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Apparently-To: john.smith@gravis.com
GUS Daily Digest Tue, 30 Nov 93 0:07 Volume 8: Issue 29
Today's Topics:
A Better Windows Sound Recorder?
CGW praises Gravis Ultrasound!
Daily digest (sun)
Emulations under Windoze
FPS: Football Pro
Gabriel Knight - Word from Sierra
GRAVIS ULTRASOUND COMPATIBILITY LIST
GUS Daily Digest V8 #28
Lemmings 2
Megaem and X-wing fix
MegaEM Games list is dead. A new one is here...
Megaem v. Ultramid
Megaem vs. Ultramid
mitsumi daughtercard has arrived!
Playfile does not produce 'click'-free sounds.
Star Control II
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: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 13:35:20 -0500 (EST)
From: Richard Warren Little <littlerw@jeff-lab.QueensU.CA>
Subject: A Better Windows Sound Recorder?
Hi, folks, I've recently acquired my first sound card, a (you guessed it)
GUS. I've been happy so far with its performance. I've been flipping
through various FTP sites, looking for MIDI files to play in windows,
etc., and have been using the MIDISoft program packaged with the GUS to
play the MIDI files in Windows. My only problem to date is that I want to
make WAV files from my MIDI files, and have been using the Microsoft Sound
Recorder packaged with Windows to record playing MIDI files, but the MS
Sound Recorder can only record WAVs for 60 seconds. Does anyone know
where I might find a Windows sound recorder that will record for more than
60 seconds, so I can replace the MS product? Alternatively, does anyone
know where I can find a Windows utility to convert MIDI -> WAV directly?
Rich
littlerw@jeff-lab.queensu.ca
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 93 08:06:29 EST
From: dklash%sedofis@VM1.NYSED.GOV
Subject: CGW praises Gravis Ultrasound!
I picked up the Dec 1993 issue of Computer Gaming World (now owned by Ziff-
Davis and is very thick). In it is a review of SSI's Dark Sun. On page 130 is
a
side note by Scorpia titled *Dark Sun and Gravis Ultrasound*. Here's an
excerpt:
------Quote starts here -----
Dark Sun is the first game I've played that supports the Gravis
Ultrasound card in its native mode. What a difference from SoundBlaster
emulation! The music is just incredible [...]. Now I've been spoiled, and I
don't want to go back to regular SoundBlaster [...].
The Ultrasound has been panned in some magazines. It's easy to dump on a card
when games that support it are few or non-existent. Having heard
the Ultrasound in native mode here, as well as in Return To Zork [...] and
Silverball [...], I am not sorry I made the Ultrasound my soundcard.
----End quote. The [...] means stuff deleted for brevity ----
Also in the issue is a review of 4 computer pinball games, including
Silverball, which they say is OK although it has unrealistic ball action. They
end the Silverball review saying (quote): ..Scorpia [...] was able to get
sounds
from her Gravis Ultrasound card, and she speaks quite highly
of the music. :(end quote)
--Dave (dklash%sedofis@sed.bitnet)
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 93 17:27:51
From: john.smith@gravis.com
Subject: Daily digest (sun)
>I think the biggest reason why you guys are all having trouble with Gravis
>not answering your mail, whether it be tech support mail, or mail to John
>Smith or Jayeson, is the fact that their computer, which polls the net
>from time to time to pick up and send out the mail, doesn't do a very good
>job at all.
This is all getting a bit old. I'll state it again. EVERY morning first
thing I do is download my mail packet (30-50msgs/day) and answer EVERY
single message. True it takes some time but you sort of get in the habbit
of doing it after a while ;-) This has been how I've been answering all
your mail every day since I started at Gravis back in January.
True there was problems with the TECH@GRAVIS.COM aliasing thing but that
has been fixed for well over a month now. Also, as far as I know I
do not have any further problems with the BBS mail (true it acts up
every few months but nothing serious, after all it is just a
computer <grin>) but that all gets fixed right away. So if you have sent
me mail and have not got a response back within a day or so (excluding
weekends of course) then try emailing me again. And if your message
bounced then please send me a copy of the bounced message.
>I have experienced some software problems with my new GUS.
>First of all the winsetup hangs, although I can still move
>my mouse around, nothing else happens.
>Secondly I've had some problems with ultrajoy. After running ultrajoy 16,
>setgus.exe reports a sb/midi irq timeout. Anybody ever heard of that?
Install your windows drivers manually (take a look in the README). You
are right about the SB/MIDI IRQ timeout problem and ULTRAJOY. It has been
fixed and will be updated in the next release of software. Until then
either accept the settings in SETGUS or don't run ULTRAJOY before
running SETGUS.
>a friend of mind said he saw a GUS with 2-meg of ram on it.
>is it possible? Anyone tried yet? :)
The GF1 can only access 1Mb or RAM. So your friend was pulling your leg.
Sea Quest is almost on so talk to you all tomorrow.
John
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 22:42:24 -0600 (CST)
From: v345@rex.uokhsc.edu (Anthony C. Toppins)
Subject: Emulations under Windoze
I just got Might and Magic World of Xeen on CD and it sounds great with
SBOS. I tried it with megaem, but it used Roland for music and effects,
which makes some sounds really strange. My question is this: Is it possible
to write an emulator(SBOS, megaem, etc.) that will run under a DOS session
in Windoze and is there one in the works? I know that most emulators require
control and that I assume is the reason for the current inability to run
them under Windoze. Thanks in advance, Tony
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 14:10:16 -0600 (CST)
From: Fitzgerald Jr Steele <fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu>
Subject: FPS: Football Pro
In case no one realized it ;-), Megaem is GREAT! As far as I can tell, it
works flawlessly with Front Pages Sports: Football Pro! Megaem didn't
work too well for me with the original FPS: Football. For some reason,
when I used Megaem and FPSF, the color and animation would screw up on
some of the more detailed sequences (ie field goal attempts and the coin
toss). I also found that my computer would freeze whenever I tried to
kick a field goal or extra point, but it would be fine when the computer
kicked. Anyway, none of that happens with FPSF Pro. The kicking
sequences are clear as a bell, the computer doesn't freeze, and you don't
get the annoying echo that you do with SBOS (both sbos 1.20 and 2.08
echoed). Dynamix improved the digital sound during the game. I really
enjoyed the sustained crowd roar during the game, and the occasional air
horn. If you haven't yet, get Megaem and get Front Pages Sports: Football
Pro! It's worth it!
By the way, I'm selling Front Pages Sports: Football for $35(US) :-).
Anyone want it? Let me know and we'll see if we can work something out...
--------------------==========*********==========----------------------
Jerry Steele "I wish I had time
fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu to come up with a cool SIG!"
fsteele@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu
--------------==============*************==============----------------
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 21:48:19 -0800 (PST)
From: Telepathic Surgery <yaga@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Gabriel Knight - Word from Sierra
Well, after four hours of dialing I finally got through the Sierra tech
line. Their "fix" to the problem of the GUS not working with the game is
to run it through Windoze. Apparently, the Sierra drivers are compatible
with every game up to GK, but they switched to a new engine for the new
game and did not include GUS support. So, I am obviously dissatisfied
and am taking the game back. I used to have such respect for Sierra....
Damn.
chris
yaga@u.washington.edu
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 23:57:29 -0400 (AST)
From: Jurassic Mark <markus@Info.UMoncton.ca>
Subject: GRAVIS ULTRASOUND COMPATIBILITY LIST
GRAVIS ULTRASOUND COMPATIBILITY LIST
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Kept alive by: Marc Y. Paulin
Date compiled: 11-29-93
This is a list of currently released softwares and the suggested
emulator for the best music/playability combination. This list is based upon
suggestions I received via email on Internet and does not reflect my
personnal opinion. This list is kept alive to help users in what is best
for a specific program and to let them know that that specific game worked
for others.
If you a product that works with an existing GUS emulator and is not
shown on this list, you are kindly invited to submit it to me. Or if a
program sounds better under a new emulation (i.e. new MegaEM version),
please share your thoughts and experience on this list.
With some titles, you will find a little comment on what you have to do
first to make the program work with the emulator, suggested switch to make
the software sound better with the emulator, or if the product will only give
you half of the emulation (i.e. MegaEM gives music only).
You will also noticed that anywhere on this list I mention the word
'game' or 'gamer'. That's because I did not create this list for games only,
but for all available softwares on the market that use soundcards. So games
are welcomes as well as any other IBM PC Compatible softwares that work
with the Gravis Ultrasound under an existing emulator.
Although ULTRAMID is not considered as an emulator (any many souls may
disagree with me), I accept it on the list. Any versions.
One last thing. Please, do not flame me for the mistakes I did on the
text. English is not my mother tongue (French is) and I'm doing my best to
bring something to the GUS world. If you see bad-spellings or errors, just
let me know and I'll correct them. :)
And now, let get on with the show...
==============================================================================
GAME TITLE COMPANY RECOMMENDED EMULATOR
==============================================================================
7th Guest, The Virgin/Trilobytes ULTRAMID 1.05
Alien Breed ??? MegaEM 2.00B023
(run SBCOMP.EXE before the game to avoid locks)
Amazon ??? MegaEM 2.00B023
Bloodnet Microprose MegaEM 2.00B023
Civilization Microprose MegaEM 2.00B023
(-f22 recommended)
Day Of The Tentacle Lucas Art MegaEM 2.00B023
(-f22 recommended)
Discoveries In The Deep ??? MegaEM 2.00B023
Dungeon Hack SSI/Dreamforge MegaEM 2.00B023
(Run MegaEM with /RIRQ2 _before_ selecting
the sound and to run the game)
EcoQuest Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Eye Of The Beholder III SSI MegaEM 2.00B023
Falcon 3.0 Spectrum Holobytes MegaEM 2.00B023
Freddy Pharkas Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Gods Bitmap Brothers MegaEM 2.00B023
Halloween Harry Apogee/Sub Zero MegaEM 2.00B023
Hand Of Fate Westwood MegaEM 2.00B023
Hardball III Accolade MegaEM 2.00B023
Incredible Toons Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Island Of Dr. Brain Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Lands Of Lore Westwood MegaEM 2.00B023
(With the update for multiple soundcards selection)
Laura Bow ][ (Amon Ra) Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Legend Of Kyrandia Westwood MegaEM 2.00B023
(music only)
Lost Viking, The ??? MegaEM 2.00B023
(music only)
Jordan In Flight Electronic Arts MegaEM 2.00B023
Jurassic Park Ocean MegaEM 2.00B023
King's Quest VI Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Master Of Orion Microprose MegaEM 2.00B023
Prehistorik ][ Titus MegaEM 2.00B023
Prince Of Persia II Broderbund MegaEM 2.00B023
Quest For Glory I (VGA) Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Quest For Glory III Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Quest For Glory IV Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Ring World Tsunami MegaEM 2.00B023
Risky Woods Electronic Arts MegaEM 2.00B023
Sam And Max Hit The Road Lucas Art MegaEM 2.00B023
Shadow Caster ??? MegaEM 2.00B023
Sherlock Holmes (CD-ROM) ??? MegaEM 2.00B023
SimFarm Maxis MegaEM 2.00B023
Simon The Sorcerer ??? MegaEM 2.00B023
(music only)
Slater & Charlie ??? MegaEM 2.00B023
Space Quest V Sierra On-Line MegaEM 2.00B023
Team 17/Alien Breed AVM MegaEM 2.00B023
Veil Of Darkness SSI MegaEM 2.00B023
Winter Challenge Accolade MegaEM 2.00B023
Where in the World is
Carmen SanDiego Broderbund MegaEM 2.00B023
X-Wing Fighter Lucas Art MegaEM 2.00B023
(To remove the annoying pauses, remove all EMM manager and load MegaEM
with the /NOEMS switch).
For any additions to the list, please give me the following information
regarding the program.
GAME TITLE: Title of the program.
COMPANY: Name of the company who produced the software or distribute it.
EMULATOR NAME: Name of the emulator used with that software.
VERSION OF EMULATOR: Of course, that information is vital. :)
SPECIAL PROCEDURES: Only if necessary. Use this field to tell the user if
he/she will have special things to do before having the
emulator to work with the program. See examples on the
actual lise.
A special thanks to all those who contributed to this list. You
are too many to named, but you know who you are. :) Cheers!
Marc Y. Paulin - Jurassic Mark (Usenet) - J-Mark (IRC)
- markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca (Talk 'n Mail) - (506)856-9518 -
APICS Programming Contest Winner of 1993
-=* GUS won over SB by a score of 32 to 11 *=-
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 08:55:55 -0500 (EST)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V8 #28
> Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1993 20:03:54 -0700 (MST)
> From: Derek the Dweebosaurus <dng@med.ucalgary.ca>
> Subject: Megaem vs. Ultramid
>
> Has anyone out there tried to run applications with MegaEm and Ultramid
> separately to see which one has better sound? I used the Sierra Ultrasound
Although I haven't done a direct comparison, I would say that Ultramid has
the better sound quality. Mega-Em's sound routines for the patches still
need a bit of improvement. The envelopes aren't right, and it tends to click
more often when looping than does Ultramid. Ultramid can also dynamically
cache patches as they are required instead of only working with a subset of
the patches.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Mega-Em. It's a programming marvel,
and I have the utmost awe for its author, Jayeson. But programming the GUS
to play those patches properly is difficult since Forte haven't released
sufficient info on how to interpret the patch headers. Hopefully, Jayeson
will soon get his hands on the code he needs to get Mega-Em's sound routines
to the level of Ultramid.
> Date: Sun, 28 Nov 93 11:04:17 EST
> From: treason@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Act of Treason)
> Subject: MegaEm With Xwing
>
> I don't know if these questions have been answered before, but I've been on
> vacation. I have megaem 23b loaded and during voice sections in xwing, static
> comes out instead of voices during most of the intro. I have 8 megs of memory,
If you are using IRQ 7 for the SB/MIDI IRQ, then change it to 5. IRQ 7 is
not a good IRQ to use for Mega-Em and causes all sorts of digital audio
problems.
> Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 00:21:13 -0500 (EST)
> From: Mark Firoozfar <mfirooz@wam.umd.edu>
> Subject: Ultima7 and GUS Miles Drivers?
>
> Hi all,
> I am trying to get U7 to work with the Miles drivers for the
> GUS. I did find the U7 specific .ADV files on epas and I've replaced
The GUS' Miles drivers do not work with U7, which uses modified AIL
drivers instead of the standard ones.
Phat.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 93 21:29:04 EET
From: Vaggelis Blathras <vbla@leon.nrcps.ariadne-t.gr>
Subject: Lemmings 2
I am trying to run lemmings 2, but if I select a sound card It will hang as
soon as the Sound Init is passed, but It will play if I select Pc speaker.
I've tryed it with SBOS 2.0B10 and with 2.00B023 Megaem, but it Wont work.
I have a 386sx with DOS 5.0, 4dos, Qemm 7.01 , and 512K GUS, and Stacker 2
I would appreciate any help given.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 12:24:15 SAT
From: "Michael Patricios" <PATRICIO@odie.ee.wits.ac.za>
Subject: Re: Megaem and X-wing fix
Stuart Yoshida <yoshida@elektra.fc.hp.com> said:
>
> I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of people who finally got
> X-Wing and Mega-Em to work completely together.
>
> PROBLEM: The MIDI music in X-Wing would cut out soon after a mission
> is started.
>
> SOLUTION: Turn off the Stealth Mode option in QEMM (the ST:M switch)
>
Nope, I am running QEMM 7.0 with stealth _OFF_ but the music still
cuts out for me ;-(
Ah well..... Any other thoughts??
Mike
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 23:51:13 -0400 (AST)
From: Jurassic Mark <markus@Info.UMoncton.ca>
Subject: MegaEM Games list is dead. A new one is here...
GUS day people,
After a few hours of thinking, I decided to kill my list. I
thought about the vanished SBOS list, the dead ULTRAMID list, and my
actual MegaEM list. Why three lists? So I decided to kill my MegaEM
list and start a new list that will include everything. All the
submissions I received for my old MegaEM list are ported to the new one.
the new list is on this digest. All suggested emulators on the new list
are defaulted to MegaEM 2.00B023. The Sierra games does not have the
Sierra drivers mentioned (MegaEM instead) because I heard somewhere that
MegaEM was doing a better job. Anyways, this first list is just at its
birth. Any update will be appreciated as well as additions.
Lets make this list the best help tool for gamers. But I did not
build this list for games only. Any soundcard supporting softwares are
welcomed. They have to work for the GUS with one of the existing
emulators first.
I'm also open to suggestions and opinions about this new list. I
hope it'll grow big and will be appreciated on the net. Feel free to
meet me on IRC and request the list. :) My nick changed to J-Mark since
Extreme was registered to someone else.
Marc Y. Paulin - Jurassic Mark (Usenet) - J-Mark (IRC)
- markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca (Talk 'n Mail) - (506)856-9518 -
APICS Programming Contest Winner of 1993
-=* GUS won over SB by a score of 32 to 11 *=-
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 10:30:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Pete Kilcullen <pmk@access.digex.net>
Subject: Re: Megaem v. Ultramid
> From: Derek the Dweebosaurus <dng@med.ucalgary.ca>
> Subject: Megaem vs. Ultramid
>
> Has anyone out there tried to run applications with MegaEm and Ultramid
> separately to see which one has better sound?
Warlords2 has a Ultramid patch that crashes the game. Megaem works real
well with the original version
Pete
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 13:43:00 -0600 (CST)
From: Fitzgerald Jr Steele <fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu>
Subject: Megaem vs. Ultramid
>Subject: Megaem vs. Ultramid
>Has anyone out there tried to run applications with MegaEm and Ultramid
>separately to see which one has better sound? I used the Sierra Ultrasound
>drivers /Ultramid for KQ6 and the sound is cool, but has anyone compared
>that with the emulation provided by MegaEm? It could be logical to assume
>that since the drivers and ultramid are geared specifically for GUS, it
>would give the better sound, whereas MegaEm would be translating Roland
>and SB sound to GUS. Any input on this matter?
I've used both Megaem and the Ultramid drivers with KQ6. My subjective
review is that the Sierra drivers did sound better than megaem. One funny
thing that happened with megaem; it sounded like there were some wrong
notes during the title screen and the Sierra logo. It sounded almost
comical, almost as if Sierra did it on purpose. I emailed Jayeson about
it and he didn't know why it happened. When I used with the
Sierra drivers, the wrong notes weren't there. Instead, I heard what
sounded like timphinies (sp?) where the wrong notes were.
I felt that the sound quality throughout the game was a little higher with
the Sierra drivers than with Megaem. The parts of the soundtrack that
I particularly enjoy(when Alexander plays the flute on the Isle of Wonder
and when he talks to Black Widow) sound a little bit "fuller" with the
drivers. Megaem sounded like, well, an emulation.
Plus, it was just plain nice to see "Gravis Ultrasound" as an installation
option.
Jerry Steele "I wish I had time
fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu to come up with a cool SIG!"
fsteele@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 17:01:05 -0600
From: Don Eller <don.eller@inst.medtronic.com>
Subject: mitsumi daughtercard has arrived!
I got home and found a package from Gravis over Thansgiving weekend. It was
at my doorstep covered with snow, I hit it with my shovel while shoveling.
I opened the shipping ticket, and found it was the Mitsumi daughtercard I
ordered - let's see now, is this right? 5-24 - YES, it finally came!
I rushed inside, opened my computer, browsed the documentation, decided to use
the defaults. Hooked up the cables, the new audio cable fit! Changed the
settings for loading the driver in config.sys to the new I/O address and
holy cow! It worked on the first try, well second try, I forgot to check that
a CDROM was in the drive the first time.
I haven't gone back to check for the dreaded audio pauses, but if I find they
still exist, maybe I can get Gravis to consider rewriting the drivers, or at
least I'll do a better job of documenting the delays.
Great job Gravis, and only $30 plus $5 S&H. Now if you guys could only offer
us a keyboard controller like the Roland PC200 MKII for say $200, I don't know
how I would contain my enthusiam for your company!
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 14:30:57 +0100
From: Stein Olav Skjelvan <sos@alkymi.unit.no>
Subject: Playfile does not produce 'click'-free sounds.
When will Gravis supply software that play and record sound files
without any kind of noice like the clicks you get now. You can hear
it very clearly if you are using headphones. I have tried generating
sine waves with a simple program and stored them in a sound file, but
when I play the file, I still get clicks.
It would be fairly simple to download pieces of the sound file with
DMA into one buffer in the onboard memory, while playing from another
buffer, and when the buffer has been played whole through, one
can switch between them.
Stein Olav Skjelvan
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 93 13:37:02 EDT
From: Thayer York <YT50@lafibm.lafayette.edu>
Subject: Star Control II
I got the demo for this game from epas, and now would really like to get
a copy (I can't wait to own a full-blown commercial game with
GUS-support). Anyone know where I can get it? I checked two computer
stores this weekend with no luck (Babbage's and Electronics Boutique).
Maybe at CompUSA?
-Thayer
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Thayer York (aka Torq, YakToes) -> yt50@lafibm.lafayette.edu
-> yt50@lafayacs.bitnet
Osborn's Law: Variables won't; constants aren't - TYTYALC
------------------------------
End of GUS Daily Digest V8 #29
******************************
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Hints:
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