DOSBox with Save States

[mondblut]

A lot of games have Roland in their setups but they're just general midi and sometimes use shit like drum kicks in places of attack sounds, which is awful. Then there's a game like M&M: World of Xeen that uses some kind of Roland sound canvas that I can't for the life of me figure out how to set up in DOSBox. I wonder how that'd sound with your WinGroove midi.

well, you can glance at these:

http://www.4shared.com/rar/CwDQgBE5/wingroovesamples.html

A couple of Ravenloft tunes and an Ultima 8 tune; midis converted from original xmis and mp3s made from their WinGroove rendition. At least in terms of generic windows synthesizers (or good old Adlib) the difference is startling.

I truly hate how Windows 7 removed the option to simply choose midi output in control panel, makes everything even more tedious dicking around with registry.

Does it? LOL, and people still say it is as good as xp?

 

[octavius]

I truly hate how Windows 7 removed the option to simply choose midi output in control panel, makes everything even more tedious dicking around with registry.

Does it? LOL, and people still say it is as good as xp?

Well, with Win 7 you can have 16 (or even 32, I think) GBs of RAM. Only having 2 GB of RAM with XP was turning into a major bottleneck for me.

Anyway, use Putzlowitsch's Vista MIDI Mapper Control Panel to get back the missing option.

 

[A user named cat]

I've been playing around with BASSMIDI and checking out soundfont sets. Seems like there are no proper ones for World of Xeen, dammit. Some of them come close with awesome music quality, but then when you play and go to open a door, you hear a telephone ring sample. I guess Soundblaster is the best option for some games until someone comes along and makes more game specific soundfonts.

I think WinGroove does the same thing as BASSMIDI but those do sound pretty good.

 

[A user named cat]

Anyway, use Putzlowitsch's Vista MIDI Mapper Control Panel to get back the missing option.

Yeah I had tried that before and it didn't work. I don't need it anymore though. BASSMIDI let's you choose default midi output.

 

[A user named cat]

As a final follow up, I did find a decent sound setup that works for World of Xeen (mostly proper sound FX including doors, steps, etc.) and every other general midi DOS game I tested, including System Shock 1. If anyone wants to try it out, here's what you'll need:

1. MIDI driver: BASSMIDI
2. Base instrument soundset: Fluid R3 GM or SGM v.2.01 (choose only one, these are the best out of all I tested for most games but its entirely preference, tons of other GM sets out there to try)
3. Better drum soundset: drumkit3.1all
4. Sound Effect GS set: FluidR3 GS

Then simply install BASSMIDI. Open up the config for it, manually add all three SF2 files in the following order so it appears like this:
Fluid GM/SGM
Basskit
FluidR3 GS

Click apply. Set up your DOS game to Roland, General midi or Sound Canvas. Make sure the DOS config is set to use midi port 1. Enjoy.

If the game supports mt32, I'd advise to always use that instead. If not, then use this setup unless the particular game sounds better with Soundblaster or Adlib. It always depends.

 

[kyusawamura]

Or you could just play the game as intended.

Save states are for faggots.

Then you could as well build up your own Abandonware machine, with a single 100 MHz processor, from 16 to 64 MB RAM, Windows 98, 95 or maybe even 3.1, a Sound Blaster 16 (installation floppy discs included), a SVGA Tridium graphics card, and maybe a 10 GB hard disk drive.

You know, because emulators are for faggots.
Hmmm?

 

[mondblut]

Then you could as well build up your own Abandonware machine, with a single 100 MHz processor, from 16 to 64 MB RAM, Windows 98, 95 or maybe even 3.1, a Sound Blaster 16 (installation floppy discs included), a SVGA Tridium graphics card, and maybe a 10 GB hard disk drive.

10 gb hdd? You got to be kidding. That's 1.3 or 1.5 hdd for you.

I actually have 2 of these standing beneath my desk. One is a 120 mhz w/ s3 trio 1mb, sb16, 1.3 gb hdd and beats me now how little ram; another, a 200 mmx w/ ati rage (?) 8mb (or was it ati64?), sb audiopci, 1.5 gb hdd and something like 128 mb ram. the last time i turned either one on, some half a decade ago or something, both were functional.

but, come to think of it, i'd rather have savestates. time for dosbox to take a next great leap and begin emulating win95, winG and dx5 (and no, i don't want to hear "virtualpc this" and "virtualpc that", this junk behaves like a 286 on my fairly decent pc)

 

[kyusawamura]

10 gb hdd? You got to be kidding. That's 1.3 or 1.5 hdd for you.
I actually have 2 of these standing beneath my desk. One is a 120 mhz w/ s3 trio 1mb, sb16, 1.3 gb hdd and beats me now how little ram; another, a 200 mmx w/ ati rage (?) 8mb (or was it ati64?), sb audiopci, 1.5 gb hdd and something like 128 mb ram. the last time i turned either one on, some half a decade ago or something, both were functional.
but, come to think of it, i'd rather have savestates. time for dosbox to take a next great leap and begin emulating win95, winG and dx5 (and no, i don't want to hear "virtualpc this" and "virtualpc that", this junk behaves like a 286 on my fairly decent pc)

Well, I firstly said 10 GB because if you're a true Abandonware fan you'll never get tired of downloading more and more Abandonware games and applications, not only for DOS, but the earlier Win32 stuff as well. And also, because if you want to record the MIDI soundtracks, the old sound card's one-audio-voice-limit (only being able to have one app use the Wave Out) won't stop you, and you need enough free space not to worry about how long the WAVE files might be.

Also because it's pretty hard to get an 896 MB HDD these days, like the one I had in my very first computer.

I still use an emulator under Windows XP SP2 and 7, and came here looking for save states, anyway.

 

[FeelTheRads]

(and no, i don't want to hear "virtualpc this" and "virtualpc that", this junk behaves like a 286 on my fairly decent pc)

Plus no fullscreen for games in virtual boxes. That's the shittiest part.
I think W95 sort of works in DosBox? I'm waiting for it to support Glide (in Windows too), which is in the works I think. Probably in 10 years or so.

 

[octavius]

Plus no fullscreen for games in virtual boxes. That's the shittiest part.

No support for USB hurts too.

 

[elodman]

Greets.

-a non-official DosBox Save state feature related question:

Trying to grab the finest items from random loots with save states, in order to avoid refighting tough fights and/or reloads.
But by loading a save state (created before initiating interaction with NPC), loot reamins always the same (in Pool of Radiance, at wizard Ohlo in the slums), - of course not as when normally reloading a saved game.

Tried loading a save state either after or even without restarting DosBox.

thanx for any enlightment.

(couldnt search the net extensively as using a slow, unstable mobile net for a few days (more))

(Using DOSBox SVN-Daum with special features Nov. 17. 2013
ykhwong's SVN-Daum builds can be obtained from http://ykhwong.x-y.net. (DOSBox Daum Cafe build) )

( this is a repost of a misplaced one in the GoldBox thread)