AO486 Compatibility List

[Caldor]

Seems you made it use regular Sound Blaster, but with IRQ 7? Every other game I play with AO486 use IRQ 5. Maybe you changed something about your sound card settings, or is it something to do with this game specifically?

I found the point in the video where you made the working config:
https://youtu.be/xWw0Lw56jJ0?t=18963

Another issue I have, is that after I have begun needing CD-ROM drivers, I no longer have enough memory for many games. I really need to tweak my configs some more. Also I need some better DOS 6.22 configs. I mainly use DOS 7.1 and FreeDOS. FreeDOS has a really good memory config by default... but those memory managers that FreeDOS use cause conflicts with many games.

[flynnsbit]

Seems you made it use regular Sound Blaster, but with IRQ 7? Every other game I play with AO486 use IRQ 5. Maybe you changed something about your sound card settings, or is it something to do with this game specifically?

I found the point in the video where you made the working config:
https://youtu.be/xWw0Lw56jJ0?t=18963

Another issue I have, is that after I have begun needing CD-ROM drivers, I no longer have enough memory for many games. I really need to tweak my configs some more. Also I need some better DOS 6.22 configs. I mainly use DOS 7.1 and FreeDOS. FreeDOS has a really good memory config by default... but those memory managers that FreeDOS use cause conflicts with many games.

The ExoDOS collection uses IRQ7 as default which is the only reason I switched to using it as default. You can pull my configs from archive.org if you want a boot disk configured for CD support and maximum memory free. I think the version I have out there with misterfs, ctmouse, doskey, cdrom drivers, and assign loaded is around 626K free of conventional memory. You may ne able to grab some ideas out of that. Just search for ao486. If you don't want to whole pack, I have the boot OS separate from the games vhd so you could just grab that. It's a 100MB vhd.

[Caldor]

Seems you made it use regular Sound Blaster, but with IRQ 7? Every other game I play with AO486 use IRQ 5. Maybe you changed something about your sound card settings, or is it something to do with this game specifically?

I found the point in the video where you made the working config:
https://youtu.be/xWw0Lw56jJ0?t=18963

Another issue I have, is that after I have begun needing CD-ROM drivers, I no longer have enough memory for many games. I really need to tweak my configs some more. Also I need some better DOS 6.22 configs. I mainly use DOS 7.1 and FreeDOS. FreeDOS has a really good memory config by default... but those memory managers that FreeDOS use cause conflicts with many games.

The ExoDOS collection uses IRQ7 as default which is the only reason I switched to using it as default. You can pull my configs from archive.org if you want a boot disk configured for CD support and maximum memory free. I think the version I have out there with misterfs, ctmouse, doskey, cdrom drivers, and assign loaded is around 626K free of conventional memory. You may ne able to grab some ideas out of that. Just search for ao486. If you don't want to whole pack, I have the boot OS separate from the games vhd so you could just grab that. It's a 100MB vhd.

Thanks Yeah, I really need to get around to doing that. I also think IRQ 7 was more commonly used anyway. 626K free with CD all that enabled? I have to look into how that was done My Dos 7.1 setup is a bit messy, but I still cannot see how I would go from 540K free to 626K. One thing would be to replace the CD driver though.

[ash2fpga]

My hazy memory was my ISA sound blasters were all IRQ 7. So I was a bit surprised to see IRQ 5 for ao486.

[Caldor]

I am downloading that compilation of 300 games now. I can see Hi-Octane is on the list. Does Hi-Octane run on AO486? I figured it would run really badly with this core given the 3D and such? Although I guess Destruction Derby does run pretty well.

[flynnsbit]

It's not bad, it's not great either.
https://youtu.be/-Y4wqaFUNhs?t=10604

[Caldor]

It's not bad, it's not great either.
https://youtu.be/-Y4wqaFUNhs?t=10604

Nice Pretty decent for sure. Very much playable. It is running on the same engine as Syndicate Wars and that game does run... about as well as this. So it makes sense.

I downloaded it and due to lack of space for now I just tried the boot VHD. Or... I guess really just the boot config. I copied it to my disk and added Game Wizard and Norton Commander to the path.

I guess the main difference is the CD-ROM driver since it is getting more than 600kb conventional memory free even though it has mouse and CD-ROM loaded. I got 7th Guest running.

But I was trying Lands of Lore again and for some reason I cannot get the voices working. I even see it as an option in the game to change the volume of voices, but it seems disabled. Do I need to do a different installation or something? Have you gotten voices working?

[thera34]

But I was trying Lands of Lore again and for some reason I cannot get the voices working. I even see it as an option in the game to change the volume of voices, but it seems disabled. Do I need to do a different installation or something? Have you gotten voices working?

Run setup.exe first and select SoundBlaster (option 2), not SB Pro (option 3), then 1 for digitized sounds.

That way it just worked for me

P.S. Same trick with selecting SB instead of Pro made voices work on intro for CD version of Dune2 (or at least the one I have, mentats don't seem do have any voice. Might be my version, I never played Dune 2 CD version back in my childhood, just floppy one.

On the same Westwood/Dune series note, Dune 1 CD version voices and mixer worked by editing dune.bat 's settings as follows : instead of ADP220 put SBP220. If left by default, music volume and mixer settings won't work, as ADP stands for Adlibpro while ofc SBP for SoundblasterPro
Other tweaks/tips for this game here:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Dune
https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27861-du ... parameter/

Cheers

[Caldor]

Awesome. I will try this. I am off to bed. Which means I will be playing with my MiSTer before going to sleep I got it hooked up to a projector so I can try out stuff having a keyboard and mouse in the bed.

[Caldor]

Okay, Lands of Lore: Throne of Chaos seems to run pretty well now and with voices, using the Sound Blaster option instead of SBPro.

7th Guest, Mad Dog McCree, Ecstatica, Kyrandia 3 Malcolms Revenge, Fade 2 Black and Death Gate also all seem to run well.

I did get 11th Guest to run, but it just keeps having a black screen. It does have audio playing though. Not sure what the issue is, but to get it that far I had to run uvconfig to setup the SVGA options a bit. I tried pretty much everything. The game wont run without SVGA. But for some reason it just has that black screen when it does run. I tried disabling hardware cache or something, but that did not help either. There is some stuff in the documentation about setting up the game and getting it to run, but I could not find anything addressing this issue.

Overall I am still impressed with how well these games do run on this core. I think its pretty much just support for CD audio I am missing for this core now. Of course it would be nice if it could be faster and have FPU support, but that is a bit unrealistic with the MiSTer FPGA specs. Well, FPU might be feasible, but pointless without a faster CPU.

[Caldor]

I was trying out different games again of the ones I have installed. Under a Killing Moon runs quite well. It had thrown some errors but now that I am using the config from Flynnsbit collection, it seems more stable. I do not even think it has thrown that error I sometimes get this way. It does not seem to like DOS32A btw. Runs with DOS4GW though.

But Command & Conquer. It runs well and stable, except after playing for a bit the mouse becomes uncontrollable. It jumps around and clicks randomly. Once it has begun happening I do not seem able to fix it and the game does not much keyboard controls, I can open the menu and that is it. So no way to save the game after that happens. Anyone experienced this? Maybe anyone know a possible solution? I suspect maybe using a different mouse driver might help but have not tried that yet.

Another thing to add. I made another modification to Flynnsbit configuration. I added 4DOS to it, so that in the config.sys file it loads 4DOS as a replacement shell. Its a bit like DOSKey, but with more features. I was worried it was the reason my config used so much more conventional memory, but the different is maybe 7kb. So instead of 625kb free it has 619kb free with 4DOS loaded. And 4DOS uses something called kstack for DOSKey which uses less memory, so there is a bit more high memory free.

[flynnsbit]

Any other advantage to 4DOS? Does it increase compatibility with any games?

[Caldor]

Any other advantage to 4DOS? Does it increase compatibility with any games?

Probably not... maybe even the opposite. Its certainly something to be vary of. But it is pretty nice when it comes to getting advanced DOS features like a long history, using tab to browse through folders and such, and more.

There is an overview here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4DOS

Some pretty neat ones really, I have not even begun taking full advantage of it.

[Caldor]

I do seem to have the issue in Death Gate as well, except in Death Gate I cannot move the mouse at all. I just figured the game froze, but now I am thinking the two issues might be related. I think I will try using a different mouse driver.

[Caldor]

I have been experimenting with the mouse issue. I tried several drivers now and several settings. Even tried an original DOS driver from back in the DOS days, and I thought it worked because it seemed like it but then after a while it still happened. So now I suspect its probably the mouse.

It either stops the mouse from working at all, or it makes the mouse move pretty much randomly. It does seem to react to me moving the mouse, but instead of moving the way I want it to it moves in random directions... and clicks all over the place. I got a bit of a collection of mouse..s... mice? computer mice. I will try to use the one I use with my Amiga, because if the Amiga USB adapter (Rys MK2) works with it, I suspect it will work with the MiSTer as well.

It also tried different memory settings. I am pretty sure it happens under all of them. There is a slight chance it might not happen when using a QEMM setup, but... I am pretty sure I tried QEMM as well. If it still happens with this mouse also, I guess it might be my USB hub. But I tried loading Game Wizard, because this way I could jump back to DOS and do some testing. I noticed that the mouse would move the same in Norton Commander. I also noticed that I could not unload the mouse driver, and set something about an IRQ problem. Did not say IRQ conflict though, or at least I am pretty sure it didnt. So it was a bit vague what the problem was. Does not make much sense that an IRQ problem would happen randomly in a game. I have not been able to find any pattern to it, with something making it happen.

Games it has happened in for me: Command and Conquer, Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall and maybe Death Gate. I do not remember if it happened for me in Z or in Blood and Magic. Daggerfall has its own type of DOS extender. C&C uses DOS4GW but needs DOS32A to run. So hard to say if its a memory problem. I have thought about maybe not loading it into high mem.

Well, I will just hope it will stop happening when I switch mouse. Otherwise it really seems to run great and very stable. The disk speed now seems really good, the CD speed seems pretty good. There are the issues with DOS4GW, but they are mostly solved using DOS32A. Death Gate is one game that wont run using DOS32A, so it does not seem to be a solution to just replace DOS4GW in every game that has DOS4GW. But I do not think it has stopped a game from being playable at all so far.

I think I will try running Diablo and Starcraft again, because it feels like AO486 is faster now than it was before. They will probably still be a bit slow though. I played Z in SVGA and while it might be a bit slow, it still runs really good I think. Also I have not noticed sound problems. Used to be if the audio card needed a buffer or something had some slight stuttering or pauses.

[flynnsbit]

It either stops the mouse from working at all, or it makes the mouse move pretty much randomly. It does seem to react to me moving the mouse, but instead of moving the way I want it to it moves in random directions... and clicks all over the place. I got a bit of a collection of mouse..s... mice? computer mice. I will try to use the one I use with my Amiga, because if the Amiga USB adapter (Rys MK2) works with it, I suspect it will work with the MiSTer as well.

It also tried different memory settings. I am pretty sure it happens under all of them. There is a slight chance it might not happen when using a QEMM setup, but... I am pretty sure I tried QEMM as well. If it still happens with this mouse also, I guess it might be my USB hub. But I tried loading Game Wizard, because this way I could jump back to DOS and do some testing. I noticed that the mouse would move the same in Norton Commander. I also noticed that I could not unload the mouse driver, and set something about an IRQ problem. Did not say IRQ conflict though, or at least I am pretty sure it didnt. So it was a bit vague what the problem was. Does not make much sense that an IRQ problem would happen randomly in a game. I have not been able to find any pattern to it, with something making it happen.

yup, I've seen this before in my testing, the mouse seems to move quickly around the perimeter of the screen border with no chance to get it to the center.

[Caldor]

It either stops the mouse from working at all, or it makes the mouse move pretty much randomly. It does seem to react to me moving the mouse, but instead of moving the way I want it to it moves in random directions... and clicks all over the place. I got a bit of a collection of mouse..s... mice? computer mice. I will try to use the one I use with my Amiga, because if the Amiga USB adapter (Rys MK2) works with it, I suspect it will work with the MiSTer as well.

It also tried different memory settings. I am pretty sure it happens under all of them. There is a slight chance it might not happen when using a QEMM setup, but... I am pretty sure I tried QEMM as well. If it still happens with this mouse also, I guess it might be my USB hub. But I tried loading Game Wizard, because this way I could jump back to DOS and do some testing. I noticed that the mouse would move the same in Norton Commander. I also noticed that I could not unload the mouse driver, and set something about an IRQ problem. Did not say IRQ conflict though, or at least I am pretty sure it didnt. So it was a bit vague what the problem was. Does not make much sense that an IRQ problem would happen randomly in a game. I have not been able to find any pattern to it, with something making it happen.

yup, I've seen this before in my testing, the mouse seems to move quickly around the perimeter of the screen border with no chance to get it to the center.

Exactly that, yes. Hmmm, I was getting pretty confident it was probably my mouse that was the problem. I googled my specific mouse and it seems to have a pretty bad cable, and I figured that might cause it.

Oh, but btw... when I used Game Wizard 32 to exit the game and failed to remove the mouse driver from memory, I could still load the driver again and then it worked again

But the game failed to run after that and just seemed to crash. Might not have been related though

[flynnsbit]

I've only tested the ctmouse that I have in the pack and haven't veered from it, I dont even think it is the release version so their might be something better compatible with MiSTer.

[Caldor]

I've only tested the ctmouse that I have in the pack and haven't veered from it, I dont even think it is the release version so their might be something better compatible with MiSTer.

I am pretty sure its tied to the mouse and not the driver. I tried different mouse drivers and it still happened. I was using a Logitech mouse. I think its called MX400 or something like that, but I remember having had this exact problem on my laptop using that mouse. Was just a while ago so I did not think much of it.

I will report back if it suddenly happens again.

[pgimeno]

Any other advantage to 4DOS? Does it increase compatibility with any games?

The way it loads, it leaves plenty of RAM available for games. More than COMMAND.COM as far as I know. Whether that improves games is a question of how much memory the game needs.

[Caldor]

Any other advantage to 4DOS? Does it increase compatibility with any games?

The way it loads, it leaves plenty of RAM available for games. More than COMMAND.COM as far as I know. Whether that improves games is a question of how much memory the game needs.

Yeah, it seems to replace the Command.com shell with 4DOS, and it was around even back in the DOS days if I remember correctly and just ended up being more open source and updated long after DOS stopped being generally used. It should be used by default in FreeDOS as well.

If you have used the prompt in Windows 10 or Linux, 4DOS makes it feel a lot more like those I think, but also gives some extra options for batch file commands. When using a launcher or a file manager like Norton Commander it is probably not going to add much though.

[MikeS1]

NHL 95 Works great! Sound/Music and controls are work great. I installed it manually after booting with exodos and just running it directly through dos.

[FeelsDuckMan]

I have a feeling this compatibility list is out of date and no longer useful. I just tried Duke Nukem 3D atomic edition in dos 6.22, game boots up but shortly crashes. Blood (3D Realms) doesn't get into game at all.

[spicer]

blood does work for me using dos 7, installed from cd, runs bad but does work.

[Caldor]

I have a feeling this compatibility list is out of date and no longer useful. I just tried Duke Nukem 3D atomic edition in dos 6.22, game boots up but shortly crashes. Blood (3D Realms) doesn't get into game at all.

Many of these games require rather specific settings. Certain types of memory setups, certain audio setups and it also has to match the settings for AO486. If you set the wrong OPL setting it might make the game crash for example or otherwise cause audio problems. Many games needs DOS32A to be able to run.

[FeelsDuckMan]

I see, I'll try tweaking it a bit next chance I get.

[vanfanel]

I am trying to run Dungeon Master II: Legend of Skullkeep, and it doesn't seem to run, shows the INTERPLAY logo and goes back to DOS.
Has anybody got this favorite'o mine to work?

[thera34]

@vanfanel: It should work, I tested in both MS-DOS 6.22 and 7
It shows an error screen after Interplay logo, but after that it launches the game without issues. All that it's not working is the mini-video/intro screen.

[Goingdown]

@vanfanel: It should work, I tested in both MS-DOS 6.22 and 7
It shows an error screen after Interplay logo, but after that it launches the game without issues. All that it's not working is the mini-video/intro screen.

Could you tell me about your setup? I tried this too, and no matter what I try, I cannot get it to run.

[vanfanel]

@vanfanel: It should work, I tested in both MS-DOS 6.22 and 7
It shows an error screen after Interplay logo, but after that it launches the game without issues. All that it's not working is the mini-video/intro screen.

Could you tell me about your setup? I tried this too, and no matter what I try, I cannot get it to run.

Same here. The game just doesn't seem to work, I have tried countless config options.