i was wondering if anybody knows how to get sound on the original dark forces game on a computer running windows xp. it seems like all games that use dos suck on xp because they cant play sound
any help will be appreciated
search on google for "VDM Sound"
it's a software emulater for a soundblaster 16 - just the thing you need to get sound working on old DOS games like Dark Forces, Blood, Wing Commander et al.
thanks, i got the sound working and it is great
Hmmm... I'm running Windows XP and I get the sound, I just don't get any music.
well the VDM program is working great for dark forces, rayman, and all those old games i have
VDMSound can play the sound samples as well as reroute MIDI,
using the sound drivers you have installed in your system.
After you have installed it, open a command line box (start->execute->cmd),
go into the directory you have installed DF, and run the following command:
vdmsrun imuse
There check your sound setup, test it, and save the settings.
To start DF using VDMSound, create a batch, e.g. call it vdmsdark.bat,
and write in just the following line:
call vdmsrun imuse.exe
Make a shortcut to vdmsdark.bat on your desktop,
with your df directory as "executing from" path.
If you still don't hear any music, then check the MIDI mapper,
e.g. if it routes the sound to an unused MIDI output instead
of the MIDI synthesizer of your soundcard.
I run it on Win98, and the voices are all crackly...
And I know people that can't run DOS games on XP, period. But like me, they have no knowledge of PCs...
My sister's boyfriend said to get it working, I'd need new sound drivers. Would that thing Linux said work for XP?
You may find an answer in the still populated VDMSound related forum over there:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=15)
I just installed VDMSound 2.04 on Windows XP Pro SP1 and tested imuse, it worked perfectly.
(Edit: using the XP drivers Creative had released a while ago for the SB128PCI)
If you hear crackles, perhaps you have some IRQ conflicts, or your computer is sharing the sound card's IRQ with disk or VGA IRQ.
But don't expect wonders... better reactivate an older machine to play DF on it since it worked fine on a 486 class machine :p
This PC has only a year and a half left in her for good quality stuff. I expect this one to move on to my sister, and I'll take the old one she has that I first played DF on. Played like a dream :)
To bad it has no 3D car, not even my crappy TNT2 :o
You will only need a better pc again when the mod is finished :D
I found that running original DF on my P4 1.8GHz system here at work was really sluggish, compared to my clunky ol' P1 166 (non-MMX) at home.
Any tips on getting it to run better?
Thanks for your awesome little VDMSound mini-guide, Fracman!!!
:D
What do you mean by sluggish exactly?
Which OS do you have in the compagny?
Is it simply slower?
I think at home, you're running DF from plain DOS, aren't you?
Due to the architecture of the P4, it is possible the old games that have been "optimized" for 386 and 486 bring the P4 in disorder. The P4 tries to reorganize the DF code to fill its pipelines,
to use them at max, but the pipelines may stall before the P4 can reach its optimum, thus makes everything slower.
Constantly repeated short drops of frames-per-second rate can be caused by the Task Manager or some other application that watches over your PC every few seconds.
Did anyone try to run DF with VMWare?
Heh, you're welcome.
I should have posted the VDMSound stuff much earlier,
since it is the way i'm running DF already for a while!
Another hint: use a CD image tool to copy your JO CD on your harddisk and run JO using that image instead of the CD drive.
This is faster and reduces noise :p
I can dual boot up into 98, tho i hate it, it will run DF fine. Except that there is no qway to modify the game controls. I did a copy/paste style install, so maybe the config executable somehow didnt make it.
XP it will run with no sound, still cant change controls. I have no idea how to make the DOS sound emulator work. There is no documentation on how to make it work. There is a tutorial for installing DF to XP at
www.df21.net), but that just says to use the emulator.
Anyways if anyone can answer either of these questions i'd be happy.
once you install the sound emulator you RIGHT click on the dark.exe file and choose Run with VDM sound or something like that
About installing VDMSound, there is really nothing special to say.
Simply download VDMSOund2.0.4, unzip it, do the standard installation and follow the posts above.
Got VDMS working, but still can't find a way to setup key config. Where the heck is the dos config utility?
you now have to run the dark forces "setup.exe" using the VDM Sound menu, and then you can do all that stuff to the key config.
Theres no setup.exe anywhere...
It seems not all DF CDs or disks have the same content.
I could not find any setup.exe and the install.exe from the CD wouldn't run on my machine.
Fortunately, there is also the DF demo on the CD, weird, huh?
And the DF demo has a utility called KEYCONFI.EXE.
This can be used to set the keys and also the joystick.
But: save your old jedi.cfg first (make a copy of it) before editing it with KEYCONFI.EXE.
Originally posted by EvilIguana966
Theres no setup.exe anywhere...
strange, I have one that came on my version of the CDROM . . .
I think it's called install.
i know nothing about computers,so forgive me if this seems stupid but.......i have an nividia sound card on my computer and was wondering if that program to get sound in the game will work if you don`t have that soundblaster one and will it affect my other games?:biggs:
VDMSound translates the DOS soundcard driver calls to access the Windows sound drivers.
So the type of your soundcard does not matter.
And it will not affect all your other games, only those you want to run explicitely with DOS sound emulation, by starting them from a commandline: vdmsrun your_game
At the times of DOS based computer games, there were only 3 real sound standards that emerged: Roland MPU and LA-PC 1 for "high end" MIDI, Adlib synthesizer for "low end" MIDI, and Soundblaster for digital sound samples.
The later Soundblaster 16 was compatible to all three standards
(Roland MIDI via Wave Blaster or other hardware modules),
and that's what VDMSound is emulating.
In parallel to the soundblaster card series, Gravis built the Ultrasound, one of the first cards to have on board RAM for sound samples, these could be played with MIDI music.
Creative released the AWE card series shortly after that.
Today, the Live! and Audigy series use your PCs main memory for the samples.
Actually there are several companies that produce sound cards with even multichannel surround sound, and they all have Windows and mostly Linux drivers.
hello franman thanks for the reply,i`d love to play that darkforces game again,it`s the first one i played when i had me on my computer.one of my fave games.i wish lucas arts would release a version that supportes current operateing systems,this game is a true clasic!
SpunkyBoy011, you're welcome.
DF runs fine with any DOS or Windows version (using VDMSound for the NTs), there is even a Mac engine that runs at 640x480. There is no need for LEC to release a newer version of DF since they have JK, MotS, JO and now soon JA.
It is our MOD that will push DF into the 2000s ;)
well i`m glad we have the mods who are willing to do this for us!.i really enjoy playing these games,they are some of the best ones out there!
yeah i cant wait, and we already know that it is going to be a great story and all