Privateer 1 & soundblaster live!, ANY OS

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bomber
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Bomber

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My problem is obvious. Privateer doesn't run with sound (it DOES run without loading the SB16 emulation driver under DOS). System hangs when i type "PRIV" and enter. It's like it's incompatible with SB16 emulation. Even without any CD-rom or mouse drivers it doesn't work. I've tried EVERYTHING. And i don't have any ISA slot for any old sound cards. I've tried VdmSound under XP, VirtualPC, VMware. No sound either (it ran in virtualPC with no sound). My problem is simple: I have SbLive. How can i play privateer??
 
The deal with the Live is that it doesn't have an SB-Link header on it. You see, when the transition was made from ISA to PCI, several lines used by the SoundBlaster were removed (I can't remember which ones - but it's not that PCI is lacking - PCI has all the functionality of ISA and then some, but some of the lines used don't exist).

Hence the "SB-Link" header - it's used to provide those extra signals to the card so programs that used it would still work. Otherwise, they broke.

Might want to try to get a real SB 16 (they're still available new) and use that, rather than the sound emulation.
 
Originally posted by Worf
The deal with the Live is that it doesn't have an SB-Link header on it. You see, when the transition was made from ISA to PCI, several lines used by the SoundBlaster were removed (I can't remember which ones - but it's not that PCI is lacking - PCI has all the functionality of ISA and then some, but some of the lines used don't exist).
Click to expand...

Actually you are wrong. PCI lacks some of the functionality of ISA because it simply isn't necessary anymore. Or to say in other words: ISA had a couple of hacks in order to improve speed of a dated system. All soundcards seem to rely on that hacks, so even switching to an SB16 PCI won't help (most likely).
Wether the DOS emulation of a PCI soundcard works is determinded if the emulator and the mainboard fit together. Basically some boards allows the emulation of the hacks and some don't. Unfortunately I don't know of a list which do...

As for the original poster...
Does the emulation work for other DOS games?
Did you limit the EMS memory to < 16mb?
Did you try to load the driver, but select no sound in P1? Did you try all possible sound and music card combinations (including only music or only sound).
 
Can I just jump in here. I have a boot disk which brings up an older PC in Win98 DOS mode to play - amongst others - Origin's Strike Commander and Wings of Glory.

I am using the SB16 emulation which came with my SBLive card.

Strike Commander plays just fine: graphics, sound - (music and speech) and joystick work great, but on starting up Wings of Glory, with SB16 emulation configured in the game menu, the game freezes almost immediately with a black screen (not even the Origin logo).

Sounds just like the same symptoms as Bomber.

Playing any Origin game without sound is a very shallow experience. To me they were the first innovators in the realm of sound for the PC - I can still remember my thrill on play WC1 for the first time with the brilliant music, and WC2 with the speech pack as well. :cool:

It would be great if someone had any ideas on how to bypass this problem - I mean why should SC work and not WoG ?? :confused:
 
Originally posted by cff
Actually you are wrong. PCI lacks some of the functionality of ISA because it simply isn't necessary anymore. Or to say in other words: ISA had a couple of hacks in order to improve speed of a dated system. All soundcards seem to rely on that hacks, so even switching to an SB16 PCI won't help (most likely).
Wether the DOS emulation of a PCI soundcard works is determinded if the emulator and the mainboard fit together. Basically some boards allows the emulation of the hacks and some don't. Unfortunately I don't know of a list which do...

As for the original poster...
Does the emulation work for other DOS games?
Did you limit the EMS memory to < 16mb?
Did you try to load the driver, but select no sound in P1? Did you try all possible sound and music card combinations (including only music or only sound).
Click to expand...

Answers to your questions:
1-> Yes, works for nearly all of them.
2-> Yes.
3-> Yes.
4-> Yes.
Now what?
As I said, when i disable the sb16 emulation driver (rem at start of the line in autoexec.bat) the game runs, without sound of course. Seems that the sb16 emulation driver doesn't like JEMM or whatever privateer uses..
 
Originally posted by Bomber

As I said, when i disable the sb16 emulation driver (rem at start of the line in autoexec.bat) the game runs, without sound of course. Seems that the sb16 emulation driver doesn't like JEMM or whatever privateer uses..
Click to expand...

What IO/IRQ/DMA does the emulation use?
What OS are you using BTW? If Win9x or WinME I might have another idea.
 
Can I just ask you cff (if I may) what other ideas you have.

As I posted below, I am having similar problems with "Wings of Glory" (I know it is not a WC game ;) ) but I would like as well to get Privateer (and RF) running on my old machine, and I am affraid I will have the same freezing.

I am using Win98 booted in DOS mode and the Blaster line in the autoexec.bat file is : SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T2 before calling SBEINIT.COM
 
Originally posted by Magician
Can I just ask you cff (if I may) what other ideas you have.
Click to expand...

To run P1 with myjemm from within Windows. (no other games I have work with that one however :-( )
 
Thanks for the feedback.

I guess things are looking up for Privateer :) but not too hopeful for my poor old Wings of Glory. :(
 
Originally posted by cff
What IO/IRQ/DMA does the emulation use?
What OS are you using BTW? If Win9x or WinME I might have another idea.
Click to expand...

The emulation uses 220/5/1.
OS: MS-DOS 6.22 (i also have win98 and winxp but i think i have more chances under DOS)
What is this myjemm?
 
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