Re: [Qemu-devel] Joystick, gameport, midi, PC speaker and better sound cards support

[use.reply-to.address@domn.net]

malc wrote:

> On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 use.reply-to.address@domn.net wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>> http://www.synchrondata.com/pheaven/www/area25.htm
>> http://www.synchrondata.com/pheaven2/www/area28.htm
>> these two pages had some links to a lot of dos sound code
>> some of it could probably be used to improve the sb16-compatible 
>> emulated
>> card (which works fine except for missing pnp and not understanding some
>> operations dos games used to use to auto-detect the card)
>> the code contained there is supposed to have moved to
>> http://www.programmersheaven.com/
>
>
> What games exactly?
>

in windows the sound does work fine
it worked on the first tried after I manually set the irq from 7 to 5 , 
same thing with both windows 98 and windows 2000
I could probably get sound for some of these games running them in 
windows 2000 with VDMsound

so far I have tried

aces of the pacific

when you run the setup you have each choice and the auto-detected ones 
have a check mark next to them
only the pc speaker has one (but there's no sound coming out)

when the setup program launch , qemu complain about the 0xe0,1 not being 
understood yet
(4 times and there are 4 support sound card types
Roland MT-32 MT-100 LAPC-I CM-32L or CM-64
SoundBlaster / AdLib Card (or compatibles)
Tandy 3 voice
IBM PS/1 Audio/Joystick Card)

my guess is that this 0xe0,1 command is pretty important if all these 
card types can be detected and distinguished with it
maybe other commands are run after it but this install program just 
gives up after this first command

this game also uses the joystick
(I have 624k conventional memory so the program run fine and at exactly 
the right speed (as opposed to plain dos on this same machine , too fast))

blake stone (based on wolfenstein 3d, wolf3d has excellent autodetection 
capabilities , this is my experience with it in the past on very varied 
machines)

this game comes with a SETBLAST.EXE program that is used to set the 
BLAST  variable that a lot of games use to set the io/irq/dma
this program also include autodetection but is does not trigger any 
"command not understood" message , also the program claims there is no 
card on 220/5/1

black stone itself has an in-game menu for setting the sound , starting 
the game does not trigger any "command not understood" message , but the 
game
doesn't give any other choice than the pc speaker

Alone in the dark
when launching this game you always start in the configuration menu then 
the game itself
when I try to configure , first it ask for the FM music card typebut all 
the choices are "grayed out"
you press any key and it ask for the sound effect card type and only the 
pc speaker is available
does not trigger "command not understood" message

X-Wing (original version not the CD version)
the installer does not have any restriction on the card type and doesn't 
appear to have card type detection routines
you just choose the card type and launch the game
unfortunately there is no sound , also no "command not understood" message
there is probably some auto-detection routine running at game launch however

I have no mouth and I must scream
I have never played that game , ever
when I start it the windows enlarge too 1280x1024 and fill with some 
garbage , but it's mostly white , in the garbage I can barely make some 
full motion video being repeated a few times
there are no sound nor any "command not understood" message , this game 
is not playable (the only one so far)

that's the games I had in my dos image

I have a lot more of them in my collection , I just need to copy them to 
my harddrive then I can give you a more detailed report

also I suppose there is some special console I could use to monitor the 
auto-detection routines , maybe that could be helpful

if there is any specific test you want me to perform just ask , I'll 
post again later with more reports