GUS Daily Digest            Sun, 3 Apr 94  9:37 PST      Volume 12: Issue   3 

Today's Topics:
						 Beneath A Steel Sky
				   GUS Daily Digest V12 #2 (3 msgs)
						  RavenLoft and GUS

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.

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Date: 3 Apr 94 13:36:42 +0100
From: Thomas Aagotnes <Thoaa@bbb.no>
Subject: Beneath A Steel Sky

I have a problem with the GUS and the game "Beneath a Steel Sky". With
SBOS loaded, and SoundBlaster chosen in INSTALL, the game returns with a
"ILLEGAL INTERRUPT #02" -error and a register listing.
With MegaEm loaded, the games runs, but there's only some weird sounds
at the begining and then nothing.
I have tried every setup-combination I can think of.

I'm using SBOS 3.7, MegaEm 2.03, MS-DOS 6.20, 486/50 MHz motherboard and
a GUS with a CD-ROM interface. The settings for the GUS are GUS IRQ 11,
SB IRQ / GUS Midi IRQ 7, port 220h, DMA 1.

Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks in advance.

Thomas Aagotnes (thoaa@bbb.no)

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Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 11:31:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Rath <cllym@ucdavis.edu>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #2

If anyone is having problems with Ravenloft, I suggest using the DLL
drivers -- I replaced the Sound Blaster .DLL's and it works just fine with
the loadpats.exe .... Music is great, digital audio is great.

Rath

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Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 20:31:27 -0500 (EST)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #2

> Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 21:48:56 -0800
> From: blarren@uclink.berkeley.edu (Bart Adam Larrenaga)
> Subject: couple of things to say...
> 
> First of all, I'd like to say thanks to gravis for the U8 driver.  It will come
> in handy when I get U8.  However, if it is possible, could they do a patch for
> SSI's Ravenloft game?  Phat has told me that they decided not to include GUS
> support at the last minute, and that I should use SBOS.  This works fine, until
> a digital sound comes up (speech, mostly).  I get the first part of it, then it
> stops and the music gets kind of flaky.  I'm using SBOS 3.7.  Anyone have advice
> on how to get this to work right?

Try using SBOS 1.20 (which can be found on the GUS arvhive mirrors in gravis/
patch or thereabouts).  This is the version that works most reliably for me
(go figure :).

> On another subject, in my efforts to get the sound to work right, I learned that
> my SETGUS won't run.  It says it needs to be run from the INSTALL program.  This
> is something new; it never said that before.  What happened to it?  The only thing that I can think of is that I upgraded the software with gus0041 or whatever
> it was.  Did this happen to anyone else?

This is normal.  The new setgus doesn't modify you autoexec.bat, config.sys,
and Windows files so you need to run it from within setup.exe or
install.exe.  Setup.exe is the exact same file as install.exe, except that
it's located on your hard drive instead of on the installation disks.  
The installation program behaves differently when its on your hard drive.
To change your GUS settings from now on, run setup.exe.  If setup.exe isn't
in your /ultrasnd directory, just copy install.exe over as setup.exe.

> Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 19:52:54 -0500
> From: ae647@freenet.carleton.ca (Christopher Prest)
> Subject: General Midi / Role playing games
> 
> I am rather concerned that the GUS will be one of those cards that fall by
> the way side.  There are so many cards out there and I have yet to see any
> games that are written for the GUS.  Maybe this is naive of me, but why

GUS support isn't yet ubiquitous, but it's out there.  There should be
about 20 current games with GUS support which have been released.  I'm
not much of a gamer, so I can't name them all.  

> don't the game programmers just make sure that their games support General
> midi, thus any sound card that supports General midi would be supported?

That won't work for the GUS.  "General MIDI" in games almost always 
implies an MPU-401 interface and a MIDI interpreter.  The GUS needs
Mega-Em to emulate the MPU and MIDI interpreter, so it won't be native
support.

>   Also, my friends and I are looking for a role playing game and
> would like the GUS to be supported. Any suggestions?

Pester SSI.  

> Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 09:16:10 -0800 (PST)
> From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
> Subject: Need .au file player for GUS
> 
> I need a command-line Sun .au file player for the GUS.  I know GoldWave
[...]
> 
> If I can get this to work, it means that we (my company, a government
> contractor for PCs and rack-mount Sparcs) can put 15,000 Ultrasounds on
> the desks of workers at Federal Agencies in the next two years.  It also

I don't know of an .au player for the GUS, but it shouldn't be too 
hard to program one.  Try emailing support@fortech.com or
john.smith@gravis.com with your problem.  I'm sure they won't just
sit on their hands. :)

> Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 2:49:16 -0600 (CST)
> From: Erek Adams <941ADAMS@MERLIN.NLU.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Some Newbie Questions
> 
> > Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 20:15:06 -0500 (EST)
> > From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
> > 
> > Avoid IRQ 7, since it's been found to be problematic for many people,
> > me included.  The base address should be 220h so that the GUS emulates
> > the SB on that address.
> 
> Hmm...What kind of problems?  Printer conficts?

IRQ 7 is just flaky.  It tends to fire late, sporadically, or not at
all on many systems.  If it's a simple printer conflict, then disabling
the printer port should resolve it, but it doesn't for me.

Phat.

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

Date: Sun, 3 Apr 1994 02:08:07 -0700 (MST)
From: "Shawn T. Rutledge" <rutledge@enuxsa.eas.asu.edu>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #2

> Subject: Doom and GUS

> I just got a Zoon 14.4 int fax/modem.  After several hours of not doing my
> homework, I finally found the right init string and figured out how to get
> the modem game connected, but I have to play WITH NO SOUND AT ALL!  Doom just
> isn't as much fun without GUS sound.  If I play with any digital sound, my
> computer locks up hard after about 5-15 min.  I haven't tried music at all. 
> Is this a GUS problem or a Doom problem?

People have been complaining left and right about crashes every few minutes withdoom.  I doubt it has anything to do with your use of the modem, and suggest
you read some back issues of the digest and see if somebody solved this problem.
> 
> Subject: General Midi / Role playing games
> 
> I am rather concerned that the GUS will be one of those cards that fall by
> the way side.  There are so many cards out there and I have yet to see any
> games that are written for the GUS.  Maybe this is naive of me, but why
> don't the game programmers just make sure that their games support General
> midi, thus any sound card that supports General midi would be supported?

General Midi is not a hardware standard, or a low-level driver standard.  All
it does is assign standard instrument sounds to specific instrument numbers.
Writing programs for the GUS is completely different than for the SB.  The only
solution that works for both is if the game is written for Windows, 'cause
there are drivers for both cards that make the distinction transparent.
> 
> From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
> Subject: Need .au file player for GUS
> 
> I need a command-line Sun .au file player for the GUS.  I know GoldWave
 ..
> execs 'showaudio' to play sounds it receives.  So I need 'showaudi.bat' on
> the DESQview/X workstations that calls a command-line .au file player.

You have ISA bus x stations?   I didn't know they existed.  Cool though!

What you want to do sounds easy.  I wouldn't want to tackle it right now
but anybody that has written native-mode stuff for the GUS before ought
to find it easy.
> 
> If I can get this to work, it means that we (my company, a government
> contractor for PCs and rack-mount Sparcs) can put 15,000 Ultrasounds on
> the desks of workers at Federal Agencies in the next two years.  It also

Cool!

-- 
  _______                                                             KB7PWD
 (_  | |_)                                            shawn.rutledge@asu.edu
 __) | | \__________________________________________________________________
* techno * Internet * IEEE * ARS * anti-Macintosh * fusion * C * ham radio * 

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

Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 21:13:31 -0700 (MST)
From: The man in the box <ece_0278@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu>
Subject: RavenLoft and GUS

I have Ravenloft and it seems to work just fine using AIL32 version 1.4.  
It appears that GUS support was planned for the game, but left out at the 
last minute.  The batch file used to run the game seems to be only used 
to determine if you have a GUS or not to know whether to run loadpats or 
not (though they removed the line that calls loadpats).

The only problem I have notice with the sound is that the character 
creation scene kills it.  So, as soon as I make my characters and save 
the game, I just exit and restart, loading my new game. Works fine for 
me.  Great music and sounds.  Never have had a crash.

All I did was copy the respective GAIL32 .dll files over to the ravenloft 
directory over the A32SBDIG.DLL and A32MT??.DLL (I cannot remember the 
name of that second file) files.  Then IO copied loadpats into the 
ravenloft directory and edited the rloft.bat file to load it 
automatically on startup.

Good luck in beating the Strahd.

Mike
ece_0278@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu

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End of GUS Daily Digest V12 #3
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