How To Play Music In Certain Games Using Msdos7.1?

[jkgeyti]

Hi.

First off, thanks for a fantastic site. Secondly, I want to express my happiness, cause I downloaded the games I wanted moments before they all got esa marked :)

Anyway, here's my problem:
I've got an old Pentium II Compaq monster with onboard sound (sound blaster compatible). Furthermore, I've installed ms-dos 7.1 on the box (OT: would 6,2 be a better alternative?).
I've set up the sound card using the following line in autoexec.bat

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6

(So I've got no SET SOUND or SET MIDI - problem?)

I'm gonna use the following games as reference games (as the titles themselves might help you remembering the solution to my problem):

Prince of Persia
Dyna Blaster
Duke Nukem 3d

All games works fine, even duke3d in VESA mode, and all play sound effects perfectly. Prince of Persia even plays music in the opening sequence (da-dadadadaaaa :P).
BUT, Dyna Blaster and duke3d does not play any music. No matter what sound card I try in the duke3d setup, it refuses to say anything (it does not give a warning with most cards I try though...).

I've tried setting the following:

SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E

in autoexec.bat, but it didn't help muck.

So what do I do? Please help (Guess the following smiley is required here: :help: )

thanks in advance
jkgeyti

[Eagle of Fire]

Looking at the quoted guide of the second post of this link (http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2743) might prove usefull for you.

[Guest]

Not really, no.

I've already set up dos, and it has got more than enough memory.

But I have no idea what driver I should use for that muck old onboard card, and sound effects works perfectly by creating a direct connection between games and sound card (set blaster).

Apart from explaining the basics about setting up dos, I don't see how it should help me get music in my games? Maybe I'm missing something?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Most old games have their own configuration programs, which you need to set up before the sound (and sometimes also other things) will work properly.

[Guest]

Ye ofcourse :P

Duke3d is set up correctly, whereas both dyna blaster and pop automatically detects my sound card.

So if everything is set up correctly, and I've set up direct access to the sound card using SET BLASTER, what am I then missing in order to play music??

[Guest]

Furthermore, I've just discovered that SOME sounds aren't working in wolfenstein 3d. As far as I remember, there's a sound when you use the menu, which I do not hear and the BOING-deedeedeedee sound when you find some nazigold is also missing.

This is truly weird :\

[Rogue]

You need to find proper driver for your sound card. I have couple of drivers, but it really vary from the system to the system.

Try first to search on Compaq/HP web site.

If you can't find it, I would suggest you to install Win98 on that computer (Win98 includes DOS 7.1, not same copy you installed, but it has all stuff needed to play those games).

Then use instruction on
this (http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4382) topic to set properly MS-DOS mode.

I have setup couple PCs this way, and all of them work without any problem with all DOS games I got.

If you don't have WIn98, or you are unwilling to install it, then you have to find specific drivers to your sound card, and install it in DOS in the order to use it. (but you can't use Everest in this case)

Hope this helps...

[Guest]

Bah - after having reread my config.sys and autoexec at least 5 times, evetually I found a typo.

I knew it was a midi problem, but I thought I required a driver. The real problem was a small type in the set blaster setting. I changed the midi port to 338 and everything works just fine :)