93) - it's two days later so that we can have plenty of time to prepare our "assault" :-), immediately e-mail Origin and any other software publishers of your choice (following this letter are the e-mail addresses of some of the major software publishers) urging them to support GUS (in this way, we'll have more Email reaching the same software publisher at more or less the same time, and I am sure this will has more influences on their decisions of supporting GUS, than a few Emails reaching them now and then). Please bear in mind that we are NOT "flaming" them, and please don't try to send multiple Emails to them from your same/different accounts - that would not do any good on our reputation (we GUSers have a reputation to keep, you know :-) ). Shan. int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au Unite and Prosper. CONTINUE ON NEXT MAIL...... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 16:34:54 +1000 (EST) From: int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Shan Yap) Subject: GUS Assault - Part 2. Message-ID: <9310100634.AA29204@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au> CONTINUE FROM PREVIOUS MAIL ....... And if you have decided to participate in this "historical" :-) event, please drop me an e-mail (just a short one will do - in order to conserve the disk space in my mailbox :-) ), in this way I will be able to keep track of the number of people who has participate in this event, and I will summarize that result on the following day (maybe we could made it to the Guiness Records of the NET as the most sucessful "flooding" action in the NET's history! ;-)) I read that the number of readers in this digest is in excess of hundreds, therefore if we really want to make ourselves being heard, WE CAN ! (A few lines of text or even a subject line will be suffice for our purpose). For those who already had sent their mails to the publishers, I would like to urge you to re-send your mails at the designated time so that we could generate more influences on the pulishers' decisions. The future of GUS lies in your hands, if you want to make it a sucess, DO IT! :-o Hope to hear from you soon! P/S: I will cross-post this message to the c.s.i.p.soundcard newsgroup, at a later time, so as to synchronize our process and get as many participants as possible. Shan. int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Floods me with your mails!) Unite and Prosper. EMAIL ADDRESSES FOLLOWS ON NEXT MAIL ...... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 16:35:53 +1000 (EST) From: int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Shan Yap) Subject: GUS Assault - Part 3. Message-ID: <9310100635.AA29265@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au> CONTINUE FROM PREVIOUS MAIL ..... Following are the Email addresses of some of the major software publishers, try to send Email to as many of them as possible (didn't we say that we want to do it Once And For All :-) ), in particular I would suggest you to at least send an Email to Sierra (thank them for their support on GUS, but urge them to support it w/o "Ultramid"), Electronic Arts, Origin, LucasArts and MicroPose, these are the really BIG player on the software field and their decisions would in turn govern that of the whole industry. I myself will send Emails to all of them. Have fun ! Access Software, Inc. Accolade Email: 76004.2132@compuserve.com Email: Linkspro_1@aol.com Dynamix Electronic Arts Email: Sierras@aol.com Email: 76004.237@compuserve.com LucasArts Maxis Email: LucasArts@aol.com Email: zoinks@netcom.com MicroProse New World Computing Email: MicroProse@aol.com Email: shannon@inter.com Origin Systems Sierra On-Line Email: OSI@aol.com Email: Sierras@aol.com Sir-Tech Spectrum HoloByte Email: 76711.33@compuserve.com Email: 76004.2144@compuserve.com Strategic Simulations, Inc. Strategic Studies Group Email: 76711.250@compuserve.com Email: 72040.340@compuserve.com Shan. int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au Unite and Prosper. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 03:13:13 -1000 (GMT-10:00) From: Paul Murgatroyd <s1114@kowande.Bond.edu.au> Subject: GUS Blues. Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310100313.A14994-b100000@sand.kowande.Bond.edu.au> Well, I finally did it. I went out and bought myself a sound board that has support TODAY. I ended up with the PAS16, and so far I am very happy. Sure, it doesn't have Wave Table synthesis, but at least it works on any piece of software you care to try it with. The 16-bit recording was also and added bonus, since I particularly like messing around with digital audio playback/recording. Sorry Gravis, my Ultrasound has been banished to the closet until I see some decent *NATIVE* support. I think you are doing pretty well, but like I said before, I have been patient for a year, and I need a break from all the hassles. Just out interest: The salesperson who sold me the PAS16 said that the three top sound boards currently available are the SB16, the PAS16, and the UltraSound (even with the crappy support!). Just think where the UltraSound would be with the support!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Arguments for margins are always in inches, regrdless of your cuntry setting." - MS Excel 4.0 Function Reference Manual, p.312 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 20:54:13 -0700 (PDT) From: I/We are Gaia <gaia@u.washington.edu> Subject: GUS card interfering with 16550 UART?? Message-ID: <Pine.3.05z.9310092013.A20307-c100000@carson.u.washington.edu> I have a problem that has absolutely stumped me.. Without the GUS in my machine, my com port configured to COM 1/IRQ 4 w/16550AFN UART works just fine, windows doesn't have any problems with it, Norton Diagnostics V7.0 reports that it is just fine. With the GUS in my machine, it seems to take over the interrupt controller, or something, because it doesn't work without alot of errors introduced.. In Windows it give lots of errored CRC's especially when reading or writing to disk, or playing sound, which will not happen when the card is out of the machine. And no matter what configuration I put the GUS in. Norton Diag reports DATA MISMATCHED on many of the 16550 specific tests, from 9600 to 115200 (or whatever). The norton manual says it is testing the FIFO Control Register. It says and I quote: "A FIFO Control Register allows you to specify how often to send and interrupt to the CPU for processing incoming data. You can send interrupts at every 1,4,8,o24 characters received, depeinding on whether you want higher speed (24) or greater reliability (1 or 4 in multitasking modes with higher priority iterrupts)." So it tests 1,4,8,24 characters, divided into the different speeds: 9600, 19200,57600,115200. Some of them checkout, some of them don't, and the higher, the worse it gets.. Now I tried all the different DMA channels, 8 and 16 bit, doesn't seem to make a difference, I have tried all the different port address, and all available interrupts. I can't make it come out with a flawless test, which I can do, when I simply putll the card.. Please help me, I didn't have this problem before I upgraded to my 486. Everything else with the card works.. I have a UMC based chipset, and I do not believe it is one of the defective ones. I haven't had any problems with 16bit DMA, and as I have said, changing it to 8 bit DMA did not help.. I also saw something in the GV-Readme file, about interrupt control. Could this have anything to do with it? Right now I have it set on 220,5,5,11,3. I only have 1 serial port. Please help.. I hope somebody can tell me where the conflict is!!! gaia@carson.u.washington.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 09:08:41 -0700 From: lancer@uclink.berkeley.edu Subject: Happy with my GUS Message-ID: <9310091608.AA29457@uclink.berkeley.edu> Hi. I've been reading about some people who've had an awful lot of problems with the GUS and are getting down on it. It seems to me that most people who post on this service have a problem or two or three...:-). However, I wonder how many people there are like me out there. I've never had any significant problems with my GUS. No problems installing it, no problem installing extra DRAM, never played a game with an incompatability problem with SBOS(and I've played an awful lot of games), and the GUS never caused my system to crash in Windows. True, SBOS doesn't sound great all the time, but it sounds decent (version 2.10) with my newest games, namely X-Wing and Betrayal at Krondor. Now with MegaEm, I can get great music as well. I can't wait for the new version with both SBOS and MIDI-- imagine, being able to get both MIDI and digital sound on a card that costs about $130. I'm very happy with my GUS, and I'm very glad I bought it. Are experiences like mine rare? A happy GUS user, Lancer ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 18:54:42 -0400 From: hal wayne black <sylk@mik.uky.edu> Subject: I like my GUS! Message-ID: <9310092254.AA29696@mik.uky.edu> I've noticed about three people posting over and over again how they don't like their GUS. I have been reading this digest for a while, and I finally got MY GUS in the mail. Wow, it is EXCELLENT!!! This card is absolutely unbelievable! It comes with an admirable amount of software for it, and there is a LOT more here and there on FTP sites to be had. It has much better support than some other cards I have had (SB, SBPro, MT-32) with all the stuff it comes with. I like the sofware so much, that I will even force myself to use Windoze to compose a song or two. There is talk about how it does not work with this or that, or how hard it is blah blah blah. You just have to have a little patience, and MOST of the games, etc WILL work. Also, I don't know how many of you follow the demo-coding scene, but the trend there seems to be toward the ultrasound, because you can get multiple (32) voice output, using next to NO CPU time. I have seen some very good demos that require the ultrasound, and won't work with a soundblaster*. Now, people will say that these are only kids coding demos, but the fact is, you can do more graphics and effects if you support an ultrasound and not an SB, so it must follow that games will soon have ultrasound support as well, it will just be a matter of time. The GUS IS a lot better card, technically, regardless of reviews, especially those who have a benchmark test that was designed with the traditional SB* style of card in mind, intentionally or unintentionally. I have not read that CGS review, but I bet it did not judge cards on their multiple-digital output, which the GUS would have come out on top quite handily. Overall, don't give up on the GUS, give it some time, and keep pestering those software companies! I, for one, will not buy anymore games unless they say Gravis Ultrasound under the soundcard support on the box, or for the games I really might like, I will read the net to see if it works with General MIDI, at least... -- | sylk@mik.uky.edu | hwblac00@ukpr.uky.edu | Entitlements kill | (tastefully short signature) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 16:12:04 +0000 From: (null) Subject: info Message-ID: <m0olf1h-0001WLC@baron.edb.tih.no> Please send me info abuot the newsletter and how to subscribe. Ole Marius Liabx oleml@edb.tih.no ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 21:14:47 EST From: elewis@eve.wright.edu (Edward Lewis IV) Subject: NHL hockey Message-ID: <9310100214.AA03889@eve.wright.edu.> I have been trying to get info on how to get NHL hockey by EA to work with the GUS. I tried looking through back Digest issues, and found an issue that probably has the info in it that I am looking for, but that issue is not complete on EPAS.UTORONTO. It is VOL6 Issue29. It must have had trouble when it was uploaded to epas. If someone could e-mail me that issue or better yet, tell me how to get SBOS and the GUS to work with NHL hockey. It works as an adlib but that's not much better than the internal speaker. I also got it to work with MEGAEM as an MT-32, but I would really like digitized sound. Has anyone been able to get this to work?? Any info greatly appreciated. Thanks, Edward Lewis ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 11:58:02 EDT From: Michael Sabia <sabia@eden.rutgers.edu> Subject: origin email address Message-ID: <CMM-RU.1.3.750182282.sabia@eden.rutgers.edu> i am not having much luck with the address osi@aol.com; any ideas? -mike ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1993 23:24:32 +0100 From: bojan.rijavec@uni-lj.si Subject: Piano 1.0 Message-ID: <00973C83.E9734DB2.7211@uni-lj.si> Hi, guys! Here's a little something I put together. Try it and tell me, what you think... PIANO v1.0 Keyboard Piano for MS Windows 3.1 Turn your PC into an electronic piano featuring all 128 GMIDI instruments, volume control and pitch wheel. Requires WIN 3.1 and a sound card (SB, GUS, PAS...). Nice surprise included. ... If everything went O.K., PIANO10.ZIP should be waiting for you on EPAS/SUBMIT Gregor B. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 13:05:22 +1000 From: adriano ennio raiola <adrianr@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU> Subject: SECOND REALITY - Sounds great, runs BADLY (386/40) Message-ID: <199310100305.AA01986@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU> After spending 1/2 a day at 2400 baud, I finally managed to check out the most awaited demo release of the past year, SECOND REALITY - Future Crew. Well can I say, on my humble 386/40Mhz with Cirrus Logic VGA, I had to wait like nearly eternity even for the title screen to come up! The music is GREAT (considering its only a demo with shitty 4 channel MOD music), but something tells me somethings wrong with the demo, because it runs SOOOOOO SLOOOOWLY on my 386/40. Even the music slows down to try keep pace. The docs warned that its designed for a 486 and might slow down on 386's but I seriously doubt It should slow down the extent it does here, ALL the way through, like even fading in a title screen, scrolling a bitmapped landscape, takes AAAGES, simply ridiculous for a 386, also the fact that when I turn the turbo off on the machine, it doesnt slow down any futher!! Ive since seen it on a 486, and trust me, at full speed (with GUS) it is a S**THOT demo, but there has to be some sorta bug or problem with the way it runs on a 386. And before you ask, I took off ALL tsr's, mem managers etc.. Anyone else had this problem? Adrian ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 01:51:07 -0500 (CDT) From: Antonio Guia <guia@CC.UManitoba.CA> Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #7 Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310090102.A18796-8100000@ccu.umanitoba.ca> > Can any of you reach matthew.arbeid@gravis.com (as a certain GUSser > recently suggested)? It seems impossible to email anything to > tech support... try just matthew@gravis.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 12:29:41 PDT From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor) Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #8 Message-ID: <9310091929.AA05539@netcom5.netcom.com> Not the Ultrasound Server once wrote... $ $ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- $ $ Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 13:06:05 -0400 $ From: Evan Champion <evanc@carbon.isis.org> $ Subject: 16-bit DMA $ Message-ID: <2cb58fee.carbon@carbon.isis.org> $ $ What is the difference between the 8 and 16 bit DMA channels (ie: does the $ data flow through them in 8 or 16 bits, or are they just addressed $ differently?) and which DMA channels are 16 bit? $ $ Evan They are just addressed differently. Back in the XT days, there were only four DMA channels: 0 1 2 3. Along comes the AT with its 16 bit bus, so four more were added: 4 5 6 7. $ ------------------------------ $ $ Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 09:39:48 +0501 (EDT) $ From: Gunnar Swanson <gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu> $ Subject: And a Wave Table of discontent swept accross GUS land! $ Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310080948.A19092-a100000@gibbs.oit.unc.edu> $ $ Well Well Well, $ $ Seems like alot of people are disapointed with the performance of $ the GUS. Gravis, folks seem to be getting fed up with the way things are $ going and I can't blame them. Be ware that the people laughed at Noah $ the first few days that it rained. The drips like me who keep writing in $ about poor GUS performance are a sign of a major deluge to come not a $ sprinkle. I am telling my friends to avoid the GUS now! Get an SB Pro or $ a PAS16 it works now, that's what I tell people. $ $ I do not know what the Gravis sales or marketing strategy is but it $ don't seem to be working. Maybe you should fix it? :-). $ $ Well I hope that Gravis can turn things around and get on board $ before the flood comes otherwise its the end of Gravis/Forte blub blub blub. $ $ $ Sigh $ $ Gunnar Swanson Well, gee Gunnar. You were a GUS booster just a couple of weeks ago, posting helpful suggestions to newcomers and so on. Seems that all you can do now is bitch and moan. What happened??? My response to your comments about compatibility and support: 1. I used to have a SB Pro, it sounded like crap, and I lost interest in games, because I could never get anything resembling decent sound out of games with the SB Pro. I sold it, and wrote off games and such as kid stuff, not to be bothered with by reasonable adults who have critical ears. Then I won a GUS in a contest at work. WOW!!! This thing sounds GREAT! I found the mailing list - hey, look at all the people using it with games! Maybe the state of the art has advanced somewhat in the past year and a half. So I got The 7th Guest, downloaded UltraMID and HOLY COW!!! This is one HOT CARD! I bought more games. Some of them didn't sound too good with SBOS...hmmmm... I tried them out on a friend's SB16ASP and guess what? They still sounded terrible, just as they did when I had a SB Pro. My conclusion: Most games sound awful no matter what card you get. At least with the GUS, you have a fighting chance to get some decent sound quality. Anything that uses UltraMID is going to be at least acceptable, if not great. Dune2 is an example of a UltraMID-using game with acceptable sound. T7G and RTZ are games that sound STUPENDOUS with UltraMID. X-wing with MegaEm is also MegaFantastic, even without the digital FX. I expect that Jayeson's SB DAC emulation will take care of that, but in the meantime, I do not feel that I am missing much. The GUS's ability to offload sound processing from the CPU helps tremendously in the smoothness of game play, in my opinion, no matter which emulator you use. 2. Return to Zork supports the GUS. It is the first major release to do so. Even though it is not listed on the box, they will give you tech support setting up UltraMID, if you need it. The foot is in the door. Sierra releases drivers for backwards-compatibilty with their GM games. They will also give you tech support to get it working. The door is wedged open a little more. How long was the SB Pro out before the first stereo-capable game appeared? 18 months? 2 years? After all this time, still less than half of all the games I have looked at support stereo on ANY card! This makes me think that most game vendors are not interested in great sound. I choose to support the ones that are. I vote with my pocketbook. I do not buy anything that fails to list at least PAS16 support specifically. That cuts in half the number of games that I may choose from. It's been my experience so far, that if a game lacks PAS16 support, then it will sound awful, so why even bother? In little more than a year, games that support the GUS have started appearing. This is unprecedentedly quick! I expect that it will only get better from here. The exception to my PAS16 rule are games that support Roland or General MIDI. SB support on these games strikes me as an afterthought. And why not? Someone who has bought a SB*.* is not very critical about the sound quality, so who cares? Give 'em a couple of digital FX and a poor semblance of General MIDI music and they will go away fat dumb and happy. Conclusion: I got back into games BECAUSE of the GUS, not in spite of it. P.S. Ask your friend with the SB16ASP how many games support the 30-odd Kb ASP driver that comes with it. Answer: ZERO. $ ------------------------------ $ $ Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1993 12:51:01 +0200 $ From: PWRJAM01@Uctvax.UCT.AC.ZA $ Subject: Gravis making it with support $ Message-ID: <01H3VC84J1N68WW57N@Uctvax.UCT.AC.ZA> $ $ In the past few digests they have been some complaints about $ the gus not being supported quickly enough. Well I bought $ an original SB when they first came out and had to $ wait at least 2-2.5 years before games supported the SB even $ then it was still not trully supported ( full digitized output $ with sound ). What I am trying to say is that unfortunately $ it take time for the word "GUS" to spread around and I think $ gravis are doing a great job to decrease this time. Until $ most people know what the Gravis Ultrasound is I don't think $ there is going much effort to support it. Everone knows $ what a sound blaster is - but a GUS? When you read a magazine $ looking for a sound card you normally look for the best and $ see what it has to offer ( then only the price ). I have $ not seen one good GUS review ! $ Thank you for confirming my opinions above. And you are absolutely right about the reviews - this is unacceptable! Every bad review came out that way because the reviewers crippled the GUS in order to "even the playing field" or some such nonsense. They probably didn't intend to do this, but accomplished it anyway out of ignorance. Write to them and complain that their credibility has been damaged because of their poor testing methods and ignorance of the capabilities of the products they review. The GUS tests I have seen might be compared to reviewing a Porsche without ever taking it out of second gear. $ ------------------------------ $ $ Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 11:40:24 EDT $ From: Bryon Daly <ltx!bkd@uunet.UU.NET> $ Subject: Master Of Orion (MOO) GUS patch $ Message-ID: <199310081548.AA03555@q> $ $ Hello, $ $ I downloaded a patch that supposedly lets Master Of Orion use the GUS $ through the AIL driver. I ran the patch, loaded ultramid -c, ran the $ install program and selected one of the Roland cards. But when I run $ the game, the screen just goes black, the disk stops spinning, and $ that's it. $ $ I also had previously put in Microprose's MOO bugfix patch. Could $ that have afftected it? $ $ Has anyone else got the GUS patch to work? Did I miss something? You need to copy gf1midi.adv, gf1digi.adv, and maybe gf166.com into the game directory. If it does not then offer the Ultrasound as a choice on the install menu, then you will need to choose the Roland or GM option, and SB digital FX. Then copy gf1midi.adv over the Roland or GM driver, and copy gf1digi.adv over the SB digital driver. The GM driver is usually called GENMIDI.ADV, and the SB driver is usually called SBDIG.ADV. Some games use SOUNDRV.COM. If your game batch file loads this TSR, then just copy gf166.com to soundrv.com instead of gf1digi.adv over sbdig.adv. $ ------------------------------ $ $ Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 11:31 BST $ From: MFZPITT@VAX.CCC.NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK $ Subject: More From Origin $ Message-ID: <9310081027.AA23905@orca.es.com> $ $ Just recieved a bit more from Origin. $ Q. Will you answer our question, will we see GUS support from you? $ A. I just realised that I didn't answer this letter. Nothing is definate at $ this time. The GUS market is not as huge as people think and the drivers $ provided are very hard to operate with our code. This certainly isn't as $ easy as you may think. Thank you for the letters of encouragement and I $ hope to read more from you soon. What this means is that they do not know how to code efficiently, and require that you have 620K free to run the damn game. They fear that UltraMID will not leave enough memory free for their bloated code. Nonsense. T7G runs fine in 565K with UltraMID loaded low. They are incompetent, in my opinion. Have they never heard of EMS or UMB? I am pretty sure that there are fewer PCs out there with NO memory manager than there are PCs with GUS installed. 286, you say? Don't make me laugh... $ ------------------------------ $ $ Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 12:07:34 -0600 (MDT) $ From: kdorff@NMSU.Edu $ Subject: MS Arcade + GUS $ Message-ID: <9310081807.AA10961@NMSU.Edu> $ $ Wow! I wasn't sure if it was something else on my system, and I DIDNT $ EVEN THINK to wonder of it was my GUS, but Yes $ $ MICROSOFT ARCADE (all of the games) lock my up my machine $ $ Nothing else seems to lock it up, but just in case. I have: I believe there is a patch on epas to fix Microsoft Arcade. $ I tried everything, but turning off sound. Maybe I will try starting $ windows in standard mode, not 386... That will cure the problem, since the Ultrasound drivers will not load in Standard mode. $ ------------------------------ $ $ Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 9:19 BST $ From: MFZPITT@VAX.CCC.NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK $ Subject: Origin And GUS Support 2. $ Message-ID: <9310080815.AA19740@orca.es.com> $ $ Q. Can't you use the GUS AIL drivers $ A. The GUS drivers never worked...Forte seemed unwilling or unable to help us. $ (can anybody respond to this - Gravis? Forte?) I'll respond. Sierra doesn't have a problem with UltraMID. Virgin doesn't have a problem with UltraMID. What is Origin's problem? I bet it's memory again. Bloated code that needs 620K, and they never heard of QEMM or 386MAX. Oh yeah - their top-selling game wants to use a proprietary protected mode driver, what is it - VOODOO?? Yeah, right. Origin is at the top of my list for Bad Boys in the gaming industry. They do not know how to adhere to standards, and fall back to the old Flight Simulator strategy of essentially loading their own operating system in which to play the game. On a fast 486 or even 386, there is no excuse not to use EMS or VCPI to get at more memory. $ Well I tried, but it doesn't look too good does it? What do the rst of you $ think? Don't forget to mail Origin as well to tell them - osi@aol.com. $ Anthony Pitt I will mail them and give them all the reasons why I do not purchase their products. The #1 reason is that I have heard their games on the boards they support, and they sound like a Nintendo (not SNES, even). #2 reason is that their leading edge products are incompatible with modern operating environments. This leads me to believe their programmers are incompetent, or that they are not interested in keeping up with the software marketplace. $ ------------------------------ $ $ Date: Fri, 08 Oct 93 11:58:25 -0400 $ From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com> $ Subject: Re: Still hanging in there, but for how long? $ Message-ID: <9310081558.AA16570@magick.tay2.dec.com> $ $ By "native support", people mean that it supports the GUS right out of the $ box without the user running ANYTHING EXTRA. A game that takes 600K of $ conventional memory doesn't leave me with 56K for UltraMID. Since I have a $ Adaptec SCSI card (hardly uncommon), Mega 'Em is a risk (it's not Jason's $ fault, but it's still true). In other words, if it doesn't list Gravis $ UltraSound on the box, it doesn't support the GUS, at least as far as the $ game-buying public is concerned. The Adaptec risk vanishes if you move the controller to a different I/O address. You would face the same problem if you had a real Roland! $ And Gravis had better get support into some new games quickly or it won't $ matter anymore... I don't think there's much more that Gravis can do that they are not already doing. It's up to the game vendors to support the card, not Gravis to support the game vendors. All they can do is lobby lobby lobby for support, and provide samples of the cards to game vendors. I know they are doing these things. It's up to the game vendors to realize what the GUS offers them and their discriminating GUS-using customers. $ ------------------------------ $ $ Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 11:35:02 +0100 $ From: "a.edwards" <cs9h1aae@pyramid.swansea.ac.uk> $ Subject: SYNDICATE $ Message-ID: <11533.9310081035@pyr.swan.ac.uk> $ $ I've noticed quite a few people having problems with Syndicate crashing $ on them. Its doesn't seem to be just an SBOS/Ultrasound prob as friends $ computers have hung with true Soundblaster cards. $ $ The problem usually seems to be EMM386 - get rid of it and everything seems $ fine. I believe Bullfrog have recommended in some magazines that the game $ be run from a bare startup (if any probs are encountered that is) $ $ However, we need SBOS etc. $ $ I had a similar problem with my computer (really nasty hang with a CMOS $ error!) but removing EMM386 cured it. And it sounds dead good through $ the hi-fi at half volume! (walls rumbling to the sound of gunfire) I agree! Syndicate is just about the best-sounding SBOS game I have had the pleasure of playing. And it does not crash with QEMM v7. :) On my PC, at least. -- Mike Batchelor | mikebat@netcom.com | This space for rent mikebat@qdeck.com | ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 21:09:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #8 Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310092118.B3500-b100000@sciborg> > Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 09:39:48 +0501 (EDT) > From: Gunnar Swanson <gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu> > Subject: And a Wave Table of discontent swept accross GUS land! > Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310080948.A19092-a100000@gibbs.oit.unc.edu> > > Well Well Well, > > Seems like alot of people are disapointed with the performance of > the GUS. Gravis, folks seem to be getting fed up with the way things are > going and I can't blame them. Be ware that the people laughed at Noah Gunnar, quit your griping. It serves no purpose except to annoy those of us who have found good use for the GUS in music, demos, and even games. It wouldn't surprise me that if you had bought an SB, you'd be bemoaning its poor sound quality, or if you had bought a Sound Canvas, you'd whine about the lack of a DAC for sound effects. First, figure out what your needs are, and see if the GUS fulfills them. If it doesn't, sell it and get a card that does. My needs are for a soundcard that sounds great, can use custom samples, can handle overlapping digital sound effects, is compatible with the games I play, and is affordable. That's why I've been very happy with my GUS. Gravis _are_ working with developers to get GUS support into their games. Moaning to the digest won't help matters. Moan to Origin instead. :) > Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 13:00:51 -0400 > From: jericho!gord (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center) > Subject: Re: Dropped notes under Windows > Message-ID: <9310081700.AA15634@smos.bc.ca> > [...] > What does playmidi do, anyone? Does it make a guess as to > how many voices to set the gus to? Playmidi defaults to 20 voices unless you use the -x<n> switch to manual select the number of active voices. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1993 09:35:28 -0400 (EDT) From: "Where's that $%#@*() ripcord?!?!" <JKS4675@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> Subject: UMID102.zip Message-ID: <01H3WJY977XUA4LSUC@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> Upon unzipping UMID102.ZIP in EPAS's SUBMIT directory, the Gravis 'Greeting Screen' appears.....but that's it. No files or anything. Anybody have a clue as to what's going on here??? Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 17:24:20 +1000 (EST) From: Andrew See <asee@st.nepean.uws.edu.au> Subject: We need to speak to someone higher at Origin Message-ID: <199310090724.AA11091@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au> Re: That idiot at Origin replying to requests for support, he's probably some shitkicker office boy or something. We need an email to someone a bit higher in Origin. Someone with some weight to throw around. Maybe a top programer. Wait till doom comes along and blows every Origin game ever made completely out of the water, and it is shareware. I will not buy an Origin game ultil it has GUS support. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 22:44:43 +0100 From: rock@POOL.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE Message-ID: <9310092144.AA11412@rama> Excerpt from the Pc-Games-FAQ available on internet every two months: ( I only deleted the 2nd LucasArts address, it didn't work) 6.3: Where can I find email addresses of game publishers? Here are some addresses from game publishers and developers, or people working for them. The list is not comprehensive and not all the addresses have been checked: Access Linkspro_1@aol.com Accolade 76004.2132@compuserve.com Apogee apogee@delphi.com joe.siegler@crs.com DC Software 72557.336@compuserve.com Digital Integration digint@cix.compulink.co.uk Dragon's Eye Productions cat@wixer.bga.com Electronic Arts 76004.237@compuserve.com ea@cix.compulink.co.uk Epic MegaGames 70451.633@compuserve.com EpicGames@aol.com GlenEpic@delphi.com Id romero@idsoftware.com jay@idsoftware.com help@idsoftware.com Impressions 71333.463@Compuserve.com Intergalactic 76356.2172@compuserve.com Interplay 76702.1342@compuserve.com interpla@orion.oac.uci.edu LucasArts 75300.454@compuserve.com Maxis 71435.276@compuserve.com 71333.1470@compuserve.com Maxis@aol.com zoinks@netcom.com Merit 76711.2470@Compuserve.com Microprose 76004.2223@compuserve.com MicroProse@aol.com New World shannon@inter.com order@inter.com Omnitrend 70300.245@compuserve.com Origin 76004.2612@compuserve.com OSI@aol.com Origin_CS@aol.com origin@world.std.com Ozark 76326.403@compuserve.com Papyrus papyrus@world.std.com QQP 75300.3233@compuserve.com Sierra 76004.2143@compuserve.com Sierras@aol.com SierDan@aol.com ShadowSoft 76056.1537@compuserve.com Sir-Tech 76711.33@compuserve.com SSG 72040.340@compuserve.com Spectrum Holobyte S_Holobyte@aol.com SSI 76711.250@compuserve.com StratSim@aol.com Three-Sixty 76711.240@compuserve.com threesixty@aol.com Wizard 71764.3137@compuserve.com WizardScot@aol.com Fitzgerald@delphi.com Sir Launcelot du Lac (swkgohw@leonis.nus.sg) is the keeper of the address lists for software and hardware companies. These lists hold email addresses, ftp sites, BBS's, telephone numbers etc. You can find the most up-to-date lists in csipg.announce. You can also contact Gary Cooper (cooper@grebyn.com). He has an up-to-date list of email addresses only. ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9 ************************************ To post to tomorrow's digest: <ultrasound@dsd.es.com> To (un)subscribe or get help: <ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com> To contact a human (last resort): <ultrasound-owner@dsd.es.com> FTP sites: archive.epas.utoronto.ca pub/pc/ultrasound wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/msdos/ultrasound archive.orst.edu pub/packages/gravis FTP mail server: mail-server@nike.rz.uni-konstanz.de Hints: - Get the FAQ from the FTP sites or the request server. - Mail to <ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com> for info about other GUS related mailing lists (UNIX, OS/2, GUS-MIDI, etc.)