MiSTer FPGA Forum

I couldn't agree more! I have spent all last evening/night..lol..testing these so nostalgic yet great games! One more time thanks again @flynnsbit for this excellent collection!

charmless wrote: ↑Sun Nov 15, 2020 7:34 am This pack is just awesome, thanks again flynnsbit! The only thing (that I have tried so far) I can't get working is the version of Monkey Island with CD Music and SFX. The game is running fine but there's no music or sound effects playing for me. The floppy version with adlib and VGA works great so no big deal.

Hey Charmless. I had the same issue as you regarding the Secret of Monkey Island startup option #7 (CD Audio) producing no sound. However, if you want an amazing version of Monkey Island - with a bit more setup to do - than you can run startup option #8 (Full Talkie w/ MT-32 music). This will get you full voice audio, but the catch is that you need either MT-32 hardware OR emulation (MUNT) running. MiSTer does technically support running MUNT along with AO486 (Enable UART mode with the following settings: Connection (MIDI), Midilink (Local), Type (MUNT).... however, MUNT is fairly demanding and chops and stutters a bit while running some songs in Secret of Monkey Island (such as the main theme song). But, if you have another computer available to run MUNT outside of MiSTer, and your MiSTer is connected to your home network, you can send the MIDI data out of MiSTer over the network to your MUNT emulator and get very high quality audio that way. There is an easy guide to "Setting Up Remote Midi Emulation on Windows" here on MiSTer forums. Since you will have audio from two sources simultaneously (MiSTer and your Windows PC), you will need to consider some way to mix them. There are lots of options, though, so I won't dive into that here. This obviously requires a bit of extra setup, but the upshot is that if you go this route, you've got the ultimate DOS experience in your hands with MiSTer running the gameplay/digital audio, and your PC running the music/synthesis emulation of otherwise old/expensive Roland hardware. Good luck!

Thanks for your hard work, what a nice collection.

I am having trouble getting Descent and Descent II to run with a sound canvas. It works fine with other games like Doom or the Sierra adventures, so it is not a problem in general.

Descent crashes when I choose the canvas option and Descent II has no music at all. Descent also crashes, when I try to set the GM option in the setup.

JonnyTenebrous wrote: ↑Sun Nov 15, 2020 12:40 pm

charmless wrote: ↑Sun Nov 15, 2020 7:34 am This pack is just awesome, thanks again flynnsbit! The only thing (that I have tried so far) I can't get working is the version of Monkey Island with CD Music and SFX. The game is running fine but there's no music or sound effects playing for me. The floppy version with adlib and VGA works great so no big deal.

Hey Charmless. I had the same issue as you regarding the Secret of Monkey Island startup option #7 (CD Audio) producing no sound. However, if you want an amazing version of Monkey Island - with a bit more setup to do - than you can run startup option #8 (Full Talkie w/ MT-32 music). This will get you full voice audio, but the catch is that you need either MT-32 hardware OR emulation (MUNT) running. MiSTer does technically support running MUNT along with AO486 (Enable UART mode with the following settings: Connection (MIDI), Midilink (Local), Type (MUNT).... however, MUNT is fairly demanding and chops and stutters a bit while running some songs in Secret of Monkey Island (such as the main theme song). But, if you have another computer available to run MUNT outside of MiSTer, and your MiSTer is connected to your home network, you can send the MIDI data out of MiSTer over the network to your MUNT emulator and get very high quality audio that way. There is an easy guide to "Setting Up Remote Midi Emulation on Windows" here on MiSTer forums. Since you will have audio from two sources simultaneously (MiSTer and your Windows PC), you will need to consider some way to mix them. There are lots of options, though, so I won't dive into that here. This obviously requires a bit of extra setup, but the upshot is that if you go this route, you've got the ultimate DOS experience in your hands with MiSTer running the gameplay/digital audio, and your PC running the music/synthesis emulation of otherwise old/expensive Roland hardware. Good luck!

Thank you! I have Munt installed on my computer so will definitely give this a try.

Chris23235 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 15, 2020 2:06 pm Thanks for your hard work, what a nice collection.

I am having trouble getting Descent and Descent II to run with a sound canvas. It works fine with other games like Doom or the Sierra adventures, so it is not a problem in general.

Descent crashes when I choose the canvas option and Descent II has no music at all. Descent also crashes, when I try to set the GM option in the setup.

" Soundblaster is the default unless audio worked by default out of the eXoDOS v5 collection." From the first post. Sorry, I did not go through the other sound options from ExoDOS nor did I try and fix anything for those. You can probably run the setup and select other options, but you are getting into rocky waters with those options and the ao486 core. Some games don't even like Pro/SB16 or even General MIDI on 330. If you do find a config that works by running setup, you also need to overwrite the cfg file in the sc55 or mt32 sub directory with the one you create or the startup script is just going to overwrite your version again.

Great pack. Wondering why when trying to start SimCity 2000, I get the following error message and it seems to have frozen:
"Drive not ready error reading drive F
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail"

I have gone into hardware => and set "Yes" to IDE 1-0 CD Hot-Swap. I even set "Yes" to the IDE 1-1 CD Hot-Swap option but same error.

Must be something about mounting the F: drive as I can't seem to start Command and Conquer either (another CD based game). It tells me to enter the CD, yet if I open the menu (windows key + F12), I can clearly see the iso being selected in the IDE 1-0 slot.

UPDATE: if I access the menu, and goto the IDE 1-0 slot where the ISO is automatically mounted, it's not able the find the file. If I remove it manually, then re-mount it manually (to my external HD), it then proceeds with the load.

Hmmmm.

are you using /games/ao486/cd/ or /ao486/cd/? There is a bug where cd's wont mount if you are using /ao486/ as the root folder.

make sure your path to the cd's is exactly /games/ao486/cd/gamefolder/gamecd.cue;iso;bin

Also, you can't have an ao486 on your sdcard and the harddrive at the same time. remove it completely from the SD if you are using an external disk.

Thanks, Flynn, for putting all this effort in! I've mostly been following along with your youtube channel and this is all pretty amazing. I was really hoping you'd get to the point of a curated collection, and this one is great.

Ultimately i'm hoping to build a few smaller, custom collections for ppl. ATM i presume the easiest way to do that is going to be by using your 100MB DOS boot drive in this pack, and matching the second VHD structure and separate CD folder. Maybe using the basic converter structure outlined in your vid here - vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVBkEm0lGsI ? Is there any critical linking between the two drives in your pack that i should be aware of?

Sorry to be a pain. I'd be happy with simply manually adding games as described above in this thread, but i'd rather not have the massive list of games that aren't going to work (presuming the setup would even work without them). If this is the kind of thing you were planning to do a video on at some point, then i'm happy to wait. Cheers!

@buttersoft, yes exactly.

1. The one thing I do that is a bit difficult to understand is there are two partitions not one on the second large VHD. The reason I do this is so that DOS will assign a drive letter to it at D:. So C: is always the OS disk and can be swapped out by people if they want different setups, dos versions, etc. It separates the games from the OS. How you do this is when you are creating your VHD, I just create a small FAT 10-15MB disk first, and then create another one on the VHD with the remaining space (127.XGB) Then when AO486 mounts this you end up with a C: (OS), D: (STUB DISK), E: (GAMES DISK)
Then in the autoexec.bat you will see me run a command "ASSIGN D: = F:" All this does is overwrite the D: stub disk with the F: drive which is the CD drive. There are multiple games that can do one of two things: 1. They can detect the CD drive and find the CD on F: and play. 2: They are hardcoded to use D: from the Exo collection as you can assign any drive you want in DOSBOX unlike in real DOS. So this trick fixes most. If the CD is mounted, you should see the same content on D: and F: if you are using my image, and you have created a D: stub disk in the second VHD. It was a trick, but it works. It does make the initial setup more complicated, but adds a lot of compatibility.

2. Yes. I would and do use the awesome ExoDOSConverter for everything I do. The latest release just release today even includes download on demand from ExoV5. I am working on a better way to update game cfg and ini changes that use github which you could also contribute to.

The Setup script is a hit or miss as it is just blasting through the directories for the games looking for a setup file. You can see that if you edit it.

I do plan to do another video to catch everyone up on all of the changes, workflow, and new stuff. Probably this weekend.

Thnx for the great pack!
First off a, verry thankfull tot the great work you put in.!

I have a question regarding, "the 7th guest", all is working, but the speech stops after1 or 2 seconds.
I am using soundblaster settings, music does plays fine though.

Iam playing with a RII k18 plus, with touchpad, wich is working fine, for mouse substitude.

In a few other games i have tested, there was no problem with sound or speech. Setup option did nothing. Just an an report hat setup files could not be found.

Someone has a idea?, love to play this with mine wife.

flynnsbit wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 6:49 pm @buttersoft, yes exactly.

Much obliged for the tips - the new version of eXoDOS-converter looks pretty slick. You only need to do that first conversion step, and after that it sets up TDL for you, no need for more processing! Your idea to use dummy zips looks nice, i must say. Though i do now need to plan for a slightly larger 32GB SD card for this, rather than 16GB - which is all of a dollar more, so whatever

ExoConverter will do the stubs for you now too, fyi. So basically you only have to create the VHD like above, verify the TDL.ini is set to e:\games and copy it. Then fix a lot of games that don't work

flynnsbit wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 6:49 pm I do plan to do another video to catch everyone up on all of the changes, workflow, and new stuff. Probably this weekend.

Please do. I’ve downloaded eXoDOSv5, and eXoDOSConverter has had some changes since your last video. My TDL folder ended up being too large for the maximum .vhd size compatible with the ao486 core. I ended up using your eXoDOSv4 .vhd with the “cd” folder I had generated with eXoDOSv5. Some games work but more often they don’t

It should just barely fit so I will run through it this weekend. There are still going to be many script issues that need to be back ported into the converter and that is on me to do. I first need to finish the scripts that allow for uploading changes and pulling down changes to the packs so people dont have to download full VHDs. It is a priority for me. You can easily make it fit by doing a couple of small things:

1. find Links LS and make sure the CD's are not there for the VHD, and if so, just delete it as I can't get that one working yet anyway.
2. search for and *.iso or *.bin (dont just delete all bins because some could be game files and not cds) files and remove.
3. go back to your original zips, sort by file size, and then go delete a couple of the very large games from the list.

flynnsbit wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 12:15 am are you using /games/ao486/cd/ or /ao486/cd/? There is a bug where cd's wont mount if you are using /ao486/ as the root folder.

make sure your path to the cd's is exactly /games/ao486/cd/gamefolder/gamecd.cue;iso;bin

Also, you can't have an ao486 on your SD card and the harddrive at the same time. remove it completely from the SD if you are using an external disk.

Thanks! I had properly removed the data from the SD card. But I had kept the /cd directory in the unzipped Top300 directory by accident. Once I removed that directory and had put everything in your exact path - all worked perfectly!!

The only thing I need to make sure is that each time I reboot the Mister, I need to ensure the external USB drive is recognized - whcih usually takes about 30 sec (presumably due to the size).

Thanks a bunch for this pack - it's a great trip down memory lane.

I'm trying to run ao486 with the VHDs and other images mounted over CIFS. What should the directory structure be in the CIFS mount? I have the mounts set up such that the cd/ and floppy/ directories hosted on my PC are mounted in /media/fat/Games/AO486/ as they would be if they were copied to SD, but I can't get any CD images to mount this way.

Do you have EVERYTHING in the AO486 folder on the CIFS/NAS?
And have no AO486 folder/files on sdcard/usbdrive on the mister if no then thats your problem.

I've done all of these things but when I check the image mounted in IDE 1-0, I get a Missing directory error. I have to manually unmount the image, then mount it by navigating to /Games/AO486/cd/ which is now a CIFS mount point. That should be where the mounting script checks for CD images, right?

Shot in the dark, try this "case" on your folder names: \\mister\fat\games\Ao486\cd

Psygho wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 11:55 pm Thnx for the great pack!
First off a, verry thankfull tot the great work you put in.!

I have a question regarding, "the 7th guest", all is working, but the speech stops after1 or 2 seconds.
I am using soundblaster settings, music does plays fine though.

Iam playing with a RII k18 plus, with touchpad, wich is working fine, for mouse substitude.

In a few other games i have tested, there was no problem with sound or speech. Setup option did nothing. Just an an report hat setup files could not be found.

Someone has a idea?, love to play this with mine wife.

Of is working now
Solution, select VSYNC ADJUST 0 , AND use option "hiram"

I used VSYNC ADJUST 2 , because mine OLED has no problems with this setting. So made a second ini file, for fast switching.

This doesn't work either. I'm loading the core from SD so it can be updated normally, but boot0.rom and boot1.rom are on CIFS.

OK, so i'm up and running with my custom games list in TDL One thing i should say about the below is that having two partitions on the one VHD seems to stop guiformat-x64 from running. So you have to set up the partitions in FAT32 from the start.

Any tips on general fixes to get games running? I haven't really started testing yet, but keen to avoid hassle where i can

Cheers again!

flynnsbit wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 6:49 pm
1. The one thing I do that is a bit difficult to understand is there are two partitions not one on the second large VHD. The reason I do this is so that DOS will assign a drive letter to it at D:. So C: is always the OS disk and can be swapped out by people if they want different setups, dos versions, etc. It separates the games from the OS. How you do this is when you are creating your VHD, I just create a small FAT 10-15MB disk first, and then create another one on the VHD with the remaining space (127.XGB) Then when AO486 mounts this you end up with a C: (OS), D: (STUB DISK), E: (GAMES DISK)
Then in the autoexec.bat you will see me run a command "ASSIGN D: = F:" All this does is overwrite the D: stub disk with the F: drive which is the CD drive. There are multiple games that can do one of two things: 1. They can detect the CD drive and find the CD on F: and play. 2: They are hardcoded to use D: from the Exo collection as you can assign any drive you want in DOSBOX unlike in real DOS. So this trick fixes most. If the CD is mounted, you should see the same content on D: and F: if you are using my image, and you have created a D: stub disk in the second VHD. It was a trick, but it works. It does make the initial setup more complicated, but adds a lot of compatibility.

It's random issues still. Top ones for me when going through the 300 games I test:
1. game config files that are specific names in the games folders that still tie to a C:\GAMEFOLDER so you have to edit the cfg, ini, etc in the directory and change it to E:\GAMES\...\...\.
2. SB16/ASP is usually the default and this is hit or miss on the AO486 core. Some games work fine, some wont work at all. If a game locks on loading, usually it is this. Run setup/install/setsound/whatever and re-configure for SB Pro or SB / General Midi and test game. IF it works, make sure to overwrite the exo backup file in /sb16/ or /sc55/ with the cfg file you fixed using the setup.
3. game requires reinstall to a root folder like C:\game or E:\game. I usually will rerun the install to one of those directories, test the game, and then xcopy it all to the E:\Games\gamename\game folder and test again. If that works, clear out the root folder.

Those are typically the problems. I did a 14 hour stream on all those kind of changes if you are really really bored, you can see the changes I had to make. Still the plan is to not require any of that and feed those changes back to the Converter scripts.

flynnsbit wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 9:03 pmI did a 14 hour stream on all those kind of changes if you are really really bored, you can see the changes I had to make. Still the plan is to not require any of that and feed those changes back to the Converter scripts.

Haven´t everyone here seen it already

grizzly wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 11:05 pm

flynnsbit wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 9:03 pmI did a 14 hour stream on all those kind of changes if you are really really bored, you can see the changes I had to make. Still the plan is to not require any of that and feed those changes back to the Converter scripts.

Haven´t everyone here seen it already

You would think that huh!

Thanks for making this pack it is awesome

Are there usb drive compatibility issues with this core? I have an old Buffalo Ministation that works for everything else but maybe I need a powered usb drive.

When I first mounted the two vhds the menu came up fine and I played a few rounds of Arkanoid. Then I tried Dark Forces and it froze after a few logos. After reset I could not get it to see the vhds. It just says "secondary drive not mounted". I've gone through this and other threads trying various things and the only way to get the menu to load again is to delete everything from my usb drive and transfer it back over. I can then see the menu but if I load a cd game I get the "drive not mounted message" and it cant read the vhd after that. Anyone else have a problem like this?

twotone8 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:06 pm That fixed the audio glitches, but there's major stuttering during weapons fire that is pretty game breaking as of now. I'm hoping to find a solution, as I love this game.

There's mention of a similar issue in the compatibility thread - the fix for which is use of a FAT16 disk rather than a FAT32 one. I'm not sure how viable an option that would be.

buttersoft wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 4:32 am

twotone8 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:06 pm That fixed the audio glitches, but there's major stuttering during weapons fire that is pretty game breaking as of now. I'm hoping to find a solution, as I love this game.

There's mention of a similar issue in the compatibility thread - the fix for which is use of a FAT16 disk rather than a FAT32 one. I'm not sure how viable an option that would be.

sorry this one is my bad, fat16 did nothing. seems the more sounds you have at once make the problem worse, i just didnt notice as i had 1 gun not 2.

Anybody else having problems with launching Star Wars: X-Wing from Within TDL? I am using the EMM386 memory selection, and select the game from TDL, the launch the game normally by selecting 1, select Sound Blaster, then it immediacy black screens and sends me back to TDL. No matter which sound option I select, I am met with the same results. Other games seem to work just fine, e.g. Full Throttle, Alone in the Dark, Return to Zork). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bret

Tofana10am wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 8:58 pm Anybody else having problems with launching Star Wars: X-Wing from Within TDL? I am using the EMM386 memory selection, and select the game from TDL, the launch the game normally by selecting 1, select Sound Blaster, then it immediacy black screens and sends me back to TDL. No matter which sound option I select, I am met with the same results. Other games seem to work just fine, e.g. Full Throttle, Alone in the Dark, Return to Zork). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bret

Here you go, some examples of launching it. You can try EMM or QEM, both should work. If it goes from black screen straight back to TDL you can hit "ALT-F5" in the TDL interface and it will show you the last console before it loaded. That can help you figure out what it is. Example in the video of launching it with different audio (note I was in the middle of testing MT-32 so it is going to sound terrible on one example )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIYzWI- ... e=youtu.be