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[MrFlibble]

While digging through cd.textfiles.com and other sources I've started collecting the old third-party extras that were released back then for Dune II. These include trainers, cheat programmes, savegame and scenario editors, most of which are still functional even though might have become obsolete with new programmes having emerged since.

NOTE: Programme titles and descriptions below are taken from the original documentation, if possible.

Editors

D2CHT10.ZIP - DUNE 2 CHEAT The Ultimate Cheat Program v1.0 by Jens Defendorf. [a unit and structure editor for v1.0]
DUNE2CHT.ZIP - C.k.'s Dune ][ INI file editor.
DUNE2ED2.ZIP - Dune 2 Save Game Editor & Dune 2 Scenario Editor by C.k.
DUNEEDIT.ZIP - Dune II: Building Of A Scenario by Beloglazov V.
EDDUNE.ZIP - DUNE II Saved Game File Editor Version 1.5.

Trainers

DUN2TR07.ZIP - Dune II : MEGA-Trainer by Network (for v1.07).
DUN2TR10.ZIP - Dune II : MEGA-Trainer by Network (for v1.0).
DUN2TRNR.ZIP - RAZOR DUNE ][ TRAINER.
DUNE2_T2.ZIP - DUNE II Trainer V1.1 by Hal 9000.
DUNE2_TR.ZIP - Dune II trainer.
DUNE2CHT.ZIP - Dune ][ cheat. [money trainer]
DUNE2MM2.ZIP - Dune 2 Money Maxxer v2.0.
DUNE2TRN.ZIP - DUNE ][ TRAINER. [money trainer]
TRDUNE2.ZIP - DUNE II Trainer V1.1 by Hal 9000. [same as above but doesn't have the extra patch file]

Miscellaneous

DUNE2AIL.ZIP - Dune II GUS patch.
DUNE2FAQ.ZIP - DUNE II FAQ & Strategy Guide Revision 1.3.
DUNE2PAT.ZIP - Westwood's Dune II v1.07 patch with READ.ME file included.
DUNE2SAV.ZIP - custom Dune II scenarios (in the form of saved games) by Bjorn.

[MrFlibble]

Another very interesting thing is a version of SETUP.EXE that allows not only to pick a language from the official three but also select separate devices for sound effects, music and speech:
DUNE2STP.ZIP

The description on that CD says:

DUNE2STP.ZIP 45441 11-09-92 Update for Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty
| that allows for two sound cards to be used at
| the same time (Roland SBlaster, etc.).
| (Newest File Date: 11-09-92)

Which suggests that this must have been some official release (it certainly can't be a hacked version of the US version SETUP.EXE because the strings with language names on the language selection screen are inside the EXE, not in SETUP*.DIP, and are not present in the US version of the setup programme).

For some reason the files is called SETUP2.EXE and the date stamp is November 9, 1992, which makes it a very early version of the three-language edition (the dates on the files from three-language releases are from 1993 already). In fact, the date stamp on the official sound fix available from Westwood FTP is November 23, 1992.

[RRS]

Thanks for the research!

That setup file may be the most useful thing for the average user with patched game. Under DOSBOX I found SoundBlaster Pro + Sound Canvas the most pleasing combination.

Not sure how this GUS patch is useful today (yes, I had GUS back then, believe it or not! it was Windows that effectively killed this card). Maybe I'm not using it properly but it seems that the game loads MT-32 instrument patches, something that DOSBOX already emulate.



While I'm reserved towards most mods and hacks, I find sound tweaks harmless and useful.

How about a dedicated thread to such tweaks? Of course early games use hardcoded ways to talk to sound card, however later ones use HMI or Miles Sound System. When a game has GUS missing, you could sometimes replace the drivers using those from a newer game to gain support.

Other example: I've noticed that American McGee's Alice (which has 3D sound) uses the same drivers/sound engine as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault with addons (which doesn't have 3D sound). Simply copying drivers and adding lines to config file enabled 3D effects (bullets whizzing by!) in MoH!

[MrFlibble]

Originally Posted by RRS

Not sure how this GUS patch is useful today (yes, I had GUS back then, believe it or not! it was Windows that effectively killed this card). Maybe I'm not using it properly but it seems that the game loads MT-32 instrument patches, something that DOSBOX already emulate.

Not long ago I've bumped into this patch and used its principle to build by own version, which works well with DOSBox (haven't tested it on real GUS hardware though). It uses the General MIDI version of the soundtrack to pretty nice results. You can get the patch (and more info) here:
http://forum.dune2k.com/topic/21642-...und-in-dosbox/

I've also built GUS support into the latest version of Super Dune II Classic.

Originally Posted by RRS

How about a dedicated thread to such tweaks? Of course early games use hardcoded ways to talk to sound card, however later ones use HMI or Miles Sound System. When a game has GUS missing, you could sometimes replace the drivers using those from a newer game to gain support.

I know there's a GUS patch for Wolfenstein 3-D, as well user-made patches for some other games. I first got the Dune II and Wolfenstein 3-D patches here, a quick look into that folder also shows GUS fixes for Master of Magic, Master of Orion, Warcraft and some others.

Originally Posted by RRS

Other example: I've noticed that American McGee's Alice (which has 3D sound) uses the same drivers/sound engine as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault with addons (which doesn't have 3D sound). Simply copying drivers and adding lines to config file enabled 3D effects (bullets whizzing by!) in MoH!

No wonder, they both use the same engine, id Tech 3.