Serdashop OPL3LPT on my Toshiba T1960CT

[VERAULT]

So I just got my OPL3LPT from serdashop in the mail yesterday evening. I spent today playing with it and testing functions. I think I have the hang of patching game files in order to get the basic ADLIB game sound working. I have questions however for anyone who knows this device.

I have win 3.11 WFW installed and I added "ADLIB" under drivers. IS there any other functionality I can utilize? The TSR program ADLIPT.exe has a few switches:
There is an option for Sound blaster and I have it enabled but so far I have not been able to get that functionality to do anything. What does it do and how can I use it?
So far I only get game music and no sound effects (which is how adlib works I know, but this sound blaster switch has me confused.)

 

[Timo W.]

The sound blaster option is just for the port. It's 220h then instead of 388h (like Adlib). It does *not* emulate a sound blaster.

Also, I don't think you can use it in WfW 3.11. It would require dedicated drivers, which I'm not sure exist. The TSR won't work for WfW 3.11, as WfW runs in enhanced mode, but the TSR can only work in real mode, which is why many games need to be patched.

 

[VERAULT]

The sound blaster option is just for the port. It's 220h then instead of 388h (like Adlib). It does *not* emulate a sound blaster.

Also, I don't think you can use it in WfW 3.11. It would require dedicated drivers, which I'm not sure exist. The TSR won't work for WfW 3.11, as WfW runs in enhanced mode, but the TSR can only work in real mode, which is why many games need to be patched.

Thanks for clarifying Timo. So just to make sure I am getting this the Blaster=220 is a setting to force the adlib to work on port 220 when you choose (sound blaster) under some games? Or am I still not understanding the switch?

I have a few old laptops I want to have sound. Now that I know what the OPL3LPT offers, is it worth it getting a DreamBlaster S2P or other card for sound effects just to try that?

 

[Plasma]

DreamBlaster S2P is a MIDI interface. It won't give you "sound effects" in Windows or most games.

You can get sound with the Covox Speech Thing or clones (CVX4), but it ties up the parallel port. Only some games support it, and I think the Windows driver plays sound in the foreground only (interrupts disabled).

There is also a PC speaker driver for Windows 3.1 which will give you basic sound output. It's not great but it works ok for games like Microsoft Golf. It has an option to play in the background ("enable interrupts during playback").

 

[VERAULT]

I forgor all about that windows 3.1 speaker sound driver! I used it a long time ago. Doesnt help me with sound effects but its a start

 

[VERAULT]

Ok I downloaded both PC speaker drivers from Archive org and put them on a floppy. They show up as #1 and #2 and have a slightly different setup screen.
#2 causes windows games to crash so I am using driver #1.

I think I understand this card pretty well now. And I think I know how the set blaster switch works.. Its a bit of a "just in case" thing.
I have the 3 DOS Jill of the jungle games. They use similar engines but the first ones seems to be an older version so it gives these two screens:


IT doesnt let me choose anything for sound; it just gives the above screens. I can choose video. I start the game and I have sound effects only no music. The other two games allow you to say YES to enable music and you get background music and no sound effects.

So I am assuming with the first game Jill1 that the BLASTER=220 switch being on is why I am hearing sound effects on that game.
I have pretty much had great success patching games and getting the ones that can run on a 486 DX50mhz to run. All but ABUSE (ver 1.1 or 2.0) and that puzzle game from the late 90's called ZOOP. I cant make the sound work on those. Shame I really used to like the game Abuse back in the 90's