Ultrasound Daily Digest Thu, 3 Dec 92 Volume 1 : Issue 37 Today's Topics: Got my gus - and some q's GTS gtssam3 & gtssam3_fix GUS & Windows GUS = PARANOIA GUS manual error Lucasfilm and support for GUS (lack of...) midi-connector New GUS user Rumours of new SBOS development? Support concerns Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #36 Ultrasound under OS/2 What's so special 'bout Media Player? Digest Address: ultrasound@dsd.es.com To post to tomorrow's digest. Request Server Address: ultrasound-request@dsd.es.com To subscribe, unsubscribe, and request files. Owner Address: ultrasound-owner@dsd.es.com To contact a human if the server has troubles. FTP Site #1: ftp epas.utoronto.ca (/pub/pc/ultrasound) Digest back issues, mirror of request server People responsible: David DeBry, Adam Iles, Thomas Wong, Chris Yuzik, and many others who should be thanked often. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 02 Dec 92 14:19:24 -0500 From: adhir@cygnus.umd.edu Message-Id: <9212021919.AA03149@cygnus.umd.edu> Subject: Got my gus - and some q's To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Got it. And I am *very* impressed. I knew it would sound good...but this good? I didn't expect it. It's my very first soundcard and I am very impressed. Everything worked first time. No problems whatsoever. Stuck it in (disbaled the joystick port first...already have one I like), ran install, and a little while later I got the setup program voice talking through my stereo system. I was so happy! I am using DMA 7 for it...220h, IRQ5 (for SB), IRQ 11 (for GUS)...ummm, I think that's it. I have a 486/50eisa with an eisa IDE cont- roller and a 8-bit SCSI controller (for an old SCSI hd). Also a v.32bis faxmodem, and a multi I/O card. No problems. I tried all the demos, and a bunch of games. Star Control II sounds great, Alone in the dark is incredible (run SBOS no options), Dungeon Master works fine, and a few others. ------------------------- The games I COULDN'T get to work right were the following: GODS - freezes with SBOS unless -o3 is used...and then I get no sound at all. Jetfighter II - music works fine with SBOS (and no options), but no digitized jet sounds (if there are supposed to be any...). -o2 crashes the machine. Stunts - works, but the screeching sounds and the crashing sounds don't come out of the GUS, they come out of the speaker (??). The car sound is cool though,as is the music. Stunt Island - just like GODS - crashes unless -o3 is used, and then I get no sound. Any help with any of these games? ----------------------------------------------- I also tried some recording. Without the 16-bit recording module, I should be able to record in 8-bit stereo 44.1khz, right? When I record from my CD player, it doesn't seem to work in stereo - how can I get it to do stereo? I only get sound out of one speaker while recording... even though during playback both speakers sound, I suspect it is not being recorded in stereo. What am I doing wrong? Also, USS8 throws the screen out of sync and then freezes. I rebooted from a disk with nothing loaded and it worked fine, but I had no mouse. So I loaded my Logitech driver, and when I reran USS8, my screen went whacko again...so I think there might be a problem with USS8 and Logitech mouse drivers. Comments? ------------------------------------------- FINALLY : my board says revision 2.2 on it - what revision do the rest of you have? It looks different than the one on the box. The RAM chips are in a different place. BTW - what's the use of upping to 1 meg? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Al Dhir Technical Consulting Staff Internet: adhir@cygnus.umd.edu University of Maryland, College Park Bitnet: adhir%cygnus.umd.edu@Interbit (301) 405-1500 * (301) 405-3014 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 02 Dec 92 16:52:04 EST From: timkwan@Athena.MIT.EDU Message-Id: <9212022152.AA27315@carbonara> Subject: GTS To: Ultrasound Daily Digest GTS -looks- good but it doesn't sound very good at all. The piano sounds are very coarse and harsh as are most of the other samples. None of the songs (provided with the package) sound good. As the song plays, there are are cracks, bleeps, and other static-sounding noises. Is there a solution to this? Also, I do not like the fade-in fade-out display when you run GTS and exit it - very slow even on my 386/40. -Tim ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 11:52:05 -0500 From: Maki Ishizaki Message-Id: <92Dec2.133238est.246756-1@descartes.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: gtssam3 & gtssam3_fix To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > In the submit directory on epas there are two files that look suspisciously > alike. What exactly are the differences between gtssam3.zip and gtssam3_fix.zip > ? Does the latter simply REPLACE the former, or is there something that needs > to be done to combine the two? The following four files are upgrades (version 0.91) to the GTS: gts_091.txt gts_091.zip gtsfiles_fix.txt gtssam3_fix.zip I've uploaded these to epas after I found these at wuarchive. Originally they didn't have the postfix '_fix' but I put that there just in case anyone wanted to see what the old version looked like. The only difference between gtssam3.zip and gtssam3_fix.zip is that one of the directories is named different. I don't think they've changed any of the sounds itself. gts_091.zip is a replacement to gtsmain.zip, so don't bother with gtsmain.zip if you don't want to see what it looked like before. -- * Maki Ishizaki * * University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada * ___ / * mishizak@descartes.uwaterloo.ca * /o -| - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 08:52:19 MST From: hutch@ilmen.lanl.gov (John Hutchinson) Message-Id: <9212021552.AA00258@ilmen.lanl.gov> Subject: GUS & Windows To: Ultrasound Daily Digest >> The one thing I have _not_ been able to get to work is my Windows setup. >> My documentation for setting up the GUS under Windows is very sketchy >> and I understand there is more detailed info on this available now. >> >> At any rate, when I execute Windows, I get ERROR 3 alert boxes as >> Windows tries to load each of the GUS .PAT files. My autoexec.bat >> file has the ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND variable set as well as ULTRINIT so >> I doubt that is the problem. >I sounds to me like you've copied a file called "ultrawin.cfg" to your >windows directory, or your windows/system directory. This file should be in yo>ur Ultrasnd directory >only. Give that a try. > >Let me know if it works. > >Chris Yuzik Nope. Even without the ultrawin.cfg file in my windows\system directory, I still get all those frustrating ERROR 3 alerts on running Windows. All other GUS features work OK. Any other ideas, Chris? (or anybody else?) Thanks, -Hutch- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 16:48:52 EST From: "Philippe Mathieu (Hiv91)" Message-Id: <199212022147.AA11404@von-neumann.info.polymtl.ca> Subject: GUS = PARANOIA To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Hi everybody.... I dont know if i begin to be "paranoiac", but...... Where is Chris Yuzik????? Where is gravis????? Where is Chuck Yeager for Ultrasound???? What developper wait to product or announce GUS products??? Sierra and Lucasart said they do not plan to support GUS ???? Please..... what's going on??????? Everybody seem to dont pay attention to that, but...... If Gravis are really interresting in is product, they must show it! I'm really happy with my GUS, and I recommended to anybody.... But sometime you want more assurance...... Just my two cents (canadian...) of "braining"..... Martin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Dec 92 00:00:06 -0600 From: captain@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Bran Muffin) Message-Id: <9212030600.AA27122@pooh.cc.utexas.edu> Subject: GUS manual error To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Has anyone noticed that in the GUS manual on pg.45 there is a paragraph warning you not to use a mono jack in the line out connector, but in the picture directly underneath that there is depicted a MONO phono jack with a stereo mini-phono jack? Tell us one thing, and show us another, eh? Seems to be a trend...just ask Telemart when your GUS will arrive... 1/2 ;-) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 20:57:19 EET From: Lasse Hero Message-Id: <199212021857.AA03730@mdata.fi> Subject: Lucasfilm and support for GUS (lack of...) To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I asked Lucasfilm Games about Ultrasound support, here's the answer: - - - - At this time, nope. I've listened to many cards, all with the same machine, same speakers, just different cards. And with so many new developers coming out with new cards it's difficult to find ones that will stay any sort of distance. When some of the dust settles, we may look into it. Just not at this time. And on a side note, when I tested the cards, Gravis is actually pretty bland compared to most. And it's speech truly sucks... Still 99% of it is the amp and speakers that you hook it through... \\illiam - - - - Damn! I don't have the card yet, but it CAN'T be that lousy, can it..? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 13:16:39 MET From: hodgen@informatik.uni-koblenz.de Message-Id: Subject: midi-connector To: Ultrasound Daily Digest ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 13:26:45 MET From: hodgen@informatik.uni-koblenz.de Message-Id: Subject: New GUS user To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Sorry about the last two messages. I sent them off without reading far enough. Two days ago I got my GUS. After 2 hours trying to get the setup to work I realised it just didn't like my Adaptec 1542 controller. I then installed it in my second computer and used the setup programm there to install the card and change the autoexec.bat. All in all very annoying. But it was worth it. The card sounds great and I've got it working with my SB 2.0. Last night I started looking for MIDI files. If I find anything interesting I'll send it on. cul8r. -- Wayne Hodgen | hodgen@infko.uni-koblenz.de | Opinions (c) Me 1991 | Intel SX Uni Koblenz, | (..!unido!infko!hodgen) | Keeper of the Scrolls, | Just Rheinau 3-4, | Voice: +49 261 9119-645 | Defender of the Net, | say 5400 Koblenz. | Fax: +49 261 9119-499 | His name is "root". | NO!!! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 15:20:39 -0500 From: Mark Rosteck Message-Id: <92Dec2.152815est.31047@marvin.cdf.toronto.edu> Subject: Rumours of new SBOS development? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest A few days ago I heard an unofficial rumour regarding SBOS development. Apparently someone had called Gravis tech support inquiring about SBOS; he was told that Gravis was (obviously) less than satisfied with the performance of SBOS, and they had just hired a *professional* programming team from California to completely re-write the TSR. Has anyone else heard mention of this rumour? Or, better yet, can anyone from Gravis comment on it? Cheers, -Mark- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 7:15:05 PST From: Andy Young at Nosferatu U. Message-Id: <9212021515.AA00828@hpsmo100.rose.hp.com> Subject: Support concerns To: Ultrasound Daily Digest I too am starting to be more than a little worried about support for the GUS. Two of my favorite game companies, LucasArts and Sierra, have stated that they have no plans to support the GUS. Of course, this isn't to say that they never will; but if they do, it'll be a while, and by then, maybe we'll see the GUS Pro :-). I'm not trying to talk anybody out of the GUS, just trying to face what may be a difficult situation... A great product with very little support. My principle use for the GUS will be gameplay and the SBOS software sounds like a real pain in the butt (TSRs in general have always worried me, and with the 'pushing the hardware envelope' entertainment software we are seeing now, every lower-640K chunk of memory is *so* important...). The $130 SB Pro Basic at Egghead is starting to look a whole lot better. Dissappointed and more than a little indecisive, .Andy. andy@hpsmo100.rose.hp.com Hewlett Packard - Support Materials Operation TSN: AndyY, Box 24491 8050 Foothills Blvd, Roseville, CA 95678 ------------------------------ Date: 2 Dec 92 12:36:24 +0100 From: BJORNHK@dhhalden.no Message-Id: Subject: Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #36 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest > Is anyone else getting nervous about support for the GUS. I've received > mail from both Sierra and LucasArts that say they will not be supporting > the GUS. LucasArts didn't rule out future support, but said not any time > soon. Who did you talk to? Was it a guy who actually were responsible for or positively knew something about future developments, or was it just a freelance SysOp? > Whether you play their games or not, these are two major game > developers > and I think it's important that they are showing little if any interest in > the GUS. Even Gravis doesn't seem to be excited about their card - I've > never seen an ad for the GUS and would have never even heard about it if > not for c.s.i.p.soundcard newsgroup. Well, the reason you have seen no ad, is that Gravis havn't made any yet, supposedly in wait for a major launch of a simplified version with a lower chip count, thus faster and less expensive to manufacture. However, this reluctance for support was indeed disturbing news... -=* Bjorn :: bjornhk@sofus.dhhalden.no ACCESS DATA :: TEL: (+47)-9-17 50 48/61-97 311 FAX: 61-97 312 BBS: 61-97 304/97 945 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 14:41:57 -0800 From: Derek Suzuki Message-Id: <199212022241.AA02625@bigbang.berkeley.edu> Subject: Ultrasound under OS/2 To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Has anyone been having problems with the GUS in OS/2 DOS boxes? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Dec 92 22:08:13 EST From: Kevin Dangoor Message-Id: <199212030308.AA15467@quip.eecs.umich.edu> Subject: What's so special 'bout Media Player? To: Ultrasound Daily Digest Howdy! Does anyone here know what it is that Media Player does to load patches that other programs don't do? I assume it's probably a fairly simple call, but it doesn't help if I don't know what call it is :) -- Kevin (Tazzzzz) Dangoor \ Locomotive (adj): powered by insanity. University of Michigan / Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA \ This ultraDeluxe powerpack sig has 50% less internet: tazzzzz@eecs.umich.edu / saturated sponge than the competing brands! ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V1 #37 ******************************