GUS Daily Digest            Sat, 2 Apr 94  9:37 PST      Volume 12: Issue   2 

Today's Topics:
						CD ROM volume control
					  couple of things to say...
							 Doom and GUS
				  General Midi / Role playing games
					   GUS Daily Digest V12 #1
						 Gus Update Disks....
							 Myst CD-ROM
					 Need .au file player for GUS
						Some Newbie Questions
					  Ultima 8 patch and 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, 2 Apr 1994 08:02:58 -0800 (PST)
From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: CD ROM volume control

Not the GUS Server once wrote...
$  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 09:37:25 +0800 (CST)
$  From: b2502056@cc.ntu.edu.tw (b2502056)
$  Subject: CD-ROM
$  
$  I have one little problem about GUS + Mitsumi FX001D CD-ROM
$  
$  I use the CD-ROM interface which comes with CD-ROM and when I use
$  Windows CD-PLAYER, I can't control the VOLUME when I play CD.
$  I try many kinds of CD-PLAYERs, but all of them appear the same thing.
$  Can somebody tell me WHY !??? Thanks a lot !!!

Because the Mitsumi CD drives don't support volume control in software,
that's why.  I don't think there is a hook for something like Corel CD to
work, either.  You are stuck with lineout, and the headphone control on
the front of the tray.

$  ------------------------------
$  
$  Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 13:43:37 -0800 (PST)
$  From: Shawn Talbert <ironside@beta.tricity.wsu.edu>
$  Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #55
$  
$  My os/2 gus drivers work fine. I don't think anyone should really say 
$  anything about Chicago unless they are running it on their own desktop 
$  right this minute. 

Uhhh, that would be a violation of their non-disclosure agreement,
wouldn't it? :)


-- 
Mike Batchelor      | UseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinux
mikebat@netcom.com  | xuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesU
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plug 'N' Play:  A specification invented by Microsoft and Intel which
enables a computer and its operating system to create hardware conflicts
without user intervention.

No more jumpers to misplace!  The computer will misplace them for you.

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

Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 21:48:56 -0800
From: blarren@uclink.berkeley.edu (Bart Adam Larrenaga)
Subject: couple of things to say...

First of all, I'd like to say thanks to gravis for the U8 driver.  It will come
in handy when I get U8.  However, if it is possible, could they do a patch for
SSI's Ravenloft game?  Phat has told me that they decided not to include GUS
support at the last minute, and that I should use SBOS.  This works fine, until
a digital sound comes up (speech, mostly).  I get the first part of it, then it
stops and the music gets kind of flaky.  I'm using SBOS 3.7.  Anyone have advice
on how to get this to work right?

On another subject, in my efforts to get the sound to work right, I learned that
my SETGUS won't run.  It says it needs to be run from the INSTALL program.  This
is something new; it never said that before.  What happened to it?  The only thing that I can think of is that I upgraded the software with gus0041 or whatever
it was.  Did this happen to anyone else?

--Bart Larrenaga
blarren@uclink.berkeley.edu

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

Date: Fri, 01 Apr 94 13:46:58 EST
From: chronyx@aol.com
Subject: Doom and GUS

Is there a way to get the GUS to work with Doom while playing over the modem?
 

I just got a Zoon 14.4 int fax/modem.  After several hours of not doing my
homework, I finally found the right init string and figured out how to get
the modem game connected, but I have to play WITH NO SOUND AT ALL!  Doom just
isn't as much fun without GUS sound.  If I play with any digital sound, my
computer locks up hard after about 5-15 min.  I haven't tried music at all. 
Is this a GUS problem or a Doom problem?

Thanks,

Jerry Steele
fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu
fsteele@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
chronyx@aol.com

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

Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 19:52:54 -0500
From: ae647@freenet.carleton.ca (Christopher Prest)
Subject: General Midi / Role playing games

I am rather concerned that the GUS will be one of those cards that fall by
the way side.  There are so many cards out there and I have yet to see any
games that are written for the GUS.  Maybe this is naive of me, but why
don't the game programmers just make sure that their games support General
midi, thus any sound card that supports General midi would be supported?
I am sure that most game programmers will not write for every single card
out there, so why not write for General midi?  Thus, wouldn't the GUS be
able to be used by any game that supported General Midi?  I am just getting
sick and tired of using Sbos or seeing games that do not list the GUS.
I want the games I play to really use the card in some form of native mode
not thinking it is actually dealing with a sound blaster.
	Also, my friends and I are looking for a role playing game and
would like the GUS to be supported. Any suggestions?
Thanks bye
Christopher Prest ae647@freenet.carleton.ca

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

Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 23:48:15 -0500 (EST)
From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #1

> Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 09:37:25 +0800 (CST)
> From: b2502056@cc.ntu.edu.tw (b2502056)
> Subject: CD-ROM
> 
> I have one little problem about GUS + Mitsumi FX001D CD-ROM
> 
> I use the CD-ROM interface which comes with CD-ROM and when I use
> Windows CD-PLAYER, I can't control the VOLUME when I play CD.
> I try many kinds of CD-PLAYERs, but all of them appear the same thing.
> Can somebody tell me WHY !??? Thanks a lot !!!

GUSes previous to the 3.7 revision do not have the hardware for you
to adjust the level for the CD audio input.  

> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 16:13:13 -0600 (CST)
> From: Christopher Allen Kalin <ckalin@cae.uwm.edu>
> Subject: I need info. on installed base of soundcards
> 
> G'day all,
> 
> I was wondering if anyone out there knew the number of users of all
> major soundcards. (SB, SB16, WaveBlaster, PAS, and GUS)  Now, I
> realize the numbers may be approximate, but I just need a ballpark figure.
>
[...] 
> years of mainstream existance.  Yet,  in Ultima 8, there's the option
> for the WaveBlaster, which I'm sure does not have nearly the installed
> base that the GUS has.  But to prove it, I need concrete figures.

I've afraid you'd be on the losing end of the argument if you want to
claim that there are more GUSes than WBs.  CL's brand-recognition and
fierce marketing have propelled the WB's sales past those of the GUS
by a margin of at least 2 to 1.  But to make matters worse, Dataquest 
have come out with sales figures for a variety of soundcards and
pinned the GUS at tens of thousands units less than the actual installed
base, and this is the figure game companies will throw back at you
to excuse their lack of GUS support.

To petition for GUS support, you should not pull numbers out of the
air but point to the GUS' strengths, and make examples of Id and 
other companies who have ventured forth and supported the GUS.  List
off games that _do_ already have GUS support (including new ones 
such as Seawolf, Microcosm, The Elder Scrolls, Archon Ultra, etc.)
to let Origin know that they are being lethargic with sound support.

> Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 09:43:12 -0500
> From: ab861@freenet.carleton.ca (Mike Mainville)
> Subject: Police Quest III
> 
> Does anyone know how to use SBOS with Police Quest II from Sierra.  All I

The only way to play the new Sierra games is through Windows, with
the patches preloaded.

> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 94 21:55:51 EST
> From: Greg <BGUZ@musicb.mcgill.ca>
> Subject: U8
> 
> I downloaded the patch for Ultima 8 and it only contains a
> music driver. The documentation said no digital support was planned.
> Is it that difficult to program a driver for Origin Games?

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

Date: Fri, 1 Apr 94 12:11:38 -0800
From: brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu (Brian Huddleston)
Subject: Gus Update Disks....

Greetings all,

	Just wanted to ask some nice soul out there if they could send me the
New  Default.cfg/Ultrasnd.ini.  Because when I upgraded, the Gus00038.zip? 
did not update them, and I remember that was because their dates were newer than
the update files.  And now my file is corrupted.  I really don't want to d/l 
the 2.+mb file again on my old 2400baud.  So if someone could help me, I would
greatly appreciate it.  Thanks....


brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu

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

Date: Fri, 1 Apr 94 16:18:46 MST
From: tschmidt@pefs1.micron.com (Tom Schmidt)
Subject: Myst CD-ROM

Has anyone tried out the Myst CD-ROM on a PC using the GUS?  I've heard that
this program was just recently released for the PC (previously only available
for MAC).  I just want to see if anyone knows if it works with the GUS before
purchasing it.  I just finished The 7th Guest, and am ready to start a new
3D game.
						Thanks...Tom

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

Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 09:16:10 -0800 (PST)
From: mikebat@netcom.com (Mike Batchelor)
Subject: Need .au file player for GUS

I need a command-line Sun .au file player for the GUS.  I know GoldWave
converts, but that is not what I need.  I need to play native .au files
directly.  I have got Plany 2.1, and it works fine with SBOS, but I would
like to get rid of the 20K TSR if I can.  Basically, I need the equivalent
of Sun's 'showaudio' script, which is nothing more than 'cat sound.au >
/dev/audio'.  The application intended is Mosaic for X Windows, which
execs 'showaudio' to play sounds it receives.  So I need 'showaudi.bat' on
the DESQview/X workstations that calls a command-line .au file player.

If I can get this to work, it means that we (my company, a government
contractor for PCs and rack-mount Sparcs) can put 15,000 Ultrasounds on
the desks of workers at Federal Agencies in the next two years.  It also
means that we can get Sun to do a Solaris for Intel GUS driver, though
probably not with MIDI support, only digital audio.  Currently, only the
SB16 is supported under Solaris for x86, but it performs terribly under
DESQview/X.  We'd like to have one card for both platforms.  There's no
question that the GUS is the card to use with DESQview/X.

Any ideas?  Source code?

-- 
Mike Batchelor      | UseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinuxUseLinux
mikebat@netcom.com  | xuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesUxuniLesU
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plug 'N' Play:  A specification invented by Microsoft and Intel which
enables a computer and its operating system to create hardware conflicts
without user intervention.

No more jumpers to misplace!  The computer will misplace them for you.

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

Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 2:49:16 -0600 (CST)
From: Erek Adams <941ADAMS@MERLIN.NLU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Some Newbie Questions

In a message of Fri Apr 1 09:37:03 PST 1994, received on  1 Apr 1994, 11:48
GUS Server <gus-general-server@gaia.ucs.orst.edu> wrote to 941ADAMS

> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 20:15:06 -0500 (EST)
> From: Phat H Tran <ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>
> >     3)  How should I setup my GUS for ease of use with most programs?
> >         IRQs, DMAs, port addresses, etc....
> 
> Avoid IRQ 7, since it's been found to be problematic for many people,
> me included.  The base address should be 220h so that the GUS emulates
> the SB on that address.

Hmm...What kind of problems?  Printer conficts?

> Date: Fri, 01 Apr 94 10:16:33 +0300
> From: Yossi Oren <LIOREN1@WEIZMANN.weizmann.ac.il>
> Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #55
> 
> First of all, welcome aboard!  The GUS is a great deal, and I'm sure you'll
> love it if you have a LITTLE BIT of endurance.

And when I get frustrated Yossi, I can blame it on you.  It's your fault I
boutght the card!  ;-)  (Win3-L if you can't recall.... )

> Rev 2.4s are about the same as the newest except for line-in mixing or supm'
> like that.  I got a GUS 2.4 when I bought one in Israel, and I had no problems
> running anything from Windows to Hell (no, not OS/2, the Hell demo, dorks) on
> it.

Ok.  I just didn't want find out these people are shafting me.


[...snip...]

(Software missing question deleted)

> This sucks!

Obviously!

> Well, those ten bucks are worth their while, beleive me.  PC is the easiest
> sequencer around.

But my gripe is the fact the manual says its there, and it's not.  Could that
be false advertising?  It's just annoyning.

> What I did is set it up as P220, both DMA 1, both IRQ 7, and create a little
> DOSKey macro (a batch file could do too) called u11 which consists of:
> 
> set ultrasnd=220,1,1,11,7
> ultrinit
> 
> To get the GUS set up for things like DMP and Epic Pinball.  Under Windows I
> think I use DMA 1, IRQ 5, since my scanner craps out on anything else.

So you can change the IRQ, etc. on the fly.  *slap*

> FTP to archive.orst.edu, pub/packages/gravis/gravis, and get gus0041 (both
> parts).  This will upgrade your software to version 3.1.

I would if I could!  Archive.orst.edu won't lemme in!  It gives me a User
anonymous denied....  or a User ftp denied....

Anyone have any ideas to fix that?

> You should also get 2PAT (version 1.0 at the moment) which opens MODs and
> friends and creates samples from them.  Also check out the PCMag utility
> KBMIDI for Windows (ftp.cica.indiana.edu, pub/pc/win3/sounds).  This little
> app lets you play music on your keyboard and it's also useful for 2PAT since
> you can check out the samples using that keyboard.
> Get GUSAIL14 and GAIL3214 to use Miles drivers in games.  Get the Sierra
> driver for Sierra games.

Willdo.  Thanks!

> OK.  When you get the game, check for many small files called ???.ADV, bearing
> names such as SBFM or PASOPL.  This is your break since this game uses AIL
> drivers.  The readme in the AIL archive contains more info.

Right.  I got that much outa the FAQ.

> If you can't find any, run the game's setup utility and check if it supports
> General MIDI.  More preferrably, GM plus Sound Blaster for effects.  If it
> can, EXIT THE UTILITY, run Mega-Em, ENTER THE UTILITY and set up the sound
> support.  You have to do this because those devices don't really exist before
> MegEm's loaded.

Yep.  Willdo!

> If all you can get is SB or nutt'n, run SBOS and write hate-mail to the
> publishers.

Already have!  ;-}  Dynamix should be taking me off thier Christmas Card list!

> Happy GUSsing, and we're here for you!
> Yossi.

Glad of it!

Thanks Phat and Yossi!
																 

										 Erek Adams

+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
| Erek Adams, Student Programmer, | Internet:  941adams@merlin.nlu.edu        |
| Northeast Louisiana University  | SnailMail: 5330 DeSiard, #2               |
| Monroe, Louisiana  71202        |            Monroe, LA  71203              |
|                                 | PGP2.3a:   finger 941adams@merlin.nlu.edu |
+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
 
Monty Python's Quote of the Day is.........
 
King: Listen, lad:  I built this kingdom up from nuthin'.  When I started
	  here, all of this was swamp!  Other kings said it was *daft* to build a
	  castle in a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em!  It
	  sank into the swamp.  SO, I built a second one!  That sank into the
	  swamp.  So I built a *third* one.  That burned down, fell over, *then*
	  sank into the swamp.  But the fourth one......stayed up.  And that's what
	  you're gonna get, lad:  the *strongest* castle in these islands.
Son:  But I don't want any of that! I'd rather...
King: Rather what?
Son:  I'd rather...just...sing!......
	  <music up>
 

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

Date: Fri, 1 Apr 94 13:32:58 EST
From: brian@ee.cornell.edu (Brian Kelley)
Subject: Ultima 8 patch and Origin

	Personally, I couldn't believe that a patch was out this quickly
for the Ultrasound.  By all of Origin's complaining about, 'lack of
compatability' I really thought that it would either take a while, or be
another SBOS hack.  But no, Native General Midi support that sounds really,
really good.

	Note 1: For those of you worried about it, even though the readme
file says it needs a 512k gus or higher, it works great on my 256k gus.

	Note 2: If you have a soundblaster compatible and want digital
sound, you must select the Music card as the Roland Mt-32.  Even though I
deleted the soundblaster music drivers, when I selected the Music card as
Soundblaster, I still got FM music through the soundblaster.


	Now for the Origin part.  I wouldn't be so ticked off at Origin if
it had taken longer for Gravis to release the patch for General Midi music.
This violates their claim that the Ultrasound is hard to program for.  So,
here is what I propose:

	I would like to compile a list of people who have successfully used
the Ultrasound patch to run ultima 8 using the Gravis Ultrasound as a
General Midi Device.  Perhaps most importantly I would like to know how
many people bought ultima 8 because of the availability of the Ultrasound
patch.   

	If I get a significant response I will send this list to Origin
and show them the numbers, i.e. profit due to Gravis users; and politely
ask for a first step in supporting the ultrasound:  include it as a general
midi device.  It will be easy for them do do this as the patch already
exists.  We can worry about digital sounds later.

	Secondly, I will ask them to put the ultrasound patch on the
release of the CD-ROM version of ultima 8, or at least mention that it
exists.  In my opinion it is of Paramount importance that Origin does this.
If Origin releases a product with Any recognized native Ultrasound support,
it will be a MAJOR achievement.

	I realize that questionares have come and gone, and I am as
skeptical about them as the next person, but I think that this
is a reasonable goal: to put native Ultrasound General Midi support on
the CD-ROM release of Ultima 8.  

	Maybe, this will get a ball rolling somewhere.
	
	I don't know how futile an endeavor this may turn out to be, so
before I burn my bridges behind me, does any body have any sugesstions?

brian
brian@marvin.ee.cornell.edu

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

From: (null)

Phat.

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

End of GUS Daily Digest V12 #2
******************************
