Ultrasound Daily Digest Tue, 28 Sep 93 0:47 MDT Volume 6: Issue 27 Today's Topics: Cakewalk V2 and Gus Patches cdrom GUS support help... Just to let you know 1/7 Just to let you know 2/7 Just to let you know 3/7 Just to let you know 4/7 KLF in your mailbox! Let's get ORIGIN to support GUS Need Suggestions on cd-rom drive purchase Readership update Sierra Sierra Drivers - no sound at all Sierra Drivers and GUS DRAM Sierra GUS drivers Ultrasound daily digest v Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #26 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: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 10:50:42 +0100 (BST) From: Lyn Holman Subject: Re: Cakewalk V2 and Gus Patches Message-ID: Reference the message from Anthony Tang I have the full blown version of Cakewalk 2 and it does have some problems. If I get the messazge 'not enough memory etc' I just hit the update Patches and all seems ok including the drums. The Readme file says that they are aware that the implementation of patch caching is not quite as it should be and that they are in discussion with Gravis about it AND they will supply a free maintenance upgrade when the problems is solved to anyone who requests it. If you have patch changes within a track if you update before you play then all the patches are loaded. I hope this sheds some light. Lyn Holman phone: +44-(0)734-318438 Computer Services Centre fax: +44-(0)734-753094 University of Reading, Whiteknights Reading RG6 2AF ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 11:38:11 +0100 (BST) From: "Reidar J. Husmo" Subject: cdrom Message-ID: <4734.9309271038@grumpy.cs.keele.ac.uk> >Hello folks! I am looking to buy a cd-rom drive for my GUS. I don't >know much about cd-rom drive except that they are really cool. Can >anyone give me any suggestion about what specification I should look >for (ie. access time, and etc)? Any suggestion on which cd-rom drive >to buy? Also, what are people trying to achieve by connecting the >cd-rom drive to their sound card? I know that allows you to play your >music CD through the GUS. Is there any other motivation? I >appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks. > > If you've got Usenet access, check out the alt.cd-rom faq, last posted 25 Sept. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 15:50:09 +1000 From: David Vu Subject: GUS support Message-ID: <9309280549.AA11134@orca.es.com> Paul Murgatroyd writes: >Sometimes I wonder if Creative Labs has paid software companies to keep stalling support of sound boards like the GUS, so that their own SB16 with WaveBlaster can get support......< I don't think they paid software companies to keep stalling support, but rather to push them to develop drivers for their line of sound boards quicker. That is Mr CL would pay Mr Origin for the development of the WaveBlaster driver for use in Privateer and future games. Great eh? Software companies get free sound board + free SDK and now some money incentives to push things along :-) .David. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 02:18:05 -0400 (EDT) From: tommylee@io.org (Tommy Lee) Subject: help... Message-ID: I just bought my Ultrasound on Friday (yes, after reading the digest for a couple of weeks, I caved in to the hype!), after playing around with it for a few days, I now have a few questions... First of all, can I register Mega-Em? Or will I soon be able to get a fully functional copy of it from Gravis in the NEAR future (I'm talking a week or two, MAX). Second, I notice that when using Mega-em, some of the sounds seem to be slightly screwed up. What patches should I pick up, and what should I replace to fix this? Keep in mind, that I'm entirely new to this Gravis thing, so I don't know how to changes patches yet either... Finally, when I ran the SETGUS program, the program informed me that when testing DMA for SBOS and for the Ultrasound, that they were busy (huh?), and that testing failed. However, everything seems to run just fine!?! Is this just a bug in SETGUS, or am I in for a nasty surprise in the near future? Oh, and one more thing. I noticed when trying X-Wing with Mega-Em that sometimes (especially when a lot of instruments are being played), I can hear a slight clicking or static-like noise. What the heck is this, and can I get rid of it? Any info on the above points would be very much appreciated. Tommy. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 21:50:43 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: Just to let you know 1/7 Message-ID: <9309272150.A3687wk@gravis.com> JUST TO LET YOU KNOW #7 ======================= Hello fellow Gravoids Just to pre-warn you, this is a long one. I haven't done an information bulletin about what is new and hot in Gravis land for nearly two months, which explains the length. Microsoft Arcade & GUS ====================== Here is a fix for Microsoft arcade. It is compliments of Mark Pfeiffer on COMP.IBM.PC.SOUNDCARD. In your WAVEMIX.INI you need to edit the REMIX= line to 2 instead of the default of 1. It seems Microsoft arcade defaults to 1 for unknown sound cards which causes the GUS some headaches. So your WAVEMIX.INI should now read: [UltraSound Waveform Output] Remix=2 GoodWavePos=0 WaveBlocks=3 SamplesPerSec=11 Quotes from Developers ====================== I have heard from some people who were curious on how developers perceive the UltraSound and how well we support them. Here is what some of them have to say: "The Gravis UltraSound goes a long way towards raising the standards of PC audio. I was impress with how well it recreated my General MIDI sequences. It is an easily integrated, affordable solution to those seeking higher sound quality than can be achieved with FM based sound cards" Hamilton Altstatt, Music and Sound Director Knowledge Adventure "As a composer, I would much rather have my compositions (as in Darksun) heard on this card...it sounds like real music", "General MIDI/wavetable synthesis is the future of computer audio ...the Gravis UltraSound is there NOW" Ralph Thomas, Music Producer Strategic Simulations Inc. "Electronic Arts looks forward to supporting the new Gravis sound card, which represents breakthrough technology" Larry Probst, President Electronic Arts "The advaced features of the UltraSound have created an entire new genre of sound card." Troy Worrell, Vice President Interplay "We found the developer support at Advanced Gravis to be exceptional, influencing us to support a card that we otherwise would have ignored. After installing the software drivers and hearing our applications play through the Gravis UltraSound, our engineers decided the sound was KILLER!" Chris Weiss MAXIS "There's no question that wave table synthesis technology, like that used in the Gravis UltraSound, greatly enhances the experience of playing Sierra's adventure games compared to the more common sound boards using FM synthesis. This will help set the benchmark for higher quality sound for consumers at an affordable price." Bill Crow, Director of Technology Sierra On-Line Sierra Announces Support and Releases Driver ============================================ I'm proud to announce that we now have the full backing of Sierra. Sierra has released a driver that may be found on our BBS, the Gravis nodes, Internet, Compuserve or the Sierra BBS called GUSDRV.EXE. This driver will allow you to add full GUS support (General MIDI and digital audio) to the latest 15 or so Sierra games. Now the press release: September 3, 1993 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TORONTO: AED VANCOUVER: AED OTC BBS: GRVSF Sierra On-Line Pumps Up The Volume for Advanced Gravis UltraSound Audio Boards Vancouver, B.C. -- September 3, 1993 -- Sierra On-Line, a computer gaming industry leader, announced today its support for the Gravis UltraSound board. Sierra On-Line has released drivers that will allow Gravis UltraSound users to complement their gaming experience (Continued to next message) --- ~ QMPro 1.50 05-8925 ~ He does the work of 3 Men...Moe, Larry & Curly ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 21:50:47 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: Just to let you know 2/7 Message-ID: <9309272150.A3688wk@gravis.com> (Continued from previous message) with the realism and natural sounds of wave table synthesis and quality audio effects. Until recently, Sierra On-Line games have only supported General Midi and FM sound cards. These new drivers will provide support for 15 of Sierra's latest retail and On-Line games, and will take full advantage of the Gravis UltraSound wave table synthesis and General Midi capabilities. According to Grant Russell, president of Advanced Gravis, "Sierra On-Line is a long-term player in the games and entertainment software market. They have earned an excellent reputation for innovation and have actually lead the entertainment industry with their consumer software titles. Sierra has a history of identifying new technologies that enhance the game playing experience. We are please that they have recognized the versatility that the open architecture that Gravis UltraSound provides." The Sierra (UltraSound) drivers are the result of a long working relationship between Sierra On-Line and Advanced Gravis. As a result, all Sierra On-Line games can now be enjoyed to their fullest extent by users of Gravis UltraSound, considered to be one of the most technically advanced, yet economically priced consumer audio boards on the market. "There's no question that wave table synthesis technology, like that used in the Gravis UltraSound, greatly enhances the experience of playing Sierra's adventure games compared to the more common sound boards using FM synthesis," said Bill Crow, Sierra's director of technology. "This will help set the benchmark for higher quality sound for consumers at an affordable price." The new drivers will be available from Sierra On-Line's bulletin board (209)689-4463, the Advanced Gravis bulletin board at (604)431-5927, or by calling Sierra's Customer Service at (209)683-8989. Sierra On-Line, located in Oakhurst, CA, develops and publishes interactive adventure games for IBM PC's and compatibles and Macintosh computers. Sierra is best knows for the King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest and Laura Bow adventure game series. In addition to UltraSound(tm) and UltraSound MAX with 3D, Gravis' 16-bit CD-quality stereo sound cards featuring wave table synthesis and recording, Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd. also designs, manufactures and markets high quality microcomputer input devices, including the Gravis Analog Pro Joystick and PC GamePad for the IBM platform, and the MouseStick II and Mac GamePad for Macintosh. For more information contact Brad Craig, market development manager for Advanced Gravis at 604/431-5020 ext 1074. UltraSound Shipping Titles ========================== One of the most common questions I get asked is "Who supports the UltraSound?" or "What titles do you currently work with?". You may remember a list I posted last Feburary which was suppose to be a list of all the GUS shipping and future titles. Well as you know some of those fell through and everytime one did there was a storm created. Since then I have decided to only tell you about titles that are VERY close to shipping and as far as the publishers tell us will definitely have GUS support. The problem in the past was trying to predict what is suppose to happen 3-5 months down the rode. Which is virtually impossible. Remember this is only a small list of titles who are currently supporting the GUS. Now this months list of new titles are: Publisher Title ETA --------------------------- --------------- -------- Knowledge Adventure Kid Zoo Shipping Electronic Arts Seal Team Oct SSN-21 Sea Wolf Nov Activision Return to Zork Oct Strategic Simulations Inc. Darksun Shipping Archon Ultra Nov Ocean Jurassic Park Oct Hollyware Entertainment Jonny Quest Oct Activision Mech Warrior II Nov Bethesda Delta V Nov Psygnosis Last Action Hero Nov Dracula Nov Wizard and Microcosm Nov Hired Guns Nov Broderbund Empire Deluxe Shipping Aris Entertainment Media Clips Shipping MPC Wizard Shipping Video Cube Oct Also check out these hot patches by: Publisher Title Patch Name --------------------------- ----------------------------- ----------- Maxis SimFarm GUSFARM.ZIP SimCity Classic GUSCITY.ZIP Sierra Latest titles GUSDRV.EXE Including Kings Quest 5 & 6, Space Quest 5, Quest for Glory III, Slater and Charlie (Continued to next message) --- ~ QMPro 1.50 05-8925 ~ He does the work of 3 Men...Moe, Larry & Curly ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 21:50:47 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: Just to let you know 3/7 Message-ID: <9309272150.A3689wk@gravis.com> (Continued from previous message) Dagger of Amon RA and MORE! Impressions Rules of Engagement II ROE2UP.ZIP There are also other large publishers who are working on patches for the UltraSound. But I would prefer not to name names until the patches are done. I should also have the 7th Guest patch by the end of the week. Trilobyte is fedexing the driver to us as we speak/type ;-). Dvorak Radio Show ================= You may have heard us on the Dvorak Radio Show. The show airs from 11am-1pm PST on Sundays and is syndicated to a ton of radio stations across North America. The UltraSound is the official sound card for this show, and as such all jingles, beeps, bloops and other SFX are all done through the UltraSound. So you may want to drop an ear on the show on Sundays ;-) Gravis Race Car =============== Advanced Gravis sponsored car #13 at the Vancouver Molson Indy this past August. We placed 12th out of 21 cars, so we are quite pleased. The photo CD of some of these images should be in this week. At which time I'll post a series of GIF images to show you all what a painted UltraSound car looks like. Look for the images in a file called GUSCAR.ZIP. Mege Emulator - Jayeson ======================= You may have heard that Gravis is in the process of negotiating with Jayeson Lee-Steere, author of Megem. This rumor is true. I can not say anything else until such time that all the paper work is signed and done, I'm sure you can understand. Jayeson has also asked that everyone please hold of registering his product until such time that the negotiating is over. What is Shipping ================ Many of you are curious as to what new products are actually shipping. As of today the Sony, Mitsumi, LMSI, Y-Cable, and the MIDI Connector box are all shipping. The 16 bit recording cards are getting closer to shipping. We'll have some 1200 in stock by the middle of October. At which point the software should be done (USS, Ultrinit, SETGUS16 and Windows drivers). You all know how much I hate guessing at shipping dates but so far it looks like the end of October is looking good. Once I know a definite date I'll let you know. Bad Disks ========= About a month ago we had 2 bad disk duplicators that caused us a ton of headaches. As of two weeks ago ALL disks are being double verified. Meaning they are verified once after duplication, left to sit for 48 hours and then verified again. For people who may have gotten a bad disk I have posted the V2.06a software on the Gravis BBS. Each disk is a separate downloadable file that has been PASSWORD PROTECTED. As you know we can not freely distribute these files. So you will need to call Gravis tech support at (604)431-1807 to get the password. Also, don't try posting these files anywhere as they are useless without the passwords. Internet GRAVIS.COM =================== We are still having problems with our Internet aliases. Our BBS runs TBBS with a module called PIMP for our Internet connection. Seems PIMP doesn't like to handle aliases too well (ie: POSTMASTER, SALES, TECH, NMI, etc...). I have been hounding on the makers of PIMP for over a month now and they still have not been able to fix this problem. Since there are no other internet mail processors for TBBS I'm sort of stuck. Best I can do is keep bugging the PIMP people until they fix it. So for the time being, if you could direct any sales questions to chris.yuzik@gravis.com and any tech questions to matthew.arbeid@gravis.com. And of course I'm john.smith@gravis.com. NOTE: PIMP stands for Personal Internet Mail Processor. UltraSound Software Developers Toolkit ====================================== The next version of the UltraSound SDK will include full support for Borland PASCAL. This new support will include full programming examples, and revised documentation. This version should be available by mid October. I'll announce it when it is available along with everything that has been updated or (Continued to next message) --- ~ QMPro 1.50 05-8925 ~ He does the work of 3 Men...Moe, Larry & Curly ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 21:50:50 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: Just to let you know 4/7 Message-ID: <9309272150.A3690wk@gravis.com> (Continued from previous message) changed. UltraSound and the NMI ====================== Here is a letter from John Spak, the tech who is investigating this NMI problem some manufacturers are having. Dear Ultrasound Customer, This letter is to inform you of a problem that you might encounter with motherboards that are not 100% IBM compatible. One defect found in these motherboards is that the IO CH/CHK signal is not available on the PC bus - to date, this signal is present in all Industry Standard Architecture personal computers made by IBM and others ( Hewlet Packard, Northgate, AST, Gateway, Dell, etc. ). Obviously motherboards without a working IO/CKCHK can not be considered IBM compatible or industry standard by any means. This fact is also supported by the IEEE Microprocessor Standards Committee (Draft D2.02 July 13, 1990) and the Intel ISA Bus Specification (January 30, 1990) both of which indicate how the IO CH/CHK signal is to be handled. Note that it is never disconnected! In the event that you have a non-standard motherboard you will find that SBOS (a driver that we supply to emulate the SoundBlaster) will not work; also note that midi input from an instrument will not be possible from within windows. We recommend that you confront the vendor who sold the motherboard to you (I am assuming that it was implied that you were being sold a 100% IBM compatible motherboard) requesting the compatible motherboard that you asked for. For your convenience supporting abstracts from both Intel and IEEE documentation have been included with this letter. Sincerely, John Spak Advanced Gravis Technical Support Intel Microprocessor's ISA Bus Specification (January 30,1990)P.37 ================================================================== IOCHCK* [8] [8/16] I/O Channel Check may be enabled by any resource to signal an error condition that cannot be corrected, such as a memory parity error... IEEE Microprocessor Standards Committee (Draft D2.02 July 13,1990)P.8 ===================================================================== SIGNAL FUNCTION IOCHCK* ... NMI to System Processor Excerpt from a letter from Intel Corp. to Gravis (August 18,1993) ================================================================= ... Further to our conversation of last week, I would like to state Intel's position on the use of NMI in PC motherboard designs. There is no technical reason not to use the NMI input... All of Intel's PC chipsets, motherboard products, and design examples use NMI in this manner - to do otherwise risks compatibility with the defacto industry PC standard... Rich Heslip Field Applications Engineer Intel Corporation Wavetable and FM Synthesis ========================== This is a letter passed onto me by an end user, Bryan Del Rizzo. It explains in good detail the differences between FM synthesis and Wave table SEPTEMBER 16, 1993 THE SHIFTING TREND OF MUSIC SYNTHESIS By BRYAN DEL RIZZO As history has verified, society has always looked for new ways to simplify our daily existence. The first mechanical calculator, a system of strings and moving beads called the abacus, was devised in Babylonia around 500 BC. The abacus provided the fastest method of calculating until 1642, when the French scientist Blaise Pascal invented a calculator made of wheels and cogs. From there, we progressed to the first fully electronic computer named the Colossus, which used vacuum tubes instead of mechanical relays. Its construction was so secretive that its existence was not revealed until decades after it was built. In operation by 1941, the Colossus was the computer that British cryptographers used to break secret German military codes. Following that, the first modern general purpose computer would be the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator). Designed by two American engineers, ENIAC went into service at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. Its construction was an enormous feat of (Continued to next message) --- ~ QMPro 1.50 05-8925 ~ He does the work of 3 Men...Moe, Larry & Curly ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 15:34:04 EDT From: levisionet@aol.com Subject: KLF in your mailbox! Message-ID: <9309271534.tn130966@aol.com> The KLF, a PC music group, announces the KLF New Release Mailing List How it works: send requests to: klflist@bowker.com To join: subject: SUBSCRIBE To cease: subject: UNSUBSCRIBE What you'll get: Each time a new KLF MOD, 669, FAR, or whatever, is released, a UUENCODED copy will show up in your InterNet mailbox! Please note that releases can be quite large (200-300k average size) and quite frequent (as many as 10-12 a week). If your mailer cannot handle large uuencoded mail messages, please send a note to KLFLIST@BOWKER.COM with the subject: Size=xx to notify us of your mailboxes' size limit. If you experience any problems or need assistance, email MODDAN@BOWKER.COM - Dan Nicholson ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 0:41:53 PDT From: jtang@argon.chem.ucla.edu (James Tang) Subject: Let's get ORIGIN to support GUS Message-ID: <9309270741.AA20068@argon.chem.ucla.edu> I urge you folks out there to send an e-mail to the Origin people and ask them to support GUS. I am sure if enough people ask, they'll consider and maybe even support it. Here's Origin's e-mail address: OSI@aol.com or Origin_CS@aol.com or 76004.2612@compuserve.com james ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 11:10:42 +0100 (BST) From: "Reidar J. Husmo" Subject: Re: Need Suggestions on cd-rom drive purchase Message-ID: <4712.9309271010@grumpy.cs.keele.ac.uk> >Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 1:38:09 PDT >From: jtang@argon.chem.ucla.edu (James Tang) >Subject: Need Suggestions on cd-rom drive purchase >Message-ID: <9309250838.AA18984@argon.chem.ucla.edu> > >Hello folks! I am looking to buy a cd-rom drive for my GUS. I don't >know much about cd-rom drive except that they are really cool. Can >anyone give me any suggestion about what specification I should look >for (ie. access time, and etc)? Any suggestion on which cd-rom drive >to buy? Also, what are people trying to achieve by connecting the >cd-rom drive to their sound card? I know that allows you to play your >music CD through the GUS. Is there any other motivation? I >appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks. > >james > No doubt there'll be enough answers to this to bore people to death already, but I'll add my tuppence worth just the same. Until quite recently, the Mitsumi was by far the best buy - about half the price of comparable drives. It is still a good buy, but the competition is catching up. Don't buy anything but icecreams because they are 'cool'. There are several valid reasons for buying cdrom drives, such as: Software distribution (it is becoming more and more common - especially as it is cheaper for the manufacturer to distribute the software on one cd as opposed to 40+ stiffies (3.5") ). Image editing - Photo-cds are one of the main reasons why I bought a cd. I can quite painlessly, and relatively cheaply, transfer all my 'cool' images (I'm Norwegian, so I'll stand by that description :-) to a digital format, and edit them to my hearts content. To me, this is *so* much handier than buying a colour scanner and providing diskspace for the scanned images. Reference and multimedia - You can get some amazing reference works on cdrom. You try to find a 21 volume encyclopedia for about $40. Or a dictionary, Eng-Ger, Ger-Eng, Eng-Fre, Fre-Eng dictionaries AND AutoRoute for a mere $16... Music playback - It can be ever so handy to be able to listen to music while you're working, without having to get up to 'skip' every time a naff track is played. Note: If you buy a caddy-based cdrom drive, you may find this to be more hassle than it's worth. Games. Well, I can't believe I'd put this down as a valid reason, but I *do* like The seventh guest. And, no, I haven't solved the microscope puzzle, either. So what should you buy? If you haven't got the money; don't. If you've almost got the money, get a Mitsumi. If you want something that'll last, get a double-speed drive with all kinds of compatibilities, AND which needs a scsi-card - i.e. it doesn't come with its own proprietary controller. Scsi controllers can be found from about $35. No matter what upgrade path you take in the future, the cdrom-drive should be able to cope - including EISA, MCI, Vesa-local bus, PCI(?), and whatever the PowerPCs will use. Heck, you may even be able to connect it to your Sun workstation, but don't quote me on that. :-) Notice that you may get better performance by buying a sigle-speed drive, and using the money you saved to buy a cache (the caches supplied from the Gates of hell don't like cdroms). The most frequent 'dislike' I've seen about the Mitsumi in reviews is that the loading mechanism seems very fragile (it's operated manually). Personally, I trust that mechanism a lot more than other mechanical ones. Oh well, enough tripe for now. Radar ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 16:47:07 -0600 (CDT) From: ddebry@grue.dsd.ES.COM (Dave DeBry) Subject: Readership update Message-ID: <9309272247.AA23994@grue.dsd.ES.COM> The direct readership of the GUS Digest has held pretty steady around 1200 for the past few days. As usual, this is a low estimate on the true number of readers. Several of the addresses/readers are reflectors, copying the digest out to multiple readers on AOL, Compu$erve, Bitnet, and other Internet sites. I've heard rumors of the digests reaching BBSs via FidoNet and various other UUCP-type leaps. And, of course, the infamous Message Board at Gravis, where the digest is printed out everyday and hung up to dry. :) -- Dave ddebry@ debry@ \ "Give the director a serpent deflector, DeBry dsd. peruvian. | A mudrat detector, a ribbon reflector, es. cs.utah. | A cushion convector, a picture [sp] of nectar, com edu / A viral dissector, a hormone collector." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 9:38:04 CDT From: Fitzgerald Jr Steele Subject: Sierra Message-ID: <199309271438.JAA24284.48837@icaen.uiowa.edu> Since we've all been talking about Sierra lately, I was wondering...Is there any way to contact Sierra Online through the Net? I know their BBS number, but I've only got a 2400 bps modem and that gets pretty expensive, even if you call late at night. Do they have an Internet address for email. Or even better, can you FTP from them? Thanks Jerry Steele fjsteele@icaen.uiowa.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 09:29:13 -0400 From: gkmaier@crl.mobil.com (Greg K. Maier) Subject: Sierra Drivers - no sound at all Message-ID: <9309271329.AA26542@crlux1.crl.mobil.com> I am playing "Quest For Glory 1: So You Want to be a Hero" and can't get any sound using Ultramid and the Sierra drivers. I can choose "Gravis Ultrasound" in the install program and select it for both audio and music effects, but when then game plays, there is nothing but silence. I have played with it for a few hours and can't get any sound. SBOS and MEGEM both work fine, but of course I want to hear the "Gravis Ultrasound" option. I tried a boot disk and also downloaded the Sierra drivers from both Gravis and the epas archive, with the same results. I bought this game on Friday just to hear the new drivers :-( And it didn't hurt that it was marked down to US $19.95 either ;-) Is anyone else playing this or have you gotten silence using the Sierra drivers? Thanks, Greg M gkmaier@crl.mobil.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 08:56:54 EDT From: anclarke@civil.watstar.uwaterloo.ca Subject: Sierra Drivers and GUS DRAM Message-ID: <9309271259.AA00197@sail.uwaterloo.ca> Well, I got the sierra driver and followed instructions carefully. When I ran the setup program, it gave me a notice that the 256k setup was ok, as were the 512k and 768k setups. This wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that I only have 256k onboard. Whenever I try to run KQ6 I can't get the intro to work. It seems keeps reentering the game after about the first sentence. Perhaps this is because it thinks I have more memory? Speaking of memory, I was peering at my ultrasound card and noticing that there are 8 memory expansion slots. Having never installed RAM into something before, I can only assume that 128k DRAM chips are used. What speed are they? I remember someone mentioning that they were available directly from gravis; how do I contact them? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 09:58:29 -0300 (ADT) From: Gravis Ultrasound Lover Subject: Re: Sierra GUS drivers Message-ID: On Sun, 26 Sep 1993 troutski@aol.com wrote: > Sure, they work and sound great, but the fact that you _still_ need that pig > of a TSR, Ultramid, is sorely disappointing. My guess is that we need ULTRAMID for old games only. Did Sierra do that before? Releasing a driver to make older games compatible with a soundcard and then start supporting that soundcard? I think they always started by supporting the card, but did nothing for older games. They saw that the GUS had tons of fans around the world. :) I think (and I hope) future Sierra games won't need ULTRAMID. If they do, I will consider that half-GUS support. But it's a start. > I can only hope Sierra's (and whoever else's) future support for the GUS does > not require Ultramid. IMNSHO, Ultramid is a workaround, and not a very > elegant one at that. Megaem is a technical wonder, and I admire Mr. Steere's > programming skills. Exactly my toughts. I sure hope that Mr. Steere will successfully implement digital audio in Megaem. But when I look at the huge SBOS family (each one handling digital audio its own way), I wonder how it will sound. Marc Y. Paulin /-----------------------------------------------------------------\ | Fidonet: 1:255/200 Internet: markus@info.umoncton.ca | | Talk: markus@clement.info.umoncton.ca | \--------------+------------------------------+-------------------/ | Gravis Ultrasound forever!!! | +------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 21:50:25 From: john.smith@gravis.com Subject: Ultrasound daily digest v Message-ID: <9309272150.A3631wk@gravis.com> ----------------------------- >From: james@maths.exeter.ac.uk >Subject: email to gravis+log jams >In fact if it is true that gravis dont have a valid postmaster alias it >probably breaks their conditions for being connected to internet email. >But no one would be that stupid would they? Gees you people are nice. I've said this before and I will say it again. Our DOS mail processor is screwed and has been for oh, maybe a month or so. The people who wrote the processor know about it but they haven't been able to fix it. Since this is the only mail processor for TBBS I don't have much of a choice but wait until they do. Or I could just get rid of it, but I would rather not. So take a chill pill. John --- ~ QMPro 1.50 05-8925 ~ By the way, what does BTW mean? ;-) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Sep 93 19:05:53 EDT From: n4zfd!frodo@rylos.n2idf.ampr.org (Jim Blakely) Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #26 Message-ID: Regarding Creative Labs & Game companies' support of the SoundBlasters: ****************Climbing on Soap Box********************* Come on folks, must we start with more "conspiracy theories"? The game companies write drivers for Creative Labs products because Creative Labs created the PC soundcard market. Also, Creative Labs, like many large hardware manufacturers, has very aggressive sales promotions aimed at the people who really control the sound card market -- computer store owners and sales people. Creative Labs takes an active part in the reseller training sessions given by the major distributors -- and all of the major distributors carry their products. They have contests and promotions that encourage the salesperson to recommend the "easy sell" -- the SoundBlaster. Let's face it, no matter how great and wonderful the GUS is, it's never going to be successful if your corner computer store A) doesn't carry it in stock, and B) doesn't have one in a computer with a demo running. Creative Labs supports developers, too. They have programs where they will lend a developer their sound cards so that the developer can add support to their software. In contrast, Advanced Gravis is carried by only one distributor. Until this month, there were no decent NFR (Not For Resale) programs -- nothing to encourage the reseller to have a card in the store. There are no reseller salespeople programs, either. How long did it take to get a barely functional SDK out to developers? Does Advanced Gravis have developer programs in place? Let me tell you my experiences, as a reseller, with Advanced Gravis. Once upon a time, I called Gravis looking for an evaluation board, having come across the ultrasound digest somewhere, and hearing that there finally was an affordable wavetable synthesis board on the market (and the fact that I detest Creative Labs). I spoke to a reseller sales person, and placed an order for an NFR Ultrasound, basically at about $25 less than dealer cost of a resellable board. I requested "second day shipping". Six weeks, and about fifteen calls to four different people later, I finally received my demo Ultrasound. I think the last guy shipped it because he was tired of being pestered by me. So. Here we are. Now that there's Sierra support for the Ultrasound, I can finally put a demo on a machine that will be impressive. (And yes, I have it running with Ultramid loaded high, with Stacker & my CD-ROM drivers all loaded & I can still run a game. (Used QEMM 7.01 with Stealth and DOS-Up to work this miracle). If you notice, Gravis made it rather difficult for me to get a demo unit. If it wasn't for the fact that my P.O. was already approved for the GUS, I might have just let the whole matter drop. Now it's ordering time for the Xmas season. What cards do you think the purchasing agents are going to be ordering? The old reliable SB cards that their salespeople can 'move' on name recognition alone, or some other card that's so unpopular that Babbages took it *off* their store-stock list? If Advanced Gravis really wants to break into the soundcard market, they need to get out to the resellers, demo the card, and give free (or near free) demos to the sales people. Otherwise, there's no reason for a reseller to sell the card, and plenty of Creative reasons not to. ***********************Soap Box Mode: Off**************************** Thank you for your time. Remember, all of you Internetters ... this is a real-world business. There are no conspiracies, and there's no evil empire to be defeated by the use of the Force. Want to see the Ultrasound succeed? Spend your weekends getting friends to go into computer stores to ask when they're going to have an Ultrasound on display. Tell the sales people you don't care about Soundblaster compatibility. Tell them you want a computer with an Ultrasound on it in the store to demo games on -- and you'll only buy a game if you've heard how well it supports the Ultrasound. And remember, the salesperson may be giving up a chance at a trip to Hawaii if he/she listens to you. Make it worth their while - they usually work on commission. Buy all your software from that salesperson. --Jim Blakely, VP Blakely-Signature Associates Bonita Springs, FL ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V6 #27 *************************************