GUS Daily Digest            Sat, 11 Dec 93  0:07         Volume 9: Issue  11  

Today's Topics:
							  digest #6
								 doom
							   DOOM...
								 Gus
							  GUS & OS/2
							 GUS and OS/2
				   GUS Daily Digest V9 #10 (3 msgs)
							 GUS For Sale
							Jurassic Park
		 midi and comms/ mailing to both lists (minor flame)
							  SBOS "bug"
							  Tetrispro

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: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 23:40:52 +1100 (EST)
From: Iain Huxley <ihuxley@ucc.su.OZ.AU>
Subject: digest #6

> You know, I'm starting to think the GUS will always be an 'emulation' 
> card.  If software developpers don't have to write native code for it 
> because it can emulate Roland, SB, etc, then why bother?  Maybe this
> will be the Amiga of the soundcards : emulate everything that exists out 
> there.  (Go ahead, flame on.  It's just an opinion)

Doubt it.  The SB emulation is, as we all know, shocking.  Although 
roland emulation is
good, this doesn't allow for digitised fx and limits the card to 8 bit
samples (unless jayeson could come up with some sort of patch caching
version - is this possible?).  Also, what you say is true of all new sound
cards - they all emulate SB very well.  And few get software support.  The
GUS, on the other hand has many advanced features and with only software
emulation (which, although reasonably reliable in the case of megaem)
always has its problems, is bound to get support.  When megaem is
distributed with it, reviews are better, and distribution is better, it
will get a lot of software support. 
		Besides, I reckon the games industry is going to have to switch to
some sort of general driver system such as miles drivers since there are
just too many soundcards out there.

*************************
 
> To finish, as a new GUS owner I've been blown away by the quality of 
> the sound and annoyed by the installation procedure. The one quibble I 
> have is why is the board so BIG?? Surely in these days of surface 
> mount components a full length card is excessive?  

Have you heard a sound blaster pro or 16 lately?
notice how horribly noisy it is?  I reckon this *could* be due to the
surface mount aspect, or at the very least the crammed board.  Gravis' is
very spacious in comparison. And anyway, what's your problem with large 
cards?  I can't think of a single case where that space would be being 
used by anything in a normal case... So if it makes it cheaper, for 
example, that's fine by me!  

**********************************

>> er, uh?  I assume this some sort of typo?  How can a soundcard
with 512k 
>> ROM samples beat anything?  even with some sort of compression - any 
>> respective ROM card should have at least 4 megs of samples.  
> Here's exactly what it said in the article - 
> "For MIDI music creation, the Soundwave 32SE has eight megabits 
> (that's 512K) of high-quality samples held in on-board ROM chips."

Hmm... Maybe it has a small number of "partials" which are short 
samples which are modulated (?) etc to make the full GM set as per the 
Roland D10 etc keyboards...  But that is poor quality anyway, and I can't 
believe they'd fit all that in such a small board... 
		PC format are simply kidding themselves if they think any sort of
musician is going to touch the soundwave with a barge pole for music
synthesis purposes.  Shocking samples.  No capability to have more loaded. 
They really didn't think when they said that 16 bit recording would be
useful to the musician with that card, too.


  Iain Huxley
(ihuxley@extro.ucc.su.oz.au) 

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

Date: Sat, 11 Dec 93 1:59:22 EST
From: dmcintyr@muselab.ac.runet.edu
Subject: doom

OK, I got doom.  I'm not impressed.

They have GUS support, yes.  Well, I guess they do.

I can't get it to run at all.  I mean AT ALL!!  I told it no soundcard, I
told it no joystick, I booted in "plain vanilla" mode, I hid the system
files from Stacker to keep it from pre-loading and booted totally
absolutely clean.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  No dice.

I get the title screen and then it craps out.

I don't suppose I have a corrupt version or something.  I mean, if the zip
were corrupt I could understand, but the files were LHArced and then
zipped, and the  chances of it getting corrupted that way by the ftp/sz
process are pretty slim.

Has anyone else had such crappy luck getting this much-acclaimed lemon to
work?  In the morning I'll try it on another PC all together, but I just
can't figure out what's wrong.

And there's no documentation to speak of.  Nothing addressing this sort of
issue anyway.
--Michael-- << dmcintyr@muselab.ac.runet.edu >>

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

Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1993 16:46:21 -1000 (GMT-10:00)
From: Paul Murgatroyd <s1114@kowande.Bond.edu.au>
Subject: DOOM...

 .Well, I got DOOM, from a *very slow* ftp.uwp.edu (I wonder why <g>).
The UltraSound is most definitely supported in the shareware release, but
I have been unable to verify how it sounds, as my GUS is temporarily in a
friends machine. The Digital sound effects are nothing short of amazing
though...I am just hoping that the digital music on the GUS will be just
as good, because the FM music on my SoundBlaster is not exactly something
to get excited about (The tune is fine, but it sounds crap compared to the
digital sounds in the game).

If someone can fill us in on the sound quality with the GUS, I'd like to
hear your comments. I won't be installing my GUS again until I get back
from summer vacation at the end of January :-(

As for the game itself....I'm definitely buying the full game! This game
is hot! The scrolling is totally fluid, and the graphics are extremely
well done. The range of weapons you get to fire is great
fun.....especially the rocket launcher :-)

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   ____         ___    ____         
  /    \    /  /   \  /    \       Paul Murgatroyd  (s1114@kowande.Bond.edu.au)
 /         /  /      /            Student of Computing Science     
 \----\   /  /       \----\      School of Information & Computing Science    
	  /  /  /             /     B O N D  U N I V E R S I T Y                  
\____/  /   \___/   \____/     Gold Coast, Queensland, AUSTRALIA

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

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 93 16:57:25 +0200
From: teroml@evitech.fi (Tero M Laitanen)
Subject: Gus

I am having trouble with sbos and Privateer. I have patched the sound.tre file,
but still [A[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[Cs with sbos and Privateer.[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C
[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C in the intro when the speech starts the game fails almost every time.
Then in the game, when there is some digitized sounds, the smoothness is gone,
all the movements are like in Amiga 500 when playing Wing Commander! My computer
is 486 DX-2 66 so it can't be it's fault. If somebody know any hints, please
[A[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[that should not be the matter. If somebody know any hints, please mail me, or put it here.

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

Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1993 00:12:00 GMT
From: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers)
Subject: GUS & OS/2

When do the gus drivers for OS/2 come?

I DEFINETELY want them NOW ... i think gravis is holding us to a line ....
they say they make it .... yeahhhhhh..... next dimension, oke?
NO..... we want it THIS year..... even beta or whatever....

Anyone too?



<-------------------------------------------------------------------->
 Thomas van Kuipers    Email: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl
 De Wadden 49          Examenyear of HighSchool (6 VWO)
 3524 AG Utrecht       Important: Computers, Math, Women and Music!
 Telephone: +31 30 884235         Netherlands (in Europe)
<-------------------------------------------------------------------->

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

Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1993 01:43:00 GMT
From: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers)
Subject: Re: GUS and OS/2

rjm@dciem.dnd.ca (Robert J. Manley) writes:

>Robert Wiegand (wiegand@rtsg.mot.com) wrote:
>
>: Don't get your hopes up. The same rumors were going around 6 months ago.
>
>: All Gravis has ever said was that they are looking into developing
>: drivers.
>
>: They never gave any list of features, and they never gave any dates.
>
>Agreed.  That is why two separate projects are underway to produce OS/2
>drivers; one by me and the other by Guylain Lavoie.  I am happy to say
>that both are moving along well.
>
>Now if only someone from IBM MMPM driver development would respond to
>my posts...
>-- 
># Robert J. Manley,  rjm@dretor.dciem.dnd.ca      #
># NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA      #
># OS/2:OSs :: 92,93 Blue Jays:MLB :: Canada:World #

<-------------------------------------------------------------------->
 Thomas van Kuipers    Email: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl
 De Wadden 49          Examenyear of HighSchool (6 VWO)
 3524 AG Utrecht       Important: Computers, Math, Women and Music!
 Telephone: +31 30 884235         Netherlands (in Europe)
<-------------------------------------------------------------------->

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

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 11:59:04 -0400 (AST)
From: Damon Brodie <n0di@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #10

> 
> Date: Thu, 9 Dec 93 09:21:20 EST
> From: rjf1@ho1focus.ho.att.com
> Subject: Problems with the New Windows Drivers and Communication Programs
> 
> Has anyone else run into this problem?
> 
> When playing a midi file using the Media Player, WinJammer, Recording Session
> or Animotion's Midi Player and when I'm downloading a file using zmodem, 
> compuserve-b, kermit or xmodem I get communication errors and then the 
> download times out.  This did not happen when I used the older driver that 
> came with my gus (2.05).
> 
> I have had this happen with Procomm+ for Windows and WINCIM.
> 
> My pc has 1 16550 UART, communication programs and the Window serial port
> is set to 38000+ baud.  Buffer in Procomm+ for Windows is set to 16k.
> 
> The pc is a 486DX 33MHz with 20 meg of ram, a chinon 535 cd-rom, paradise 
> video accelerator (wd), logitech serial mouse.  Driver are all current, i.e.,
> latest.  
> 
> I have tried running with the the prior releases of the drivers for my
> vga card and mouse, the problem persists. 
> 
> Bob Flynn

I too have had this problem, but no one thought it was the new drivers 
and they kept saying my modem didn't have the 16650 UART, when in fact it
does. (USR Sportster 14.4 internal)  I think it is the new drivers because
the problem began only after they were installed.  I have the problem when
any .wav file is played.

I have a 486 DX 50 with 16 megs ram
and a GUS with 1 meg.

Damon Brodie
n0di@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca

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

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 11:18:02 -0800 (PST)
From: Vincent Poy <hippo@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #10

On Fri, 10 Dec 1993, GUS Server wrote:

> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 19:35:44 -0600 (CST)
> From: Antonio Guia <guia@CC.UManitoba.CA>
> Subject: connecting a walkman to the gus line-in
> 
> those of you trying to connect a gus to the line-in of the gus:
> 
> wrong line levels!  i think it will work fine if a capacitor is serially
> connected along the center lead (positive), but without knowing the volume
> output i'm not sure what capacitor values would be indicated.   you may be
> better off connecting the walkman to the microphone inputs instead.  this
> may work since the gus seems to have an automatic amplification of the mic
> in based on the line level (this is a guess since if there's no sound
> coming into the line in, then the first sound heard will be extremely loud
> and gets clipped...   ah well, 8-bit anyways)
> 
> ------------------------------
It works fine with the cable except that as everyone knows, quality from
Radio Shack is not exactly that high... The Line Output of walkmans are
always under 1W... I don't have any idea where to buy or make a better
cable.. Any ideas?


Cheers,

Vince
hippo@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu
root@kingdom.com
System Administrator/Owner 
Kingdom Communications Inc./California Unix Public Access Systems Inc.
San Francisco, California USA
		  
						 \|/
							(o o)
		   _____________oOO__(_)__OOo_______________
		  | No warranty for my actions of any kind  |

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

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 11:23:23 -0800 (PST)
From: Vincent Poy <hippo@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #10

On Fri, 10 Dec 1993, GUS Server wrote:

> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 10:47:25 -0500 (EST)
> From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
> Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V9 #9
> 
> > Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 11:29:26 -0800 (PST)
> > From: Vincent Poy <hippo@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu>
> > Subject: Recording Music
> > 
> > I attempted to record music from my Sony Walkman under the Microsoft
> > Window Sound Recorder under Accessories and it not only recorded the music
> > but even the voices, but it can only record 60 seconds maximum, is there
> > anyway or anything out there that will make longer recordings? Thanks!
> 
> If you move the position marker to the end of the first 60 seconds you
> recorded, you can record another 60 seconds.  You can add 60 seconds
> this way until you run out of memory.  When you have the time that you
> need, then return the position marker to the beginning and you'll be able
> to record the entire time span in one go.
>
I'll try moving that position marker to the end.. But when you mean
memory, do you mean RAM on the GUS or RAM on my system because I have 32 MEGS.
So after I move the position marker to the end to record multiple 60
seconds, I can just move back to the beginning and record it all at once? 
Thanks!


Cheers,

Vince
hippo@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu
root@kingdom.com
System Administrator/Owner 
Kingdom Communications Inc./California Unix Public Access Systems Inc.
San Francisco, California USA
		  
						 \|/
							(o o)
		   _____________oOO__(_)__OOo_______________
		  | No warranty for my actions of any kind  |

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

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 03:58:54 -0700 (MST)
From: Kevin Fason <kfason@csn.org>
Subject: GUS For Sale

My father is selling his GUS card.  It conflicts with his SCSI card which
he has his CD-ROM hooked too.  The GUS being the cheaper of the two he is
going to sell it off.  No matter what IRQs and such is set, they still
conflict and one can only be plugged in at once..

He would like to keep it, so If you have a suggestion please reply. 
Otherwise if you want a GUS, make an offer...  thank you

-KEV FAS0N

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

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 12:50:08 -0400 (AST)
From: Jurassic Mark <markus@Info.UMoncton.ca>
Subject: Re: Jurassic Park

On Thu, 9 Dec 1993, Doug Nashold wrote:

>    A lot of postings have listed Gravis as supporting Jurassic Park for
>  the PC. Electronic Boutique's latest catalog suggests it will be ready
>  for Christmas, but others think that JP isn't coming out at all. Any
>  answers out there?

	I have the bloody thing.  I have Jurassic Park and it doesn't 
support the GUS.  I got it in Octobre and no GUS support.  Ocean is 
denying the rumor and it will support the GUS.  They said that they will 
never do it.
	Now, Gravis keeps on saying that it will support it.  And now, it 
is in the PCEB's catalog.  What's the REAL story?  Is there gonna be GUS 
3D support or not?
	Advanced Gravis, respond at once, please.

		 Marc Y. Paulin - Jurassic Mark (Usenet) - J-Mark (IRC)
   - markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca (Talk 'n Mail) - (506)856-9518 -
			   APICS Programming Contest Winner of 1993
			-=* GUS won over SB by a score of 32 to 11 *=-

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

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 93 12:56:36 +0000
From: Stefan <S.Magdalinski@cs.ucl.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: midi and comms/ mailing to both lists (minor flame)

I've noticed that a few people seem to have set up their mail handlers to
send messages to both gus and midi lists automatically (hello Bob Flynn).
Can we suggest steps to discourage this behaviour as the wasted
bandwidth costs a lot of people money, and rather defeats the point of
having more than one list.
Some consideration for the people with slow modem connections please!
Try one list first, and if you don't get an answer to your problem try the
other a few days later.

As regards the midi files and communications, despite what Msoft tell you,
Windows can't really handle multi-tasking comms with anything else, and I
think playing midi is fairly processor intensive, or at least, loading
patches seems to be. Try loading the patches before starting the comms
session, and see if this helps, or if that doesn't work, listen to your
modem (a bit avant-garde for me) <grin>. 
Personally, I don't run comms software with anything else, it's just not
reliable enough.

Stefan

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

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 14:00:05 -0700 (MST)
From: Derek the Dweebosaurus <dng@med.ucalgary.ca>
Subject: SBOS "bug"

>>"Also, I noticed a small problem with SBOS (not a big deal), but if its not
>> loaded and you do a SBOS -F to free it, it saids can't find interrupt or
>> something like that, and saids keyboard interrupt hooked I think. And
>> SBOSDRV stays in memory?"

I had that problem quite a few times. What you can try is
reloading SBOS again (as if you were going to change some parameters) and then
try SBOS -F. That usually works for me, even when a TSR was previously
loaded on top of SBOS. I do not know if there are memory blocks that
then become lost/inaccessible though. Let me know on what you find.

 -----------------------------------------------
Derek "ICUP" Ng
University of Calgary, Alberta
Home of the Awesomest Football and Hockey Teams
 -----------------------------------------------
Subspecialist in Flatulation Analysis and Production

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

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 08:46:24 -0500 (EST)
From: "Todd C. Gleason" <tg2k+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Tetrispro

Excerpts from mail: 10-Dec-93 GUS Daily Digest V9 #10 by GUS Server@dsd.es.com 
> Has anyone had any luck getting tetrispro to run? I get past the intro 
> screen but when it goes to load the ddisk it locks up. I have plenty of 
> memory (6megs of ram). I have tried tried booting off a floppy, selecting no 
> music card( I get music at the startup screen)and only loading himem.sys. I 
> don't know what else to do. I downloaded the program twice thinking that 
> something might have been bugged in the transfer but it didn't make any 
> difference.
> any help would be appreciated.
> Mike Allen

Tetrispro works just fine on my machine.  I don't recall having had to
change anything...my config.sys loads emm386 like this:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM 2048 D=256 A=14

Other than that, I assume you remembered to put the .DD file in the
DDISKS subdir?

Also, an old Windows question for you GUSers:  What could be wrong with
my setup since I installed the new gus0035.zip file?  I have no problem
with .wav files (never did), but get NO MIDI output.  I seem to recall
having done all the things the README file said would normally be
screwed up...like taking out the duplicate
device=C:\ULTRASND\WINDOWS\grvsultr.386 from my windows system.ini file,
and adding PATCHDIR=C:\ULTRASND\midi to the ultrasnd.ini files in my
\ultrasnd and \ultrasnd\windows dirs.  (Actually, the one in my \windows
dir has a trailing backslash...is that all right?)  But I get NO sound
from this.  I went into the control panel and set up all the channels,
but if this could be what is wrong (the ultrahelp said to change each
manually, so I changed the first 12 or so.), please tell me.  (Feel free
to cc your message to tg2k@andrew.cmu.edu.)  Thanks!

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V9 #11
******************************
