GUS Daily Digest Fri, 8 Apr 94 9:37 PST Volume 12: Issue 8 Today's Topics: Adding RAM to GUS AWE 32 information GUS & Carmen Sandiego Deluxe. GUS & SB16 together? GUS Daily Digest V12 #7 (3 msgs) GUS questions... I second that motion! MIDI songs on Prince 2 New hrd-drv and GUS0041 Number of MIDI voices PatchMaker Question Phat H Tran for President Phat the Legend. Ram Chips for GUS Raptor! Sierra 32bit drivers Tech support addresses... Where I Got My RAM X-Wing ports. xwngsnds.zip 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: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 19:16:18 -0700 (PDT) From: "Peter C. Chien Jr." Subject: Adding RAM to GUS I upgraded my GUS to 1 MEG using *100 nanosecond* chips (Samsung) from an old Trident 8900C video card. At first, the setgus ram test failed my chips, but then when I put the slow chips in the first bank, and put GUS's own faster NEC chips in the last bank, the ramtest passed. So far, there has been no problems, and the sound sounds great. So my suggestion to people with problems with Sanyo chip -- try swapping them in the banks with GUS's own stock RAM. Peter ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 14:52:57 -0500 From: ken@austin.ibm.com (Ken Goach IBM) Subject: AWE 32 information Public Image wrote about seeing the SB AWE32 at Babbages. Well, I have a press release from Creative Labs about the card. I'm going to ftp it onto archive.epas.utoronto.ca today. The file will be called awe32.txt. I thought I'd save everyone the grief of having to wade through a CL press release in the Digest. ;-) I thought it was pretty cheesy how the list "4 Megabits" of ROM on the card. Kinda misleading to your average uninformed consumer if you asked me, but CL doesn't rate highly in my book anyway... Ken ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 12:03:37 -0700 (PDT) From: Mark Harrison Subject: Re: GUS & Carmen Sandiego Deluxe. On Thu, 7 Apr -1, GUS Server wrote: > Date: Thu, 07 Apr 94 02:01:49 EST > From: pcady@celestat.com > Subject: GUS & Carmen SanDiego Deluxe. > > New subscriber here. I'm having problems getting digitized sound out of > Carmen Sandiego Deluxe. > > MegaEm does great music, but no digitized sound at all. I'm the one who added Carmen Sandiego to the G-List, but it's been many months since I've played the game. Let me check my configuration out for the game and see if I did anything wierd. But I don't believe I did. Also, make sure you're using MT32 emulation and not SCC. > SBOS does some digitized sound, then locks up. SBOS never would work for me either. > Latest versions of everything; No problems with any other game. Any > suggestions? G-List says MegaEm should work. Since it's been a while since I've played it, it's possible that I was using an older version of one of the programs and the newest version of MegaEm broke it? It's about all I can think of for now. Also, try changing you DMA's and IRQ's around. I know DMA 1 cause Doom to do strange things on my computer. I'll post another message if I find I had a strange setup to get it working. Otherwise send me e-mail at: harrison@lclark.edu if you have any other questions. Mark Harrison ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 12:41:25 -0400 From: Martin H Rogers Subject: GUS & SB16 together? Does anyone have experience trying to get the GUS and SB16 working together? A local company is selling the Discovery 16 CD bundle for $299 and I was thinking about trying it, but only if I can keep my GUS. Any advice on this idea in general or the Discovery 16 bundle in specific? Thanks, -Martin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 17:02:59 -0400 From: ap641@cleveland.freenet.edu (Hank Leukart) Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #7 In a previous message, Rath babbles... >You know what? I think Gravis should officially HIRE Phat Tran and PAY >HIM for all the work he's done for all the GUS users out there.. I dunno, but I'll pay ANYONE who gets the GUS Sierra drivers released before the end of the century. :) -- RAPTOR:RAPTOR:RAPTOR:RAPTOR:RAPTOR:RAPTOR:RA | Hank Leukart OR:RAPTOR:RAPTOR:RAPTOR:RAPTOR:RAPTOR:RAPTOR | (ap641@cleveland.freenet.edu) Raptor. It's here. From Apogee/Cygnus. | "Official" DOOM FAQ v5.5 Writer ftp.uml.edu: /msdos/Games/Apogee/1raptor.zip | FAQ by E-mail or "ftp.uwp.edu" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 19:20:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Phat H Tran Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #7 > Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 01:46:30 -0400 > From: > Subject: Bought a GUS! > > Problem 1 - Windows hangs when trying to record with any of the > wave editors. > > I don't really need to record in windows but It would be nice. > I can load a wave , play it and everything is fine it screws up > only when I try to record. I tried both 8 and 16 bit dmas > ........hmmmmmmmmm , maybe I'm missing some windows files? > I tried recording in dos using playfile and everything works fine. James Tang had the same recording problems in Windows and came across a solution a while back. He found that he had the line DEVICE=VDMADX.386 in his system.ini. On a stroke of intuition, he decided to change it to DEVICE=*vdmad and his recording problems went away. Hopefully, that will solve your problems. If not, a reinstall of Windows has been known to do the trick as well. > Problem 2 - Can't use 16 bit dmas in Windows and use my modem at > the same time. This might be related to your recording problems. > Problem 3 - Megaem is amazing BUT I only get MONO! > > I tried megaem with 2 games so far. Legend of Kyrandia "Hand of Fate" > and Flashback. Both games give me awesome music with my 1 meg gus > but I don't get (((( STEREO )))). I loaded everything properly > and DID NOT use the -mono switch in emuset. All sound effects will be mono as Mega-Em only emulates the SB DAC, which itself is mono. MIDI music should be in stereo _if_ the score uses the stereo panning controllers to position the instruments. I'm not sure if Mega-Em supports the default pan positions found in the patches. > Mini Problem 1 - The snare (and maybe some other drum sounds) is > screwed in dos playmidi.......sound like a > Rubbermaid commercial..(plastic container sound) You need the PlayMIDI in gus0041.zip. However, that PlayMIDI also has a bug with stuck notes, so there should be even a newer release soon. It might be more prudent to wait for that one instead, if ftp access is hard to come by for you. > Mini Problem 2 - UltraClicks! in some trackers. > Clicks are usually the tracker's fault. There are many considerations to keep in mind when handling the GUS' voices to avoid clicks, and not all of them are mentioned in the SDK. > I think The gus can't ramp it's volume fast enough when it has > lots of channels to process or maybe I need a faster computer. I only > have a lowly 386 SX-16. Ultra Tracker doesn't give me clicks, but it > has clicks with the 18 channel song that it comes with called DarkForce.ult . You computer's speed doesn't affect the speed of the GUS. Since the CPU does very little when playing MODs on the GUS, your CPU speed usually isn't a factor in the sound quality. Iplay11 is very click-free. Another excellent (although not as spiffy- looking) player is Metal025. > Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 11:02:47 -0700 (PDT) > From: Public Image > Subject: General MIDI xtals/GUS EMulators/SB AWE32 > > On the SB AWE32: > Saw the box yesterday at babbages. Price: $330. > Includes: > OPL3 Synth Chip > EMUxxxxx Synth Chip > 512k (4 Megabits :) of RAM, expandable to 28 Megabytes > 3 CD rom interfaces > MPU-401 "Smart Mode" Midi Except that it still needs a 48kB emulator like Mega-Em for GM support. But unlike Mega-Em, that emulator takes up 48kB of conventional memory and can't be loaded high. > Don't know how much rom (1 meg at the most though) 1 MB is correct. > Socket for the waveblaster (req. for General Midi compat.) > Buncha bundled wares. > > All in all, not worth it. It's overpriced, IMO. > Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 08:27:29 -0400 > From: tom@ksr.com > Subject: Re: RAM for Gus? > [...] > that they have another brand and then later changed their mind. I'm really > pissed at them. Anyway, I'm curious as to which chip brands people have had > success with and where they got them from. 52 bucks from Gravis is a little > overpriced, I'd say. I've successfully installed Nec and Kyocera DRAMs on GUSes, although mixing them did give me some problems. So, aside from brand, uniformity in make and speed across the banks also seem to be important. > Date: Thu, 7 Apr 94 15:03:01 +0300 > From: tjakobs@mswe.dnet.ms.philips.nl (THEO_JAKOBS TEL.62667) > Subject: Some Questions > > Hi... > > I have just recently bought SealTeam, but how do i get it to work with the > Ail drivers? I recally there being a Seal Team GUS patch that automates the process of installing the GUS driver for you. Check in the games directory on the GUS archives. > WingCommander Academy does have ail drivers (at least .adv files) but it doesn't > work with the gravis ail drivers, could somebody tell me if it will work with > the ail drivers?? I don't think the game will work with the standard GUS drivers. It uses some internal drivers of its own that specifically looks for SB/etc. hardware. The external drivers don't seem to be used for anything. > How many SoundBoard Emulators are there for the GUS, the ones that i know are: > SoundBlaster - SBOS+ Megaem(digitized voice) > MT32 - Megaem > SoundCanvas - Megaem > > But i've heard of a Emulator for the PAS16 as well... The GUS doesn't have a PAS16 emulator, nor is one planned. > If gravis is smart, they would also try to emulate the WaveBlaster, Why??... The Waveblaster is already emulated by the GUS. In fact, the GUS currently emulates SW32, Maui, WavePower, etc. All these cards fall under the umbrella of "game GM" (MPU-401 interface, MIDI interpretor, and GM patch set). The SoundCanvas emulation in Mega-Em is essentially GM emulation. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Apr 94 15:06:49 +0300 From: Yossi Oren Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V12 #7 >Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 13:46:51 -0700 (PDT) >From: Rath >Subject: Phat Tran > >You know what? I think Gravis should officially HIRE Phat Tran and PAY >HIM for all the work he's done for all the GUS users out there.. > >What do you all think? > >Rath This is a bit of ancient history, but Jayeson (he HAS a last name, right?), the author of Mega-Em and, as it seems, the only guy who programs for AG, was initially a private dude (working for Boeing, if I recall correctly) and planned to release MegEm as shareware. In fact, the earlier versions times out after 10 minutes to make you register. Gravis said "wow", bought the guy and won a MAJOR selling point (IMean, before official MegEm endorsement all they had was SBOS!). Keep it up Phat, Yossi "Something" Oren. +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ | = | E |_|/| Signature 1.31 | V | ^ | +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ |Yossi Oren, Al-Daf Techno-Mercenaries, Rishon Le-Zion, Israel. Help | |TInternet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL TT The people are T| ||Bitnet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN || with the Golan || ||Drag yer damn objects around. I've got work to do.|| Heights! || +====================================================++================++ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 07:56:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Shane Conder Subject: GUS questions... Could someone tell me what the difference is between board revision 2.4 and 3.7? Also, when bought new, how much memory does the GUS usually come with? Someone may sell me a GUS with rev. 2.4 with 1meg on board. The person said the board was 1 year old. Would it be better to buy a new one, even if I get less memory, instead of this older one? Does Advanced Gravis have a trade in policy for upgrading to newer revisions? What would be a good, fair price for the 2.4 board with 1meg? If there is a trade in policy, then it would be worth it, right? If there isn't???? Shane [saconder@sq.olympus.net] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 16:59:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Gunnar Swanson Subject: I second that motion! Fellow GUSers: We the GUSing community do recognize the Honourable Phat H. Tran for the wonderful help that he has provided us all at one time or another, single handedly and without pay. Therefore be it resolved 1. That Phat H. Tran should receive formal recognition for his efforts. 2. The affore mentioned recognition should be followed by a job offer from, Advanced Gravis Inc. 3. So that he can be properly compensated for the work he has done and is doing. 4. Thank you Phat H. Tran! Gunnar Swanson. Thanks Phat! Sincerely, Gunnar Swanson end. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Apr 94 09:13:31 EDT From: Henrique 'Snoopy' Vianna Subject: MIDI songs on Prince 2 Hello again! Guys, I need some help to rip the songs of Prince of Persia 2. I've been looking at the file MIDISND.DAT and I could figure out that it contains standard MIDI files (there are MThd and MTrk signatures). The file names are also included in this file, and they have the (strange to me) .mff extension. Does anybody have already extracted these songs, or know how to do it, or would like to help me?? Many thanks. Snoopy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Henrique Avila Vianna hvianna@brufpel.bitnet Universidade Federal de Pelotas hvianna@vortex.ufrgs.br Centro de Informatica "Imagination is more important than knowledge" 96010-900 Pelotas, RS BRAZIL - Albert Einstein ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 15:48:01 -0400 From: Hui Chi-Wai Subject: New hrd-drv and GUS0041 Alright i'm getting a real headache with all the problems i'm getting. i picked up a new quantum 540 to add to my current quantum 245. Even before this upgrade, i had some problems with the new gus41 installs. During the installs i sometimes have a busy signal (also says write) on all dma channels on any irq i select. Also if i do succesfully install the gus software i definately get a dma error while trying to load patches for midi files using playmidi (says something like "error loading patch such and such. DMA channal busy (conflict?)), but if i keep trying to load the midi file, eventually it will load all the patches and play it without any sound distortion. Playing midi files in windows i have experienced no problems. Also using inertia player to play mods, mtm, s3m i have no problems either. Oh the old version of playmidi for install 2.06a or 2.06l work fine all the time. So what gives? Is it the software that is buggy or is it my system/GUS that is buggy? Ok back to my hard drive ... i installed it and now playmidi for gus41 doesn't work at all ... no patches for any midi file loads up to the gus ... at least before the new drive it give loaded up a random percentage of the need patches before pooping out. now it is nothing. also inertia player is bugged out too ... the video will crash but the song keeps playing as normal. Before the new drive i thought it was just buggy software but now i think it has more to do with software and hardware conflict. Does anyone have any suggestions/solutions to my problem??? I really want my gus in working order with my system and new hard drive. My system is a 486dx2/50 intel with 8 megs ram, ati wonder xl 1meg card (before the wonder 24 came out). Ami bios with a motherboard that has opti chips on it (but i don't think that that is the problem), two 3.5 floppy drives (had also i 5.25 but i took that out now to see if it fixes thing, which it didn't), the two quantum drives, 256 cache on board (also on the two hrd drv) .. i think that's about it. I have dos6.2, qemm7.03 and norton speeddrive (disk caching instead of smartdrv) currently on my system (had more stuff like stacker, ndos, etc before the new drive but i thought i'd clean everything out and maybe would have solved my GUS conflict/problem but it didn't ... actually seems to be worse now). Please, i am getting very desperate!!! i cannot live without my gus!!! any help would be appreciated. Stuff like how would i go about diagnosing my problems and how to sort it out (tried to use ndiags for norton util to find conflicts but found none). Could it be bad dram? (doubt it though since the patches do play correctly through windows and also mods/mtm run in dos with inertia play), could it be not enough juice for all my hardware?, could it be i got a bad gus and need it fixed? could it be my 245 drv since it does some heat calibration on the read/write head (friend told my my drive does that since it clicks regularily) ... i'm going on and on to see if any of this makes sense to someone and not leave anything out that might be the problem that i don't know :) ... ok i guess that's it .... HELP!!!! :( ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Apr 94 09:08:08 EDT From: Henrique 'Snoopy' Vianna Subject: Number of MIDI voices Hi! I'd like to know how many voices PLAYMIDI uses and whether I can change its default or not. Within Windows I'm using only 22 voices enabled, but I have some .MID files that will need all the 32 voices; in this case, I go to the driver setup and increase the number of active voices. How about PLAYMIDI? Thanks in advance, Snoopy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Henrique Avila Vianna hvianna@brufpel.bitnet Universidade Federal de Pelotas hvianna@vortex.ufrgs.br Centro de Informatica "Imagination is more important than knowledge" 96010-900 Pelotas, RS BRAZIL - Albert Einstein ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 16:50:03 MST From: "Dean C. Johnson" Subject: PatchMaker Question I am planning to buy a GUS MAX when it comes out, but I'm curious about something. I don't know much about pathes. With PathMaker or PatchMaker-Lite, will I be able to make a patch of myself saying a sentence like "Hey You!", or coughing, or sneezing? (this is what "SampleStore" of the Maui and Rio are supposed to do, right?) I would really like to know. Thanks in advance! -Dean ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Apr 94 15:32:09 EDT From: danloh@MIT.EDU Subject: Phat H Tran for President That just about says it all... He's a pretty cool guy. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 06:41:06 +0800 (WST) From: Roderick Nasir DAVID Subject: Phat the Legend. yeah, Hats off to Mr Phat Tran too. Thou art truely a GUS legend for allentience and tolerence he has got here, and specially on the Usenet ;) Cheers Mate, Nas -- * Seeya on the Groove Train! | "Missy? Would ya mind my rod please?? " * * _+-_|\ | Rex Hunt. * * / \ | Nasir David at the... * * Perth , W.A ----> +_.--._/ | University Of Western Australia. * ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Apr 94 02:55:21 EDT From: ronhall@aol.com Subject: Ram Chips for GUS Some people have been asking what chips people are using in their GUS that work, I am currently using NEC chips which have worked flawlessly since day 1. Ron ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 11:29:40 -0400 From: Eugene Philip Mahendranath Subject: Raptor! Hiya, I was surprised to NOT see anyone comment on Apogee's newest game-- Raptor: Call of the Shadows yet. Then I saw it wasn't on Epas, so I took the time to upload it for those of you who haven't seen it yet. There's three files: raptor---the full 1.9 meg file raptor_a & raptor_b---for those of you who need to transport it on a floppy In case you don't know, the game is made by Apogee and Cygnus Software. It unzips to a little over 5 megs on your hard drive. The game is best compared to a Wing Commander meets Galactix meets Zone 66 type game. If you want an arcade-like game with great graphics, then this is for you. While I was playing the game, I started pounding on my CNTRL key like I was in arcade or something. Well, anyways, the best part of the game is it has GUS support. (About stinkin' time Apogee!). The music and sound effects are kinda Doom-like. Up to 8 channels for sound effects. You know, I think Apogee should pay me for this advertising. Anyways, I think it's one of the best shareware games out there (only second to Doom). Hope you enjoy it. --Eugene Mahendranath eugster@wam.umd.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THIS SPACE FOR RENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 18:08:19 +0300 (EDT) From: Jani Forssell Subject: Sierra 32bit drivers So, does anyone know, what's the current state of the GUS drivers for new 32bit Sierra games? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 12:02:02 +0800 (PST) From: Francis Li Subject: Tech support addresses... Sorry to be asking what is probably a very common question, but: What are the addresses for Gravis' tech support? tech@gravis.com or something? My Gravis Analog Joystick finally died playing Raptor... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 94 15:59:05 EDT From: David Steinberg Subject: Where I Got My RAM I bought NEC 256x4-80 DRAM from The Chip Merchant, (619) 268-4774. They offer their best "reseller" prices for COD cash or MO only. Their latest ad shows 5.20 each, but its probably more like 5.40 in small quantities. Anyway, they seem to work just fine in my V3.4 GUS. -- David Steinberg Allen-Bradley Company AGTE steinberg@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com Cleveland, Ohio ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 14:05:00 EDT From: Hal Black Subject: X-Wing ports. > Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 16:03:57 +0200 > From: Nils Pedersen > Subject: XWING from Lukas Art > > I have problems with XWing. I just can't get the speech to work. > I'm using SBOS ver. 3.7B2 with no options, and my GUS is set up > on port 240 (DMA = 1, IRQ = 7, the rest is standard). I have spoken > with some friends and they have no problem, but they have 220 as base > adress. I hope some one can help me with this problem, I'm getting > sick of the AdLib-sound(s). > > Nils Pedersen (nilspe@ifi.uio.no) > > Thanks..!! This is a bug in X-Wing. Even with a real SoundBlaster, the only port that will supply digital sound is 220. -- | sylk@mik.uky.edu | hwblac00@ukpr.uky.edu | Entitlements kill | (tastefully short signature) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 00:24:01 +0300 From: Petri Lammi Subject: xwngsnds.zip Hi, Can anybody give a pointer to the file xwngsnds.zip. Doesn't seem to be on epas or any of the mirrors any more. Thanks, Petri ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V12 #8 ******************************