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[Frey]

I've just set up an old windows 95 computer to run all my old games. But i'm having a few problems...
- Biomenace and commander keen games run but when i'm walking along the Ground floor in the game the bottom half of the page gets this flahing white grid thing on it.

I recently downloaded these games and imagine they're probably configured to run on new systems with dosbox. SO that might be why this is happening....


Anyway, Can anyone who might recognize this problem or anyone experienced help me out here...




Also, This machine is so old it doesn't have soundblaster and will only play the music with "ADLIB" in Duke3D, Anyone know how i can get duke talking and the sound of guns blasting with out opening up the insides of this old piece of junk????

[Scatty]

Are you running those games directly in Windows 95? In that case you should quit Windows and restart in Dos-Mode, for which you don't need any soundcard drivers I think as you have the Adlib card. But you might need to have a CD-Rom driver being loaded at computer startup for some games as Dos doesn't natively support CD drives like Windows 95 and newer do.

As for Adlib in games, yes you would need to open the computer and install a different soundcard if you want to hear digital sounds and better music also. Adlib only has an OPL2 processing of music which might be even not in Stereo if I remember correctly. Besides it's really ancient and might be slowing down the rest of the hardware.
A good soundcard is a Sounblaster 16 which can play digital sounds in CD quality (44010 Khz) and has an OPL3 processing. Soundblaster Pro would do too, but can only play digital sound effects up to 22050 Khz though in Stereo. Not recommended are Soundblaster Awe32 (it's drivers take up too much conventional memory and you need as much as possible for most Dos games), Soundblaster 16 Vibra (later, cutdown model of Soundblaster 16) and any PCI soundcard since Dos wouldn't recognize the IRQ adress on such cards which would lead to problems. Only an ISA card will do. Those digital sound cards need drivers to work in Dos properly, too.

[Frey]

Thanks, I'll have a stab around in the dark of DOS and see if it fixes the problem, Although i don't really know how to find stuff in dos or any of the commands... My memory is shot... Ahhhh Microsoft.com here i come sighhhh...

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally Posted by Frey

I've just set up an old windows 95 computer to run all my old games. But i'm having a few problems...
- Biomenace and commander keen games run but when i'm walking along the Ground floor in the game the bottom half of the page gets this flahing white grid thing on it.

I recently downloaded these games and imagine they're probably configured to run on new systems with dosbox. SO that might be why this is happening....

You're experiencing the typical problem of running DOS games under Windows. That was never the best solution, even in the days of W95.

Also, This machine is so old it doesn't have soundblaster and will only play the music with "ADLIB" in Duke3D, Anyone know how i can get duke talking and the sound of guns blasting with out opening up the insides of this old piece of junk????

I sincerely doubt you haven't got a soundblaster-compatible soundcard there. And I really doubt you've got an Adlib there either.
If you're running a DOS game under Windows, the digitized sound often won't work, but General Midi will - as "Adlib".

Do you know what exact soundcard you have installed in your PC?

Can your Windows play Wave (*.WAV) files?

[_r.u.s.s.]

I sincerely doubt you haven't got a soundblaster-compatible soundcard there. And I really doubt you've got an Adlib there either.
If you're running a DOS game under Windows, the digitized sound often won't work, but General Midi will - as "Adlib".

i don't know, i always got sound in my games working on my old win98..

[The Fifth Horseman]

Depends on system and soundcard configuration.

[_r.u.s.s.]

well yes, soundcard configuration. but i got it actually working on pretty much every 98 machine with soundcard i got into hands

[The Fifth Horseman]

Take into consideration that Frey doesn't seem to know what actual soundcard he's got installed, just that it's Adlib-compatible.
Doesn't mean it's actually an Adlib card, since most Sound Blasters were Adlib-compatible.
Also, from his post... he never seems to have heard of the IRQ, DMA and Port values.

[Frey]

Horseman, how do i check what sound card i have? I'm pretty sure it said Adlib when i was installing a game. And my windows can play MP3s.... If that's any kind of clue...

Also, "General Midi" .... Whaadat?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally Posted by Frey

Horseman, how do i check what sound card i have?

Begin with Everest, it's very useful for identifying most soundcards out there.

And my windows can play MP3s.... If that's any kind of clue...

Yep, cause the real Adlib cards didn't play digitized sound. :amused:
It's 99% sure you've got a Sound Blaster (or a compatible knockoff... doesn't make much difference)

Also, "General Midi" .... Whaadat?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_MIDI