SoundMAX in DOS?

[Tobbe]

Anyone know how to get SoundMAX integrated soundboards to work under DOS?

I want to play some Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D, Blood etc. etc. again. :)

IRQ 11 is all I know, no address nor DMA.

[Tobbe]

By the way, it's the AD1881 chip.

[PCKing]

I think half the people here werent alive during the DOS years...

Wont such games run on Win95???

[Tobbe]

I think half the people here werent alive during the DOS years...

Wont such games run on Win95???

I don't think that address and DMA are assigned by BIOS nor Windows.

You need DOS drivers for "new" boards to get them to work.

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

You can try and run that stuff in windows.

Here's a good Faq to check out to aid ya':

http://www.the-underdogs.org/faq2.php#d

[Mr. Black]

Tobbe -

Many of the posters here are right, you should try to run the games under 9x first, preferrably 98. They usually work.

If they do not run, you will need to find a SoundBlaster Compatible DOS Driver...any program that emulates a generic SoundBlaster (almost all cards in DOS do) or SoundBlaster 16 should work, as long as it lets you specify the settings, for example:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D3 C6

Try googling for a DOS generic Soundblaster driver program.

I could help more but I cost ;)

Good luck! :)

[Tobbe]

I will try Windows 98 when I'm 99% sure. ;)

BTW... I have two NTFS partitions, if I add one 4GB FAT32 partition at the end of my HDD and install Windows 98 on that one and then just add the correct ARC-path to Windows 98 in BOOT.INI on the bootpartition, will that work without any problems?

Or will Windows 98 f*ck up the MBR?

Can I just fix the MBR after installing Windows 98 and then continue as planned?

Bootparition won't get modified due to that Win98 can't read NTFS...

[Joe Bones]

Have an integrated AC'97/SoundMax and the same problem. And I know this thread is ancient. In fact, that is why I registered, to expand on it. I post this because, as a computer tech and a longtime gamer, Ive seen many people that enjoy playing games from years ago. With the increasing popularity of integrated sound and video, lots of us have had DOS driver problems. And for the younger generation that does not remember the great forerunners of modern games, there are lots of "abandonware" websites, the use of which will also make this thread timely.

Mr. Black had correct solution -- the "blaster" variable. It's been years, but after seeing his post, I recalled that it was the key element to understand regarding DOS and all soundcards. However, as long as it's a Windows version newer than 3.1, the operating system is not especially critical. You simply open a DOS window (XP users can type "command" in the RUN box to do this) and set the sound variable directly yourself. Or you can even put the line into an AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

So I post this example and offer a closer look with details added:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T3 P330

in which the letters and values represent:

A = the base address of the card (in the example, it is 220)

I = the IRQ or Interrupt ReQuest number

D = the Direct Memory Access channel number

T = the Type (or emulation) of sound card

P = the address of the MIDI Port

An excellent and in-depth resource on the blaster environment variable can be found here. For those who dont want to look further than this post, I offer the following notes, some my own, some from site:

Very old motherboards use jumpers to set some of the above values. Newer ones allow some of the above to be set from BIOS. Even newer PnP (PlugnPlay) motherboards instead require a sound configuration manager to set the address of the board, as well as the IRQ and DMA levels. For these, the utility that came (or that you can obtain) for your soundcard is the place to find the correct values.

For Windows 95 and Windows 98 users, to find the settings of your sound card, select:

Control Panel / System / Device Manager / Computer / Properties / View Resources. The values you find here are what you plug into the "blaster" environment variable.

For XP users, you can type "cmd" or "command" in the RUN box to access a DOS window with prompt, in order to set the variables.

That said, "SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1" should work on most systems. Some older games were made when there were only 4 possible parameters for the BLASTER environment variable (A, I, D, and T). Due to the way the game reads the variable, the game may not work correctly unless the BLASTER environment variable ONLY has those 3 or 4 parameters and no more.

"New things" arent the only great things, and if this helps anyone else to enjoy a bit of computer game history, it was well worth the time spent.

:)

Peace,

Joe Bones