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

Today's Topics:
						  AWE 32 information
						Gus0041  Midi Drivers
					   GUS Daily Digest V12 #7
					   GUS Daily Digest V12 #8
							  Phat rules
							   Raptor!
				Tech support address (Gravis joystick)

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: Fri,  8 Apr 94 17:38:00 -0800
From: chris.campbell@mag-net.com (Chris Campbell)
Subject: AWE 32 information

>I thought it was pretty cheesy how the list "4 Megabits" of ROM
>on the card. Kinda misleading to your average uninformed consumer
>if you asked me, but CL doesn't rate highly in my book anyway...

That dosen't even come close to discribing how awful this card is.  Did
you know it has the same 11MB of samples that the Wave Blaster has only
instead of storing it compresed to 4MB ROM, they compressed it to ONE
MEGABYTE?  It must sound terrible.  There is NO way they can shrink it
that far without a signifagant loss in sound quality.  Also it needs
about 80k of drivers just to play MIDI music, that can't be loaded high,
or in EMS.  Makes the GUS look positivly mainstream!  I just joined this
list about a week ago.  I like it alot!  Greetings to whomever set it
up.  One suggestion, I don't think the UNSUBCRIBE/SUBCRIBE messages
should get tossed here.  A minor annoyance|\)

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Date: Sat, 9 Apr 94 18:05:38 +0300
From: tjakobs@mswe.dnet.ms.philips.nl (THEO_JAKOBS TEL.62667)
Subject: Gus0041  Midi Drivers

Hi..

last night i wanted to write a new song using my MT-32 with my SR-16 drum..
I hadn't tried midi since i upgraded to GUS0041. But now nothing works at all,
the only thing that works is the Gus MidiSynth, My Midi-In or Out doesn't work
any more, But before i upgraded the drivers they were working.. Could somebody
tell me what the hell is going on, because i don't want to use my gus for the
Synth part (when i compose), but i want my own (good old) synths...

Andre Jakobs
  MicroBrain Technologies Inc.
	The Netherlands

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Date: Sat, 9 Apr 1994 13:06:47 -0300 (ADT)
From: Jurassic Mark <markus@info.umoncton.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #7

On Thu, 7 Apr 1994, Hank Leukart wrote:

> In a previous message, Rath <cllym@ucdavis.edu> babbles...
> 
> >You know what?  I think Gravis should officially HIRE Phat Tran and PAY 
> >HIM for all the work he's done for all the GUS users out there..
> 
>   I dunno, but I'll pay ANYONE who gets the GUS Sierra drivers
> released before the end of the century. :)

	I'm currently working on that one.  Greg from Sierra is supposed 
to be back to me in a few days with some news.

		 Marc Y. Paulin - Jurassic Mark (Usenet) - J-Mark (IRC)
			  Graduating CS student in search of a job...
   - markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca (Talk 'n Mail) - (506)856-9518 -
 Inertia Player Beta Tester - Author of the G-List for Ultrasound owners

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Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 17:54:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: Soo Wei Ming <soowm@jeff-lab.QueensU.CA>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #8

On Fri, 8 Apr -1, GUS Server wrote:

> I was surprised to NOT see anyone comment on Apogee's newest game--
> Raptor: Call of the Shadows yet.  Then I saw it wasn't on Epas, so I took

*snip*

It's a pretty good game (for a shoot 'em up), but I am pretty peeved
about the lockups when running 4 or more voices (on my machine at least).

Is it just bad programming, or is there any credibility to the claim
that the GUS can accept the data that fast? 

It' also like to compare the speed of the game using the SB & the GUS, with
all the digital voices maxed out.

Meng

\          -------------------------------------------------------------------
 \(*)|\    W. Meng Soo             | Queen's       | soowm@Jeff-Lab.QueensU.CA
  \ --_\o  Faculty of Applied      | University    | soowm@QUCDN.QueensU.CA
   \(*)!   Science and Engineering | at Kingston   |
	\      -------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 21:50:03 EDT
From: Hal Black <sylk@mik.uky.edu>
Subject: Phat rules

Yes, I will billionth the motion that Phat does both Gravis (by doing a
tremendous amount of tech support) and the Net (for freeing people from the
Sounblaster!)

  And just think, if Phat didn't answer all the FAQ's that get posted here
(and the comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard groups, for those who only get the
digest) As well as some of the ...pc.games.* groups.  If he didn't answer
all these questions, we'd have to!  *gasp*

  Hoorahs for Phat (what a cool name, too!)  Even makes some rap albums
"That girl what PHAT!"



-- 
| sylk@mik.uky.edu | hwblac00@ukpr.uky.edu | Entitlements kill |
(tastefully short signature)

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

Date: Fri,  8 Apr 94 17:42:00 -0800
From: chris.campbell@mag-net.com (Chris Campbell)
Subject: Raptor!

>to a Wing Commander meets Galactix meets Zone 66 type game.  If you
>want an arcade-like game with great graphics, then this is for you.
>While I was playing the game, I started pounding on my CNTRL key like I
>was in arcade

I agree with you, it's a awsome game.  I will probably register.  Don't
you have a mouse?

>or something.  Well, anyways, the best part of the game is it has GUS
>support.  (About stinkin' time Apogee!).  The music and sound effects
>are kinda Doom-like.  Up to 8 channels for sound effects.  You know, I
>think

One thing REALLY PEEVES ME OFF, and I'm surprised no-one has brought it
up.  Quoting from the rap-help file:

					   =================================
					   ATTENTION GRAVIS ULTRASOUND USERS
					   =================================

(The information in this section applies only to Gravis Ultrasound
owners, it does not apply to any other sound card supported in Raptor)

If you are playing the game, and experience slowdowns in the music
during heavy action, you'll need to reduce the number of digital
channels to less than 4. The reason for this is because the GUS card
cannot handle the amount of information being fed from the game, and the
music and game will slow down.

[Yeah sure!  If they are using the GUS properly it should be able to
handle up to 32 channels without slowdowns right?]

The Gravis UltraSound uses a sound mixing routine that is different from
any other sound card.  Because of this, it is incapable of keeping up
with the information that the game is feeding it; hence the slowdowns.
If you pick a

[Do you think Creative labs is paying Apogee for this?]

channel setting below 4, then you should no longer experience the
slowdowns. If you do select a setting less than 4, you will no longer
hear gunfire. The gunfire is the usual culprit of the slowdowns.
Increasing the amount of memory on your GUS card may sometimes help the
problem, but this is not a guaranteed solution for the problem.

[If they had used hardware mixing, there wouldn't be a problem]

Some computers during the testing period would sometimes lock up after
extended periods of play.  This is usually caused by a combination of
things: first, the overload of sound mentioned in the previous
paragraph, and second, a lack of memory.  Raptor requires a minimum of 2
megs of memory in order to run, but we really recommend 4 megs (or
more).  Giving your computer more memory can help.  To do this try
disabling your memory manager (QEMM, EMM386, Netroom, Fnordmem486, etc).

If you are running a compressed drive such as DoubleSpace or Stacker,
this can also cause problems.  If you are running with a GUS and a
compressed drive, and the above solutions do not work, try this. Move
Raptor to an uncompressed portion of your hard drive, and do not load
your compressed disk driver in your config.sys and/or autoexec.bat
files.  That should also help.  It may be possible to totally bypass the
driver during the boot-up process (depending on which version of DOS,
and which driver you're running).  See your manuals for information on
how to boot without your driver (if possible).

Picking a digital channel setting higher than 4 on a Gravis UltraSound
card is not recommended.  Some of our testers can run it that way;
others could not. Unfortunately, we were not able to fully resolve this
issue, and it was the sole issue delaying the release of the game.  A
decision was made to release the game as is, since it works for the
majority of our testers.  We hope to have this issue resolved in a
future release of the game.

[I'm surprised they didn't put !!!We do not recomend you buy a
Ultrasound, go get a Waveblaster etc!!!]

Someone else pointed this out, but they also put the Ultrasound right
above PC Speaker and Adlib.

>Apogee should pay me for this advertising.  Anyways, I think it's one
>of the best shareware games out there (only second to Doom).  Hope you
>enjoy it.

I do agree that support is a step in the right direction.
Congradulations to Cygnus software for the great game.  Later!

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

Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 13:48:51 -0500 (CDT)
From: Chuck Eckert <"PARIS::ECKERT"@SKYLER.MAVD.HONEYWELL.COM>
Subject: Re: Tech support address (Gravis joystick)

If your Gravis Analog Joystick stopped because the buttons know longer
respond, then the internal connector has probably become disconnected.
You need to peel off the rubber feet, buy a screwdriver that fits the 
square holes and remove the 4 screws under the feet (not the visible ones!).
Carefully lift off the bottom.  There is a connector that is sort of held
on with some putty that goes the the PC board that has the Switches on it.
This connector has probably backed off the mate on the board.  Plug it back 
in and snug up the putty and it should work.  Careful when disassembling
as some of the Joystick parts tend to fall out.  You can also, with a little
more effort remove the PC board that is the switches and clean it, but
after cleaning my board several times all to noavail, I finally noticed 
that the connector simply was not snug.

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End of GUS Daily Digest V12 #9
******************************
