Ultrasound Daily Digest     Sun, 10 Oct 93  0:48 MDT     Volume 7: Issue   9  

Today's Topics:
							GUS AND ORIGIN
						GUS Assault - Part 1.
						GUS Assault - Part 2.
						GUS Assault - Part 3.
							  GUS Blues.
			   GUS card interfering with 16550 UART??  
						  Happy with my GUS
							I like my GUS!
							 NHL hockey 
						 origin email address
							  Piano 1.0
		  SECOND REALITY - Sounds great, runs BADLY (386/40)
					Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #7
				Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #8 (2 msgs)
							 UMID102.zip
			 We need to speak to someone higher at Origin

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: Sat, 09 Oct 93 18:20:39 
From: john.smith@gravis.com
Subject: GUS AND ORIGIN
Message-ID: <9310091820.A0694wk@gravis.com>

I see from the digest that many of you are concerned about Origin and GUS
support. Well how about I tell you what we've been doing about this and let you
guys be the judge.

a) Forte has FLOWN out to Origin at least once that I know of it. To try and
   sit down with the Origin programmers to work on a GUS driver. This was
   around the time you were all talking about that Strike Commander patch.

b) Gravis/Forte approached Origin/EA at about the same time when it looked
   as though Origin wasn't going to be able to do the drivers for their 
   source code to there sound system and we would write it for them. But
   the EA lawyers said no way.

c) Recently (when Privateer came out, yes we were also told that it would
   most likely have GUS support) we approached them again about the source
   code issue. Still no answer.

d) After talking to Origin again about this issue the answer was that we
   did not have any AIL/Miles drivers. Hmm... Makes you wonder. This was
   the answer we had last week.

e) I wasn't too happy about the CGW review either. But look for some news
   about us in their December issue. Actually look for some REALLY hot
   stuff in a few LARGE magazines about us in their XMas/January issues.

   For those of you on the ball, you may have also noticed that in Europe
   we are the #2 sound card and quickly rising to the top. The Computer
   Shopper UK voted us the #1 sound card in the world! Not to mention
   the other great reviews in PC Format, Future, and a ton of other
   European magazines. Hmm... another thing for you all to think about.
   
   So as for Origins response about the CGW review last month. Ask them
   what they have to say about the CGW GUS articles in December.

So there is the truth. I'll probably have to explain myself on Monday but I
HATE to see the GUS getting a bum rap out there. The GUS is alive and doing
well. Many things are being worked on/fixed/improved. It is going to be a very
interesting XMas this year. 

One last thing. I'd just like to thank all of you for your support. The GUS is
an amazing product for the price. The word of GUS is spreading. With your help
we CAN make the GUS the standard! So keep up those email/snail mail campaigns
to the magazines/publishers and users. With all of us working together we can
succeed!

John

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 16:33:59 +1000 (EST)
From: int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Shan Yap)
Subject: GUS Assault - Part 1.
Message-ID: <9310100634.AA29163@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au>

Greetings,
   I have seen a lot of grumbling going on about not being able to stir up
Origin's interest in GUS, I would like to justify this situation, and
I am sure that many of you would like that too. 
   Some of you have been urging other readers to write to Origin, but I am 
sure there are still a lot of you who haven't done that (hence that daunting
response from Origin). Maybe it's just because you are too lazy to write or 
most probably it's because you are not sure if your writing is going to have 
any effects or not.  
   Well if we are going to do it, why not do it the proper way and do it  
Once And For All. Here's what I have in mind, when the GUS Digest reaches 
your site on TUESDAY (12/10/93) - it's two days later so that we can have 
plenty of time to prepare our "assault" :-), immediately e-mail Origin and 
any other software publishers of your choice (following this letter are the 
e-mail addresses of some of the major software publishers) urging them to 
support GUS (in this way, we'll have more Email reaching the same software 
publisher at more or less the same time, and I am sure this will has more 
influences on their decisions of supporting GUS, than a few Emails reaching 
them now and then). 
   Please bear in mind that we are NOT "flaming" them, and please don't try 
to send multiple Emails to them from your same/different accounts - that 
would not do any good on our reputation (we GUSers have a reputation to keep,
you know :-) ).


Shan.
int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au

Unite and Prosper.

				  
					 CONTINUE ON NEXT MAIL......

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 16:34:54 +1000 (EST)
From: int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Shan Yap)
Subject: GUS Assault - Part 2.
Message-ID: <9310100634.AA29204@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au>

CONTINUE FROM PREVIOUS MAIL .......   
   
   And if you have decided to participate in this "historical" :-) event, 
please drop me an e-mail (just a short one will do - in order to conserve 
the disk space in my mailbox :-) ), in this way I will be able to keep 
track of the number of people who has participate in this event, and I will 
summarize that result on the following day (maybe we could made it to the 
Guiness Records of the NET as the most sucessful "flooding" action in the 
NET's history! ;-))
   I read that the number of readers in this digest is in excess of
hundreds, therefore if we really want to make ourselves being heard, 
WE CAN ! (A few lines of text or even a subject line will be suffice for 
our purpose). For those who already had sent their mails to the publishers, 
I would like to urge you to re-send your mails at the designated time so 
that we could generate more influences on the pulishers' decisions. The 
future of GUS lies in your hands, if you want to make it a sucess, DO IT! :-o 
Hope to hear from you soon!

P/S: I will cross-post this message to the c.s.i.p.soundcard newsgroup, at
	 a later time, so as to synchronize our process and get as many 
	 participants as possible.


Shan.
int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au
(Floods me with your mails!)

Unite and Prosper.

			
				  EMAIL ADDRESSES FOLLOWS ON NEXT MAIL ......

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 16:35:53 +1000 (EST)
From: int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Shan Yap)
Subject: GUS Assault - Part 3.
Message-ID: <9310100635.AA29265@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au>

CONTINUE FROM PREVIOUS MAIL .....   
 
   Following are the Email addresses of some of the major software
publishers, try to send Email to as many of them as possible (didn't we
say that we want to do it Once And For All :-) ), in particular I would
suggest you to at least send an Email to Sierra (thank them for their support 
on GUS, but urge them to support it w/o "Ultramid"), Electronic Arts, Origin,  
LucasArts and MicroPose, these are the really BIG player on the software
field and their decisions would in turn govern that of the whole industry.
I myself will send Emails to all of them. Have fun !

Access Software, Inc.                     Accolade
Email:  76004.2132@compuserve.com         Email:  Linkspro_1@aol.com
											  
Dynamix                                   Electronic Arts
Email:  Sierras@aol.com                   Email:  76004.237@compuserve.com

LucasArts                                 Maxis
Email:  LucasArts@aol.com                 Email:  zoinks@netcom.com

MicroProse                                New World Computing
Email: MicroProse@aol.com                 Email:  shannon@inter.com

Origin Systems                            Sierra On-Line
Email:  OSI@aol.com                       Email:  Sierras@aol.com

Sir-Tech                                  Spectrum HoloByte
Email:  76711.33@compuserve.com           Email:  76004.2144@compuserve.com

Strategic Simulations, Inc.               Strategic Studies Group
Email:  76711.250@compuserve.com          Email:  72040.340@compuserve.com


Shan.
int341m@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au

Unite and Prosper.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 03:13:13 -1000 (GMT-10:00)
From: Paul Murgatroyd <s1114@kowande.Bond.edu.au>
Subject: GUS Blues.
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310100313.A14994-b100000@sand.kowande.Bond.edu.au>

Well, I finally did it. I went out and bought myself a sound board that
has support TODAY. I ended up with the PAS16, and so far I am very happy.
Sure, it doesn't have Wave Table synthesis, but at least it works on any
piece of software you care to try it with. The 16-bit recording was also
and added bonus, since I particularly like messing around with digital
audio playback/recording.

Sorry Gravis, my Ultrasound has been banished to the closet until I see
some decent *NATIVE* support. I think you are doing pretty well, but like
I said before, I have been patient for a year, and I need a break from all
the hassles.

Just out interest: The salesperson who sold me the PAS16 said that the
three top sound boards currently available are the SB16, the PAS16, and
the UltraSound (even with the crappy support!). Just think where the
UltraSound would be with the support!!

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Arguments for margins are always in inches,
 regrdless of your cuntry setting."

 - MS Excel 4.0 Function Reference Manual, p.312
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 20:54:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: I/We are Gaia <gaia@u.washington.edu>
Subject: GUS card interfering with 16550 UART??  
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05z.9310092013.A20307-c100000@carson.u.washington.edu>

I have a problem that has absolutely stumped me..  Without the GUS in my
machine, my com port configured to COM 1/IRQ 4 w/16550AFN UART works just
fine, windows doesn't have any problems with it, Norton Diagnostics V7.0
reports that it is just fine.  With the GUS in my machine, it seems to
take over the interrupt controller, or something, because it doesn't work
without alot of errors introduced..  In Windows it give lots of errored CRC's
especially when reading or writing to disk, or playing sound, which will
not happen when the card is out of the machine.  And no matter what
configuration I put the GUS in.  Norton Diag reports DATA MISMATCHED on
many of the 16550 specific tests, from 9600 to 115200 (or whatever).  The
norton manual says it is testing the FIFO Control Register.  It says and I
quote: "A FIFO Control Register allows you to specify how often to send
and interrupt to the CPU for processing incoming data.  You can send
interrupts at every 1,4,8,o24 characters received, depeinding on whether
you want higher speed (24) or greater reliability (1 or 4 in multitasking
modes with higher priority iterrupts)."  So it tests 1,4,8,24 characters,
divided into the different speeds: 9600, 19200,57600,115200.  Some of them
checkout, some of them don't, and the higher, the worse it gets..

Now I tried all the different DMA channels, 8 and 16 bit, doesn't seem to
make a difference, I have tried all the different port address, and all
available interrupts.  I can't make it come out with a flawless test,
which I can do, when I simply putll the card..  Please help me, I didn't
have this problem before I upgraded to my 486.  Everything else with the
card works..

I have a UMC based chipset, and I do not believe it is one of the
defective ones.  I haven't had any problems with 16bit DMA, and as I have
said, changing it to 8 bit DMA did not help..

I also saw something in the GV-Readme file, about interrupt control. 
Could this have anything to do with it?  Right now I have it set on
220,5,5,11,3.  I only have 1 serial port.  Please help..  I hope somebody
can tell me where the conflict is!!!

gaia@carson.u.washington.edu

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 09:08:41 -0700
From: lancer@uclink.berkeley.edu
Subject: Happy with my GUS
Message-ID: <9310091608.AA29457@uclink.berkeley.edu>

Hi.  I've been reading about some people who've had an awful lot of
problems with the GUS and are getting down on it.  It seems to me that
most people who post on this service have a problem or two or three...:-).
However, I wonder how many people there are like me out there.  I've never 
had any significant problems with my GUS.  No problems installing it,
no problem installing extra DRAM, never played a game with an incompatability
problem with SBOS(and I've played an awful lot of games), and the GUS never
caused my system to crash in Windows.  True, SBOS doesn't sound great all 
the time, but it sounds decent (version 2.10) with my newest games, namely 
X-Wing and Betrayal at Krondor. Now with MegaEm, I can get great  
music as well.  I can't wait for the new version with both SBOS and MIDI--
imagine, being able to get both MIDI and digital sound on a card that costs
about $130.  I'm very happy with my GUS, and I'm very glad I bought it.
Are experiences like mine rare?

A happy GUS user,

Lancer

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 18:54:42 -0400
From: hal wayne black <sylk@mik.uky.edu>
Subject: I like my GUS!
Message-ID: <9310092254.AA29696@mik.uky.edu>

  I've noticed about three people posting over and over again how they don't
like their GUS.  I have been reading this digest for a while, and I finally
got MY GUS in the mail.
  Wow, it is EXCELLENT!!!  This card is absolutely unbelievable!  It comes
with an admirable amount of software for it, and there is a LOT more here and
there on FTP sites to be had.  It has much better support than some other
cards I have had (SB, SBPro, MT-32) with all the stuff it comes with.  I like
the sofware so much, that I will even force myself to use Windoze to compose a
song or two.
  There is talk about how it does not work with this or that, or how hard it
is blah blah blah.  You just have to have a little patience, and MOST of the
games, etc WILL work.  Also, I don't know how many of you follow the
demo-coding scene, but the trend there seems to be toward the ultrasound,
because you can get multiple (32) voice output, using next to NO CPU time.
I have seen some very good demos that require the ultrasound, and won't work
with a soundblaster*.  
  Now, people will say that these are only kids coding demos, but the fact is,
you can do more graphics and effects if you support an ultrasound and not an
SB, so it must follow that games will soon have ultrasound support as well, it
will just be a matter of time. 
  The GUS IS a lot better card, technically, regardless of reviews,
especially those who have a benchmark test that was designed with the
traditional SB* style of card in mind, intentionally or unintentionally.  I
have not read that CGS review, but I bet it did not judge cards on their
multiple-digital output, which the GUS would have come out on top quite
handily.  
  Overall, don't give up on the GUS, give it some time, and keep pestering
those software companies!  I, for one, will not buy anymore games unless they
say Gravis Ultrasound under the soundcard support on the box, or for the games
I really might like, I will read the net to see if it works with General MIDI,
at least...


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

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 21:14:47 EST
From: elewis@eve.wright.edu (Edward Lewis IV)
Subject: NHL hockey 
Message-ID: <9310100214.AA03889@eve.wright.edu.>

I have been trying to get info on how to get NHL hockey by EA to work with the GUS.  I tried looking through back Digest issues, and found an issue that 
probably has the info in it that I am looking for, but that issue is not 
complete on EPAS.UTORONTO.  It is VOL6 Issue29.  It must have had trouble 
when it was uploaded to epas.  If someone could e-mail me that issue or better
yet, tell me how to get SBOS and the GUS to work with NHL hockey.

It works as an adlib but that's not much better than the internal speaker.
I also got it to work with MEGAEM as an MT-32, but I would really like 
digitized sound.  Has anyone been able to get this to work??

Any info greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Edward Lewis

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 11:58:02 EDT
From: Michael Sabia <sabia@eden.rutgers.edu>
Subject: origin email address
Message-ID: <CMM-RU.1.3.750182282.sabia@eden.rutgers.edu>

i am not having much luck with the address   osi@aol.com;  

any ideas?

-mike

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

Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1993 23:24:32 +0100
From: bojan.rijavec@uni-lj.si
Subject: Piano 1.0
Message-ID: <00973C83.E9734DB2.7211@uni-lj.si>

 
 
Hi, guys!
 
Here's a little something I put together. Try it and tell me,
what you think...
 
						   PIANO v1.0
						 Keyboard Piano
					   for MS Windows 3.1
 
			 Turn your PC into an electronic piano
			  featuring all 128 GMIDI instruments,
				volume control and pitch wheel.
			 Requires WIN 3.1 and a sound card (SB,
			 GUS, PAS...). Nice surprise included.
 
 
... If everything went O.K., PIANO10.ZIP should be waiting for
you on EPAS/SUBMIT
 
										 Gregor B.
 
 
 

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 13:05:22 +1000
From: adriano ennio raiola <adrianr@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU>
Subject: SECOND REALITY - Sounds great, runs BADLY (386/40)
Message-ID: <199310100305.AA01986@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU>

After spending 1/2 a day at 2400 baud, I finally managed to check out the 
most awaited demo release of the past year, SECOND REALITY - Future Crew.

Well can I say, on my humble 386/40Mhz with Cirrus Logic VGA, I had to wait
like nearly eternity even for the title screen to come up! The music is
GREAT (considering its only a demo with shitty 4 channel MOD music), but
something tells me somethings wrong with the demo, because it runs SOOOOOO
SLOOOOWLY on my 386/40.  Even the music slows down to try keep pace. 

The docs warned that its designed for a 486 and might slow down on 386's
but I seriously doubt It should slow down the extent it does here, ALL the way
through, like even fading in a title screen, scrolling a bitmapped landscape,
takes AAAGES, simply ridiculous for a 386, also the fact that when I turn the
turbo off on the machine, it doesnt slow down any futher!!

Ive since seen it on a 486, and trust me, at full speed (with GUS) it is a 
S**THOT demo, but there has to be some sorta bug or problem with the way it
runs on a 386. And before you ask, I took off ALL tsr's, mem managers etc.. 

Anyone else had this problem? 

Adrian

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 01:51:07 -0500 (CDT)
From: Antonio Guia <guia@CC.UManitoba.CA>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #7
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310090102.A18796-8100000@ccu.umanitoba.ca>

> Can any of you reach matthew.arbeid@gravis.com (as a certain GUSser
> recently suggested)? It seems impossible to email anything to
> tech support...

try just matthew@gravis.com

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 12:29:41 PDT
From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #8
Message-ID: <9310091929.AA05539@netcom5.netcom.com>

Not the Ultrasound Server once wrote...
$  
$  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 13:06:05 -0400
$  From: Evan Champion <evanc@carbon.isis.org>
$  Subject: 16-bit DMA
$  Message-ID: <2cb58fee.carbon@carbon.isis.org>
$  
$  What is the difference between the 8 and 16 bit DMA channels (ie: does the
$  data flow through them in 8 or 16 bits, or are they just addressed
$  differently?) and which DMA channels are 16 bit?
$  
$  Evan

They are just addressed differently.  Back in the XT days, there were only
four DMA channels: 0 1 2 3.  Along comes the AT with its 16 bit bus, so
four more were added: 4 5 6 7.

$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 09:39:48 +0501 (EDT)
$  From: Gunnar Swanson <gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
$  Subject: And a Wave Table of discontent swept accross GUS land!
$  Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310080948.A19092-a100000@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
$  
$  Well Well Well,
$  
$   Seems like alot of people are disapointed with the performance of
$  the GUS.  Gravis, folks seem to be getting fed up with the way things are
$  going and I can't blame them.  Be ware that the people laughed at Noah
$  the first few days that it rained.  The drips like me who keep writing in
$  about poor GUS performance are a sign of a major deluge to come not a
$  sprinkle.  I am telling my friends to avoid the GUS now!  Get an SB Pro or
$  a PAS16 it works now, that's what I tell people.  
$  
$   I do not know what the Gravis sales or marketing strategy is but it
$  don't seem to be working.  Maybe you should fix it? :-).
$  
$   Well I hope that Gravis can turn things around and get on board
$  before the flood comes otherwise its the end of Gravis/Forte blub blub blub.
$  
$  
$           Sigh
$  
$           Gunnar Swanson

Well, gee Gunnar.  You were a GUS booster just a couple of weeks ago,
posting helpful suggestions to newcomers and so on.  Seems that all you
can do now is bitch and moan.  What happened???

My response to your comments about compatibility and support:

1.  I used to have a SB Pro, it sounded like crap, and I lost interest in
games, because I could never get anything resembling decent sound out of
games with the SB Pro.  I sold it, and wrote off games and such as kid
stuff, not to be bothered with by reasonable adults who have critical
ears.  Then I won a GUS in a contest at work.  WOW!!!  This thing sounds
GREAT!  I found the mailing list - hey, look at all the people using it
with games!  Maybe the state of the art has advanced somewhat in the past
year and a half.  So I got The 7th Guest, downloaded UltraMID and HOLY
COW!!!  This is one HOT CARD!  I bought more games.  Some of them didn't
sound too good with SBOS...hmmmm... I tried them out on a friend's SB16ASP
and guess what?  They still sounded terrible, just as they did when I had
a SB Pro.  My conclusion: Most games sound awful no matter what card you
get.  At least with the GUS, you have a fighting chance to get some decent
sound quality.  Anything that uses UltraMID is going to be at least
acceptable, if not great.  Dune2 is an example of a UltraMID-using game
with acceptable sound.  T7G and RTZ are games that sound STUPENDOUS with
UltraMID.  X-wing with MegaEm is also MegaFantastic, even without the
digital FX.  I expect that Jayeson's SB DAC emulation will take care of
that, but in the meantime, I do not feel that I am missing much.  The
GUS's ability to offload sound processing from the CPU helps tremendously
in the smoothness of game play, in my opinion, no matter which emulator
you use.

2.  Return to Zork supports the GUS.  It is the first major release to do
so.  Even though it is not listed on the box, they will give you tech
support setting up UltraMID, if you need it.  The foot is in the door. 
Sierra releases drivers for backwards-compatibilty with their GM games. 
They will also give you tech support to get it working. The door is wedged
open a little more.  How long was the SB Pro out before the first
stereo-capable game appeared?  18 months?  2 years?  After all this time,
still less than half of all the games I have looked at support stereo on
ANY card!  This makes me think that most game vendors are not interested
in great sound.  I choose to support the ones that are.  I vote with my
pocketbook.  I do not buy anything that fails to list at least PAS16
support specifically.  That cuts in half the number of games that I may
choose from.  It's been my experience so far, that if a game lacks PAS16
support, then it will sound awful, so why even bother?  In little more
than a year, games that support the GUS have started appearing.  This is
unprecedentedly quick!  I expect that it will only get better from here.

The exception to my PAS16 rule are games that support Roland or General
MIDI.  SB support on these games strikes me as an afterthought.  And why
not?  Someone who has bought a SB*.* is not very critical about the sound
quality, so who cares?  Give 'em a couple of digital FX and a poor
semblance of General MIDI music and they will go away fat dumb and happy.

Conclusion:  I got back into games BECAUSE of the GUS, not in spite of it.

P.S.  Ask your friend with the SB16ASP how many games support the 30-odd Kb
ASP driver that comes with it.  Answer: ZERO.


$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1993 12:51:01 +0200
$  From: PWRJAM01@Uctvax.UCT.AC.ZA
$  Subject: Gravis making it with support
$  Message-ID: <01H3VC84J1N68WW57N@Uctvax.UCT.AC.ZA>
$  
$  In the past few digests they have been some complaints about
$  the gus not being supported quickly enough.  Well I bought 
$  an original SB when they first came out and had to 
$  wait at least 2-2.5 years before games supported the SB even
$  then it was still not trully supported ( full digitized output
$  with sound ).  What I am trying to say is that unfortunately
$  it take time for the word "GUS" to spread around and I think
$  gravis are doing a great job to decrease this time.  Until
$  most people know what the Gravis Ultrasound is I don't think
$  there is going much effort to support it.  Everone knows 
$  what a sound blaster is - but a GUS?  When you read a magazine
$  looking for a sound card you normally look for the best and
$  see what it has to offer ( then only the price ).  I have 
$  not seen one good GUS review !
$  

Thank you for confirming my opinions above.  And you are absolutely right
about the reviews - this is unacceptable!  Every bad review came out that
way because the reviewers crippled the GUS in order to "even the playing
field" or some such nonsense.  They probably didn't intend to do this, but
accomplished it anyway out of ignorance.  Write to them and complain that
their credibility has been damaged because of their poor testing methods
and ignorance of the capabilities of the products they review.  The GUS
tests I have seen might be compared to reviewing a Porsche without ever
taking it out of second gear.

$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 11:40:24 EDT 
$  From: Bryon Daly <ltx!bkd@uunet.UU.NET>
$  Subject: Master Of Orion (MOO) GUS patch
$  Message-ID: <199310081548.AA03555@q>
$  
$  Hello,
$  
$  I downloaded a patch that supposedly lets Master Of Orion use the GUS
$  through the AIL driver.  I ran the patch, loaded ultramid -c, ran the 
$  install program  and selected one of the Roland cards.  But when I run
$  the game, the screen just goes black, the disk stops spinning, and 
$  that's it.
$  
$  I also had previously put in Microprose's MOO bugfix patch.  Could
$  that have afftected it?
$  
$  Has anyone else got the GUS patch to work?  Did I miss something?

You need to copy gf1midi.adv, gf1digi.adv, and maybe gf166.com into the
game directory.  If it does not then offer the Ultrasound as a choice on
the install menu, then you will need to choose the Roland or GM option,
and SB digital FX.  Then copy gf1midi.adv over the Roland or GM driver,
and copy gf1digi.adv over the SB digital driver.  The GM driver is usually
called GENMIDI.ADV, and the SB driver is usually called SBDIG.ADV.  Some
games use SOUNDRV.COM.  If your game batch file loads this TSR, then just
copy gf166.com to soundrv.com instead of gf1digi.adv over sbdig.adv.

$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 11:31 BST
$  From: MFZPITT@VAX.CCC.NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
$  Subject: More From Origin
$  Message-ID: <9310081027.AA23905@orca.es.com>
$  
$  Just recieved a bit more from Origin.
$  Q. Will you answer our question, will we see GUS support from you?
$  A. I just realised that I didn't answer this letter. Nothing is definate at
$  this time. The GUS market is not as huge as people think and the drivers
$  provided are very hard to operate with our code. This certainly isn't as 
$  easy as you may think. Thank you for the letters of encouragement and I 
$  hope to read more from you soon.

What this means is that they do not know how to code efficiently, and
require that you have 620K free to run the damn game.  They fear that
UltraMID will not leave enough memory free for their bloated code. 
Nonsense.  T7G runs fine in 565K with UltraMID loaded low.  They are
incompetent, in my opinion.  Have they never heard of EMS or UMB?  I am
pretty sure that there are fewer PCs out there with NO memory manager than
there are PCs with GUS installed.  286, you say?  Don't make me laugh...


$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 12:07:34 -0600 (MDT)
$  From: kdorff@NMSU.Edu
$  Subject: MS Arcade + GUS
$  Message-ID: <9310081807.AA10961@NMSU.Edu>
$  
$  Wow! I wasn't sure if it was something else on my system, and I DIDNT
$  EVEN THINK to wonder of it was my GUS, but Yes
$  
$     MICROSOFT ARCADE (all of the games) lock my up my machine
$  
$  Nothing else seems to lock it up, but just in case. I have:

I believe there is a patch on epas to fix Microsoft Arcade.

$  I tried everything, but turning off sound. Maybe I will try starting
$  windows in standard mode, not 386...

That will cure the problem, since the Ultrasound drivers will not load in
Standard mode.

$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 9:19 BST
$  From: MFZPITT@VAX.CCC.NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
$  Subject: Origin And GUS Support 2.
$  Message-ID: <9310080815.AA19740@orca.es.com>
$  
$  Q. Can't you use the GUS AIL drivers
$  A. The GUS drivers never worked...Forte seemed unwilling or unable to help us.
$  (can anybody respond to this - Gravis? Forte?)

I'll respond.  Sierra doesn't have a problem with UltraMID.  Virgin
doesn't have a problem with UltraMID.  What is Origin's problem?  I bet
it's memory again.  Bloated code that needs 620K, and they never heard of
QEMM or 386MAX.

Oh yeah - their top-selling game wants to use a proprietary protected mode
driver, what is it - VOODOO??  Yeah, right.  Origin is at the top of my
list for Bad Boys in the gaming industry.  They do not know how to adhere
to standards, and fall back to the old Flight Simulator strategy of
essentially loading their own operating system in which to play the game. 
On a fast 486 or even 386, there is no excuse not to use EMS or VCPI to
get at more memory.

$  Well I tried, but it doesn't look too good does it? What do the rst of you
$  think? Don't forget to mail Origin as well to tell them - osi@aol.com.
$  Anthony Pitt

I will mail them and give them all the reasons why I do not purchase their
products.  The #1 reason is that I have heard their games on the boards
they support, and they sound like a Nintendo (not SNES, even).  #2 reason
is that their leading edge products are incompatible with modern operating
environments.  This leads me to believe their programmers are incompetent,
or that they are not interested in keeping up with the software
marketplace.

$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 08 Oct 93 11:58:25 -0400
$  From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" <dantonio@magick.tay2.dec.com>
$  Subject: Re: Still hanging in there, but for how long? 
$  Message-ID: <9310081558.AA16570@magick.tay2.dec.com>
$  
$  By "native support", people mean that it supports the GUS right out of the
$  box without the user running ANYTHING EXTRA. A game that takes 600K of
$  conventional memory doesn't leave me with 56K for UltraMID. Since I have a
$  Adaptec SCSI card (hardly uncommon), Mega 'Em is a risk (it's not Jason's
$  fault, but it's still true). In other words, if it doesn't list Gravis
$  UltraSound on the box, it doesn't support the GUS, at least as far as the
$  game-buying public is concerned.

The Adaptec risk vanishes if you move the controller to a different I/O
address.  You would face the same problem if you had a real Roland!

$  And Gravis had better get support into some new games quickly or it won't
$  matter anymore...

I don't think there's much more that Gravis can do that they are not
already doing.  It's up to the game vendors to support the card, not
Gravis to support the game vendors.  All they can do is lobby lobby lobby
for support, and provide samples of the cards to game vendors.  I know
they are doing these things.  It's up to the game vendors to realize what
the GUS offers them and their discriminating GUS-using customers.

$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 11:35:02 +0100
$  From: "a.edwards" <cs9h1aae@pyramid.swansea.ac.uk>
$  Subject: SYNDICATE
$  Message-ID: <11533.9310081035@pyr.swan.ac.uk>
$  
$  I've noticed quite a few people having problems with Syndicate crashing
$  on them. Its doesn't seem to be just an SBOS/Ultrasound prob as friends
$  computers have hung with true Soundblaster cards.
$  
$  The problem usually seems to be EMM386 - get rid of it and everything seems
$  fine. I believe Bullfrog have recommended in some magazines that the game
$  be run from a bare startup (if any probs are encountered that is)
$  
$  However, we need SBOS etc.
$  
$  I had a similar problem with my computer (really nasty hang with a CMOS
$  error!) but removing EMM386 cured it. And it sounds dead good through
$  the hi-fi at half volume! (walls rumbling to the sound of gunfire)

I agree!  Syndicate is just about the best-sounding SBOS game I have had
the pleasure of playing.  And it does not crash with QEMM v7. :)  On my
PC, at least.

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

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 21:09:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #8
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310092118.B3500-b100000@sciborg>

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 09:39:48 +0501 (EDT)
> From: Gunnar Swanson <gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
> Subject: And a Wave Table of discontent swept accross GUS land!
> Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310080948.A19092-a100000@gibbs.oit.unc.edu>
> 
> Well Well Well,
> 
>   Seems like alot of people are disapointed with the performance of
> the GUS.  Gravis, folks seem to be getting fed up with the way things are
> going and I can't blame them.  Be ware that the people laughed at Noah

Gunnar, quit your griping.  It serves no purpose except to annoy those of
us who have found good use for the GUS in music, demos, and even games.
It wouldn't surprise me that if you had bought an SB, you'd be bemoaning 
its poor sound quality, or if you had bought a Sound Canvas, you'd whine 
about the lack of a DAC for sound effects.  First, figure out what your
needs are, and see if the GUS fulfills them.  If it doesn't, sell it
and get a card that does.  My needs are for a soundcard that sounds
great, can use custom samples, can handle overlapping digital sound
effects, is compatible with the games I play, and is affordable.  That's
why I've been very happy with my GUS. 

Gravis _are_ working with developers to get GUS support into their games.
Moaning to the digest won't help matters.  Moan to Origin instead. :)

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 13:00:51 -0400
> From: jericho!gord (Gord Wait S-MOS Systems Vancouver Design Center)
> Subject: Re: Dropped notes under Windows
> Message-ID: <9310081700.AA15634@smos.bc.ca>
>
[...]
> What does playmidi do, anyone? Does it make a guess as to
> how many voices to set the gus to?

Playmidi defaults to 20 voices unless you use the -x<n> switch to
manual select the number of active voices.

Phat.

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

Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1993 09:35:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Where's that $%#@*() ripcord?!?!" <JKS4675@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>
Subject: UMID102.zip
Message-ID: <01H3WJY977XUA4LSUC@ritvax.isc.rit.edu>

Upon unzipping UMID102.ZIP in EPAS's SUBMIT directory, the Gravis
'Greeting Screen' appears.....but that's it. No files or anything.

Anybody have a clue as to what's going on here???


Jeff

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 17:24:20 +1000 (EST)
From: Andrew See <asee@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>
Subject: We need to speak to someone higher at Origin
Message-ID: <199310090724.AA11091@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au>

Re: That idiot at Origin replying to requests for support, he's 
probably some shitkicker office boy or something. We need an
email to someone a bit higher in Origin. Someone with some 
weight to throw around. Maybe a top programer.

Wait till doom comes along and blows every Origin game ever made
completely out of the water, and it is shareware.

I will not buy an Origin game 
ultil it has GUS support.

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 93 22:44:43 +0100
From: rock@POOL.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE
Message-ID: <9310092144.AA11412@rama>

Excerpt from the Pc-Games-FAQ available on internet every two months:
( I only deleted the 2nd LucasArts address, it didn't work)


6.3: Where can I find email addresses of game publishers?

Here are some addresses from game publishers and developers, or people working
for them. The list is not comprehensive and not all the addresses have been 
checked:

   Access                   Linkspro_1@aol.com
   Accolade                 76004.2132@compuserve.com
   Apogee                   apogee@delphi.com
							joe.siegler@crs.com
   DC Software              72557.336@compuserve.com
   Digital Integration      digint@cix.compulink.co.uk
   Dragon's Eye Productions cat@wixer.bga.com
   Electronic Arts          76004.237@compuserve.com
							ea@cix.compulink.co.uk
   Epic MegaGames           70451.633@compuserve.com
							EpicGames@aol.com
							GlenEpic@delphi.com
   Id                       romero@idsoftware.com
							jay@idsoftware.com
							help@idsoftware.com
   Impressions              71333.463@Compuserve.com
   Intergalactic            76356.2172@compuserve.com
   Interplay                76702.1342@compuserve.com
							interpla@orion.oac.uci.edu
   LucasArts                75300.454@compuserve.com
   Maxis                    71435.276@compuserve.com
							71333.1470@compuserve.com
							Maxis@aol.com
							zoinks@netcom.com
   Merit                    76711.2470@Compuserve.com
   Microprose               76004.2223@compuserve.com
							MicroProse@aol.com
   New World                shannon@inter.com
							order@inter.com
   Omnitrend                70300.245@compuserve.com
   Origin                   76004.2612@compuserve.com
							OSI@aol.com
							Origin_CS@aol.com
							origin@world.std.com
   Ozark                    76326.403@compuserve.com
   Papyrus                  papyrus@world.std.com
   QQP                      75300.3233@compuserve.com
   Sierra                   76004.2143@compuserve.com
							Sierras@aol.com
							SierDan@aol.com
   ShadowSoft               76056.1537@compuserve.com
   Sir-Tech                 76711.33@compuserve.com
   SSG                      72040.340@compuserve.com
   Spectrum Holobyte        S_Holobyte@aol.com
   SSI                      76711.250@compuserve.com
							StratSim@aol.com
   Three-Sixty              76711.240@compuserve.com
							threesixty@aol.com
   Wizard                   71764.3137@compuserve.com
							WizardScot@aol.com
							Fitzgerald@delphi.com

Sir Launcelot du Lac (swkgohw@leonis.nus.sg) is the keeper of the address 
lists for software and hardware companies. These lists hold email addresses,
ftp sites, BBS's, telephone numbers etc. You can find the most up-to-date 
lists in csipg.announce. You can also contact Gary Cooper (cooper@grebyn.com). 
He has an up-to-date list of email addresses only.

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9
************************************
