Might and Magic 7 - 9

[Wolfus]

I don't know why, but I really hate "trumpet-like" sound of MIDI. ANY MIDI. It sound more artificial than MOD-based music. Listen to Jaguar XJ220 music. No Roland MIDI can compare to it. But as CorpseZeb said, some conversions (Fate of Atlantis is another example) are really terrible on Amiga. Too bad they didn't make "original" Amiga music.

 

[MMXI]

7 has the fucking AWESOME card game. Other than that, M&M III is totally awesome, especially if you happen to be a member of the HAHA! I Own an actual Roland LAPC-1/CM-500/CM-32L/CM-64 and you don't!™ Fan Club. Like me and Sceptic.

I agree. But you'd be surprised at how good Munt is these days. I recently downloaded the 3rd October 2011 build from here and, using a CM-32L ROM set, compared the quality to recordings of the real thing, including some of your videos for games such as Ultima VI. The difference is quite minimal.

You see, when most people search for Munt they end up at SourceForge, a place where the latest build is from 2005. However, development restarted in 2011 over at GitHub, and the progress made is huge. You can't replace the real thing, but you can get close. I'll see if I can record something for comparison.

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah I am aware of Munt. However the ROM files that it needs to play the sounds is illegal (at least Munt required you to d/l the rom files).

 

[made]

I don't know why, but I really hate "trumpet-like" sound of MIDI.

Word. Unless it's a particularly terrible port (like Sierra games, but Sierra had a special interest in promoting MT32 anyway) I find myself preferring MODs in almost every case.

Even the U6 soundtrack - doubtlessly crippled and butchered on the Amiga - sounds subjectively better to me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G854h4I744
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBO7kOEZ-CI
vs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=132lDhM8qQs

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Oh yeah, Arcomage, the in-built card game is awesome, I completely forgot about that.

IIRC, there's a somewhat updated version of Arcomage in M&M 8.

(And somewhere there's a stand-alone version that I enjoyed immensely.)

 

[Mortmal]

I don't know why, but I really hate "trumpet-like" sound of MIDI.

Word. Unless it's a particularly terrible port (like Sierra games, but Sierra had a special interest in promoting MT32 anyway) I find myself preferring MODs in almost every case.

Even the U6 soundtrack - doubtlessly crippled and butchered on the Amiga - sounds subjectively better to me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G854h4I744
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBO7kOEZ-CI
vs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=132lDhM8qQs

Its not bad at all on the amiga but U6 never was a good port, unsurprisingly the music doesnt fully exploit its chipset , the first time it was clearly inferior to pc version(but an expensive one still ), it was the beggining of the end. That game really required an hard drive, too many floppies to swap, and amigaists rarely had one.
I think MM6-8 get more votes simply because the other games are quite old now,people never played them here.I found 7 being a bit too repetitive nearly the end, and 8 is really too easy.

Myself i skipped MM9 due to horrible reviews, but now how would you rate it after patchs?

 

[Jaesun]

What were the general problems with 9? That is was basically a soulless empty shell with the name M&M slapped on it?

 

[MMXI]

What were the general problems with 9? That is was basically a soulless empty shell with the name M&M slapped on it?

But is it better than Dragon Age 2? That is the question.

 

[Mortmal]

yes , good question...
Just listening again to U6 themes, damn i am so missing great games like this.

 

[Jaesun]

Watching paint dry is a more fun activity than playing Dragon Turd II.

 

[Mortmal]

Sniffing it certainly is, plus you are in perfect condition to enjoy DA2 after.

 

[Jaesun]

Sniffing it certainly is, plus you are in perfect condition to enjoy DA2 after.

Indeed Mortmal.

 

[Sceptic]

I agree. But you'd be surprised at how good Munt is these days. I recently downloaded the 3rd October 2011 build from here and, using a CM-32L ROM set, compared the quality to recordings of the real thing, including some of your videos for games such as Ultima VI. The difference is quite minimal.

The built-into-DOSBox Munt is I assume this latest build, and it is indeed doing quite nicely. But that, from my own experimentation, seems to depend on which game you try it with. In some games it really sounds identical to my CM-32L, which is quite something. In others it sounds... a bit weird. I should start making recordings and comparisons actually... in general it seems to not do so well with some of Sierra's 90-91 games, and quite well with others (in Legend's for example it sounds pretty much identical to the real thing).

The biggest problem with Munt is that they're basing the emulator (regardless of which ROMs you use) on the "new" firmware revision of the MT-32 (including all the CM's). This is great for avoiding the buffer overflow of the rev0 and to get the extra CM-32L patches if you've got the ROM's, but it also means getting the same CM buggy sounds with just about every single game with custom patches composed on the rev0 (and that's pretty much every single Sierra/LucasArts/Dynamix game from 89 to 92). They're very subtle in some cases (though I hate my curiosity; I finally managed to figure out where the bug was in the Rise of the Dragon intro theme, and now I can hear it ALL THE TIME ), blatantly out of place in others, and while it's not a Munt-related issue, I really wish they'd figure out some way to get around it (which means I won't have to go find a rev0 MT-32 for a decent price; fuckers are expensive)

Of course none of this changes the fact that the ULTIMATE, and one and only way to get WOX to sound the way it should, is by using an SC-55mkII

 

[Jaesun]

Of course none of this changes the fact that the ULTIMATE, and one and only way to get WOX to sound the way it should, is by using an SC-55mkII

Oh sure! Just rub it in!

Anyways, at least you and me can both play Might And Magic III in all it's awesome Roland CM-32L Glory.

 

[Sceptic]

So... how's that buggy vibrato doing?

Does MM3 use the extra sounds btw? Wikipedia has it marked as yes, but I don't know for sure.

Also, you can find the mkII for under $100, and that's on ebay (which as you know is outrageously overpriced compared to what you can get locally). And in related news, I don't think I'm getting an 8850 anymore. I heard some samples of the 8820 and it's... underwhelming. Some tones sound MUCH better than the 55 obviously, but the overall quality isn't that great for a module that came out 8 years later. And it has that damnable Roland habit of changing some tones completely (cf tubular bells in Pagan) for no reason whatsoever.

 

[Wyrmlord]

7 has the fucking AWESOME card game. Other than that, M&M III is totally awesome, especially if you happen to be a member of the HAHA! I Own an actual Roland LAPC-1/CM-500/CM-32L/CM-64 and you don't!™ Fan Club. Like me and Sceptic.

Or Amiga owners brotherhood.
.
.
.
Fuck MIDI.

The Amiga music is better than this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnFmCkv8Ovs

Somehow I doubt that...

Wow, that's great. The DOS version I have sounds worse.

I need your advice, man. You know all about sound emulators and setting things right. How do I get that quality?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I must say that I prefer MIDI, simply because it sounds simpler/more limited. That's part of the charm. I much prefer my MM3 tunes in my Dosbox version.

Amiga music like this might sound more realistic, but I think it sounds halfway between MIDI and more realistic sounding instruments and its character is lost in the process.

 

[Jaesun]

So... how's that buggy vibrato doing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i-0Ew5rslc

Does MM3 use the extra sounds btw? Wikipedia has it marked as yes, but I don't know for sure.

Yep. ALL the special sounds on the LAPC-1/CM-32/CM-64 are used for it. It's AWESOME.

Also, you can find the mkII for under $100, and that's on ebay (which as you know is outrageously overpriced compared to what you can get locally). And in related news, I don't think I'm getting an 8850 anymore. I heard some samples of the 8820 and it's... underwhelming. Some tones sound MUCH better than the 55 obviously, but the overall quality isn't that great for a module that came out 8 years later. And it has that damnable Roland habit of changing some tones completely (cf tubular bells in Pagan) for no reason whatsoever.

Ok thanks. The mkII is next on my TO Buy list (since I have the CM-500) someday.

Also do some damn WOX recordings FFS! :D

 

[MMXI]

Wow, that's great. The DOS version I have sounds worse.

I need your advice, man. You know all about sound emulators and setting things right. How do I get that quality?

I've gotten Munt to sound exactly like that. Here's instructions for Windows:

1. Download https://github.com/downloads/sergm/munt ... _10_03.zip
2. If you are using 32bit Windows, put mt32emu.dll into Windows\System32. If you are using 64bit Windows, put mt32emu.dll into Windows\SysWOW64.
3. Put mt32emu.ini straight into your Windows directory.
4. Pirate the MT-32 and CM-32L ROM sets (easy to find on a certain popular torrent site).
5. Put MT32_PCM.ROM and MT32_CONTROL.ROM, or CM32L_PCM.ROM and CM32L_CONTROL.ROM into the same directory as mt32emu.dll (either Windows\System32 or Windows\SysWOW64).
6. Run mt32emu_drv_GUI.exe as administrator. Press the install button.
7. Load up DOSBox. Type in "mixer /listmidi".
8. You should notice the added "MT-32 Synth Emulator" on the resultant list. Note the number before it. It'll most likely be 1.
9. Load up your DOSBox configuration file (dosbox.conf) and scroll down to the "[midi]" section.
10. You should see the "midiconfig=" underneath it. Change it to so that the device number for the MT-32 Synth Emulator is after the equals sign. For example, "midiconfig=1".

Well that's DOSBox set up to pass midi to the MT-32 emulator. Now all you need to do is run whatever installer comes with whatever DOS game you want to play and set up the sound options to use the Roland MT-32 or whatever. For Might and Magic III, run the INSTALL.EXE and set the sound to Roland LAPC-1. For Might and Magic III it's best to use the CM-32L ROMs rather than the MT-32 ROMs. If you've put the MT-32 ROMs into your System32/SysWOW64 directory then remove them, put in the CM-32L ones and then run mt32emu_drv_GUI.exe (as administrator) to reinstall.

Good luck.

 

[latexmonkeys]

You are a true Bro!

I had no idea a new version of munt was out either! I'd been using the older version, of course. Can't wait to try this!

 

[Wyrmlord]

Wow, that's great. The DOS version I have sounds worse.

I need your advice, man. You know all about sound emulators and setting things right. How do I get that quality?

I've gotten Munt to sound exactly like that. Here's instructions for Windows:

1. Download https://github.com/downloads/sergm/munt ... _10_03.zip
2. If you are using 32bit Windows, put mt32emu.dll into Windows\System32. If you are using 64bit Windows, put mt32emu.dll into Windows\SysWOW64.
3. Put mt32emu.ini straight into your Windows directory.
4. Pirate the MT-32 and CM-32L ROM sets (easy to find on a certain popular torrent site).
5. Put MT32_PCM.ROM and MT32_CONTROL.ROM, or CM32L_PCM.ROM and CM32L_CONTROL.ROM into the same directory as mt32emu.dll (either Windows\System32 or Windows\SysWOW64).
6. Run mt32emu_drv_GUI.exe as administrator. Press the install button.
7. Load up DOSBox. Type in "mixer /listmidi".
8. You should notice the added "MT-32 Synth Emulator" on the resultant list. Note the number before it. It'll most likely be 1.
9. Load up your DOSBox configuration file (dosbox.conf) and scroll down to the "[midi]" section.
10. You should see the "midiconfig=" underneath it. Change it to so that the device number for the MT-32 Synth Emulator is after the equals sign. For example, "midiconfig=1".

Well that's DOSBox set up to pass midi to the MT-32 emulator. Now all you need to do is run whatever installer comes with whatever DOS game you want to play and set up the sound options to use the Roland MT-32 or whatever. For Might and Magic III, run the INSTALL.EXE and set the sound to Roland LAPC-1. For Might and Magic III it's best to use the CM-32L ROMs rather than the MT-32 ROMs. If you've put the MT-32 ROMs into your System32/SysWOW64 directory then remove them, put in the CM-32L ones and then run mt32emu_drv_GUI.exe (as administrator) to reinstall.

Good luck.

Aw yeah, that's what I needed.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Thanks, MMXI.

 

[Ruprekt]

Just came across this http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/ ... sc&start=0

A retexture mod for m&m 7. You don't need to install the whole thing so you're able to keep the original (non-chinese) icons.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I had really no idea that there are dedicated Chinese fans of the Might and Magic games.

I am going to find some way of luring them to RPG Codex, (and maybe my plan will result in them getting some idea of Codex preferences and building a mod according to it!)

 

[MMXI]

I had really no idea that there are dedicated Chinese fans of the Might and Magic games.

I am going to find some way of luring them to RPG Codex, (and maybe my plan will result in them getting some idea of Codex preferences and building a mod according to it!)

That's because China has been advancing rapidly, both technologically and socially. They're now into the golden era of RPGs. By this time next year they will have moved onto modding Oblivion.