Ultrasound Daily Digest Fri, 8 Oct 93 049 MDT Volume 7: Issue 7 Today's Topics: [GUS] OS/2 MMPM drivers A good pinball game Any word yet on gravis.com? CGW DMP265 (was Re: GUS & Lemmings 2 FX (???)) Dropped notes under Windows Engine noise in F1GP GUS and Quest for Glory III GUS MAX I just want it to work! Minor Probs OS/2 Drivers for GUS?!? Pathetic Response From Origin Pricing a GUS Still hanging in there, but for how long? Still Hanging in there... Syndicate Thanks Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #6 Using 16-bit DMA v2.06a vs. v2.06L what exactly can OS/2 and the GUS do together? 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, 06 Oct 1993 19:15:00 GMT From: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: Re: [GUS] OS/2 MMPM drivers Message-ID: <199310071747.AA26727@xs4all.hacktic.nl> aaronw@netcom4.Netcom.COM (Aaron Williams) writes: I called Gravis today asking about the 16 bit recording option, which won't be available for another month. I also asked about OS/2 support and was told that the drivers are being written now. They said that the drivers should be available in a month or so. I don't know if I can wait. I just got the OS/2 2.1 DDK and am looking at writing a DOS VDD to allow SBOS to run properly. I don't think that this should be too hard. All I have to do is trap I/O calls to the sound blaster ports and generate an interrupt 2 instead of having an NMI be generated. I am not familiar enough yet with the GUS or with writing OS/2 drivers to attempt to write a native driver (however, a WAV driver may not be too difficult, since it mostly involves setting up DMA and whatnot. MIDI drivers would require far more work. It should be possible to write a driver to behave like Mega-em since all it seems to do is trap I/O calls using a VCPI handler. With OS/2 it may also be possible to write drivers to emulate a SB Pro or a PAS16 as well, since the drivers can be fairly large and do not use any DOS memory space. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Oct 93 18:16:35 EST From: BGUZ000 Subject: A good pinball game Message-ID: <07OCT93.19738826.0146.MUSIC@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA> I just purchased a game called Silverball by Epic MegaGames, published by Microleague Interactive Software. It is a very good pinball game, but I think the only reason I baught it is because it supports the GUS. The music is pretty good and the digitized sounds of the flippers, the pull plunger, the ball and others are very clear and realistic. If someone is a pinball fan, this game is worth buying. The game also supports soundblaster, so I ran SBOS to see if the GUS sound and music was better. However, the game failed to recognize the GUS as a soundblaster so I was unable to compare. Also, I noticed that the game uses the GUS stereo features as the digitized sounds and some of the music were coming through one speaker, while the rest of the music was coming through the other speaker. BGUZ@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 2:24:43 MDT From: Stephen N Larson Subject: Any word yet on gravis.com? Message-ID: <9310070820.AA26301@orca.es.com> Can any of you reach matthew.arbeid@gravis.com (as a certain GUSser recently suggested)? It seems impossible to email anything to tech support... -- ~Weivster ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ larson@eigen.ee.ualberta.ca (Ce, Ee) ################################### larson@bode.ee.ualberta.ca (Ce, Ee) #### ### #### c311-47@ucs.ualberta.ca (CAD) ### ### ### ### ########## ########### ### " To Err is human... ### ########### ########### ### ### #### ### ### To really foul things up ### ### ########### ### requires a computer! " ### ### ########### ### ### ### ### ### - Wizard&Genius, 1981 ### ########### ########### ### ### ######### ########### ### ### ### ### #### ### #### ################################### TM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 02:07:35 -0700 From: dross@ultrix4.csubak.edu (Dean Ross-Smith) Subject: CGW Message-ID: <9310070907.AA08497@ultrix4.csubak.edu> All you people out there gotta remember that like any other magazine, Computer Gaming World is probably written 2-3 months ahead of time. And if they're doing hardware reviews, maybe a little longer. I think that means no Mega-em. No Ultramid. No Sierra drivers. No announced games with GUS support. Get the picture? The GUS scene is slowly grinding its way along, maybe even starting to crawl... Flame on.... Matt Arbeid- Read this Line! THE UPGRADE DISKS YOU SENT ME ARE MELTED! What's so confusing about that statement? They only fit in my drive with a lot of force and I had to disassemble my floppy drive to get them out! And if you think working at Gravis is an Adventure (as your tagline states), try being a GUS user! I've got games that support the GUS in native mode- ALL TWO OF THEM! If it weren't for the Internet, I'd be screwed. I hope things go well for Gravis/Forte this Christmas, or We're in trouble. Flame off... The Gravis Ultrasound- not very entertaining, but every day is an adventure! and all i wanted was a 16-bit soundcard that would work/sound better than adlib ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1993 19:07:00 GMT From: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: Re: DMP265 (was Re: GUS & Lemmings 2 FX (???)) Message-ID: <199310071747.AA26679@xs4all.hacktic.nl> ptran@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Phat H Tran) writes: >In article Alberto@ishiilab.dnj.ynu.ac.jp (Alberto Tomita Junior) writes: >> >>I'm having problems with DMP 2.65, too (also with 2.63 and 2.64), >>although 2.62 works fine. DMP 2.65 either plays nothing (no sound >>at all) or crash while loading a file (hanging up the system). >> > >If DMP crashes, just try rebooting and using S3MPlay, GUSMOD, PlayMIDI, >or some other GUS utility before using DMP. I find that DMP will usually >work fine after I "massage" my GUS using these other programs. > >I think Otto should try using the GUS priming functions in the SDK. > >Phat. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 10:17:58 MDT From: Stuart Yoshida Subject: Dropped notes under Windows Message-ID: <9310071617.AA03620@elektra.fc.hp.com> I've been noticing that under Windows 3.1 there are notes which are "dropped" while playing a song. This happens with the two sequencers I'm using (Power Chords Pro v2.0 and Cakewalk Pro for Windows v2.0) and the Windows Media Player utility. By "dropped" I mean that notes are cut off prematurely or aren't played at all. My suspicion is that because Windows is a time-sliced operating system and MIDI requires "real-time" sequencing, there are dropped notes every once in a while. -- Stuart Yoshida Internet: yoshida@elektra.fc.hp.com Voice: (303) 229-2324 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 23:42:49 +1000 From: adriano ennio raiola Subject: Engine noise in F1GP Message-ID: <199310071342.AA14047@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU> Sheesh, with all you people rabitting on about how to get an effective engine noise from the GUS for racing games, its already been done for you, just listen to the AMIGA version of World Circuit, (or Amiga Indy 500 for that matter) and youll hear a pretty much perfect engine noise, using just 2 of the Amigas four digitised voices (or maybe 3, at least 1 is used for tyre skidding). Im not exactly sure how they do it, but if someone can find out, then theres your solution to how the GUS should do it, now if only Microprose would DO it for the GUS. Adrian ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1993 09:18:39 +1000 From: David Vu Subject: Re: GUS and Quest for Glory III Message-ID: <9310072313.AA11029@orca.es.com> Nils Olav Brandstorp Bekken wrote: > The new drivers from Sierra for the GUS gives great sound, but I've > had this bad experience that the game locks up sometimes when i tries > to save the game. I tried both with and without the emm386 thing, > but it doesn't seem to make any difference. If anyone had the same > experience and found a solution I would appreciate an answer. All of the Sierra games that I've played always lock up when I try to save the game. This is because I was using a hard disk cache with write-delay set to ON. Setting the write-delay to OFF solves to problem. .David. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1993 19:02:00 GMT From: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: Re: GUS MAX Message-ID: <199310071747.AA26652@xs4all.hacktic.nl> prins@cs.sun.ac.za (9220410 Prins W. Mnr) writes: >Thomas van Kuipers (thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl) wrote: >> Matthew E. Bernold writes: > >> I agree ... I hope Gravis is releasing a card with 8 Mb ram max. and 4 Mb >> rom ... but i don't think they will .... if they aren't trying to make a >> new one ... they are gonna lose their position as BEST CARD in >> price/performance .... >The GUS Maxx will as far as I know be a normal GUS with all the bells and >whistles. The GUS's GF1 chip cannot address more than 1 Meg of RAM, so >for the present I don't think a card with more memory will become available. >However, I've heard rumours of a GF2 chip, capable of addressing up to 8 Megs. >Wheter this is true, and whether we'll ever see one on a GUS remains to be seen. >(I sure as hell hope so though.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 20:38:17 +0501 (EDT) From: Gunnar Swanson Subject: I just want it to work! Message-ID: I am among those that got a GUS very early on, almost a year ago. While I have enjoyed the card, I must say that it has not lived upto my expectations and were I to do this all over I would not buy the GUS again. I too like the better sound potential that the GUS offers but I would rather have mediocre FM than a GUS headache. I am in full agreement that the card should work out of the box. While Gravis has been very forthcoming with patches to SBOS and etc. they are just not enough. My sense of things is that while the industry is intrigued by what the GUS can do, they are not going to support it. This is a sad fact as I have come to realize. I notice that there is a big campaign to send letters in I have done so. 20 in fact and I got the same bland reply everytime. I hate to be a Jeremiah but I think that the GUS is doomed to the ashebin of history and Gravis may be soon to follow. Don't get me wrong I want the GUS to work however I think the writing is on the wall. :-( Better luck next time Gravis. Gunnar Swanson gunnar@gibbs.oit.unc.edu end. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 20:48:26 -0400 (EDT) From: gt5543b@prism.gatech.edu Subject: Minor Probs Message-ID: <199310080048.AA05292@prism> I've been having problems with SBOS freezing when the loadsbos.exe tries to load. Sometimes it does load but after a few seconds the computer freezes anyway. Also, my midi files don't work in windows but the wav's work just fine. Patch Manager doesn't find any patch files. Outside of Windows (3.1), midi files work just fine. It just stopped working one night so it might be a problem with the card. (no, I didn't touch the jumpers) Anybody else heard these symptoms? One more thing, How do i get a log on to the FTP sites? How do I get a password? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1993 19:03:00 GMT From: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl (Thomas van Kuipers) Subject: Re: OS/2 Drivers for GUS?!? Message-ID: <199310071747.AA26660@xs4all.hacktic.nl> Salim@nougat.demon.co.uk (Salim Fadhley) writes: >Does anybody know when the OS/2 drivers for the Gravis Ultrasound will finaly >be released? Are the roumers that IBM are also developing drivers true? Does >anybody know anything about this? Are Gravis owners only surposed to use >Mickysloath Windoze? I hope somebody will write them SOON .... <--------------------------------------------------------------------> Thomas van Kuipers Email: thomas@hammer.hacktic.nl De Wadden 49 Examenyear of HighSchool (6 VWO) 3524 AG Utrecht Important: Computers, Math, Women and Music! Telephone: +31 30 884235 Netherlands (in Europe) <--------------------------------------------------------------------> ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 13:09 BST From: MFZPITT@VAX.CCC.NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK Subject: Pathetic Response From Origin Message-ID: <9310071206.AA00333@orca.es.com> Why won't Origin just give us a straight answer? We must all keep up a campaign of mailing them calling for GUS support. In response to Origin I suggest they read the recent GUS reviews in the UK mags PC Format PC Review and PC Zone its rated very highly. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 17:51:12 -0700 From: uw Subject: Pricing a GUS Message-ID: <9310080051.AA25289@carson.u.washington.edu> So, how much would a GUSw/1meg run me? Just howhard are they to get to work... I would like to have better sound than a PC speaker, but I only have 2 megs of memory... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1993 09:54:29 +1000 From: David Vu Subject: Re: Still hanging in there, but for how long? Message-ID: <9310072349.AA11519@orca.es.com> Paul Murgatroyd wrote: > ... > I am seriously considering buying a SB16 + WaveBlaster from a friend. Why? > Simple...the SB16 is compatible with just about everything, sounds pretty > much the same as the GUS, records in 16-bit as standard, and includes a > CD-ROM interface. > > As nice as my GUS is, I am getting fed up with having problems with just > about every piece of software I try and run (that requires sounds). I am > not surprised that the GUS gets such scathing reviews. In fact, if someone > were to come up to me today and ask what soundboard they should buy, I'd > point them in the direction of a PAS16 or an SB16, simply to save myself > from being blamed for suggesting a card that doesn't work with anything. If that person just wants a basic SB compatible card, just for games, sure. But first I'd show him my GUS playing MIDI and mods through my hifi and then showing him my SB playing the same. :-) It would show him that there is more to sound cards than just SB compatiblity and games. You might be interested in that that all the SB16 is compatible with is the basic SB. There aren't many games that support the WaveBlaster. And also it has problems in emulating MT-32 and GM. It amazes me how people still want the GUS to be 100% SB compatible. For somebody's sake, no one expects a Roland sound card to be SB compatible. When the Roland first came out, there were no support for it. And now, almost all the big games support the Roland, simply because the programmers want to have the best music, and the musicians want to have to best music for their games. > I thought that 1 year would be more than enough time for the GUS to get > some decent support, but it still seems as though the only people > supporting it are those who like programming for themselves. I think it takes longer than that to have DECENT support, say 1 in 3 games. Think about games made 1 year after the introduction of the SB, they only had Adlib mode sounds no SB digital fx. I wonder if you know about the Seventh Guest, the recent Sierra games, X-Wing with MegaEM, Star Control 2 and a host of others. > The GUS may be technically superior to its competitors, but as was shown > with the Beta-VHS video war, best does not always win. If I do purchase > the SB16, I will keep the GUS in storage, for while it lacks support now, > it may be a different story in the future. Unfortunately I need support > NOW, not at some mystical time in the next century. If you need support now, it's best to just get a cheap SB, and using it in conjunction with the GUS. For myself, I am glad I bought the GUS and not the PAS16/SB16 and I'm very satisfied with the quality of the music produced with the GUS. PS: why does your friend sell his SB16/WB? To get a GUS. Only kidding... .David. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 22:04:39 EDT From: Matthew Spewak Subject: Re: Still Hanging in there... Message-ID: <9310080204.AA21005@lambada.oit.unc.edu> Paul.. I have got to agree with you. Like yourself, I have been there since the beggining. I got among the first GUS's to ship in October '92. The board itself is great for the price, and has lots of POTENTIAL. But unless people are going to use it to its full potential, then it is worth nothing. Gravis has done a lot, and shown great support for its product... For a board that sells under 200 bucks, they sure do a great job pleasing the customer. They promised new patches and new disks, and they sent 'em out! I bought my SB (orig.) 3 years ago, and have not recieved one single thing from Creative Labs. I will probobly do the same as you. Hang on to the GUS, but buy a new sound card. I am seriously considering one of the new wavetable cards such as Diamonds new sound card, or Orchid's, as previewed in Gaming World mag. Both of those two companies have gotten excellent support for their graphics boards, so chances are, they know how to get the support they need for their sound card. All I can do is wait... It might be just another wave of Ultrasound type, great card no support, sound cards. -MS ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Oct 93 10:17:54 PST From: "alan chiu" Subject: Syndicate With SBOS (the latest version) loaded I tried using GUS-SYND.EXE to run Syndicate but the screen blanked and my computer got rebooted. Any cure? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 18:31:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Ouch! Quit pokin' me! Subject: Thanks Message-ID: Thanks to all of you who e-mailed me info on how to get it to work. For some reason, it began working before I even tried anything this morning. Hmm... must've scared it into submission! =). Thanks again! chris ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 17:32:51 -0500 (CDT) From: Siu-fung Lee Subject: Re: Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #6 Message-ID: Hi... I have a couple of questions for those tech-knowledgable types. 1) What is the use of a DSP chip? And is there a need for it on the Ultrasound? 2) I remember there being two game companies saying they now support Ultrasound. One was Sierra; what was the other one? I think Advanced Gravis should continue to talk with software companies, and persuade them to add support to games especially. Above all else, this I believe controls the fate of the Ultrasound! Too many people right now are brain-washed into wanting Soundblaster support from the gus. Since sbos does not do a great job, the best solution is _aggressive_ campaigning by Gravis to get native support... the sound will speak for itself. I know Gravis is doing this, but I hope it's aggressive enough. Anyone at Gravis read this? I think it's time to email Origin... any other company to email? |\ /\ | Siu-Fung Lee University of Manitoba | \/ \| umlee182@ccu.umanitoba.ca Motto: Verdandi >= One wish Net role: RAA Background Person (tm), Unix Junkie (R), Lawn-care Expert Psychological profile: Please consult the .plan file. Quote: "Be forewarned! There is no such thing as gender-ratio equality in CompSci.... It's countably infinite!" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 09:20:43 BST From: Andy Hewett Subject: Using 16-bit DMA Message-ID: <14363.9310070820@essex.mround.bt.co.uk> Can someone solve what appears to be an inconsistency here ? I recently tried to configure my GUS to use 16-bit DMA. I used SETGUS to set the DMA channel to 5. The DMA test failed with a read-error. Fair enough, let's stick with 8-bit DMA. On the other hand, curiosity prevails - let's see what happens if I ignore the warnings from SETGUS. USS8 is a good program to try, maybe do some stereo recording/playback ... Oh. It works. What's happening here ? Is SETGUS detecting a problem that doesn't exist, or are the 16-bit DMA transfers failing in such a way that I can't hear it on playback ? My setup: 2.06 software set, 486/33/4MB, no OPTI chipset (as far as I can tell). (anyone know a good way of detecting an OPTI chipset via software ?) Andy ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 10:26:26 -0300 (ADT) From: Damon Brodie Subject: v2.06a vs. v2.06L Message-ID: Well after poking around epas for a while, I found GUS install disks with the version labelled: v2.06L I dutyfully downloaded them and started to unzip the files. Then I looked at the time and date stamp. The file ULTRASND.001 is date 20/05/93 for the version 2.06L The file ULTRASND.001 is dated 07/07/93 for the version 2.06a Normally, L is after A in the alphabet, so I naturally assumed that it was the newest, bestest drivers etc.... But my disks have the newer time date stamp. What gives!!! Should I go ahead and use version 2.06L? BTW, what is ultramid and where is it? This is my third day with the GUS, and geez is it ever a lot of work to get games to work. TTYL Damon. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 13:12:11 EDT From: ciabatto@esc.syr.ge.com (David Ciabattoni) Subject: what exactly can OS/2 and the GUS do together? Message-ID: <9310071712.AA27314@escsyr.esc.syr.ge.com> Hi. I know that this thread has gone round and round, but its hard to pay attention to everything. I am just wondering exactly what WILL and WILL NOT work if I switch to OS/2 from DOS. (I remember that ultramid sometimes works, does anything in windows?, megaem?) I know Gravis (Forte, whomever) has not officially said anything about them, but I heard something about others writing the drivers on their own? any status.?? If someone could send me any email on this topic, explaining anything , it would be GREATLY appreciated.!! Thanx in advance... - Dave ------------------------------ End of Ultrasound Daily Digest V7 #7 ************************************