Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, audio

[Guest]

Hi everyone,
I have a dedicated DOS 6.2 computer for nostalgia programming (real mode x86 assembly), various programs and games.

I have an issue with the game "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis", the audio doesn't work.

I don't get any audio at all, it is complete silence.

I've tried various configurations for memory just to see if there isn't enough, e.g. maximum conventional memory (600 kB free) and various amounts of expanded/extended memory.

I've also tried to execute the "atlantis.exe" program with the "s" parameter and the "a" parameter (for Sound Blaster and Adlib respectively) -- both of these parameters will produce a lot of garbage noise which will continue to run in an apparently infinite loop even after the program has been terminated.

The system works perfectly fine in every other regard.

I can play demanding games such as Strike Commander and Privateer with full sound (and music) with no issues whatsoever.

The system is a Pentium 1 233 MHz, 512 MiB RAM with a Sound Blaster 16.

What version of Fate of Atlantis do I have? Well, to be honest I'm not sure, I have a real bought copy of the game, somewhere, except the floppy disks are probably broken and I have no idea where they are, so this is a warez copy of the game, BUT, I have used this exact same copy ~two years ago to play Fate of Atlantis, with no issues.

Any ideas?

[dosraider]

If you get the game running it won't be a memory issue.
More a IRQ-DMA setting or so ....

If you want some advise:
Get the CD version, full talky, it's not thàt hard to find a valid CD image .....

[Posix_memalign]

If you get the game running it won't be a memory issue.
More a IRQ-DMA setting or so ....

If you want some advise:
Get the CD version, full talky, it's not thàt hard to find a valid CD image .....

I forgot to log in before I posted -- didn't even realize I could post without logging in, oh well. :-)

Thanks for the tip, I just did that, I downloaded a "full speech" image and transferred it by FTP to the DOS-computer; to no avail.

This version had a "HELPME.EXE" program which could configure the sound and which also contained some trivial "read me"-notes.

I attempted to:

1) Let "HELPME.EXE" configure the sound card automatically, which it did, it detected the correct IO and IRQ.
2) I tried to manually set the arguments for ATLANTIS.EXE with the following syntax (which I learned from HELPME.EXE): "ATLANTIS s/220/5/16" -- with the latter argument being the buffer size of the audio, I tried a few values, with no luck.
3) I tried "Monkey Island 2", this program experiences the exact same issue, which I believe is due to both being SCUMM based.

Neither 1), 2) nor 3) gave me any sound.

There IS some audio, which changes as the program attempts to produce various effects and music -- but it all sounds like an old ZX Spectrum loading a tape, only a little less crazy than that, I might add.

[dosraider]

Could you by any chance test that 'talky image' in dosbox on a modern PC?

[Posix_memalign]

Could you by any chance test that 'talky image' in dosbox on a modern PC?

I've tested it now, the music works.

However, I might have a dosbox-specific problem as well,

Code: Select all

DOSBox version 0.73
Copyright 2002-2009 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
---
CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file /home/foo/.dosbox/dosbox-0.73.conf
ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0) nor (17:0)
MIDI:Opened device:oss

I get music, but I don't get any speech, the program skips the "speech" part when I select strings for Indy to say -- but Indy's mouth doesn't even move, he is not mute, he completely skips the speech part, the same does is true for the other characters; shouldn't this happen regardless of dosbox being able to initialize sound devices or not -- i.e. be transparent for the DOS program that is emulated?

Anyway, since the music works on dosbox, I believe I have some issue with my real DOS computer that I can't figure out.

[dosraider]

IRQ is by default set on 7 in dosbox.
Real dos PCs usually have it set to 5.
That's why I asked to test it in dosbox.
So apparently it is a IRQ problem.

BTW, I have the original CD of Fate and the sound/music works flawless when installed on a real dos PC. (And when installed in dosbox too).
Same goes for the other Lucas Arts games you mentioned, but they must be installed in real dos/dosbox.

So it's pretty evident to conclude that your downloaded version is flawed.

What you eventually can try to get things working in dosbox is install full Gravis sound support:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=16974

[Posix_memalign]

IRQ is by default set on 7 in dosbox.
Real dos PCs usually have it set to 5.
That's why I asked to test it in dosbox.
So apparently it is a IRQ problem.

BTW, I have the original CD of Fate and the sound/music works flawless when installed on a real dos PC. (And when installed in dosbox too).
Same goes for the other Lucas Arts games you mentioned, but they must be installed in real dos/dosbox.

So it's pretty evident to conclude that your downloaded version is flawed.

What you eventually can try to get things working in dosbox is install full Gravis sound support:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=16974

Are you suggesting it is a known issue that Fate of Atlantis fails to work with certain IRQs for the Sound Blaster 16?

I would be willing to buy Fate of Atlantis (again) if I just could find it.

[dosraider]

Are you suggesting it is a known issue that Fate of Atlantis fails to work with certain IRQs for the Sound Blaster 16?

Nope, reread my post, it works fine on both, SB-IRQ5 ànd SB-IRQ7, when the game is installed/runned from that hardware.

So it ain't a game issue, but a flawed copy/install issue.

BTW, as the game (uncracked-original version of course) runs mainly from the CD, did you mount a CD correctly in dosbox? Did you used a CD on your real dos compy?

[Posix_memalign]

Are you suggesting it is a known issue that Fate of Atlantis fails to work with certain IRQs for the Sound Blaster 16?

Nope, reread my post, it works fine on both, SB-IRQ5 ànd SB-IRQ7, when the game is installed/runned from that hardware.

So it ain't a game issue, but a flawed copy/install issue.

BTW, as the game (uncracked-original version of course) runs mainly from the CD, did you mount a CD correctly in dosbox? Did you used a CD on your real dos compy?

I see, so you're suggesting that if the program is installed on hardware using e.g. IRQ 5 then it wouldn't work on hardware using IRQ 7 -- although that has to be a bug, since these parameters can be given as arguments to the executable.

I believe the copy I have is flawed like you're suggesting, I had to rename a file for it to even start ("MONSTER.SOU"). I didn't write it to a CD, I just executed it directly from HDD, on both real DOS and dosbox.

In any case, would it be terribly inappropriate for me to ask where I should download a copy of Fate of Atlantis from?

[dosraider]

I see, so you're suggesting that if the program is installed on hardware using e.g. IRQ 5 then it wouldn't work on hardware using IRQ 7 -- although that has to be a bug, since these parameters can be given as arguments to the executable.

Yes, but: that is meant to be used when you run the game directly from the CD without HD installed files, when you run from HD as you do there are other sound configuration files that probably overrule the command line params.
.... or something.
Also keep in mind that your version is 'cracked', so maybe the command line options are borked.

In any case, would it be terribly inappropriate for me to ask where I should download a copy of Fate of Atlantis from?

Yes indeed, Lucas Arts games are protected.

*cough cough*Would you really want to go on a download hunt, look for a CD image, not a pre installed/cracked version. It's findable.....

[Posix_memalign]

I see, so you're suggesting that if the program is installed on hardware using e.g. IRQ 5 then it wouldn't work on hardware using IRQ 7 -- although that has to be a bug, since these parameters can be given as arguments to the executable.

Yes, but: that is meant to be used when you run the game directly from the CD without HD installed files, when you run from HD as you do there are other sound configuration files that probably overrule the command line params.
.... or something.
Also keep in mind that your version is 'cracked', so maybe the command line options are borked.

In any case, would it be terribly inappropriate for me to ask where I should download a copy of Fate of Atlantis from?

Yes indeed, Lucas Arts games are protected.

*cough cough*Would you really want to go on a download hunt, look for a CD image, not a pre installed/cracked version. It's findable.....

Now I've tried three different versions on my real DOS computer, all to no avail.

I always get the same, deranged sounds, as if every tone is inverted or something that I cannot determine.

[dosraider]

Now I've tried three different versions on my real DOS computer, all to no avail.

I always get the same, deranged sounds, as if every tone is inverted or something that I cannot determine.

Question is:
Is one of those three a full CD version?
Is one of them installed on your Dos PC?

Also, if you feel the urge to play the game, you always could try ScummVM.
It's listed as fully compatible.
http://www.scummvm.org/
http://www.scummvm.org/compatibility/SVN/atlantis/

[Posix_memalign]

Now I've tried three different versions on my real DOS computer, all to no avail.

I always get the same, deranged sounds, as if every tone is inverted or something that I cannot determine.

Question is:
Is one of those three a full CD version?
Is one of them installed on your Dos PC?

Also, if you feel the urge to play the game, you always could try ScummVM.
It's listed as fully compatible.
http://www.scummvm.org/
http://www.scummvm.org/compatibility/SVN/atlantis/

I believe quite firmly that the issue is not that I have only faulty versions of Fate of Atlantis.

I believe this due to the fact that the very same version that has worked for me before now fails, and I also believe it due to the fact that on dosbox the music plays fine (although the speech doesn't work, but that might be an entirely different matter altogether).

So, I find it obvious that there must be some fault with my real DOS-computer, although I have no idea what that might be, as the machine functions perfectly fine with all other programs and games.

Any thoughts on what might be the fault?

Edit:

Thanks for the other advice on how to play the game though, but I really would prefer to play it on a real DOS machine -- for some reason it just brings out a little more nostalgia for me in that way. :-)

[dosraider]

As you probably know it's almost impossible to tell what's wrong (if is) on your dos PC, not being behind the keyb to try things out.

Don't you have some config/setup/test utilities regarding your soundcard?

Once again I can only repeat, that I didn't had any problems when playing from the real CD installed in dosbox nor on a 'real dos' compy.
And that goes for all Lucas Arts games.

The real dos compy (MSDos 6.22)has a SB16/ISA soundcard.
IRQ set to 5 as usual in real Dos.
Music and talkie works fine.

[Edit]
And check your PMs ....... you have mail.

[Posix_memalign]

As you probably know it's almost impossible to tell what's wrong (if is) on your dos PC, not being behind the keyb to try things out.

Don't you have some config/setup/test utilities regarding your soundcard?

Once again I can only repeat, that I didn't had any problems when playing from the real CD installed in dosbox nor on a 'real dos' compy.
And that goes for all Lucas Arts games.

The real dos compy (MSDos 6.22)has a SB16/ISA soundcard.
IRQ set to 5 as usual in real Dos.
Music and talkie works fine.

[Edit]
And check your PMs ....... you have mail.

Thanks again.

I'm obviously painfully aware of that; I guess I was just hoping for this to be some sort of known issue, like with some other games when there is sound, but it sounds terrible (e.g. Privateer [?]) where there is a simple fix that can be done to make the sound work properly.

I can't imagine there is something wrong with either the software (DOS/drivers) or the hardware -- since everything works fine with literally everything except SCUMM-based games.

Next on my list is to exchange the SB16 for an SB32 in hope that this will somehow solve the problem.

I see I can buy a modern Fate of Atlantis for WIN32/DirectX (?) from Steam but I'd rather not do that; like I mentioned I prefer playing on a real DOS-computer not only to get the entire DOS "atmosphere"/"setting" (sheer nostalgia, of course) but that my modern computer has a 24" display, which makes 320x200-games look bad when executed in full screen -- and window mode doesn't look particularly good either, it sort of ruins the "feel" of the game for me to play DOS games in a window in modern Windows Vista.

But maybe that's just me. :-)

[dosraider]

I see I can buy a modern Fate of Atlantis for WIN32/DirectX (?) from Steam....

Doubtfull it's a Win32 version.
Dosgames on Steam are simply downloaded with dosbox, Steam (even as GOG) doesn't rewrite games for Windows..