Problems using midi with a Soundblaster 64 in Privateer

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I built myself a dos computer about a year ago, with a p133 with 48 megs of ram, a diamond stealth 3d video card, a voodoo 2 and a soundblaster 64, and DOS 6.22. Every game I have installed on it has worked flawlessly, except for one, and probably my favorite... Privateer.

I have to say it runs perfectly as long as I don't use general Midi. But, I loved the music in privateer, and I want it to have the exact same experience I did the first time I played it! I am still trying to remember what I could have done with my orginal soundblaster 16 with the waveblaster daughterboard.

Anyway, with the sb 64 and general midi turned on the music plays fine for a minute, but then it seems a note will get stuck, and then not long after that the game will crash. I am afraid the soundblaster 64 and Privateer just don't get along, but I thought maybe there is some way to fix this that I have not found yet.

I would be suprised if anyone has a solution for this, but I thought it was worth checking.

I have to say though if you can scrape together some old parts, an old dos computer like that is the best way to relive those old games... At least until DosBox is perfected.
 
What port/IRQ/etc are you telling Privateer to look for your MIDI card at? Despite the fact that it gives you an option, it will only accept... the default... 330, I believe.
 
Farzone Privateer is quite tricky, even before you play it!
You can try changing your soundcard driver ( it´s a bugger of a job, but worth it!) Look in:-

www.creative.com
or
www.driverguide.com

Good luck
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Bandit LOAF What port/IRQ/etc are you telling Privateer to look for your MIDI card at? Despite the fact that it gives you an option, it will only accept... the default... 330, I believe.
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I downloaded a patch off creatives site that said it added awe32 support for many games (privateer was not one of them), I held off getting different drivers though, because of it being "a bugger of a job" but you are right, it is worth trying... especially if it actually works!

Also, I spent quite a bit of time messing with the port/IRQ settings to see if there were conficts or if other settings worked better, but I ended up with them back at the standard settings with the midi port at 330, so I don't think my problem lies there.

Thanks for the suggestion guys! I am not ready to be satisfied with FM synthesis just yet!

Just a thought, but games like this should be open sourced if the developers or publishers don't plan to take advantage of it anymore. They should learn a lesson from ID, wouldn't a Privateer_Legacy be great, alla DooM_Legacy? Sorry, That is a post for another forum!
 
Unregistered said:
[...]with the sb 64 and general midi turned on the music plays fine for a minute, but then it seems a note will get stuck, and then not long after that the game will crash.
Click to expand...

Just to be sure: does it always happen at that very moment? If so, couldn't the problem be linked to the music file itself ?
I'm not a specialist at all, but depending on the answer you may receive help from more experienced people here...
 
Unregistered said:
Just a thought, but games like this should be open sourced if the developers or publishers don't plan to take advantage of it anymore. They should learn a lesson from ID, wouldn't a Privateer_Legacy be great, alla DooM_Legacy? Sorry, That is a post for another forum!
Click to expand...

Yes....but that idea is voodoo....against religion.....against set stubborn policy that means extremely little in 2004 for code written in the early 90's. :rolleyes:
 
I have continued to play around with it for the last week or so, and I guess it is just an incompatibility with the SB64 and Privateer. The crashes and sound glitches are random, so I do not think there is a specific part of the game causing the problem.

So, I guess I will be enjoying Privateer with just FM Synthesis sound. Oh well, it is still very fun to play.

Concerning open source, it is very annoying the way they zealously protect code that has no value anymore! The Wing Commander universe, it absolutely has value, the 10 year old code one of the games was created with, NO! I just don't understand how they can be so blind.

You know though, I believe a group of fans petitioned Bungie to allow them access to the Myth source code so the fans could keep it alive, and Bungie agreed. So maybe, someday, it could happen with the old Wing Commander games... Maybe?
 
Been done already. No success. Problem is that EA itself doesn't seem to really own all rights in WC, so releasing it would pose possible problems for them. Also I'd not be surprised to hear that the don't even have the code anymore themselfes.
 
So, it's not necessarily that EA is a bunch misers who refuse to let go of old code, but instead the code is mired in a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo of who owns what? And since it is such old code no one at EA or who ever else might be involved are interested in spending the time or money to sort out who owns the code, and why would they want to waste their time on something so outdated? Which unfortunately is understandable. So, the fans get left out in the cold.

It is a real shame, since this seems to be a very active community of fans, and it looks like their are some very talented people who would probably jump on the chance to get the old Wing Commander games running flawlessly on todays computers, and who know what cool new features they could bring to those old games.

Well, like I said it is shame.
 
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