GUS Daily Digest            Thu, 20 Jan 94  0:07         Volume 10: Issue  20 

Today's Topics:
				  !!Attention: GUS & Rebel Assault!!
							  .MID files
							  DRAM chips
							  Flaky GUS
							  GUS broken
						GUS CES announcements
					   GUS Daily Digest V10 #19
							  GUS death
						 GUS Windows Drivers
						MegaEm and the MT-32.
						   Megaem and Xwing
							 Miles Driver
						   MOD Sample sizes
							  NHL hockey
							OPTi Chip set
							   PRO 2000
					  Rebel Assault and the GUS
	  Ultima 7.5 Serpent Isle configuration help needed for GUS
					  WANT TO BUY OLD SOUNDCARD
						   Westwood Studios
							What's GUS MAX
				  What do you think of this idea...?

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, 19 Jan 1994 12:22:29 +0800 (PST)
From: Francis Li <fli@nermal.santarosa.edu>
Subject: !!Attention: GUS & Rebel Assault!!

If you haven't heard already, if you're having slowdowns and pauses with
Rebel Assaut with the GUS, its because of their sound driver.  For some
reason, their sound driver for the GUS slows down the game on some
machines (like mine).  The solution is to run the game with NO MEMORY
MANAGER, just the CD-ROM drivers, the GUS's SET parameters, and use SBOS
with Rebel Assault on Sound Blaster.  Works for me!

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 16:32:14 GMT
From: Hauxwell James S BSc 1 Mod Comp 93-94 <J.Hauxwell@teesside.ac.uk>
Subject: .MID files

I puchased my GUS about 2 weeks ago and I am looking for ftp sites
with .MID files on them,  I only have the ones given away with the card
and would like to see what else it can do.

	I have been into the MIDI directory on archive.epas.utoronto.ca
but it was completely empty

	Thanks
		Jimbo.

	J.Hauxwell@uk.ac.teesside

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 23:12:50 -0600 (CST)
From: Fitzgerald Jr Steele <fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu>
Subject: DRAM chips

Ok, so I'm going to use some of my Christmas money to upgrade my GUS.  The
gusfaq says that chips run for about $4 a chip, but because of a factory
explosion in Japan, there is a shortage of memory chips.  I got a copy of
Computer Shopper, and called every memory retailer in the book (I don't
suggest you do this unless you have a LOT of spare time).  Some places
sold the 256kx4 chips for $14!! The best price I found was from Discount
Micro, for $4.99.  I have two questions.

1)  Is it ok to get a faster chip?  They sold 70ns chips for the same
price.  Would the faster chip give better performance?

2)  Does anyone know of anywhere that sells them cheaper.  The faq
mentions that Gravis can sell them cheap, but I've been unable to contact
by phone, email, or snailmail.  Any ideas?

Thanks,

--------------------==========*********==========----------------------
Jerry Steele                         "I wish I had time
fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu                  to come up with a cool SIG!"
fsteele@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu
--------------==============*************==============----------------

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 21:27:22 -0600 (CST)
From: Jonathan Paul Quick <jpq0042@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: Flaky GUS

Recently, since the installation of the new GUS drivers contained in pmak110,
my GUS has been behaving somewhat erratically. For one thing, I've noticed
that .WAV files played under Windows seem to include a much greater degree of
background noise than was present while I was using the previous set of
drivers. To make matters worse, the new Windows drivers sometimes fail to
work with the GUS at all in addition to rendering it inoperable without at
least one, possibly two, hard resets to correct the problem. Am I the only
one that has experienced the aforementioned problems? If so, any suggestions
as to how I might go about correcting them short of re-installing the older
Windows drivers?

jpq0042@tamsun.tamu.edu

Money can't buy happiness.
(but then, it can make a sizeable down-payment...)

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 94 14:03:05 +1100
From: sja@zen.pf.adied.oz.au
Subject: GUS broken

Sorry, this post isn't really appropriate, but I can't get any response
form GRAVIS at tech@gravis.com 


Hi, I am writing on behalf of a friend, David Khoury, who has lost his 
mail account over the summer. Both myself and David own GUS's, and we 
both believe that the GUS is the best soundcard in the world. Thank you
Gravis. :-))
Anyway, my friend was sitting their using his GUS, and over a period of 
about an hour, it went from fully working to completely stuffed.
Now it won't do anything but produce noise and static. He tried moving
the memory around, but that didn't solve the problem, so the problem
isn't dammaged DRAM chips. 
His card is more than a year old, so his warranty has run out.
What he would like to know is what options he has in terms of getting
his card fixed or maybe upgraded.

How much would it cost to get it fixed, what address should he send it
to, and how long will it take. We both live in Sydney, Australia.
Also, are there any options to upgrade to a GUS-MAX. ;-)

Could you also tell me the price of a midi-breakout box, and a 16bit 
daughter board.

Thankyou very much,
Steen Andersson.

P.S. Please reply me soon. I cannot bare to see Dave in the state
he is in. He has lost the skip in his stride, his face has grown old
and he has lost his compulsion to play DOOM. ( Heanus crime )

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 11:11:11 -0500
From: liaor@churchst.ccs.itd.umich.edu
Subject: GUS CES announcements

As usual, we hear promises of many game titles with GUS support.  How many
times have we heard this before?

Sorry for being such a cynic, but I'll believe it (GUS support) when I see it
with my own eyes (or rather, hear it with my own ears.)

Focal Point 3-D didn't sound very special too me, was it just the demo, or
is it still like that?  please, an objective review.

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 19:17:11 -0800
From: jakub@eskimo.com (Jake Cholewczynski)
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #19

re> I'm planning to buy a GUS with 1 MEG on it mainly because I want to play
MIDI files on Windows while I type up some documents, etc.  Now, I want
to play games on it with the GUS I plan to buy, unfortunately, it uses
DOS4GW.  One game is Mortal Kombat.

I feel that some inevitable force is moving me away from the GUS family
into another card that can do wavetable, etc. Can't GUS make a new card
that has the hardware feature for just GMIDI or the Roland MT-32?  That's
all [we] ask for.  Many of the more popular games offer General MIDI but
use the DOS extendor.  Since the GUS MAX has not yet hit the stores, can
you guys put a chip or an upgradeable chip that supports GMIDI?

-George

DOS4GW extender supports the GUS in native mode and in SBOS.. Yes it is not
perfect but it does work on Mortal Kombat. The only thing that doesn't work
is MEGA-EM that is what people say. But I got it to work with MK on my
486DX2-66 VESA system but SBOS sounded better.. 

DOS4GW extenders work with the GUS I don't know why some people keep bitching
about them..

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 21:08:00 -0600 (CST)
From: Jonathan Paul Quick <jpq0042@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: GUS death



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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 21:13:32 -0600 (CST)
From: Jonathan Paul Quick <jpq0042@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: GUS Windows Drivers



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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 11:48:31 -0500
From: "Michael Grant Wilson" <Mcq@oti.on.ca>
Subject: MegaEm and the MT-32.

Is the MT-32 support from MegaEm supposed to include downloaded sounds?
	If so: any guesses why I can't get it to happen for me?
	If not: is there some reason why this wasn't included?

I realize that ram is limited, but on a 1Meg gus I'd probably be happy
to have the 768K patch set loaded and have 256K of ram for downloading.
Lots of games assume they can download sound effects to an MT-32, so
it seems like it would be a win.

McQ

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 11:41:52 -0500
From: "Michael Grant Wilson" <Mcq@oti.on.ca>
Subject: Re: Megaem and Xwing

on  ue, 18 Jan 1994 10:09:45 -0700 (MST), David Haddock <DAVIDH@comsys.byu.edu>
> Subject: Megaem and Xwing
>
> For some reason I can't get all the sound effects from XWING.  I get
> sounds when I fire my lasers and when other ships fly close by.  But, I
> don't get any explosions or other sounds.  Actually, the other effects I
> get sound like piano music.
>
How much ram do you have on your GUS? I got piano notes for explosions
until I upgraded to 1Meg.

McQ

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 17:59:21 +0800 (WST)
From: b2502056@cc.ntu.edu.tw (b2502056)
Subject: Re: Miles Driver

>  ...speaking of Miles drivers and J.Ratcliff (hope this isn't old news):
>  
>  The Audio Solution is proud to announce the release of the freely
>  distributable DIGPAK and MIDPAK developers kit v1.0.  The Audio Solution,
>  
>  You may get the free developers kit by calling SoundBytes OnLine at  1-314-
> 939-0200 at up to 14.4kb and download DMKIT.ZIP.  To preview the
>  documentation and licensing policy simply download the smaller file
>  DGMID.ZIP. This file is also widely available on electronic services. This
	  Sorry to bother all of you
	  I have a little question about Miles Drivers ....

	  Where can I get DMKIT.ZIP and DGMID.ZIP from FTP SITE ?
	  you know that some people who don't live in US can not easy
	  to call to SoundBytes OnLine to get these files.

	  If there isn't any FTP SITEs have them, may someone who have them
	  uploads to archive.epas.utoronto.ca .... Thanks all of you !!

					   --- A boy really need it in tw ---

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 07:13:50 -0800 (PST)
From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: Re: MOD Sample sizes

Not the GUS Server once wrote...
$  
$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 16:39:45 -0500 (EST)
$  From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
$  Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #18
$  
$  > Date: Mon, 17 Jan 1994 15:21:45 +0000 (GMT)
$  > From: A.N.Wilson@helios.hertfordshire.ac.uk (Wilson) (Wilson)
$  > Subject: Trackers that support EMS/XMS!
$  > 
$  > Does anyone know if there are any trackers available that support
$  > XMS/EMS memory?  I have loads of Amiga modules that are 700k+ in length
$  > and the trackers I have found so far are limited to the TRAGIC "is there
$  > space below 640k" memory syndrome!
$  
$  The GUS doesn't need to use XMS/EMS.  Trackers that support the GUS
$  natively will upload all the sample to the card's memory.  I can play
$  a 700k MOD, for example, using MDP or Iplay, and shell to DOS with
$  almost 500k free conventional memory and no XMS/EMS usage.
$  
$  Some GUS MOD players are, unfortunately, braindead and do not use
$  memory very wisely and cannot play MODs that exceed available
$  conventional memory.

They are ALL braindead, in my mind, since none of the GUS players can play
a MOD whose samples exceed available GUS memory.  You're stuck with MODs
having somewhat less than 1Mb of samples.  Actually, the largest I have
been able to play correctly is just over 700K of samples.  Two others that
have 900K and 1.2Mb worth of samples do not play correctly with anything
on the GUS, but play fine using PMP on the Sound Blaster.  Naturally, I
have 1Mb installed on my GUS.  The "does not play correctly" symptom
sounds like Star Control II's GUS bug, with the wrong samples or no
samples playing at inappropriate times.

So on-board RAM is not all a bed of roses.  I've yet to hear if it is even
POSSIBLE to play samples in "CPU-intensive" mode straight out of main
system memory, let alone seen an app that could do it.

-- 
Mike Batchelor      |
mikebat@netcom.com  |                  This space for rent
mikebat@qdeck.com   |

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 1:58:36 CST
From: Bryan Larsen <blarsen@robinhood.engg.uregina.ca>
Subject: NHL hockey

> >Subject: NHL Hockey
> 
> >
> 
> > In the README fopr the latest ver of SBOS (GUS0036.ZIP) it says it
> 
> > fixkes the problem with NHL Hockey, but after my goalie gets the
> 
> > puck the 1st time (or maybe its the first interruption in play)
> 
> > the dig sounds all dont play.  Has anyone else had this problem?
> 
> > Also when the sounds play they sound rough. (before they dont play
> 
> > that is :) )
> 
> > -jim
> 
> 
> 
> I had the same problems as you initially, but after changing the SB
> 
> IRQ to 5, I had no further problems.  Try it, it may work for you
> 
> too...  (By the way, I don't use the new switch mentioned in the
>  readme).
That's because its in the sbos.cfg file.  If you take it out of there,
it will just crash quicker.
> 
> 
> 
> As for the raspy sound.  Well, I get the same thing, and as far as
> I
> 
> know there is no fix for it.  If you hear of anything, please let
> me
> 
> know.  If you want clear digital effects, you could use MegaEm, but
> 
Mine didn't crash, but I quickly switched back to MegaEM because of the
poor sound quality.  There isn't much Adlib music anyway.  (I have
my IRQ on 7.)

Bryan

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 22:01:11 -0600 (CST)
From: cristo@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: OPTi Chip set

I need the fix (gus0013.zip according to index lists) for my OPTi chip
set.  I have the 82C206 chip and I have been getting the off board parity
errors.  After my tax refund comes in I'll be getting a new local bus
motherboard, but until then I would like to find this file.  I have
checked all the GUS ftp sites and have not been able to find it.  It is
listed in the 00Index file, but in the directory, only gus0031.zip ---> 35
are online.  Any help would be appreicated.

Kris Gregerson
cristo@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 10:41:03 GMT
From: "D.Morris" (SST Student) <DanielM@teesside.ac.uk>
Subject: PRO 2000

Hello,

This may not be the right place to ask this, so if not please redirect me.

I am planning to buy a Gravis Ultrasound and I have seen an advert for a Gravis
PRO 2000 board. What's the difference/is there a Spec Sheet available for it 
somewhere. This board retails at #210 compared to #140 for GUS {pounds sterling}
here in UK.

Thanks,
	  Daniel


****************************  DanielM@tees.ac.uk ******************************
|                  |                                                          |
|  Daniel Morris   | "New Technology shouldn't be introduced until ALL of the | 
| Div of Comp Eng  |  older people have died out!"                            | 
| Uni of Teesside  |  My Dad trying to set the Video to Record from Satellite |
|                  |                                                          |
************************************* -- **************************************

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 13:50:45 -0600 (CST)
From: read@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu (Dave Read)
Subject: Rebel Assault and the GUS

Does anyone out there have Rebel Assault working correctly with their
GUS?  I have failed utterly so far, even after a long phone call from
Lucas Arts Tech Support.  The basic problem (I think) is that the GUS
DMA is not working properly with Rebel Assault.  I noticed in the
Reb Ass setup screen that the "DMA channel" selection was greyed out..
I mentioned this to the tech support guy, and he knew nothing about
it.

He did say that the only GUS they knew of that worked with Rebel Assault
was the one on their development system!  Part of the problem is that
RA uses "streaming audio" to do its thing, instead of any kind of
patch-cacheing....

Right now it looks like Rebel Assault will *never* work properly with
the GUS.  :(

-Dave

-- 
Dave Read   (read@utpapa.ph.utexas.edu)      "When in doubt, sheet it out."
UT-Austin Heavy Ion Physics Grad Student 
PGP public key available by 'finger'              G O   B R A V E S ! !

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 17:20:02 -0800 (PST)
From: jtang@argon.chem.ucla.edu (James Tang)
Subject: Ultima 7.5 Serpent Isle configuration help needed for GUS

I don't know if this is a FAQ, if it is, please direct me to the FAQ
file.  Otherwise, here goes:

I just got Ultima 7 part 2: Serpent Isle.  I am having problem loading
my mouse drive, SBOS, and a disk cache at the same time.  So, what I
want to know is that if SBOS is the ONLY program that'll enable GUS
user to listen to sound?

James

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 14:52:08 -0800 (PST)
From: jtang@argon.chem.ucla.edu (James Tang)
Subject: WANT TO BUY OLD SOUNDCARD

Do you have an old (WORKING) soundcard that you want to sell for under
$40.00?  I am looking to buy or trade for an old sound card.

I am willing to buy it for $40.00 or less

or

Trade: Ultima 7: The Black Gate + $10.00 for the sound card.

james

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 18:28:26 +0500 (EST)
From: Gunnar Swanson <gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Westwood Studios

 Fellow GUSers,  

	I need the Internet/Compuserve address of Westwood Studios, and I also need
their BBS telephone number.  

	It would also be nice to have that list of of games companies
internet addresses.  I know that someone poted a way to get this
information on the digest some time ago.  There was mention of a
Pc-Games-FAQ but the info was incomplete regarding how I should go about
getting this FAQ.

	Help me please!



			Gunnar



gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu

end.

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 11:43:56 +0000 (GMT)
From: Mark Charsley <wa94002@ox.ac.uk>
Subject: What's GUS MAX

The subject line says it all, what is this GUS MAX thing that gets 
mentioned here, and will it be possible to upgrade a normal GUS to it?
Ta in advance
Mark

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

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 11:04:05 -0800 (PST)
From: Matt Denault <MDENAULT@POMONA.CLAREMONT.EDU>
Subject: What do you think of this idea...?

Hmmm...is seems that in the past few weeks, there's been a lot of wondering
about OS/2 drivers, 32bit AIL and Sierra drivers, etc.  In conjunction with
this, I must say that I've noticed that the Gravis presence on the net (here
and in USENET) has gone down dramatically since Matthew Arbeid left the company
a few months ago.  While there are a few steadfast "question answerers" in the
GUS community, there is not much connection between GUS users and the company
itself (aside from the semi-monthly postings by John Smith), certainly not as
much as there used to be.

So, what I was wondering was, [pay attention here Gravis :) ] is why not have
like a weekly (or biweekly) posting where Gravis basically details the current
status of SBOS, MegaEM, OS/2 drivers, 32bit AIL, etc...  Just have each
developer write a paragraph or something about additions they're working on,
problems they're trying to fix, and anything else important going on.  If this
was then posted here and to USENET, this might answera bunch of people's
questions.

I realize, however, that the people at Gravis are busy, but I was hoping they
might respond to this possibility.  And, of course, if anyone else on the
digest has comments or suggestions, I'd like to hear them...

ciao
matt 

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V10 #20
*******************************
