Ultrasound Daily Digest     Mon, 11 Oct 93  0:48 MDT     Volume 7: Issue  10  

Today's Topics:
								   
							  DOOM News
				 Future Crew Demo  (IT's Great)     
						   Good DOOM news 
						 Gus support (2 msgs)
							 Id and Doom
							  mass mail
					  Missing notes under windo
							  my mistake
						Origin & Crappy Coding
							Origin address
							Second Reality
					  Shelling Origin with Email
			  Still hanging in there, but for how long?
						   Tony LaRussa II
					  Ultramid programming info
			   Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9  (2 msgs)
				 undocumented parameters in playmidi?
							  Unreal ii
					   Whinge, whine -go away!
							  Zork DEMO

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: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 14:38:42 +0200 (EET)
From: tnikkane@clinet.fi (Toni Nikkanen)
Subject: 
Message-ID: <9310101238.AA04317@clinet.fi>

ultrasound%itchy@dsd.es.com
		I'm getting fed up with certain dudes telling how bad the GUS
		is, there've been lots of negative comments here lately, so I
		thought to add something positive for a change. I've been using
		the Ultrasound for 6 days now. My previous sound card was an SB
		2.0 clone. Immediately when the GUS arrived, I grabbed 768k of
		DRAM from my ET-4000 vga card to the gus, and it worked
		perfectly. There are lots of things I can do know, which were
		beyond imagination before. I can play .mod files on the
		background with no apparent speed decrease. I can play and
		compose music that not even my grandfather (who's quite picky at
		music) does not complain about.
		Games are MUCH more playable now, if it does not support the GUS
		directly, it can be played with MegaEm, and that's much better
		than crappy bleeps and plobs with something like SB. I have
		already played through many games that I've alreaddy played
		before, like Space Quest 5, Wing Commander (yes! an Origin
		product! Imagine!), Pinball Dreams and Zone66. When Doom comes
		out, and I've seen the alpha versions, I will buy it
		immediately!
		Then there's the support of Gravis. I got my sound card
		(actually, two sound cards) through a special offering of $99
		per card, with the Software Development Kit and all. This was a
		special offer for Assembly'93 attendants. So Gravis does a lot
		of work to get people developing software for the GUS. The
		complete PC demo scene is moving to the GUS because of it's
		great programming advantages.
		And imagine game programmers taking advantage of the Ultrasound
		3D feature! I heard a rumor that Jurassic Park already does, and
		companies like Origin and Spectrum Holobyte really should!
 
 
 
		Then a reply to message by Adriono..
 
>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.
 
		I admire your patience :)
 
>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
 
		On my much humbler 386sx20 with ET4000, the title screen
		comes pretty quickly.
 
>GREAT (considering its only a demo with shitty 4 channel MOD music), but
 
		It does not have "shitty 4 channel MOD music", Future Crew
		uses the Scream Tracker 3.0beta (which they don't release,
		don't they get it, it would be propably the best digital
		composer program ever made..) which can use as many as
		16 channels, and apparently the musics in the Second Reality
		do, like Panic did.
 
>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
 
		Yes, there's something wrong.. FC has never produced bug-free code :)
 
>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!!
 
		Maybe there's some kind of timer problem?
 
>runs on a 386. And before you ask, I took off ALL tsr's, mem managers etc..
 
		Do you have some strange hardware like network cards, SCSI
		adapters or whatever else?

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 16:35:04 +1000 (EST)
From: Andrew See <asee@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>
Subject: DOOM News
Message-ID: <199310110635.AA15340@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au>

Forwarded message:
> From johnr@idcube.idsoftware.com Mon Oct 11 04:14:17 1993
> From: John Romero <johnr@idcube.idsoftware.com>
> Message-Id: <9310101809.AA01557@idcube.idsoftware.com>
> Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 13:09:41 -0500
> To: Andrew See <asee@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>
> Subject: Re: GUS support.
> 
> We have the GUS driver in DOOM right now.  We haven't tested it yet (soon!), but our sound guy has used it plenty.  The  
> code is PRETTY BULKY and if we have to cut anything from the shareware episode of DOOM, GUS may be it.  We're  
> talking 220K of code!
> 
> ---
> John Romero (romero@idsoftware.com) id Software

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

End of quote.

220K? Looks like we're getting custom patches and Focal point 3d guys!

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 03:44:59 PDT
From: brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu (Brian Huddleston)
Subject: Future Crew Demo  (IT's Great)     
Message-ID: <9310101044.AA24724@ccnext.ucsf.edu>

		 
I was able to run the Demo with no problems at all.  Perfect speed. Start up    
was quick, and the demo was terriffic (sp?) AND I'm running with Qemm installed?
Go figure?!?  I have a 386/40 Trident 1mb vga, and 4Meg ram.   
Oh well.     

										Happy Gus'ing,  
										brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu   

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 16:32:41 +1000 (EST)
From: Andrew See <asee@st.nepean.uws.edu.au>
Subject: Good DOOM news 
Message-ID: <199310110632.AA15292@arthur.st.nepean.uws.edu.au>

I mailed John Romero, head programmer at ID, asking how the GUS
support in DOOM was coming along. His reply follows. It sounds
like very good news.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 07:15:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: JPIERSON@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU
Subject: GUS Support
Message-ID: <01H3XT38K9AA99FGVG@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU>

I'm sort of happy with my GUS and won't get rid of it. (At least not yet).
The main problem I have is that there are only two games that REALLY support
it. I'm talking REAL support not loading a TSR to have it support it. The
GUS isn't getting any support because Companies don
GUS isn't getting any support because Companies don't want to load TSR's to
make their games work with something like a soundcars. Plus there may not
be enough room to load it. (To the guy that says Origin can't program: Get
real! They're games are the best programmed on the market. You're just ticked
'cause you can't get GUS support from them.)
--- To GRAVIS:
   You guy's REALLY need better tech support. I've sent messages to you from
TWO different Internet accounts and I NEVER ONCE got a responce.
Also, You say you offered to program the drivers for Origin but their lawyers
said no. I wouldn't need lawyers to tell me that! Why should they give you
THEIR source-code to add support for you're card. You really need to make
more low-level info available.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 18:31:11 
From: jason.lin@support.com
Subject: Gus support
Message-ID: <9310101831.A7388wk@support.com>

To: ultrasound@dsd.es.com
Subject: GUS support

>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>

>   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.

You're quite right, Shan.  That's how I was when someone urged us to
write software publishers.  Well, after reading your post I've decided
to write 4 emails to different software publishers..  So hurry up
everyone, do the same so your GUS may have better chance of getting
supports.  Oh, thanks for the Internet list of software publishers.

---
   ______        __
  (__  __) ~CG~ / /     |  Internet: jason.lin@support.com
 _  / /        / /      |            izzyvu9@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
( \/ /        / /__     |
 \__/ASON    (_____)IN  |  Fidonet:  1:102/837

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 13:44:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Id and Doom
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9310101307.D13908-9100000@sciborg>

I just asked a person at Id about GUS support in Doom and he says that
if they have trouble fitting the game onto two disks that the first
thing they'll drop is GUS support.  Please nicely ask Id to commit
to shipping DOOM _with_ GUS support.  I think a good person to mail to
would be johnr@idsoftware.com.

Phat.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 09:34:14 -0400
From: hal wayne black <sylk@mik.uky.edu>
Subject: mass mail
Message-ID: <9310101334.AA03018@mik.uky.edu>

About mass mailing, one of the addresses has changed.
RO> LucasArts
RO> Email:  LucasArts@aol.com

I have been trying to E-mail them forever about X-wing, so I wrote the aol
postmaster, who said the address is LucasArt1@aol.com (notice singular)
We don't want to have our mail bouncing, do we?

-----RE: Origin VOODOO 
And though I just mailed Origin a letter about GUS support, I have to defend
them about their proprietary VOODOO driver.  In an interview, the Origin rep
(may have been LB himself) said that they needed a larger ems page, so that
they could use one page write instead of two for those pop-up screens, which
sped up the game considerably (I read this long ago, so I can't recall any
numbers) and I'll agree to anything that will speed up that game - it is a bit
slow even on my 486DX LocalBus!  So if removing the EMS managers (what tsrs
are you going to use while playing Ultima, anyway?) which greatly slow down
your PC will speed up the game, I say do it Origin!
  But native GUS support would NOT slow down the game.  Maybe a second or two
at the startup, but who cares about that.
  A lack of GUS support is not acceptible.  Bad Origin!  They used to be such
a great company, wonder if it is because of EA.  I dunno.  

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

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 18:31:08 
From: jason.lin@support.com
Subject: Missing notes under windo
Message-ID: <9310101831.A7387wk@support.com>

To: ultrasound@dsd.es.com
Subject: Missing notes under Windows

>Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1993 10:44:22 +0000
>From: Clarke Brunt <CLARKE@lsl.co.uk>
>Subject:From jason.lin Sun, 10 Oct 93 18:31:08  remote from support.com
Received: by support.com
	 id A7387wk Sun, 10 Oct 93 18:31:08 
From: jason.lin@support.com
Message-Id: <9310101831.A7387wk@support.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 18:31:08 
Subject: Missing notes under windo
To: ultrasound@dsd.es.com
Organization: [ Los Angeles Valley College BBS (818) 985-7150 ]


To: ultrasound@dsd.es.com
Subject: Missing notes under Windows

>Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1993 10:44:22 +0000
>From: Clarke Brunt <CLARKE@lsl.co.uk>
>Subject: Re: Dropped notes, 2.06L disks
>Message-ID: <00973B50.8CCBD4A0.28665@lsl.co.uk>

>I don't know about notes being missed completely, but notes being
>truncated too soon can be due to your 'Number of active voices'
>setting. If all the voices are in use when the time comes to play
>a note, then all the Windows driver can do is cut one of the old
>notes off - presumably it chooses the 'oldest' note. So more active
>voices means that you can play more notes at once, but at the
>expense of lesser quality (quite noticeable on some patches,
>insignificant on others) because the GUS cannot sample the patches
>at 44kHz with more than 14 active voices.

If you're using slower machines you'd notice missing notes frequently.
On the faster machines, notes may be dropped if you're running multiple
applications.  On my machine(486DX-25), missing notes may occur even if
I run only the MIDI player in the foreground.  It is not due to the
setting of the number of active voices.  It's weird to hear drum, bass,
or even a couple string notes being skipped..  BTW, 28 is the active
voices I set under Windows.

---
   ______        __
  (__  __) ~CG~ / /     |  Internet: jason.lin@support.com
 _  / /        / /      |            izzyvu9@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
( \/ /        / /__     |
 \__/ASON    (_____)IN  |  Fidonet:  1:102/837

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 15:27:01 EDT
From: Michael Sabia <sabia@eden.rutgers.edu>
Subject: my mistake
Message-ID: <CMM-RU.1.3.750281221.sabia@eden.rutgers.edu>

yesterday, i sent in a message about the origin address OSI@aol.com
not working;  my mistake, it does seem to work.  must have been one
of the other addresses that bounced me.

mike
.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 10:18:18 CDT
From: umcoyne0@CC.UManitoba.CA
Subject: Re: Origin & Crappy Coding
Message-ID: <9310101518.AA01743@ccu.umanitoba.ca>

I'd just like to take a time-out on the Origin bashing going on here to
say that YES, most of their games are written poorly, and even when
they're written with some kind of standard in mind, they're full of bugs.

However, they have written one game that I was quite happy with, and still
have not sold, in case I ever want to replay it.  That game is Ultima
Underworld II.  Using the Miles Drivers, and setup for Roland & SB-combo,
this game requires only 575K free.  A definite improvement over the 620K
they usually demand.  And the music is quite good as well.

However, I believe UUWII was not an entirely in-house effort at Origin.

Michael
umcoyne0@cc.umanitoba.ca
University of Manitoba
Department of Computer Engineering

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 18:31:38 
From: jason.lin@support.com
Subject: Origin address
Message-ID: <9310101831.A7401wk@support.com>

To: ultrasound@dsd.es.com
Subject: Origin Address

>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?

Hm..  Try 76004.2612@compuserve.com

---
   ______        __
  (__  __) ~CG~ / /     |  Internet: jason.lin@support.com
 _  / /        / /      |            izzyvu9@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
( \/ /        / /__     |
 \__/ASON    (_____)IN  |  Fidonet:  1:102/837

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 11:17:23 -0500
From: tarjan@iastate.edu
Subject: Second Reality
Message-ID: <9310101617.AA10393@iastate.edu>

GET SECOND REALITY.  I have a 386/40 and an ATI Graphics Ultra Pro..
It is incredible.. the sound is amazing. it is in DOLBY PRO LOGIC with
FULL SURROUND SOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And only on the gus!! :>  (with 512k)


And to the person who had the slowdown, I have a slowdown only in the screen
with the 2 many faceted balls are bouncing around.. and even then it is 
VERY minor.. 

(if you only have 256k on your gus.. UPGRADE NOW! you will love Second Reality)


Future Crew is awesome.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 10:32:12 -0600 (MDT)
From: jknepley@nyx.cs.du.edu (Jim Knepley)
Subject: Shelling Origin with Email
Message-ID: <9310101632.AA05055@nyx.cs.du.edu>

Just a quick note to those of you who are thinking about overrunning
Origin's mailbox with letters of GUS advocacy.

It's been done, don't bother.  Back in the days of the v1.21 install disks,
a whole bunch of GUS affectionados sent out email to all of the major
players in PC games.  The responses ranged from "I'll pass your suggestion
on" to "Sierra will never, ever, ever, support the GUS" to "You stinking
SOB, why are you flooding our mailbox?" to "The GUS in a good card, but
wait until you see _our_ proprietary card."

Sierra now has GUS support, but I doubt it was from our efforts.  Remember
folks, the people on the 'net are TECH SUPPORT.  They're not PR, they're
not programmers.  They could CARE LESS if a product from their company
supports just one more soundcard.  They'd probably prefer to not support
the GUS because installation can be kinda' tricky if you're not good with
a PC.

Do what you want, I don't presume to be a moderator, but just know that
your efforts will not have the effect that you want.  Snailmail is a lot
better, that way you can address it to a PR person.  At best, email will
get you a canned response.

Jim 

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 10:10:16 +1000
From: David Vu <ccdvu@cc.uq.oz.au>
Subject: Re: Still hanging in there, but for how long?
Message-ID: <9310110010.AA16776@orca.es.com>

> Of the things you've mentioned, only Star Control II supports the GUS in
> native mode. And it doesn't work properly with anything but 256K on the
> GUS. Everything else is either a hack (AIL with a 56K TSR) or shareware
> third-party (MegaEm) that has it's own set of problems.

I don't think AIL is a hack.  It is a standard AIL device driver used by most
games.  The problem with AIL is it takes up a bit of memory (I've got no
problem).  Second, it doesn't come standard with all AIL software, simply
because the games have been shipped before it was available (now it's
on almost every sound BBS).  And lastly, some comparies like Origin hack 
their own version of AIL driver so that the standard wouldn't work on
their games.

> 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. 

I 'd say the games are to be blamed for taking up too much of conventional
memory.  There are tons of XMS/EMS memory there, why don't game 
companies make use of it.  Sidekick ver 1.5x only took up about 100K when 
the world of PC only had DOS 3.x and 512/640K RAM.  I hear people say, 
'But games need all the conventional memory to process 3D and all the 
graphics!' 

> 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.

I think that situation is changing now that Sierra, Virgin, and Maxim have
begun to include support and free patches.

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

Like I said, it doesn't take a month or two to write games nowadays.  It
used to take that long for things like Space Invaders and the occasional 
shareware and public domain offerings.  Given the success of the Roland
and that big Sierra have committed themselves to support the GUS, soon 
games from Origin, Lucas Arts, and other companies are sure to follow.
Especially companies that already have General MIDI music support in
their current games.

Also, look at the hosts of new wave-table-synthesis me-too sound 
boards that are starting to pop up now.  The only thing they have over
the GUS is hardware SB compatibility.  People are beginning to want
to buy these, and they aren't out yet :-)

.David.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 22:32:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ouch!  Quit pokin' me! <yaga@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Tony LaRussa II
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05z.9310102220.A104-b100000@carson.u.washington.edu>

OK, I just re-installed the game (I took it off my HD before I bought my GUS).
It has an option during setup specifically for the GUS, so, naturally, I
selected it.  At first I tried it with different sounds/music combos, heck,
I even tried it w/ SB chosen for everything.  The problem is, I can't play
a game.  The sound loads with the intro screen, but then disappears.  I
can do everything except play a game.  I can manage, do drafts, run
seasons statistically, etc.  but I can't play a friggin game!  Every time
I try, it puts the message "Loading...Please Wait" on the screen, the HD
spins for a while, then... nothing.  Quite eerie actually.

	I tried it with options -x(-3), -o(-3).  Hell, I even tried it
with EMM disabled (well, it worked with Syndicate!  ;)  ).  The only time
I can play a game now is if I disable the sbos.  

	Everything is installed at the defaults, I have a 486/25, 4MB RAM,
blonde hair, blue eyes, etc.etc.  Please help!!!  This is driving me buggy!

	I'm not being a whiner, I love this card.  I hate games that don't
work like they are supposed to.

	Thank you very much in advance!
	
chris
yaga@u.washington.edu

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 23:17:00 -0400
From: colin.buckley@canrem.com (Colin Buckley)
Subject: Ultramid programming info
Message-ID: <60.287804.104.0C185D2E@canrem.com>

Where do I find programming information for Ultramid?  I've glanced over
alot of GUS source, and while it wouldn't be a problem to play sound effects
or voice over the GUS, playing midi files would look to be a huge problem
at the moment, and I need to add this very quickly with minimal problems, or
it's no support at all.

Normally I would laugh at a TSR, but if the AIL and Sierra drivers use it,
then it's good enough for now.

Is it just a low level interface with commands like NoteOn and NoteOff (like
the Adlib's TSR), or does one just pass a MIDI file (like Creative Lab's TSR)
and ULTRAMID does everything?

As a last resort though, I could do the sound effect driver, and let the
user choose FM music and use SBOS, but then I suspect SBOS will clash with
my GUS driver and we'll overwrite each other's RAM, voices, etc.
.------------------------------------------------------.
| Colin Buckley                                        |
| Toronto, Ontario, Canada  (colin.buckley@canrem.com) |
`------------------------------------------------------'

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 10:35:40 -0400
From: Bill Norton <wbn@merit.edu>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9 
Message-ID: <9310101435.AA13482@fox.merit.edu>

Do any of you know how to make the GUS come up automatically with Line
and Mic input enabled?  I currently have to invoke the UltraSound Mixer
and turn on Line input to play CDs on my system and it is a pain!

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 21:01:00 BST
From: f.graham@genie.geis.com
Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9
Message-ID: <9310102017.AA25357@relay2.geis.com>

		Alright you guys: I _love_ my GUS! I've had it 1 year now, yes I
want more native, but its happening. I have not had problems with any games
except FPSports Football, F-15III digital (now fixed) and Privateer (who
dumped out on us anyway, so PHOOEY!) I have not had conflicts, windows
crashes, etc. And this is my first clone, and first soundcard, I defected
from the Amiga camp, and tsr's etc. are new to me! I have plenty of local
friends I get to visit and hear their measly SB Pros.
 
		I recently got EA's Seal Team and MAN! Even tho its miles drivers,
it sounds friggin' _fabulous_! And it's a great game, so ta hell with Origin
and their 20th century mentality. Look for Seawolf by EA to also have
Ultrasound support. Thanks Electronics Arts!
 
John.Smith@gravis.com:
		Thanx for keeping us posted, man it was getting almost depressing
here for a day or two <G>. (Are Gravis and Jayeson still friendly?)
 
Shan Yap:
		Great work on the list, I have emailed all companies on that list
for GUS support. Hehe, I kept on hearing in my mind Led Zeppelin singing "If
it keep own rainin', levee's gownna braaaake..." I also emailed you the
short note so you can keep count. COME ON everyone; what 30 minutes to do
this flood thing, let's _do it_! Do it _now_, while you're thinking about
it, and so we hit 'em about the same time-span.
 
		How 'bout everyone who loves their GUS posting a quick one-liner
here on the digest? Lurkers included <G>...Go GUS GO!
					   -----------------------------
 
 
 
 
 

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 16:23:52 EDT
From: snowdog@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca (Rodney CHANG)
Subject: undocumented parameters in playmidi?
Message-ID: <9310102023.AA16595@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca>

Greetings!  I know for awhile now that using the -x(n) parameter in 
playmidi lets you set the number of active voices, but I couldn't find
anything about it in either the readme file or the manual that were
mailed w/ the v2.06 disks.  I also remember reading about some other switches
that I don't think were documented either.  Are there many of these
undocumented switches?

On to other things:
Someone mentioned about dropped voices while playing midi files in
Windows.  I have my drivers set up for 32 voices, and conserve
memory.  However, I'm in the process of transcribing a song right
now.  This song has steady 8th note hi-hats.  Whenever I play it with
Cakewalk 2.0 thefirst hi-hat beat of some measures are mute.  Same
thing with WinJammer.  Using media player and playmidi in dos would give me
only an occasional hi-hat, and other voices are not articulated
correctly (slurred when they're not suppose to).  What seems to be the
problem?  Too slow a computer?

I remembered reading about a new cakewalk mailing list just starting
to circulate, but I lost the address to subscribe.  Any kind GUSers
can tell me?

Merci mucho for help.


-- 
Rodney Chang
RushFan(tm)

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 18:31:33 
From: jason.lin@support.com
Subject: Unreal ii
Message-ID: <9310101831.A7398wk@support.com>

To: ultrasound@dsd.es.com
Subject: Unreal II

>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>

>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.

Hmm..  The demo runs quite well on my 486DX-25.  Isn't 386DX-40's speed
comparable to that of a 25mhz 486DX?
Try to run the demo under a clean booted DOS, though the demo should run
fine with or without the presence of an EMM manager.

---
   ______        __
  (__  __) ~CG~ / /     |  Internet: jason.lin@support.com
 _  / /        / /      |            izzyvu9@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
( \/ /        / /__     |
 \__/ASON    (_____)IN  |  Fidonet:  1:102/837

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 15:02:18 +0930 (CST)
From: Gavin <SCARMAN@hfrd.dsto.gov.au>
Subject: Whinge, whine -go away!
Message-ID: <931011150219.119a3@hfrd.dsto.gov.au>

Gunnar Swanson <gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu> writes...
> Get an SB Pro or a PAS16 it works now, that's what I tell people.

 Well, I helped setup a friends SBPRO on the weekend and found the card to be 
DIFFICULT to install under windows,it had buggy windows drivers that had to be 
replaced which Creative Labs did not, rather Microsoft did. The sound quality is 
shit and the polyphony a joke. Why they included a MIDI interface is obvious - 
you don't use this card for music. The drums are on channel 16! Is is not GM 
MIDI compatible, and I can't see any use for this card except games which after 
my MT32 and GUS I wouldn't take the card if it was free. So stop slanging the 
GUS for not being SB compatible, who needs it! And when I got my MT32 Roland had 
stopped making them a couple of years before and they still hadn't got support 
in noticable numbers of games. It's only been the last 2 years that most games 
supported it. I used to get sick of people on the net saying " when's the GUS 
gonna be released?", what'd you expect, instant games support? A year in the 
software industry is a very short time, just look how long Doom's been in the 
making and that's one of the games that will support the GUS. There may be more 
GUSs out there that MT32/LAPC1, support for quality will come. Also how many 
games support the SBPRO in Stereo? Damn few!
The squeaky wheel may get fixed, but you shouldn't flog a dead horse.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 07:22:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: JPIERSON@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU
Subject: Zork DEMO
Message-ID: <01H3XTM0G2HU99FGVG@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU>

Anybody know of any FTP sites I can get The Zork demo off of?

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 17:51:33 -0400
From: gt7985c@prism.gatech.edu
Message-ID: <199310102151.AA19528@prism>

I changed my DMA from 1 to 5, and the GUS seems to work a little better but 
it could all be in my imagination.  What effect would it do for me to change 
from an 8 bit DMA to a 16 bit DMA.

Also, I hardly ever have problems with my Ultrasound except with a few games 
that don't work too well with SBOS.  I couldn't even use half of my games 
before a friend in my dorm gave me the update to SBOS.  I was using version 
1.2ary to September!

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 10:18:18 CDT
From: umcoyne0@CC.UManitoba.CA
Subject: Re: Origin & Crappy Coding
Message-ID: <9310101518.AA01743@ccu.umanitoba.ca>

I'd just like to take a time-out on the Origin bashing going on here to
say that YES, most of their games are written poorly, and even when
they're written with some kind of standard in mind, they're full of bugs.

However, they have written one game that I was quite happy with, and still
have not sold, in case I ever want to replay it.  That game is Ultima
Underworld II.  Using the Miles Drivers, and setup for Roland & SB-combo,
this game requires only 575K free.  A definite improvement over the 620K
they usually demand.  And the music is quite good as well.

However, I believe UUWII was not an entirely in-house effort at Origin.

Michael
umcoyne0@cc.umanitoba.ca
University of Manitoba
Department of Computer Engineering

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 18:31:38 
From: jason.lin@support.com
Subject: Origin address
Message-ID: <9310101831.A7401wk@support.com>

To: ultrasound@dsd.es.com
Subject: Origin Address

>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?

Hm..  Try 76004.2612@compuserve.com

---
   ______        __
  (__  __) ~CG~ / /     |  Internet: jason.lin@support.com
 _  / /        / /      |            izzyvu9@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
( \/ /        / /__     |
 \__/ASON    (_____)IN  |  Fidonet:  1:102/837

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 11:17:23 -0500
From: tarjan@iastate.edu
Subject: Second Reality
Message-ID: <9310101617.AA10393@iastate.edu>

GET SECOND REALITY.  I have a 386/40 and an ATI Graphics Ultra Pro..
It is incredible.. the sound is amazing. it is in DOLBY PRO LOGIC with
FULL SURROUND SOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And only on the gus!! : (with 512k)


And to the person who had the slowdown, I have a slowdown only in the screen
with the 2 many faceted balls are bouncing around.. and even then it is 
VERY minor.. 

(if you only have 256k on your gus.. UPGRADE NOW! you will love
Second Reality)

Future Crew is awesome.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 10:32:12 -0600 (MDT)
From: jknepley@nyx.cs.du.edu (Jim Knepley)
Subject: Shelling Origin with Email
Message-ID: <9310101632.AA05055@nyx.cs.du.edu>

Just a quick note to those of you who are thinking about overrunning
Origin's mailbox with letters of GUS advocacy.

It's been done, don't bother.  Back in the days of the v1.21 install disks,
a whole bunch of GUS affectionados sent out email to all of the major
players in PC games.  The responses ranged from "I'll pass your suggestion
on" to "Sierra will never, ever, ever, support the GUS" to "You stinking
SOB, why are you flooding our mailbox?" to "The GUS in a good card, but
wait until you see _our_ proprietary card."

Sierra now has GUS support, but I doubt it was from our efforts.  Remember
folks, the people on the 'net are TECH SUPPORT.  They're not PR, they're
not programmers.  They could CARE LESS if a product from their company
supports just one more soundcard.  They'd probably prefer to not support
the GUS because installation can be kinda' tricky if you're not good with
a PC.

Do what you want, I don't presume to be a moderator, but just know that
your efforts will not have the effect that you want.  Snailmail is a lot
better, that way you can address it to a PR person.  At best, email will
get you a canned response.

Jim 

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 10:10:16 +1000
From: David Vu <ccdvu@cc.uq.oz.au>
Subject: Re: Still hanging in there, but for how long?
Message-ID: <9310110010.AA16776@orca.es.com>

Of the things you've mentioned, only Star Control II supports the GUS in
native mode. And it doesn't work properly with anything but 256K on the
GUS. Everything else is either a hack (AIL with a 56K TSR) or shareware
third-party (MegaEm) that has it's own set of problems.

I don't think AIL is a hack.  It is a standard AIL device driver used by most
games.  The problem with AIL is it takes up a bit of memory (I've got no
problem).  Second, it doesn't come standard with all AIL software, simply
because the games have been shipped before it was available (now it's
on almost every sound BBS).  And lastly, some comparies like Origin hack 
their own version of AIL driver so that the standard wouldn't work on
their games.

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. 

I 'd say the games are to be blamed for taking up too much of conventional
memory.  There are tons of XMS/EMS memory there, why don't game 
companies make use of it.  Sidekick ver 1.5x only took up about 100K when 
the world of PC only had DOS 3.x and 512/640K RAM.  I hear people say, 
'But games need all the conventional memory to process 3D and all the 
graphics!' 

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.

I think that situation is changing now that Sierra, Virgin, and Maxim have
begun to include support and free patches.

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

Like I said, it doesn't take a month or two to write games nowadays.  It
used to take that long for things like Space Invaders and the occasional 
shareware and public domain offerings.  Given the success of the Roland
and that big Sierra have committed themselves to support the GUS, soon 
games from Origin, Lucas Arts, and other companies are sure to follow.
Especially companies that already have General MIDI music support in
their current games.

Also, look at the hosts of new wave-table-synthesis me-too sound 
boards that are starting to pop up now.  The only thing they have over
the GUS is hardware SB compatibility.  People are beginning to want
to buy these, and they aren't out yet :-)

.David.

[ Ed.: Look!  Another person doing the same thing!  Quick, flog him! ]

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 22:32:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ouch!  Quit pokin' me! <yaga@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Tony LaRussa II
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05z.9310102220.A104-b100000@carson.u.washington.edu>

OK, I just re-installed the game (I took it off my HD before I bought my GUS).
It has an option during setup specifically for the GUS, so, naturally, I
selected it.  At first I tried it with different sounds/music combos, heck,
I even tried it w/ SB chosen for everything.  The problem is, I can't play
a game.  The sound loads with the intro screen, but then disappears.  I
can do everything except play a game.  I can manage, do drafts, run
seasons statistically, etc.  but I can't play a friggin game!  Every time
I try, it puts the message "Loading...Please Wait" on the screen, the HD
spins for a while, then... nothing.  Quite eerie actually.

  I tried it with options -x(-3), -o(-3).  Hell, I even tried it
with EMM disabled (well, it worked with Syndicate!  ;)  ).  The only time
I can play a game now is if I disable the sbos.  

  Everything is installed at the defaults, I have a 486/25, 4MB RAM,
blonde hair, blue eyes, etc.etc.  Please help!!!  This is driving me buggy!

  I'm not being a whiner, I love this card.  I hate games that don't
work like they are supposed to.

  Thank you very much in advance!
  
chris
yaga@u.washington.edu

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

Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1993 23:17:00 -0400
From: colin.buckley@canrem.com (Colin Buckley)
Subject: Ultramid programming info
Message-ID: <60.287804.104.0C185D2E@canrem.com>

Where do I find programming information for Ultramid?  I've glanced over
alot of GUS source, and while it wouldn't be a problem to play sound effects
or voice over the GUS, playing midi files would look to be a huge problem
at the moment, and I need to add this very quickly with minimal problems, or
it's no support at all.

Normally I would laugh at a TSR, but if the AIL and Sierra drivers use it,
then it's good enough for now.

Is it just a low level interface with commands like NoteOn and NoteOff (like
the Adlib's TSR), or does one just pass a MIDI file (like Creative Lab's TSR)
and ULTRAMID does everything?

As a last resort though, I could do the sound effect driver, and let the
user choose FM music and use SBOS, but then I suspect SBOS will clash with
my GUS driver and we'll overwrite each other's RAM, voices, etc.
.------------------------------------------------------.
| Colin Buckley                                        |
| Toronto, Ontario, Canada  (colin.buckley@canrem.com) |
`------------------------------------------------------'

[ Ed.: The error here is left as an exercise to the reader. ]

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 10:35:40 -0400
From: Bill Norton <wbn@merit.edu>
Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9 
Message-ID: <9310101435.AA13482@fox.merit.edu>

Do any of you know how to make the GUS come up automatically with Line
and Mic input enabled?  I currently have to invoke the UltraSound Mixer
and turn on Line input to play CDs on my system and it is a pain!

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 21:01:00 BST
From: f.graham@genie.geis.com
Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #9
Message-ID: <9310102017.AA25357@relay2.geis.com>

		Alright you guys: I _love_ my GUS! I've had it 1 year now, yes I
want more native, but its happening. I have not had problems with any games
except FPSports Football, F-15III digital (now fixed) and Privateer (who
dumped out on us anyway, so PHOOEY!) I have not had conflicts, windows
crashes, etc. And this is my first clone, and first soundcard, I defected
from the Amiga camp, and tsr's etc. are new to me! I have plenty of local
friends I get to visit and hear their measly SB Pros.
 
		I recently got EA's Seal Team and MAN! Even tho its miles drivers,
it sounds friggin' _fabulous_! And it's a great game, so ta hell with Origin
and their 20th century mentality. Look for Seawolf by EA to also have
Ultrasound support. Thanks Electronics Arts!
 
John.Smith@gravis.com:
		Thanx for keeping us posted, man it was getting almost depressing
here for a day or two <G>. (Are Gravis and Jayeson still friendly?)
 
Shan Yap:
		Great work on the list, I have emailed all companies on that list
for GUS support. Hehe, I kept on hearing in my mind Led Zeppelin singing "If
it keep own rainin', levee's gownna braaaake..." I also emailed you the
short note so you can keep count. COME ON everyone; what 30 minutes to do
this flood thing, let's _do it_! Do it _now_, while you're thinking about
it, and so we hit 'em about the same time-span.
 
		How 'bout everyone who loves their GUS posting a quick one-liner
here on the digest? Lurkers included <G>...Go GUS GO!
					   -----------------------------
 
------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 16:23:52 EDT
From: snowdog@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca (Rodney CHANG)
Subject: undocumented parameters in playmidi?
Message-ID: <9310102023.AA16595@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca>

Greetings!  I know for awhile now that using the -x(n) parameter in 
playmidi lets you set the number of active voices, but I couldn't find
anything about it in either the readme file or the manual that were
mailed w/ the v2.06 disks.  I also remember reading about some other switches
that I don't think were documented either.  Are there many of these
undocumented switches?

On to other things:
Someone mentioned about dropped voices while playing midi files in
Windows.  I have my drivers set up for 32 voices, and conserve
memory.  However, I'm in the process of transcribing a song right
now.  This song has steady 8th note hi-hats.  Whenever I play it with
Cakewalk 2.0 thefirst hi-hat beat of some measures are mute.  Same
thing with WinJammer.  Using media player and playmidi in dos would give me
only an occasional hi-hat, and other voices are not articulated
correctly (slurred when they're not suppose to).  What seems to be the
problem?  Too slow a computer?

I remembered reading about a new cakewalk mailing list just starting
to circulate, but I lost the address to subscribe.  Any kind GUSers
can tell me?

Merci mucho for help.


-- 
Rodney Chang
RushFan(tm)

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 18:31:33 
From: jason.lin@support.com
Subject: Unreal ii
Message-ID: <9310101831.A7398wk@support.com>

To: ultrasound@dsd.es.com
Subject: Unreal II

>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>

>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.

Hmm..  The demo runs quite well on my 486DX-25.  Isn't 386DX-40's speed
comparable to that of a 25mhz 486DX?
Try to run the demo under a clean booted DOS, though the demo should run
fine with or without the presence of an EMM manager.

---
   ______        __
  (__  __) ~CG~ / /     |  Internet: jason.lin@support.com
 _  / /        / /      |            izzyvu9@mvs.oac.ucla.edu
( \/ /        / /__     |
 \__/ASON    (_____)IN  |  Fidonet:  1:102/837

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

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 15:02:18 +0930 (CST)
From: Gavin <SCARMAN@hfrd.dsto.gov.au>
Subject: Whinge, whine -go away!
Message-ID: <931011150219.119a3@hfrd.dsto.gov.au>

Gunnar Swanson <gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.eduwrites...
Get an SB Pro or a PAS16 it works now, that's what I tell people.

Well, I helped setup a friends SBPRO on the weekend and found the
card to be DIFFICULT to install under windows,it had buggy windows
drivers that had to be replaced which Creative Labs did not, rather
Microsoft did. The sound quality is shit and the polyphony a joke. Why
they included a MIDI interface is obvious - you don't use this card
for music. The drums are on channel 16! Is is not GM MIDI compatible,
and I can't see any use for this card except games which after my MT32
and GUS I wouldn't take the card if it was free. So stop slanging the
GUS for not being SB compatible, who needs it! And when I got my MT32
Roland had stopped making them a couple of years before and they still
hadn't got support in noticable numbers of games. It's only been the
last 2 years that most games supported it. I used to get sick of
people on the net saying " when's the GUS gonna be released?", what'd
you expect, instant games support? A year in the software industry is
a very short time, just look how long Doom's been in the making and
that's one of the games that will support the GUS. There may be more
GUSs out there that MT32/LAPC1, support for quality will come. Also
how many games support the SBPRO in Stereo? Damn few!  The squeaky
wheel may get fixed, but you shouldn't flog a dead horse.
------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 07:22:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: JPIERSON@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU
Subject: Zork DEMO
Message-ID: <01H3XTM0G2HU99FGVG@VAXC.STEVENS-TECH.EDU>

Anybody know of any FTP sites I can get The Zork demo off of?

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1993 17:51:33 -0400
From: gt7985c@prism.gatech.edu
Message-ID: <199310102151.AA19528@prism>

I changed my DMA from 1 to 5, and the GUS seems to work a little
better but it could all be in my imagination.  What effect would it do
for me to change from an 8 bit DMA to a 16 bit DMA.
>
Also, I hardly ever have problems with my Ultrasound except with a
few games that don't work too well with SBOS.  I couldn't even use
half of my games before a friend in my dorm gave me the update to
SBOS.  I was using version 1.2ary to September!

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

End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #10
*************************************
