MiSTer FPGA Forum

MiSTerTea wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 3:53 am

I am not sure I understand. It is period correct. Sound Blaster has many versions the original plays mono sound, the Sound Blaster Pro could do stereo so which is period correct? Did you read the notes correctly? Option 6) plays Sound Blaster music.

It's an alternative driver option that exists when you start the game. Maybe you need to give it a try first and see?

Yeah, I could have phrased that a lot better...

I did play through a bit on both settings for comparisson before I posted previously, the combat sounds on 4 are definately what I remember wheras 6 is quite different. There's not a lot of music in Civ but I couldn't hear cracking in the sound after the intro for 4, then again I'd have to play it a lot more and I just got done playing the 3.1 version...

Odd the newer versions of the game are slow as well, I tested all the versions I could find and it's only the later versions with the issue. for such a relatively simple game it does seem to have weird issues in AO486!

Just a note if anyone fixes issues that have been encountered. PM me and we'll get your submission taken care of

-=Emubastard=-

Emubastard wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:04 pm

Just a note if anyone fixes issues that have been encountered. PM me and we'll get your submission taken care of

-=Emubastard=-

Likewise if want to use anythign I've uploaded, go ahead. I'm pretty much just doing it for myself and sharing to save others pain.

I got Rusty kinda working, playable with issues in the music. Sadly I suspect this is meant for a slower CPU than what AO486 provides. I'll upload as is but if anyone else wants to poke at it and fix have at it, at the moment I have it close working on 15MHz and L2 disabled.

Idelacio wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 10:33 am

MiSTerTea wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 3:53 am

I am not sure I understand. It is period correct. Sound Blaster has many versions the original plays mono sound, the Sound Blaster Pro could do stereo so which is period correct? Did you read the notes correctly? Option 6) plays Sound Blaster music.

It's an alternative driver option that exists when you start the game. Maybe you need to give it a try first and see?

Yeah, I could have phrased that a lot better...

I did play through a bit on both settings for comparisson before I posted previously, the combat sounds on 4 are definately what I remember wheras 6 is quite different. There's not a lot of music in Civ but I couldn't hear cracking in the sound after the intro for 4, then again I'd have to play it a lot more and I just got done playing the 3.1 version...

Odd the newer versions of the game are slow as well, I tested all the versions I could find and it's only the later versions with the issue. for such a relatively simple game it does seem to have weird issues in AO486!

What is slow for you when playing Civilization? I first played this on a 286-16MHz system and for me it plays fine lol. It's actually running much quicker than I remember because it was set to run as if it was a 386DX-40MHz system. You can adjust the CPU speed by editing the RUNGAME.BAT file and changing where it says 30Mhz to be 56Mhz (or 90Mhz even). I just tested it with 56Mhz and this seems to work okay so far.

For Civilization, the option '6) Custom sound driver' was provided by the Microprose BBS. The note that came with it had stated:

Due to the continued popularity of MicroProse's best seller, Civilization, your friends in the MPS Sound Department have created new sound drivers to support the latest sound cards.

Support is added for all OPL-3 based FM cards (Pro Audio Spectrum Plus, 16, Studio; Sound Blaster Pro, 16, 16ASP, AWE32; AdLib/Cardinal Gold; Microsoft Windows Sound System; and all compatibles) and for any General MIDI card or external synth via a standard MPU-401 type MIDI interface. The General MIDI driver is optimized for the Roland SCC-1, but works well on any GM device.

MPS Sound Department - April, 1994

If you say the sound effects are different than I'm surprised. From what I understood, the driver only would affect FM Synth music by using the better OPL-3 chip in the newer cards like Sound Blaster Pro/16 and to provide stereo sound. I haven't had a chance to play it enough to hear the pre-recorded PCM sound effects however I would think it would sound the same on any sound card (based on what quality the sound card can produce the recorded pcm/wave effects). Thanks for your input and testing.

I'll have to look into this another time, but if you want, you may change the default auto-loading options by modifying RUNGAME.BAT where it says KEYPRESS 161 , change it to KEYPRESS 141. There is an EDIT.COM program available from the command prompt that can be used to edit files. So you can type: edit rungame.bat to modify the file.

Idelacio wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 3:14 am

Emubastard wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:04 pm

Just a note if anyone fixes issues that have been encountered. PM me and we'll get your submission taken care of

-=Emubastard=-

Likewise if want to use anythign I've uploaded, go ahead. I'm pretty much just doing it for myself and sharing to save others pain.

I got Rusty kinda working, playable with issues in the music. Sadly I suspect this is meant for a slower CPU than what AO486 provides. I'll upload as is but if anyone else wants to poke at it and fix have at it, at the moment I have it close working on 15MHz and L2 disabled.

When I go into the MiSTer menu there is a setting called CPU Preset and you can choose 11 different options for CPU speed, however with the SYSCTL.EXE utility we can only choose 4 options (15Mhz, 30Mhz, 56Mhz, 90Mhz).

These are the CPU options from the menu:
PC XT-7Mhz, PC AT-8Mhz, PC AT-10Mhz, PC AT-20Mhz, PS/2-20Mhz, 386DX-25Mhz, 386DX-33Mhz, 386DX-40Mhz, 486SX-33Mhz, 486DX-33Mhz, MAX (unstable).

Does anyone know how we can access the other CPU speed options from DOS using SYSCTL.EXE or similar tool? This would REALLY help with setting up these game packages so that they can work properly and/or close as possible to how they were meant to run.

Those presets are just combinations of clock and cache settings. Those are all available from SYSCTL.

Bas wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 4:59 am

Those presets are just combinations of clock and cache settings. Those are all available from SYSCTL.

How do you know this? At first I assumed that to be the case, however it doesn't appear correct after having done speed measurements using Norton Utilities (NU7 and NU8) SYSINFO and another benchmark program (SPEEDTST).

For example, with 'SYSCTL SYS' I compared every 30Mhz option available using SYSCTL 30Mhz (L1+ L2+, L1+ L2-, L1- L2+, L1- L2-, etc.) and they ALL report the same CPU speed when measured. When measuring various changes to the cache but same CPU speed, the SPEEDTST measured the exact same CPU benchmark result for ALL also.

However when I change the CPU Preset using the MiSTer menu, the CPU speed changes the measured benchmark and ALL Preset results are different. It appears to actually change the CPU speed!

Something I noticed is that these settings only flip once from within DOS and I need to reset the the core for them to work again. Not something I spent a lot of time on though so I may be wrong and I usually reset my core anyway because of the single game VHD's I use. I haven't had any real issues developing DOSContainer.

Bas wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 6:27 am

Something I noticed is that these settings only flip once from within DOS and I need to reset the the core for them to work again. Not something I spent a lot of time on though so I may be wrong and I usually reset my core anyway because of the single game VHD's I use. I haven't had any real issues developing DOSContainer.

No worries. And yes, the 0MHz DOS Collection games will set the CPU Speed with 'SYSCTL SYS' right before the game executable is run so it doesn't matter what was set before the core was started.

The 'User Defined' CPU Preset however needs to be set for the values set in DOS to be active and I believe that is configured when the AO486.CFG file is copied over. We can't adjust the CPU Preset this way however because each game copied to the MiSTer overwrites this configuration.

Does anyone know how the AO486 core was setup with the SYSCTL utility? I would hope it's possible to activate the same settings with SYSCTL that are available in the MiSTer Menu for setting the CPU speed presets (and maybe can be added to the utility).

MiSTerTea wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 10:02 am

Bas wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 6:27 am

Something I noticed is that these settings only flip once from within DOS and I need to reset the the core for them to work again. Not something I spent a lot of time on though so I may be wrong and I usually reset my core anyway because of the single game VHD's I use. I haven't had any real issues developing DOSContainer.

No worries. And yes, the 0MHz DOS Collection games will set the CPU Speed with 'SYSCTL SYS' right before the game executable is run so it doesn't matter what was set before the core was started.

The 'User Defined' CPU Preset however needs to be set for the values set in DOS to be active and I believe that is configured when the AO486.CFG file is copied over. We can't adjust the CPU Preset this way however because each game copied to the MiSTer overwrites this configuration.

Does anyone know how the AO486 core was setup with the SYSCTL utility? I would hope it's possible to activate the same settings with SYSCTL that are available in the MiSTer Menu for setting the CPU speed presets (and maybe can be added to the utility).

From Github:

sysctl.exe: Used for setting core options and cache referenced above from command line. 
Usage: SYSCTL SYS/MENU 90Mhz/56Mhz/15Mhz L1+/L1- L2+/L2-

Would the syntax of

SYSCTL MENU 90MHz L1+ L2+

, etc. be better maybe? I think this would actually set the settings in the user menu, so they would also be changeable still? That said, it would be nice to be able to set those other presets as well...seems weird that we can't already.

I'll dig into the code for a bit.. If there really are things in the core that are unreachable from SYSCTL, I'll submit a PR to get that rectified. The C program looks simple enough. I'll just have to hunt for the twiddly bits in the core's code fore a bit because I don't know any HDL.

0mhz downloader has been updated:

• Better readability
• The script now checks ahead of time if the files in the mgl link up to the zips on archive

After limi's suggestion, I was looking for a way to check out the zips on archive without downloading. Luckily archive.org has a zip content view option by just adding a trailing slash to the url. Now 0mhz won't try to download zips that are not up to date with the mgls

If you want to use the updater, but you are using the setname feature for custom mappings, make sure you set "always_dl_mgl=false" (default) and rename the mgl like "4D Sports Driving (Remapped).mgl" (or whatever you like)

https://github.com/mrchrisster/0mhz-col ... nloader.sh

Bas wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:27 pm

I'll dig into the code for a bit.. If there really are things in the core that are unreachable from SYSCTL, I'll submit a PR to get that rectified. The C program looks simple enough. I'll just have to hunt for the twiddly bits in the core's code fore a bit because I don't know any HDL.

Thanks,

I took a look at the code and it appears to write a hard coded value to an I/O port (0x8888) that switches the setting. It does look like something that would need to be setup on the HDL side first and then have the code trigger the switch.

outpw(0x8888, 0xA100 | (arg & 0xFF));

( https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... SCTL.C#L71 )

I don't know much HDL but this code looked interesting:

(* romstyle = "logic" *) wire [27:0] clk_rate[8]  = '{90000000, 15000000, 30000000, 56250000, 100000000, 100000000, 100000000, 100000000 };
(* romstyle = "logic" *) wire [17:0] speed_div[8] = '{  'h0505,   'h1e1e,   'h0f0f,   'h0808,   'h20504,   'h20504,   'h20504,   'h20504 };

( https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... 86.sv#L483 )

and

		'd1: begin clk_req <= 'd3; l1 <= 1'b1; l2 <= 1'b1; end  // ao486 XT 7
		'd2: begin clk_req <= 'd1; l1 <= 1'b1; l2 <= 1'b0; end  // ao486 AT 8
		'd3: begin clk_req <= 'd2; l1 <= 1'b0; l2 <= 1'b1; end  // ao486 AT 10
		'd4: begin clk_req <= 'd2; l1 <= 1'b1; l2 <= 1'b0; end  // ao486 AT 20
		'd5: begin clk_req <= 'd1; l1 <= 1'b0; l2 <= 1'b0; end  // ao486 PS/2 20
		'd6: begin clk_req <= 'd3; l1 <= 1'b1; l2 <= 1'b0; end  // ao486 3SX 25
		'd7: begin clk_req <= 'd2; l1 <= 1'b0; l2 <= 1'b0; end  // ao486 3DX 33 
		'd8: begin clk_req <= 'd0; l1 <= 1'b1; l2 <= 1'b0; end  // ao486 3DX 40
		'd9: begin clk_req <= 'd3; l1 <= 1'b0; l2 <= 1'b0; end  // ao486 4SX 33
		'd10: begin clk_req <= 'd0; l1 <= 1'b0; l2 <= 1'b0; end // ao486 MAX (stable)
		'd11: begin clk_req <= 'd4; l1 <= 1'b0; l2 <= 1'b0; end // ao486 MAX+ (unstable)

( https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... 86.sv#L440 )

From that code only 5 clock values (d0 to d4) and the l1 / l2 cache values are being used for those menu CPU Presets.. (and d4 is a special value to set it to Max), so it appears you were correct.

It just doesn't make sense with benchmark measurements as the menu CPU Presets provided different results than setting with 'SYSCTL SYS'.

3 open issue if people have any ideas on fixes.

https://github.com/0mhz-net/0mhz-collection/issues

-=Emubastard=-

Just to avoid stepping on toes-

I currently have working and ready to upload when I have a spare min-

Realms of the Haunting (actually playable no less!)
Veil of Darkness
Frontier - First Encounters (in true potato quality... it's still slow!)
Jack in the Dark
Ravenloft - Strahd's Possession
Ravenloft 2 - The Stone Prophet
Spelljammer - Pirates of Realmspace (Can't get soundblaster and MT32 working together though)
Stronghold
Dungeon Hack
Neverwinter
Dragon Flame
Heroes of the Lance
Shadow Sorcerer

Next big batch I have spooled up is the rest of the SSI Gold Box set, sans Unlimited Adventures

Stuff with issues that I'm still figuring out or gave up on-

The 11th Hour just black screens for me, might come back to that.
Drakkhen has graphical issues, and it's better on the Amiga so gave up on it.
Test Drive 1 crashes on EGA mode after a minutes, CGA is fine, better on the Amiga so cba
Lands of Lore 2 doesn't work, more for S&G, it was never going to run well so gave up
Carmageddon, same as above
Fallout 1 - no sound, going to take another crack at this but from forum posts this may just be a wash. It's playable though!

@Idelacio Asking entirely out of ignorance...wouldn't the Gold Box games be better suited to the XT? (I may be misremembering timeframes here.)

mrchrister wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 5:39 pm

0mhz downloader has been updated:

• Better readability
• The script now checks ahead of time if the files in the mgl link up to the zips on archive

After limi's suggestion, I was looking for a way to check out the zips on archive without downloading. Luckily archive.org has a zip content view option by just adding a trailing slash to the url. Now 0mhz won't try to download zips that are not up to date with the mgls

If you want to use the updater, but you are using the setname feature for custom mappings, make sure you set "always_dl_mgl=false" (default) and rename the mgl like "4D Sports Driving (Remapped).mgl" (or whatever you like)

https://github.com/mrchrisster/0mhz-col ... nloader.sh

I used the latest version of the script to download everything, and nothing works. All I get is a black screen upon trying to load anything. This was from fresh, I had run UpdateAll last weekend to get the latest core updates.

It seems to have downloaded the games to my external HDD and into the correct folders (as expected), but running them via the .mgl files on the SD card does nothing.

I don't think that's a problem with the downloader...Black screen indicates you're missing the ao486 files in the drv folder (that update_all should have installed). Do you have those on your external drive?

mrchrister wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:12 pm

I don't think that's a problem with the downloader...Black screen indicates you're missing the ao486 files in the drv folder (that uodate_all should have installed). Do you have those on your external drive?

They're all present and accounted for on the SD Card in /media/fat/games/AO486/drv:

imgset.exe
MISTERFB.DRV
MISTERFB.INF
misterfs.exe
modem9x.inf
mpuctl.exe
sbctl.exe
sysctl.exe

Cyberdonks wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:17 pm

mrchrister wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:12 pm

I don't think that's a problem with the downloader...Black screen indicates you're missing the ao486 files in the drv folder (that uodate_all should have installed). Do you have those on your external drive?

They're all present and accounted for on the SD Card in /media/fat/games/AO486/drv:

Code: Select all

imgset.exe
MISTERFB.DRV
MISTERFB.INF
misterfs.exe
modem9x.inf
mpuctl.exe
sbctl.exe
sysctl.exe

You said it downloaded the games to the external HDD. That folder also needs those files.. update _all should fix this now that you have the files downloaded

mrchrister wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:24 pm

Cyberdonks wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:17 pm

mrchrister wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:12 pm

I don't think that's a problem with the downloader...Black screen indicates you're missing the ao486 files in the drv folder (that uodate_all should have installed). Do you have those on your external drive?

They're all present and accounted for on the SD Card in /media/fat/games/AO486/drv:

Code: Select all

imgset.exe
MISTERFB.DRV
MISTERFB.INF
misterfs.exe
modem9x.inf
mpuctl.exe
sbctl.exe
sysctl.exe

You said it downloaded the games to the external HDD. That folder also needs those files.. update _all should fix this now that you have the files downloaded

That fixed it, cheers

rhester72 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 11:57 am

@Idelacio Asking entirely out of ignorance...wouldn't the Gold Box games be better suited to the XT? (I may be misremembering timeframes here.)

The XT was discontined a year before the first gold box game. (87 and 88 respectively)

If you meant the XT core for it's Tandy support then kinda but not really: Tandy sound was supported in some versions in some of the games, however it's limited and even removed in bug fixed versions. Plus the saves are apparantly not compatible. These games are mostly silent anyway so it's not much of an improvment.

Amiga is the superior platform overall as even early ports had VGA, however the sequel Buck Rogers game is sadly absent. You may also prefer Paula to OPL. :p

@Idelacio Thank you very much for the information!

To be honest, for Gold Box, my jam back in the day was on the C64...but ye Gods, the floppies! LOL

Hey all,

Which version of Doom is in this collection? I'm not seeing Thy Flesh Consumed in the episode list.

RalphJB wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 2:48 am

Which version of Doom is in this collection? I'm not seeing Thy Flesh Consumed in the episode list.

I believe that’s included as part of the Ultimate Doom release?

rhester72 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 2:44 am

To be honest, for Gold Box, my jam back in the day was on the C64...but ye Gods, the floppies! LOL

No PC speaker music and sound effects though, C64 definately improves on that while being no slouch in teh visuals department. I imagine the Apple II gamers got a fair bit of eye strain...

Having just gone through installing all the gold box games, I do appreciate it when they actually have OPL based music, the PC speaker stuff is quite unpleasant... ><

I'll start uploading them later in the week, Archive has worn me a bit thin over some issues.

RalphJB wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 2:48 am

Hey all,

Which version of Doom is in this collection? I'm not seeing Thy Flesh Consumed in the episode list.

When did you download Doom Ultimate? The VHD got updated after the initial pack release.

Is there a guide on manually adding games or is what italiangrandma said earlier in the thread best way? I would love to throw the Dangerous Dave series on here.

dehydrated lemur wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 6:09 pm

Is there a guide on manually adding games or is what italiangrandma said earlier in the thread best way? I would love to throw the Dangerous Dave series on here.

You can follow my guide if you want as that will work. I am also trying to work on a simple, Windows based script that will automate most of the process and make it easier, but I am not a programmer, so it might take me another couple of weeks of leveraging ChatGPT

That said, I actually have most of the functionality working already, it will just have a couple tiny quirks potentially (i.e. You will still have to know what config settings you need for games, etc.). If I can cobble it together and it works reliably, I'll post a release soon.

dehydrated lemur wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 6:09 pm

Is there a guide on manually adding games or is what italiangrandma said earlier in the thread best way? I would love to throw the Dangerous Dave series on here.

Yah use an existing item, see how it's put together. Start simple, don't be afraid to ask questions if unsure!