UW2 conflict with SB16 emulation

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.computer.ultima.series (More info?)

Hello,
I'm trying to get Ultima Underworld II to run with sound. I'm using
MS-DOS 7.1. Right now it just freezes right after saying "EMS
allocated".

I have a SoundBlaster Audigy, and an MS-DOS driver that seems to work
with it (http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/html/snddosdr.htm). Other
games play fine, with sound. My autoexec.bat contains, among other
things,

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET CTSYN=C:\SB16
C:\SB16\SBEINIT.COM
SET SOUND=C:\SB16

If I REM out the line that loads SBEINIT.COM, then suddenly UW2 works.
But, of course, there is no sound. After running SBEINIT.COM, UW2
locks up even if I tell it that I have no sound card.

How I can get sound out of UW2? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
--Steve

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.computer.ultima.series (More info?)

Steve Kobes wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm trying to get Ultima Underworld II to run with sound. I'm using
> MS-DOS 7.1. Right now it just freezes right after saying "EMS
> allocated".
>
> I have a SoundBlaster Audigy, and an MS-DOS driver that seems to work
> with it (http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/html/snddosdr.htm). Other
> games play fine, with sound. My autoexec.bat contains, among other
> things,
>
> SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
> SET CTSYN=C:\SB16
> C:\SB16\SBEINIT.COM
> SET SOUND=C:\SB16
>
> If I REM out the line that loads SBEINIT.COM, then suddenly UW2 works.
> But, of course, there is no sound. After running SBEINIT.COM, UW2
> locks up even if I tell it that I have no sound card.
>
> How I can get sound out of UW2? Any suggestions?

Don't use the actual SB16 drivers, try the ones in the SBLive zip file.
The SB16 files should crash an burn with the Audigy. ;-)

You might also try DosBox at http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/ .

--

Fortran | "There isn't enough darkness in the world
EDL | to quench the light of one small candle."

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.computer.ultima.series (More info?)

Fortran Dragon wrote:

>> SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
>> SET CTSYN=C:\SB16
>> C:\SB16\SBEINIT.COM
>> SET SOUND=C:\SB16
>
> Don't use the actual SB16 drivers, try the ones in the SBLive zip file.
> The SB16 files should crash an burn with the Audigy. ;-)

That's just what he called the directory.
SBEINIT is the SBLive -> SB16 emulator, and it's what he should be
using.

It might be that UW2 is just one of those games that doesn't
like the SB16 emulation..

>
> You might also try DosBox at http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/ .
>

--
JP Morris - aka DOUG the Eagle (Dragon) -=UDIC=- jpm@it-he.org
Fun things to do with the Ultima games http://www.it-he.org
Reign of the Just - An Ultima clone http://rotj.it-he.org
d+++ e+ N+ T++ Om U1234!56!7'!S'!8!9!KAW u++ uC+++ uF+++ uG---- uLB----
uA--- nC+ nR---- nH+++ nP++ nI nPT nS nT wM- wC- y a(YEAR - 1976)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.computer.ultima.series (More info?)

J. P. Morris wrote:

> Fortran Dragon wrote:
>
>
>>>SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
>>>SET CTSYN=C:\SB16
>>>C:\SB16\SBEINIT.COM
>>>SET SOUND=C:\SB16
>>
>>Don't use the actual SB16 drivers, try the ones in the SBLive zip file.
>> The SB16 files should crash an burn with the Audigy. ;-)
>
>
> That's just what he called the directory.
> SBEINIT is the SBLive -> SB16 emulator, and it's what he should be
> using.
>
> It might be that UW2 is just one of those games that doesn't
> like the SB16 emulation..

Mea culpa. I unzipped the SBLive files and saw that it wanted to put
everything into a dosdrv directory, so I assumed he was grabbing the
other archive from the page that supports the actual SB16 hardware. (It
is a mistake I've seen others make so I thought this was a repeat.)

--

Fortran | "There isn't enough darkness in the world
EDL | to quench the light of one small candle."

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.computer.ultima.series (More info?)

> Someone had a patched .exe for UW and UW2 that allowed them to run in
> Windows. You could use that and VDMSound to get it to play with sound.

The patch was designed by me (what bytes to patch) around late 2001 and the
code for a patcher app was written by somebody else and was available for
download.

The patch solves the problem that UW hangs the virtual machine under
Windows. UW tries to play with the keyboard LED hardware, and NTVDM does not
support it and hangs (unfortunately). Replacing these opcodes with NOPs
solves the problem.

Somebody can repeat my work by attaching WinDbg or SoftICE debugger to NTVDM
after hang. It's simple.

WinDbg is a free download from www.microsoft.com/ddk/debugging.

--
Max

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.computer.ultima.series (More info?)

Moscow Dragon wrote:
> The patch was designed by me (what bytes to patch) around late 2001
> and the code for a patcher app was written by somebody else and was
> available for download.
>
> The patch solves the problem that UW hangs the virtual machine under
> Windows. UW tries to play with the keyboard LED hardware, and NTVDM
> does not support it and hangs (unfortunately). Replacing these
> opcodes with NOPs solves the problem.
>
> Somebody can repeat my work by attaching WinDbg or SoftICE debugger
> to NTVDM after hang. It's simple.
>
> WinDbg is a free download from www.microsoft.com/ddk/debugging.

Thanks so much for this patch! (I found it at
http://www.phyton.dk/ultima/uw2nt.zip.) UW2 works great now.

BTW... the readme describes a hex-editor modification to UW2.EXE at
offset 0x24719, but if you don't see the bytes it says are supposed to
be there, try looking for them at 0x242E9 instead. That's where I
found them, and making the change there made it work on XP.

Silly me, thinking I'd have *fewer* problems running these old DOS
games in real, bona-fide DOS than in Windows... when it seems to be
just the opposite.

Fortran Dragon: yes, they are the SBLive files. I think the
instructions I was reading (which I can't find anymore) used the
directory C:\SBLIVE, and I thought that wasn't a very good name since
I don't actually *have* an SB Live, so I just called it SB16
instead... sorry for any confusion this caused.

--Steve

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.computer.ultima.series (More info?)

Steve Kobes wrote:
[Snip]

> Fortran Dragon: yes, they are the SBLive files. I think the
> instructions I was reading (which I can't find anymore) used the
> directory C:\SBLIVE, and I thought that wasn't a very good name since
> I don't actually *have* an SB Live, so I just called it SB16
> instead... sorry for any confusion this caused.

That's ok. The main thing is you are able to play the game now.

--

Fortran | "There isn't enough darkness in the world
EDL | to quench the light of one small candle."