Ultrasound Daily Digest Thu Jul 15 00:07 Volume 4: Issue 43 Today's Topics: GUS Mail Server -- Thanks! Megaem .06b MEGEM06B.ZIP and QEMM 7.01 MEGEM and QEMM? MEGEM System Re-boot. PACKAGE Pinball for Windows ROL files Sierra's pinball Trouble with Sherlock Holmes Det CD Ultramid programming info up on Epas Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #42 (2 msgs) Update Virtual Leftovers... Where is EPAS? 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: Wed, 14 Jul 93 14:33:33 CDT From: ibmpa!hartmann.austin.ibm.com!lance@ibminet.awdpa.ibm.com (Lance Hartmann) Subject: GUS Mail Server -- Thanks! Message-ID: <9307141933.AA16413@hartmann.austin.ibm.com> I'd like to extend my sincere gratitude to all those responsible for setting up, operating, and maintaining the new mail server (in Germany). Lacking ftp access, I formerly had to rely on a VERY (did I say VERY?) unstable ftpmail server which, when working (rarely), took 3 to 4 DAYS on most occasions to service a request. In contrast, the performance of "nike" has been outstanding. Many thanks! -- Lance Hartmann (lance%hartmann.austin.ibm.com@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com) Yes, that IS a '%' (percent sign) in my network address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- All statements, comments, opinions, etc. herein reflect those of the author and shall NOT be misconstrued as those of IBM or anyone else for that matter. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 11:28:30 -0500 (CDT) From: Ren Hoek Subject: Megaem .06b Message-ID: <199307141628.AA26022@daisy.cc.utexas.edu> I did a little testing last night with .06 of the MegaEm. Well, here's my results on my brand new 486/66DX2 QEMM 7.01: It loaded fine, and worked at the beginning of X-Wing until I started a mission. It then gave me a QEMM error message. QEMM 7.01: Monopoly (tm) loads, and shows titlescreen and immediately gives me a QEMM error message, but plays an awesome MIDI song anyway. (really good song!) 386MAX 7.0: EMUSET try's to load, but it only does 2 *'s then it reboots. In other words, no go. P.S. Does anyone have Adaptec 1542B drivers for DOS? 386MAX is complaining about them.. and I never received any with my Adaptec card. I have a feeling it's doing bad things to my hard drive. So I'm just staying in OS/2 for right now. Are there any Adaptec 1542B updated drivers for OS/2, also? -- ren@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 08:02:01 -0700 From: Eric N. Liao Subject: MEGEM06B.ZIP and QEMM 7.01 Message-ID: <199307141502.AA19740@aerospace.aero.org> I've read the posts from other people, and it seems everyone else is having scores of problems with MEGEM. The first version (MEGEM04B) didn't work with DMA7, so I used DMA1 and it worked fine for the most part. If I accientally ran a gus-native program, the patches would be wiped out. At this point, running EMUSET locked-up the machine. This got fixed with MEGEM05B. So I could use DMA7 and even if I accidentally ran GUSMOD or something like that, I didn't need to reboot. I'm not sure what MEGEM06B fixed on my system. Now for the games! Wing Commander II (& Special Ops2)--neither of these ran very long! It seems WC2 doesn't like QEMM in any form (or version) After finishing a mission, the game freezes or QEMM gives me an error. In my opinnion, the music is MUCH better with MEGEM than with SBOS. X-Wing -- I tried the General MIDI and Roland drivers. For some reason, the Roland (MT-32) sounded just as poor as SBOS. The General MIDI mode didn't sound much better. Ughh, still those high-whiny voices. Savage Empire--music is somewhat better than SBOS. Some instruments notes are missing. The game freezes-up only after I die (is it supposed to do that?) Flashback--ARggghhh! Music is no better than SBOS. Sticking with SBOS KRONDOR.ZIP and QG4DEMO.ZIP (both on wuarchive) -- looks like Sierra will have an excuse not to write native-GUS drivers. MEGEM works with the General MIDI and Roland MT-32/LAPC drivers. The General MIDI driver sounded marginally better than the MT-32 driver (with sounds much better than SBOS.) Music is pretty good with both. Overall complaints: MEGEM suffers from that "monolithic instrument" problem that early SBOSs also suffered from. Most of the notes come out as either a string-instrument or somekind of brass instrument. Instrument variety is very low (KRONDOR.ZIP seemed to come out using only 2 instruments during most parts, the STRING & CHOIR intruments) Still, the music sounds better than SBOS [in most cases.] Percussion instruments sound awful. Sorry, but in many cases, percussion is worse than SBOS. Finally, the "10-minute" thingee. Sometimes it runs for up to 25 minutes, other times it cuts out after 4 or 5. Varies from game to game. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 93 11:20:07 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Re: MEGEM and QEMM? Message-ID: <9307141520.AA17933@magick.tay2.dec.com> Jon Spewak writes: > I haven't tried the utility out yet, but might it have any problems if I > am using a memory manager such as QEMM? Worked fine for me with Wing Commander II under QEMM 6.03. Although the joystick seemed to get VERY sensitive... BTW, mail to you bounces, Jon... DDA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 93 19:06:34 EDT From: jagati1@SERVER.uwindsor.ca (Jason Jagatic) Subject: Re: MEGEM System Re-boot. Message-ID: <9307142306.AA07247@SERVER.uwindsor.ca> I noticed that I am not the only one that had MEGEM cause there system to reboot. Can someone please help me with this? I would really like to get it working.... Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jul 93 18:14:35 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: PACKAGE Message-ID: <9307131814.A1944wk@gravis.com> It's Tue 07/13/93, just got home from work and my upgrade package is here. Thought I would share this with you ;-) John PS: I bought my GUS before I started working for Gravis. Actually I was kind of surprised to see the package mailed to me. Kind of neat seeing something go from start to finish (there is a bad joke in this last line, can you find it?) ;-) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 93 11:21:35 PDT From: Lee Bollard Subject: Pinball for Windows Message-ID: <9307141821.AA13926@hpspkma.spk.hp.com> I just bought Pinball for Windows by Sierra/Dynamix. I hear digital sounds, but no music. If I play canyon.mid using media player, and then play Pinball, I hear some music, but it's not correct. I also experience lockups while playing Pinball. I've had my GUS many months and it works great with most everything, including Windows. I thought I'd be safe in buying a Windows-based game, as far as sound was concerned! Is there a workaround for this problem? Is it happening because Sierra isn't supporting pre-loading of patches? Regards, Lee Bollard bollard@spk.hp.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1993 12:46:55 +1000 (EST) From: Michael Daniel Subject: ROL files Message-ID: this has probably been asked a million times before, but is there any way to play .ROL files with the gus? Is there anything I can FTP to play these files? Are they worth playing, since they came from an Adlib (vomit) card? MPD 8-) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 22:24:37 -0400 From: KWAN RICHARD SIK YIU Subject: Sierra's pinball Message-ID: <93Jul14.222444edt.6447@skule.ecf.toronto.edu> I've noticed that someone is playing Sierra's pinball, I would like to know if anyone experienced any problems with this game(besides no music). Something like stacks overflow, unexpected lockup of the machine during the game ..... I've tried to increase the stacks to its maximum, still nothing improves! By the way, if anyone expereniced lockup when quitting windows after closing modus without stopping the mod first. I can't explain both of them, I even tried to reinstall the windows once, still the same things happens again! Please help meto solve these problems! Thank in advance!! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 10:29:02 -0700 (PDT) From: Mark Harrison Subject: Re: Trouble with Sherlock Holmes Det CD Message-ID: > From: hurley@spdc.ti.com (Brian Hurley) > Subject: Trouble with Sherlock Holmes Det CD > > Can someone point me in the right direction in getting Sherlock Holmes > Consulting Det to work with the GUS. It keeps locking up at the ICOM screen. > Acording to the readme on the cd it's a problem with conflicts with the sound > card and something else... > > I'm using a mitsumi cd-rom with the latest drivers, QEMM (I have tried himem > also). Ultrasound=220, 1, 1, 11, 7 Don't use the DMA option the Mitsumi driver (MTMCDE) offers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 93 22:54:01 EDT From: Phat H Tran Subject: Ultramid programming info up on Epas Message-ID: <9307150254.AA08506@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> The programming info for Ultramid is now up on Epas. Here is an excerpt from ultramid.doc: UltraMID is a TSR program that has approximately 20 functions to support general midi music synthesis, smart patch loading, and DMA-driven digital audio playback. UltraMID is an alternative to the low-level SDK. It provides very high level access to the UltraSound card so that a programmer can write software to synthesize General Midi music with minimal effort. In fact, the UltraMID TSR is easier to use than other popular midi processors. UltraMID also makes it very easy for programmers to produce digital audio sound effects with a minimal amount of additional code and memory. Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 08:33:41 +0000 From: craigman@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Craig Anderson) Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #42 Message-ID: <9307141324.AA00547@casbah.acns.nwu.edu> >To run the program, you will need a 386SX or higher, Windows 3.1, >and a Sound Card or MIDI Card that has the appropriate drivers >loaded in Windows 3.1. You will also need to have the MIDI Mapper >(General MIDI) and the MCI Sequencer enabled. Or, you can save >the MIDI files and play them on your own sequencing software. >The Help file contains full instructions on using the system >as well as some troubleshooting tips on setting up. Can anyone recommend sound cards and MIDI sequencers for use with such a 386? I'm looking for an optimum and most flexible system, of course. ######################## ## Craig ## A Man of Mission ## Anderson ######################## ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 93 00:32:35 EDT From: n4zfd!frodo@rylos.n2idf.ampr.org (Jim Blakely) Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #42 Message-ID: <742698891@rylos> Well, today was music day for me. Got a Media Vision Midimate MIDI connector for my GUS (since the Gravis MIDI box still isn't in distribution). Works. Got the "full" package that MidiSoft makes. It's called "Studio". It's a full-featured sequencer for Windows that supports patch caching & prints out. Basically, the Recording Session that comes with the new GUS disks is a watered down version of Studio. The printouts are very nice ... and despite the fact there was no offer in the box with the new disks, there is an upgrade available to GUS owners to Studio for $99.95 direct from MidiSoft. A much more attractive deal than Cakewalk ... and Studio was one of the finalists in the 1992 PC Magazine Technical Excellence Awards in the "After Hours" category. Midisoft's number is (206) 881-7176. I've spent most of tonight playing music on my keyboard & then printing out the score... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 93 17:57:24 EDT From: eths1306@ele.etsmtl.ca Subject: Update Message-ID: <9307142157.AA09148@ele.etsmtl.ca> Hi, I want to say that I receive my upgrade kit. I want to say that it is a realy nice package, far more than I expected. The manual is beautiful, the application looks clean, now I have to test it. I'm happy Gravis keep it's promess. Thank you... (is there any big update coming for spring?) /s ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 93 11:32:18 -0400 From: "Momentary language, sexual situations" Subject: Virtual Leftovers... Message-ID: <9307141532.AA17970@magick.tay2.dec.com> Has anyone tried this demo/intro? If so, does anyone get any sound out of it??? I was seriously worried when I saw they used GUSMOD since GUSMOD just doesn't work on my system. And sure enough, despite them prompting for IRQ (which one? MIDI, GF1?) and Port (what about DMA?), I get virtual silence for the entire demo. Kinda doesn't impress me very much... Can anyone shed light on this?? My GUS is at 240,7,7,15,5...And while I'm at it, WHY don't programs use the ULTRASND environment variable?? DDA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 13:51:00 +0000 From: "Timmy (Y.T.) Chan" Subject: Where is EPAS? Message-ID: <"19417 Wed Jul 14 13:52:25 1993"@bnr.ca> Where is EPAS?? I tried FTPing to archive.epas.utoronto.ca (as listed in the signature of the mail-list). However, I get an 'unknown host' response. Can someone give me the EPAS address (and perhaps update the signature file if the one listed is wrong). Thanks, Tim. ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V4 #43 *************************************