GUS Daily Digest            Wed, 18 Jan 95  9:37 PST     Volume 18: Issue  17 

Today's Topics:
                       Digital Sound on the GUS
                        Disney Software & GUS
     FAQ, Mega-EM EMM Incompatability, Warcraft, GUS/AWE Emulator
                             GUS & AWE 32
                       GUS Daily Digest V18 #14
                  GUS Daily Digest V18 #16 (2 msgs)
                         Megarace and gamepad
                             Myst stuff.
                   perl script to split the digest
                      Pinout arrangements on MAX
                          pops and crackles
                       quarantine and warcraft
                 Still problems with Strike Commander
                            MIDI Problems
                    UltraSound emulator for AWE32
                    UMC chipsets and NMI question

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, 18 Jan 95 16:40:22 MET
From: <martinus@morra.et.tudelft.nl> (Martijn de Jong)
Subject: Digital Sound on the GUS

Hi Gussers,

The last three months I asked some question here with regard
to a project I  and a friend were working on. The project was
about giving a digital input and a digital output to 16-bit
soundcards. 
The project is finally finished so I thought I'll give a
brief summary so that people who are interested can send me
an e-mail.
Gravis told us that there were separate DAC's and ADC's on
the Gravis Ultrasound MAX. I owned a normal gus myself which
indeed had a separate dac and adc, but the adc was only 8
bits. We needed a 16 bits so we took the MAX as our card to
work on. Regretfully we discovered that the adc on the MAX
was integrated in a big ic: the CS4231 CODEC.
This meant that it was not possible to make a digital input 
to the MAX. We thought out a new concept to get the digital
data through the ISA-bus. It's only a design, so we ain't
sure if it really works, but we have good hope.
The output was almost ready except for one little
transformer, which took 3 weeks to come to us, but
regretfully the project time was up at that time, so I can't
tell you if it would work. I'll try to finish it sometime
after my exams, so that I can tell you if it is possible to
connect your gus to a digital amplifier.
If someone wants the final report, just mail me.

I want to thank all people who helped me with the project
by giving some vital information.

Martinus.

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 14:39:05 -0500 (EST)
From: DBEAL@delphi.com
Subject: Disney Software & GUS

I recently purchased "Mickey's Jigsaw Puzzles" (distributed by
Word Perfect Main Street) but cannot get any sound. I have
tried all the various options but the game hangs.  The only way
to get the game to work is without sound.  My 4 year old
daughter would like to hear the voices as well.  Can anybody
help ?   System: IBM 486sx-25, 8MB, GUS purchased Nov-Dec 93.
Thanks,
Dave & daughter Sarah

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 20:12:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Ryan Baker <rynbaker@freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: FAQ, Mega-EM EMM Incompatability, Warcraft, GUS/AWE Emulator

I'm not sure of the status of the FAQ but I'm starting to see the
same questions repeated alot here, such as Warcraft and this EMM
Incompatability thing.  It would be nice if either the posters would check
the FAQ first, or if they did the FAQ would contain these answers.
Anyway, to get Mega-EM to work QEMM 7.5 on computers that give EMM
Incompatability errors, you must add the "PENTIUM:VME:N" command to the
QEMM386.SYS device line (this command is v7.5 only).  BTW, I was the first
poster of this question (I think) (2 months ago).
Next, to fix Warcraft download the files CD115.EXE or FLOP115.EXE
from the GUS Submit directory on archive.epas.utoronto.ca.  Obviously
CD115 is for the CD version, and FLOPP115 for floppy.  Also makes the copy
protection a little nicer.
Last, I'm not sure so don't shoot me for being wrong but I think
this GUS Emulator everyone is talking about is actually for the normal old
SB, and doesin software what the GUS's DSP does. I saw it once and
downloaded it thinking it was the other way around (SB emulation for GUS).
As far as I know it is supposed to use huge amounts of processor time and
doesn't support, patch caching or samples better than 14Khz, 8bit.  Anyway
it doesn't make a good statement to say that anything has won a major
battle because something emulates it.  If something emulates it there must
be something good about it but it also means something else can do
everything it can and possibly more (ie. GUS emulates original SB).  Of
course emulation often is imperfect (can anyone say SBOS or Mega-EM :) and
has costs such as processor time or loss of quality.

Ryan Baker                                 /\    /\  |~|  /\    /\
rynbaker@                                 /  \  / /  | |  \ \  /  \
freenet.columbus.oh.us                   / /\ \/ /   | |   \ \/ /\ \
                                        /_/  \__/    |_|    \__/  \_\

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 21:47:52 -0500
From: adu@freenet.vcu.edu (Andrew Du)
Subject: GUS & AWE 32

When you mentioned a "GUS emulator for AWE 32", did you mean an
"AWE 32 emulator for GUS"?  If there is ever an AWE32 emulator
for the GUS, that would be awesome!

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 17:51 -0500
From: DANTONIO@PROCESS.COM (Momentary Language, Sexual Situations)
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #14

jase@nedlog.demon.co.uk (Jason Nedlog) writes:

> All gus functions (wav and midi) appear to work perfectly from both DOS and
> Windows except MIDI-IN which does nothing.

> However I suspect that I can reject hardware/connector/wiring failure as if
I
> use the midifier.exe, MIDI-IN works OK.

Most likely is that your new motherboard doesn't support NMI. It is used by
SBOS and by Windows for MIDI IN. If possible, bring your system back as it's
not really an 100% IBM PC Compatible...I'd check it out via SBOS to be sure...

DDA

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 14:41:43 -0500 (EST)
From: lalancej@JSP.UMontreal.CA
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #16

> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Tue, 17 Jan 95 8:50:15 EST
> From: jcossin@pgt041.cpd.ford.com (Jon Cossin)
> Subject: GUS/MegaEM Problem
> 
> Help.  I recently upgraded my motherboard from a 486DX2/66 to
> a 486DX4/100.  When I try to load MegaEm,  it complains that
> I have an EMM compatability problem and suggests that I use
> EMM386, QEMM386 or 386 to the max.  Problem is that I am already
> using QEMM386 v7.5.  Anybody know what this error is about?
> 
> Thanx,
> Jon Cossin
> jcossin@pmsa28.pms.ford.com
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
Add PENT:VMB at your qemm386.sys in your config.sys. It worked for me!


-- 
Jose Lalancette, Dept. Informatique
Universite de Montreal
e-mail: lalancej@jsp.umontreal.ca

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 08:32:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Harry C Pulley <hpulley@uoguelph.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V18 #16

RE: qemm trouble with DX2-66

I think there is a flag like VME:PENTIUM which allows qemm to work with 
megaem.

RE: Tie Fighter problems

It sounds like you don't have sufficient base RAM available.  You should 
have about 600000 bytes free to run general midi and soundblaster.  Also 
make sure that you don't run Tie Fighter with Stacker using EMS.  It will 
mess up your FAT very badly (Stacker 4.0 and Defender of the Empire sure 
messed up my drive).  With EMS usage of Stacker turned off it works fine 
for me.

RE: SB MIDI working on GUS

I have an SB Pro MIDI cable and it works fine connected to my Kawai FS750 
keyboard.  I'm not sure about the 'Sb midi box' but I expect that it will 
work.

AMS format:

Does anyone know what the .AMS format is?  It seems to be some sort of 
MOD like format but I can't find a program which recognizes it.  Does 
anyone know of a program that plays AMS files well on the GUS Max, or of 
a converter to MOD, S3M, MTM or some other common format?

Harry

<:-{}   hpulley@uoguelph.ca       |This message released|It takes all kinds,
 \      Harry C. Pulley, IV       |to the PUBLIC DOMAIN.|and to each his own.
 ---------------------------------+---------------------|This thought in mind,
Ultra-Violence with Ultrasound    |     Ultraverse      |I walk alone.

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 14:20:58 -0700 (MST)
From: Ignatius Tam <tam@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca>
Subject: Megarace and gamepad

Forwarded message:

> Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 16:44:01 -0600
> From: Terry Lee <terry@uivlsi.csl.uiuc.edu>
> Subject: Megarace
> 
> I didn't see Megarace in the G-List.  Does anyone have it working
> with a GUS?  Thanks!
> 
> Terry Lee
> terry@uivlsi.csl.uiuc.edu

I can run Megarace using sbos with no options, but the bad part is
ultraclicks.
Megaem works fine.

> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Mon, 16 Jan 95 13:02:20 PST
> From: scott@mirage.nsc.com (Scott McCoy)
> Subject: Q. What is Gravis "Gamepad?" (digital joystick)
> 
> Hello Mr./Mrs./???. GUS-General (and John Smith ;-)
> 
>   I've heard that Advanced Gravis makes a digital joystick (the "GamePad?")
> for use with PeeCee's. I have been surfing for the last 30 min and have not
> been able to come up with the desired info on this device.

yup, the gamepad was out for a long time.  didn't you see it in your
neighbour computer store?  it has 4buttons connected to the buttons of
joystick 1 and 2. the control is like a super nintendo pad.

-iGnatius

-- 
Marto Piggus(tm)!! Your dreaming pig-meat is here! Contact your local dealer
e-mail: tam@cs.ualberta.ca    ^..^   ___^                      My home page:
phone: (403) 433 3187       | <||>  |  }   http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~tam/
-----------------------------\_____/ ---------------------------------------

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 10:02:06 +0500
From: schreibe@felix.kodak.com (Richard Schreiber)
Subject: Myst stuff.

Well, I posted a while ago about problems with Myst and the latest
windows drivers (ultrasnd.drv and grvsultr.386 - the extenstions 
may be reversed)

Some responses said to decrease the playback buffer size, some said to
increase it, but neither improved matters.

I'm still having lots of problems, unless I use old drivers.

My ultrasound configuration params for the 5.45 windows driver are:

Base port220
GF1 IRQ11
Midi IRQ7

Playback DMA1Fixed1024
Record DMA1Fixed1024

Voices32
High Fidelity 

(System is: 486/33, 8 meg ram, Ultrasound+1meg, quad-speed CD-ROM)

I get lots of pops and buzzes when playing Myst.  Anyone see a problem
with these values?  Would someone using 5.45 drivers and Myst send their
configuration parameters?

-
Richard Schreiber

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 17:09:41 +0100
From: Mark Ruys <markr@cs.kun.nl>
Subject: perl script to split the digest

I've written a perl script to split the digest into separate
messages. The output is in, what I think is called, maildrop
format. It can be fed into a program that incorporates mail.
This is it:

======================================================================
if ($n = 1 ... /^-{70}$/)
{
if (/^From /) { $From = $_ }
elsif (/^Reply-To:/) { $ReplyTo = $_ }
elsif ($n > 100) { print STDERR "ERROR: ", $_ }
}
elsif ($n = /^End of GUS Daily Digest/ .. eof())
{
if ($n > 100) { print STDERR "ERROR: ", $_ }
}
elsif ($n = /^Date:/ ... /^-{30}$/)
{
print $From, $ReplyTo if ($n == 1);
print unless ($n =~ /E0$/)
}
elsif (! /^$/) { print STDERR "ERROR: ", $_ }
======================================================================

Save it as 'refgus.prl'. You have to add the -n flag to perl, eg "perl
-n refgus.prl 12" (assuming the digest is saved in a file called
12). If you use the MH command inc, the next sh script can be helpful
as an interface.

======================================================================
#!/bin/sh

tmpfile=${TMPDIR:-.}/refgus

for msg in `pick "$*"`
do file=`mhpath $msg`
   if perl -n `dirname $0`/refgus.prl $file >> $tmpfile
   then rmm $msg
   else echo Error in $file
   fi
done || exit
inc +`folder -fast` -file $tmpfile -truncate
if test -s $tmpfile
then echo Error in $tmpfile
else rm $tmpfile
fi
======================================================================

Save it as 'refgus', make it executable. The syntax is the same as the
pick command. refgus stands for 'refile gus-digest'.

Good luck...

Mark Ruys.
--
Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen               Internet:  markr@cs.kun.nl
Faculteit Wiskunde en Informatica              UUCP:
    uunet!cs.kun.nl!markr
Toernooiveld 1                                 finger:
  markr@omega.cs.kun.nl
6525 ED  Nijmegen,  The Netherlands            Telephone: +31.80.652647

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 12:53:32 -0500 (EST)
From: Will race for food <JKS4675@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>
Subject: Pinout arrangements on MAX

Question:
Had a GUS, but that went south and I picked up a MAX as a replacement.
I was using the CDROM audio-out on the GUS....there's only one CD pin
connection that will match the old GUS connection- the four bent pins.

What are the pins (ie, GND, Left, Right) looking at the card with the
bus slot on the upper left?

Jeff
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Social Rule #14:                                 __                       
                                                /()\                 
Never badmouth NASCAR in a         |============================|
            
seedy bar that has sprint          |#28                      #28|             
car hoods nailed to the walls...   |=============[]=============|
                       __________  |=============[]=============|  __________
                      /          \ | ____/_______[]_______\____ | /          \
                      |          |  /_____/~~~~~~[]~~~~~~\_____\  |          |
                      |          |~~~~~~~~|              |~~~~~~~~|          |
                      |          |~~~~~~~~|_____    _____|~~~~~~~~|          |
                      |          | _|_____/OO OO\__/OO OO\_____|_ |          |
                      \__________/                                \__________/
~~ '~~~`'~~`~~~~'~~~'~~`~~'~`~~~`~~`'~~'~~`~~`'~'`~`~'~~`~~~`~~`~~`~~~`~~~~~~'
Jeff Salzmann, JKS4675@RITVAX.ISC.RIT.EDU

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 12:14:25 GMT
From: Martin Shaw <shawm@cs.man.ac.uk>
Subject: pops and crackles

Hiyup!

I too have pops and crackles with my Ultrasound card, but only when I run
games in SVGA (Like WC3 or Nascar) and also only when I select to have digital
sound. There is no noise when I just select music. I have rearranged my video
card (Kelvin 64 VLB), and sound card numerous times to no avail, and also
experimented with anti interference barriers (you know tin foil and card job).
any ideas?

I also recently purchased the Collectors edition of X-Wing, and it says in the
readme file that they have included a custom version of megaem, does anyone
know where it is? `Cause it 'aint on the C.D. Is it any different from the
version included in Tie Fighter?

Cheers

Martin

P.S. Is the new protected mode Megaem out yet?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                 |     
 Martin Shaw,                    | "Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem"
 Dept. Computer Science,         |  
 Manchester,                     |                    - Virgils Aeneid
                                 |
 E-mail Shawm@cs.man.ac.uk       |  
                                 |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 10:45:21 +0000 (WET)
From: ragnar@bsp.is (Finnbogi Ragnar Ragnarsson)
Subject: Re: quarantine and warcraft

Few comments on Quarantine:
4 megs is absolute minimum for this game.
If you want sound you'll need more than 3MB of XMS. This means that
upper memory needs to be allocated as XMS. If it isn't you won't get sound.
Sadly the games doesn't complain about lack of memory but just runs
silently. Some machines have an option in the bios about allocation of
the upper memory as XMS. (note emm386 and qemm do this also, but eat up
memory which can result in not enough memory for your game). Ami Bios
has this option, I don't remember what it says excactly but it should be
easy to find out.

How I can load Quarantine:
Use the GUS HMI drivers.
The option mentioned above set in AMI
Boot with left-shift down (dos6.*).
Set the general parameters for gus
Run loadpats (you need it even though there is no midi music)
run the game


Warcraft:
Grab the usail drivers from epas. They are absolutely fantastic!

You can also get the patch for warcraft at the same place, but the drivers
in usail.zip are more advanced, among this is the patch caching everyone's 
been dreadming about. Just read the readme.txt file.


Some of my problems:
I haven't tried much to fix it (that is tried other drivers) but this is 
the problem:

I recently (well, before Christmas) changed the sound drivers in Windows to 
5.47. I didn't notice anything strange until I played an avi file.....

I get absolutely no sound in avi files. Not just choppy (I had fixed that)
but now I get absolutely nothing. Also, I installed the midas drivers,
it didn't find the GUS card but offered the standard wav support only.
And again no sound. I wonder if it is connected to one of the fixes
in 5.47 drivers

When I am using a midi keyboard in windows (midi in) I get dropouts from 
time to time. This is not connected to any specific Windows program, it 
happens in all those I have tried. I think that some settings in system.ini
or win.ini might fix this (I vaguely remember of such fix long time ago). 
I am using 66Mhz 486 with no known NMI problems (SBOS and the works are
fine).

I will try other drivers so the problems might disappear (at least the avi
problem)

Happy Gusing!

ragnar@bsp.is

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

Date: 18 Jan 95 15:28:52 +0200
From: kormilainenu@hermes.ncp.fi
Subject: Still problems with Strike Commander

I still have problems with Origins Strike Commander.
When I load Mega-em and start game, I can hear some music but there is 
strange instruments, and when SFX-starts it locks up my machine. Game 
works with Sbos but I prefer midi more. Do I need some kind of patch and 
where can I find it (FTP).

If someone can solve my problem, I would be very happy!!
PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME !!
ukormi@freenet.hut.fi



               -UPI- 

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

Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 14:43:36 +0000
From: "Salvador Macip" <macip@clinic.ub.es>
Subject: MIDI Problems

I've just bought a GUS MAX and I have some trouble with the software, 
because it is too new for me (I used to work with an old Amiga...). I can't
find answers in the manuals (they are so incredibly short!), so...can anybody 
help me? I have a US MIDI adaptor connected to a keyboard (IN/OUT) and 1MB of
memory in the card. The question is: how can I play MAX's drums from the
keyboard? In Midisoft Recording Session I can play all patches via MIDI, but I
can't access the drums. I have MIDI channel 10 set to "1024 Drums" in the MIDI
mapper, channel 16 to MIDI OUT and the rest to MIDI synth. In the demo song
of RecSession they sound great. I can also play them writting directly the 
notes on the pentagram, but not from the outside. There must be an easy way 
that I just can't find...
By the way: in the MIDI mapper, what's the difference between chosing 
Ultra 1024 and Ultra 512? Is it just a name for the bank or it loads different
patches?
Finally, I am really interested in the seventies keyboard sounds (old  mini 
Moogs, analog synths, real Hammond-Leslie efect...). Are there any patches
reproducing these instruments? How can I get them?Are there some in the net?
Tell me please wich are the best sound libraries available (either in 
the net or CD-ROM or diskettes), with all kind of patches, from oldies to 
rave.
Any review, suggestion or recomendation sould be appreciated.
Thanks a lot.
GUS rules!
"It is only Rock'n'roll but I like it" (Stones).

Sal.-

_____________________________________________________

Salvador Macip, M.D.
Dept Physiology
Faculty of Medicine. University of Barcelona
Av. Diagonal s/n. Pedralbes (Annex Farmacia)
08028 Barcelona
SPAIN

Tel (voice): 34-3-402.45.18
FAX: 34-3-402.18.96
E-Mail (Internet): macip@clinic.ub.es
_____________________________________________________

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 10:41:49 -0800 (PST)
From: George <gmontem@mercury.sfsu.edu>
Subject: Re: UltraSound emulator for AWE32

---
I don't know much about this rumoured emulator, but I would laugh really 
hard if they ever release it.  A $300 AWE emulating a $120 GUS?  Sheesh, 
that'll make AWE look kinda bad if you ask me.

-George

<EOT>

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

Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1995 10:52:56 GMT+0100
From: "Krzysztof Hyrlik" <KHYRLIK@ELEKTRYK.IE.PWR.WROC.PL>
Subject: UMC chipsets and NMI question

Hi all GUSers

1. Info about uncompatible mainboards - I have 486 VLB mainboard with UMC 
491 chipset - I had big problems with it's incompatibility with S3 801 
based video cards (noname card and SPEA/V7 Mirage ISA), often it hanged 
games & windows, when I replaced to S3805 card and thought all should work 
ok now, but now
2. About 3/4 games that uses HMI drivers and GUS selected as sound/music 
device hang very quickly after running, with no sound or SBOS used to 
emulate SB, they work OK (I was talking with some friends, that have GUS 
cards  and they have no problems)
3. I need info how to check mainboard for NMI presence without GUS 
(some kind of program/tester or similar)
4. Will new MEGAEM be released on Christmas'95, any ideas why Gravis is 
delaying release of his true new Ultrasound card (GF2) ?

Thanks and happy GUSing, 
Krzysiek

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V18 #17
*******************************
