I poured my nervous energy into getting my hands on a real MT-32. It came in the mail last week and I spent part of the weekend getting it hooked up and running via DOSBox/Cakewalk. I've wanted one forever! This is probably the coolest thing I've messed with in a long time. Sooo much fun! I'm spending quite a bit of time over at Quest Studios :)

 

I'm sure the prototype will be great, and great things take time.

Billybob- excited to hear about your MT-32. I remember SQ1VGA was the first game I tried it with, and is a great one too, as is SQ3 and 4- with the orchestral and cool sounding opening tunes.

 

Anything you need, I'm happy to help out too, I run the other Sierra music website.

I need to fire up my MT-32 again. Been too long since I used it for a game.

May I recommend Space Quest IV ;) ("Calling Brandon Blume...")

 

Might give you, uh, inspiration for something ;)

 

Actually, being serious, I think I might have to crank out SQ1VGA sometime soon.. That music rocks.

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind, just having fun listening to the MT-32 files, playing through some SQ and Wing Commander and staring at the little green screen :)

I really do need to get such a machine as well. The current emulating efforts, while showing potential, mostly sound horrible. I'll hold off till the day I actually have a stationary PC with a proper MIDI interface, though.

I really do need to get such a machine as well. The current emulating efforts, while showing potential, mostly sound horrible. I'll hold off till the day I actually have a stationary PC with a proper MIDI interface, though.

 

I take it that you have not tried Munt in a while. While it is not yet 100%, it is getting very, very close.

I take it that you have not tried Munt in a while. While it is not yet 100%, it is getting very, very close.

 

That it is. I compared it to a recording and the sound is really close. It could also be that the syx file wasn't being sent properly for playback. Like I said, it's a little tricky to get running 100% on some systems. Sounds like I will have to post that guide... Maybe tonight.

I've only tried MUNT briefly, but maybe I should give it a chance. I have been using the built-in ScummVM MT-32 emulator, though, and that is what I based my judgement on.

May I recommend Space Quest IV ;) ("Calling Brandon Blume...")

 

Might give you, uh, inspiration for something ;)

 

Actually, being serious, I think I might have to crank out SQ1VGA sometime soon.. That music rocks.

 

Heh, that's funny. Because I remember when we worked on the old SQ1VGA soundtrack and when we were finally done you said you hated the soundtrack in the end. lol

 

I take it that you have not tried Munt in a while. While it is not yet 100%, it is getting very, very close.

 

Collector is right. MUNT sounds almost identical now. There are only very very very very small differences. The biggest one is that the reverb is not exactly the same, but that's fine. Try the latest ScummVM snapshot. It has the newer MUNT included and it sounds pretty much spot on. Give it a go!

Ooh, thanks for the hint, Brandon. Prior to reading your post, I was pulling hair out on account of my soundcard being way too ineffective to use the Win32 driver for MUNT. For some reason, the MT-32 emulator within ScummVM works a lot better, though it renders the gameplay a bit sluggish. Oh, well; what can one expect from a crappy Realtek chipset?

It wouldn't have anything to do with your sound device, rather your RAM and the speed of your processor. Still working an old dinosaur there? :)

 

I'm rocking a hyperthreaded Quad Core Sandy Bridge processor with 4 (soon to be 8) GB of RAM. I'm not going to feel any sluggish pains for a while. It's easy to forget some people might actually have performance issues with something like this!

It's funny, I'm covering Command & Conquer for my next podcast and I actually had to use my "DOS gaming box" (P-II 450Mhz, Voodoo2, 128MB SDRAM, SBAWE32, Win98SE) to run C&C Win95 edition. My i7 running Win7 64 couldn't deal with it even under compatibility mode. Glad I built that thing (and so were my coworkers who were happy to dump me with all their old beige boxes!).

It wouldn't have anything to do with your sound device, rather your RAM and the speed of your processor. Still working an old dinosaur there? :)

 

I'm rocking a hyperthreaded Quad Core Sandy Bridge processor with 4 (soon to be 8) GB of RAM. I'm not going to feel any sluggish pains for a while. It's easy to forget some people might actually have performance issues with something like this!

 

I wouldn't call it an old dinosaur. Just an Asus 2.3 GHz laptop with 3 GB of RAM. Performance normally isn't an issue for the kind of games I want to play, but its pathetic excuse for a sound card is indeed shit - as is the graphics card - and I am very wary of the fact that I'll need a proper desktop PC at one point. In that department, it's a wonder I've been able to create any music on it at all! Heck, I have to use ASIO4ALL when running FL Studio. The sound card can't handle it otherwise.

 

Still, it's a sturdy machine and it's serving me well, so I don't mind the occasional performance issues that much. The MT-32 emulation is a luxury problem, really. I grew up with AdLib, so I don't miss what I never had. Besides, I assume MUNT will become less CPU-heavy later on; dinosaur or not, emulating a device from 1987 should not bring a laptop from 2010 to its knees :P

You could always get one of those USB breakout sound processor deals instead of using the poor excuse for a sound card you have in the laptop.

It's funny, I'm covering Command & Conquer for my next podcast and I actually had to use my "DOS gaming box" (P-II 450Mhz, Voodoo2, 128MB SDRAM, SBAWE32, Win98SE) to run C&C Win95 edition. My i7 running Win7 64 couldn't deal with it even under compatibility mode. Glad I built that thing (and so were my coworkers who were happy to dump me with all their old beige boxes!).

 

There is no reason to mess around with a dinosaur just for old DOS games. DOSBox is the best solution these days. Given all of the possible configurations, you can easily get more games to run in DOSBox than is possible on any one old DOS PC. If you just like puttering around with old hardware, that is one thing, but just to play old DOS games, it is not worth it.

There is no reason to mess around with a dinosaur just for old DOS games. DOSBox is the best solution these days. Given all of the possible configurations, you can easily get more games to run in DOSBox than is possible on any one old DOS PC. If you just like puttering around with old hardware, that is one thing, but just to play old DOS games, it is not worth it.

 

Only problem was that old version of C&C is the Win95 release. I built the machine as a little side project to chat about on the show. It was there so I figured why not!

Yeah, Win95 games still have no solution as far as modern systems go.

wine should play a decent number of them, worth a try anyways

Can't emulate a Voodoo card, though. :/

Running "Command & Conquer" on x64-systems is actually possible if you use these fanmade patches. I haven't got the game installed right now, but I have made it work in the past.

 

"Red Alert" is different story, however. I could make the (inferior) DOS version run in DOSBox, but the graphics kept screwing up, rendering the game unplayable.

 

You could always get one of those USB breakout sound processor deals instead of using the poor excuse for a sound card you have in the laptop.

 

I have considered it, but I might always hold out till I'm able to buy a new computer. I do have a cheap little Behringer USB interface for recording guitar, and after reading your post, I tried running MUNT while using that as sound device. No luck; audio still stutters in DOSBox while using the emulator in ScummVM slows everything down. It's more than a bit frustrating, cause the emulation does, indeed, sound fantastic. I honestly can't tell the difference from the recordings of the real thing I've heard :)

DOSBox should be a solution for that, before too long. Code for Voodoo emulation has been written and there is a patch to allow CD drive access with DOSBox booted to 95. 95 support is not quite ready yet, but I don't think it is that far away. Another promising development is the author of the Java port was experimenting with adding code from WINE to run Windows games without installing Windows in DOSBox. Here is the Caesar III demo and Full Tilt! Pinball running in it.

Hm, cool. Defintiely something to look into then.

Like I said, Frede, the problem is not your sound card. It's your system. MUNT is a bit of a resource hog atm.

I think my next acquisition is going to be an SC-55 or SC-88, always wanted this stuff when I was younger.