Ultrasound Daily Digest     Thu, 30 Sep 93  0:07 MDT     Volume 6: Issue  29  

Today's Topics:
                              669 files
                          CDin Plus Line in
                             Convince me
                          Dune with Megaem.
                    Getting Ultrasound on display
                       Great Idea for Ultramid.
          Looking for a player program that will handle .au
                              MT patches
                      New game with GUS support.
                    NHL Hockey and the Ultrasound
                             NHLPA Hockey
                             NT and NeXT
                   Problem with WinModPro ver. .04b
                          Readership update
                    Sierra Drivers: Incredible!!!!
           Sierra Games - no sound at all [GUS-Dig. V6 #27]
                     Star Control 2 wierd sounds
                      Ultrasound daily digest v
               Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #27 (2 msgs)
                             Where is it?

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: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 22:43:39 -0500 (CDT)
From: v345@rex.uokhsc.edu (Anthony C. Toppins)
Subject: 669 files
Message-ID: <9309290343.AA10027@rex.re.uokhsc.edu>

This is my first posting.  Could someone please explain 669 files and tell
me if there is a windows 669 player available.  I currently use p669.
Thanks in advance. - Tony Toppins University of Oklahoma College O' Medicine

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 12:16:52 +1000 (EST)
From: Andrew See <asee@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>
Subject: CDin Plus Line in
Message-ID: <199309300216.AA03413@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au>

I have finally got a cable to attach my Texel CDrom to the 4 pin
connector on the GUS. However, I am also using the line-in on the GUS
for my SB compatible card. Question: Is there a reason that I shouldn't be
doing this?
Will I blow up my GUS :-)

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 11:01:11 ADT
From: Damon Brodie <N0DI@UNB.CA>
Subject: Convince me
Message-ID: <ID4935.D930928.T110112.N0DI@UNB.CA>

Lately I've ben seriously considering a sound card. I've decided
one one of either the Ultrasound or the PAS-16.  Currently I'm
leaning towards the Ultrasound, but I need to be pushed a little
more.

Question: Does the Ultrasound work with some of my favorite games:
Flight Sim 4/5
Syndicate
Falcon 3
F-117

Question 2: Will the optional daughter board make the playback
of Audio-CDs sound better than the PAS? Does this board take
an additional slot on my PC?

Question 3: If a game has native GUS support, does it then sound
better than the competion?  If so what specifically sounds better?
Is the sound more dynamic? more instruments?

Thanks for any input.

Damon Brodie.

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 17:53:01 +1000 (EST)
From: Andrew See <asee@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>
Subject: Dune with Megaem.
Message-ID: <199309280753.AA18739@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au>

I am playing the CD version of DUNE with Megaem, and a couple
of the MIDI sequences don't quite sound right.
Anyone got any ideas? 
Incidentally, the game is better than T7G.

  

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 13:36:23 EDT
From: ROYCE LIAO <ROYCE.LIAO@math.lsa.umich.edu>
Subject: Getting Ultrasound on display
Message-ID: <9309281736.AA25094@boyne.math.lsa.umich.edu>

I don't think even a loud campaign will bring Ultrasound into stores.  I
mean, most people want Soundblaster compatibility.  Most computer users don't
want to fool around with setting switches or loading TSRs.  Why do you
think a lot of tech-support calls to computer companies are about "stupid"
things like forgetting to load the mouse driver, or losing the autoexec.bat
file?  Since most of us are relatively familiar with the operations of an
IBM (MS-DOS), changing IRQs/DMAs, config.sys, etc. might be routine for us.

But I've never seen a computer store demonstrate games on a Roland sound-
card.  So sound quality usually doesn't factor into advertising a game
product.  Even with 7th Guest...Egghead stuck it on 486-33 Gateway with
SB-16ASP (no waveblaster)  People owwed-and-awwed at the screen...not
really noticing the sound quality (or lack of it.)

Just wondering, are all those horror stories about high return rates (GUS)
actually true?  Were most of the GUSes sold by mail-order catalogs and
the niital EA $99 promotional offer?  This would imply that GUS is primarily
being purchased by customers already aware of the GUS's capabilities (
32-voice wave-table)

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 17:51:15 +1000 (EST)
From: Andrew See <asee@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>
Subject: Great Idea for Ultramid.
Message-ID: <199309280751.AA18715@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au>

I can't think why someone hasn't thought of this before...

When sierra etc, wish to support the GUS thru Ultramid, why
don't they include a small text file called say MIDI.DAT, that 
is simply a list of the GM patches used by that game. Ultramid
can then load the full versions of all these patches, onto
the GUS, and away you go. They would have to settle on a standard 
format for the DAT file. But gee, wouldn't it make things easier?

 

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

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 93 08:12 EDT
From: CHEDBERG@hamp.hampshire.edu
Subject: Looking for a player program that will handle .au
Message-ID: <CBD729C0F91F005064@hamp.hampshire.edu>

	I am trying to find a program that can play (or decode) files with the
extension .au attached to them. I am running an IBM PC with Windows, PC
Speaker using sound drivers. I _might_ have an Ultrasound soon, but I don't
know. Let me know about _anything_ that will work on the PC. Thanks muchly.
							-Chris Hedberg

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

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 00:22:32 -0500 (CDT)
From: Phil Johnson <pjohnso2@ua.d.umn.edu>
Subject: MT patches
Message-ID: <Pine.3.07.9309290032.A10362-a100000@ub.d.umn.edu>

do for me... are they only usuable in windows...?  Can someone please fill
me in?


 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| pjohnso2@ub.d.umn.edu  Univ. of Minnesota - Duluth | "Lawnmower Man's in |
 -----------------------------------------------------  your head now,     |
                                                     |  Jake."             |
					             | -- Jeff Fahey in    |
						     | Stephen King's THE  |
						     | LAWNMOWER MAN       |
                                                     |_____________________|

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

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 17:38:39 -0300 (ADT)
From: Gravis Ultrasound Lover <markus@Info.UMoncton.ca>
Subject: New game with GUS support.
Message-ID: <Pine.3.02.9309291739.A10123-a100000@clement>

	It's official.  Darksun from SSI has Gravis Ultrasound support.  I
got it today and installed it.  It sounds damn good too.  The game still
uses ULTRAMID which is included with it, but it handles it by itself.  I
mean, it loads it and removes it without the help of the player.  So you
don't see it.  You don't have to worry about memory problems.  
	I saw Darksun from Gravis' list and it came out with GUS support. 
Now, I'm waiting for Return To Zork and Dracula.

                            Marc Y. Paulin
     /-----------------------------------------------------------------\
     |  Fidonet: 1:255/200   Internet: markus@info.umoncton.ca         |
     |           <to come>       Talk: markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca |
     \--------------+------------------------------+-------------------/
                    | Gravis Ultrasound forever!!! |
                    +------------------------------+

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 12:47:15 EDT
From: SLAUGHTC@WMAVM7.VNET.IBM.COM
Subject: NHL Hockey and the Ultrasound
Message-ID: <9309281648.AA00940@orca.es.com>

    I recently purchased the game NHL Hockey from Electronic Arts.  On the box,
it states that it supports the Soundblaster.  No problem, I thought.  To make
a long story short, with SBOS 2.0B10, I only get music, but no sound effects.
With older versions of SBOS (2.04 and 2.08) I get the sounds and digitized
voice, but it becomes very drawn out, and unrecognizable, and thus screws up
the rest of the game.  Does anyone have any idea as to what I could try to
get this to work?
    I was also unable to get it to run under a full-screen OS/2 2.1 session.
Has anyone gotten this to work?  Any help is appreciated.

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

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 12:29:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Bonjour, Le Prof" <JKS4675@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>
Subject: NHLPA Hockey
Message-ID: <01H3IR330NHY9VUUQP@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>

Has anybody got this game to work with any of the GUS drivers?

The box doesn't say what card it supports, but sings incessant praise
about a plethora of audio snippets.

So does it work with MegaEm, AIL, or SBOS??


/Jeff


****************************************************************************
* VietNam vets are not Fonda Jane. Skydive- It's good for your heart.      *
* Racecar spelled backwards is racecar. If it's a BMW, she's worth it.     *
* Bonjour, Le Prof. I never met Napolean, but I plan to find the time.     *
* If you ask a woman if she likes Steely Dan and says "You mean the band?" *
* marry her at once. I'd be Grateful if they WERE Dead. Avoid see-through  *
* beer. Mail damaged in transit. Oh, Gaia, how they treat you like dirt.   *
****************************************************************************

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 14:20:17 -0500
From: ks25!dougw@uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com
Subject: NT and NeXT
Message-ID: <9309281919.AA08676@hummer.mm.rrdtc.donnelley.com>

Are there any plans to make the drivers for NT or NeXTSTEP on a 486?

(no, I'm not volunteering to do these)

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 23:51:09 -0500 (CDT)
From: v345@rex.uokhsc.edu (Anthony C. Toppins)
Subject: Problem with WinModPro ver. .04b
Message-ID: <9309290451.AA11437@rex.re.uokhsc.edu>

I cannot seem to get WinModPro version .04b to work when I select stereo
in the options menu.  Otherwise it works fine.  This is a real bummer when 
I'm playing .669 files.  I have a 1meg GUS on a 486 DX/33.  Can anyone 
help?

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 10:13:22 -0300 (ADT)
From: Gravis Ultrasound Lover <markus@Info.UMoncton.ca>
Subject: Re: Readership update
Message-ID: <Pine.3.02.9309281020.A7011-a100000@clement>

On Mon, 27 Sep 1993, Dave DeBry wrote:

> I've heard rumors of the digests reaching BBSs via
> FidoNet and various other UUCP-type leaps.

	I subscribed many friends to the digest by giving their Fidonet
address as the return address.  So, they're not rumors anymore. :)

                            Marc Y. Paulin
     /-----------------------------------------------------------------\
     |  Fidonet: 1:255/200   Internet: markus@info.umoncton.ca         |
     |           <to come>       Talk: markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca |
     \--------------+------------------------------+-------------------/
                    | Gravis Ultrasound forever!!! |
                    +------------------------------+

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 08:28:53 -0500
From: John Patrick Lestrade <lestrade@Ra.MsState.Edu>
Subject: Sierra Drivers: Incredible!!!!
Message-ID: <199309281328.AB14718@Isis.MsState.Edu>

Well, just a few comments on the sierra drivers for the gus.  I finally
got them to work with space quest 5.  I am at a loss for words to
describe the difference between this and my old sbos method!  I
literally could not believe my ears (and I have cheap speakers!).

Someone recently complained about needing to use ULTRAMID.  I load it in
high memory with qemm and it's no problem.

One question I have is whether or not I should be hearing speech in the
game.  I thought I was getting all of the sounds when I was using sbos,
but I noticed last night with the new sierra gus driver that there are
other sounds that I was missing (e.g., exiting the fighter trainer when
Roger gets caught pretending to be a pilot, there are more mechanical
sounds of hte door opening.  It's great!)  But now I wonder if there are
not some other sounds, including spoken words, that I am not hearing at
all.

If you have a gus and a sierra game, get the drivers now.
and call or write sierra and thank them.

-- 
John Patrick Lestrade        
cnesta::lestrade  or SSL::lestrade                     
lestrade@ra.msstate.edu          Gueaux Saints Gueaux! 

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 23:26:00 -0400
From: "Alexander Majarek, Sascha, SAM"  <Alexander.Majarek@uibk.ac.at>
Subject: Re: Sierra Games - no sound at all [GUS-Dig. V6 #27]
Message-ID: <17E3C51646@subz-nov.uibk.ac.at>

Try to unload SBOS, Megaem, etc. (whatever is for emulation on your
GUS) and load the supplied (with the Sierra-Drivers) Ultramid-driver
by typing:

lh ultramid -c -m100

Hope this helps,
SAM

*********************************************************************
*Alexander.Majarek@uibk.ac.at * There are 3 ways (fast, sweet, sure)*
*Perthalerg. 1c/11            * for a man to ruin himself:          *
*A-6020 Innsbruck             * 1. Gamblin'   (fast),               *
*AUSTRIA (EUROPE)             * 2. Women      (sweet) &             *
*Tel.: 0043-512-84-26-15      * 3. Computers  (sure)                *
*********************************************************************

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 21:12:56 PDT
From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: Star Control 2 wierd sounds
Message-ID: <9309290412.AA04832@netcom5.netcom.com>

Playing Star Control 2 with either native GUS, or SBOS, a lot of the
sounds are really screwed up.  Playing melee in GUS mode gives a really
raucus metal screeching noise when moving on the menu.  That goes away
with SBOS, but other parts of the main game sound out of tune, or
sometimes even backwards, like the sound data was signed wrong, maybe?

It's hard to describe, but has anyone else heard this, or know of a fix?
It happens with a stripped clean system, himem.sys and dos=high, and
nothing else but the mouse.


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

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 11:25:43 
From: john.smith@gravis.com
Subject: Ultrasound daily digest v
Message-ID: <9309281125.A5979wk@gravis.com>

>Internet sites.  I've heard rumors of the digests reaching BBSs via
>FidoNet and various other UUCP-type leaps.
>        And, of course, the infamous Message Board at Gravis, where the
>digest is printed out everyday and hung up to dry.  :)

FYI - the digests (regular and SDK) are zipped up here every day with a
little program I wrote to peek at incoming mail, and then they are sent
out to every Gravis node around the world and also sent out over the
SOUND BOARD CONNECTION NETWORK, which has some 1000 BBS systems around
the world. So it gets out there <grin>

---
 ~ QMPro 1.50 05-8925 ~ All rising to a great place is by a winding stair.

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 08:44:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #27
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9309280812.B4307-c100000@sciborg>

> Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 02:18:05 -0400 (EDT)
> From: tommylee@io.org (Tommy Lee)
> Subject: help...
> Message-ID: <m0ohYNx-0004QRC@io.org>
> 
>    I just bought my Ultrasound on Friday (yes, after reading the digest for a
> couple of weeks, I caved in to the hype!), after playing around with it for a
> few days, I now have a few questions...
> 
>     First of all, can I register Mega-Em?  Or will I soon be able to get a
> fully functional copy of it from Gravis in the NEAR future (I'm talking a week
> or two, MAX).
>

Jayeson has asked people to hold off registering until negotiations with
Gravis are completed.  I don't know how long they will take.  However, if
you want to use a version of Mega-Em without the 20 min time limit _now_, 
download version 0.9B.  It doesn't sound as good as 1.00, though.
 
>     Second, I notice that when using Mega-em, some of the sounds seem to be
> slightly screwed up.  What patches should I pick up, and what should I replace
> to fix this?  Keep in mind, that I'm entirely new to this Gravis thing, so I
> don't know how to changes patches yet either...
> 

Get GUNS.ZIP from Epas, unzip it, copy pistol2.pat into the /ultrasnd/midi
directory, and edit patch 127 of ultrasnd.ini to be pistol2 instead of
ringwhsl.  That should get many GM sound effects to play properly.

>     Finally, when I ran the SETGUS program, the program informed me that when
> testing DMA for SBOS and for the Ultrasound, that they were busy (huh?), and
> that testing failed.  However, everything seems to run just fine!?!  Is this
> just a bug in SETGUS, or am I in for a nasty surprise in the near future?
> 

Not sure.  If everything seems to run fine, they should continue to do so.

>      Oh, and one more thing.  I noticed when trying X-Wing with Mega-Em that
> sometimes (especially when a lot of instruments are being played), I can hear
> a slight clicking or static-like noise.  What the heck is this, and can I get
> rid of it?
>

Sounds like you're experiencing clipping.  Turn down Mega-Em's volume (its
default is 127, which is a little loud).  Note that turning down your amp
won't get rid of the clipping as it is occurring in the digital stage.

> Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 9:38:04 CDT
> From: Fitzgerald Jr Steele <fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu>
> Subject: Sierra
> Message-ID: <199309271438.JAA24284.48837@icaen.uiowa.edu>
> 
> Since we've all been talking about Sierra lately, I was wondering...Is
> there any way to contact Sierra Online through the Net?  I know their BBS

Try sierras@aol.com

> Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 09:29:13 -0400
> From: gkmaier@crl.mobil.com (Greg K. Maier)
> Subject: Sierra Drivers -  no sound at all
> Message-ID: <9309271329.AA26542@crlux1.crl.mobil.com>
> 
> I am playing "Quest For Glory 1: So You Want to be a Hero" and can't get any
> sound using Ultramid and the Sierra drivers.  I can choose "Gravis Ultrasound"
> in the install program and select it for both audio and music effects, but
> when then game plays, there is nothing but silence.  I have played with it
> for a few hours and can't get any sound.
>

Is this the VGA one or the original version?  I think the compatibility list
lists only the VGA version of Quest for Glory 1 (if even that).  Not all
Sierra games work with the new GUS drivers.
 
Phat.

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

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 20:01:17 -0400
From: Alan Campo <henlopen@tigger.jvnc.net>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #27
Message-ID: <199309290001.AA05722@tigger.jvnc.net>



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

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 13:25:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: "George A. Montemayor" <gmontem@eis.calstate.edu>
Subject: Where is it?
Message-ID: <Pine.3.07.9309291300.A29989-7100000@eis.calstate.edu>

Where is my GUS Digest for September 29,1993? I didn't get it today!

-GEORGE

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #29
*************************************