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A matter that is bothering me for a while now, people asking why soundeffects or music is different than they recall from yesteryear results in elaborate newbie Dosbox setup tutorials while it would be so much more convenient if gog.com would provide the game with links to the setupprograms.

Vote on it here.
I voted yes, albeit I understand why GOG doesn't necessarily want to do it. It would mean more support calls towards GOG when newbies set DOS game sound card IRQs, ports and DMAs to wrong values without any understanding of what they mean and what they should be, and it doesn't work at all anymore. GOG strives to offer a simpler "just click to play" also for DOS games, that has less probability for user errors.

Or even if the user selects the right values, there can still be issues, like in Win7 and Win8, if you select General MIDI music for Little Big Adventure (instead of the default Soundblaster/Adlib music), it will play far too loud compared to the sound effects, and you'd need special steps (adding extra MIDI volume level commands into DOSBox conf file) and maybe even third-party programs (BASSMIDI) to lower the General MIDI music volume to tolerable levels.

I presume that is the reason why they've set the music to poorer Soundblaster in LBA, as it works more uniform across different systems, than the superior General MIDI music.

And with many DOS games, the users would need either Munt (not fully legal due to the ROMs) or a real Roland MT-32/CM-32L unit anyway to get the correct, superior music. The Adlib/Soundblaster music always sounds pretty much correct, even if poorer, without any tinkering.

So I'm fine without as well, even though then it means extra steps for me to change it. As long as GOG doesn't remove any sound setup executables from games.
Post edited July 28, 2013 by timppu
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timppu:
I've considered the problem of screwing up gog's default configuration too but I value the option to have the flexibility more, the worst case scenario that could happen is a complete reinstall of the game, which for Dosbox games is a minor hassle IMO.
And I meant it as an extra service to those who are not so good with computers, anyone interested in Dosbox enough should be able to figure it out themselves.

And no, I'm do not want to meddle with Roland soundboards, those were expensive and rare expansions in the first place, just the provided soundsources of Dosbox itself.
Voted yes, but I don’t think many of GOG’s customers would benefit from it. As timppu said – I’m fine with status quo as long as GOG doesn’t remove sound/music executables.
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tburger: Voted yes, but I don’t think many of GOG’s customers would benefit from it. As timppu said – I’m fine with status quo as long as GOG doesn’t remove sound/music executables.
Which they do, at least with several of the Sierra games.
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timppu: I voted yes, albeit I understand why GOG doesn't necessarily want to do it. It would mean more support calls towards GOG when newbies set DOS game sound card IRQs, ports and DMAs to wrong values without any understanding of what they mean and what they should be, and it doesn't work at all anymore. GOG strives to offer a simpler "just click to play" also for DOS games, that has less probability for user errors.

Or even if the user selects the right values, there can still be issues, like in Win7 and Win8, if you select General MIDI music for Little Big Adventure (instead of the default Soundblaster/Adlib music), it will play far too loud compared to the sound effects, and you'd need special steps (adding extra MIDI volume level commands into DOSBox conf file) and maybe even third-party programs (BASSMIDI) to lower the General MIDI music volume to tolerable levels.

I presume that is the reason why they've set the music to poorer Soundblaster in LBA, as it works more uniform across different systems, than the superior General MIDI music.

And with many DOS games, the users would need either Munt (not fully legal due to the ROMs) or a real Roland MT-32/CM-32L unit anyway to get the correct, superior music. The Adlib/Soundblaster music always sounds pretty much correct, even if poorer, without any tinkering.

So I'm fine without as well, even though then it means extra steps for me to change it. As long as GOG doesn't remove any sound setup executables from games.
I agree, more headaches for tech support. Most of yesterdays hardware doesn't even exist anymore, the same goes for their respective drivers and operating systems. However it would be nice if dosbox had support for SoundBlaster 32 awe.
I'm not familiar with DOSBox on Windows, but can't you just make the shortcut yourself? For most games Sound Blaster is the "when in doubt, use this" option that works for most people, and the rest who do care about sound can set it themselves.

Also, everything that timppu said.
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timppu: I voted yes, albeit I understand why GOG doesn't necessarily want to do it. It would mean more support calls towards GOG when newbies set DOS game sound card IRQs, ports and DMAs to wrong values without any understanding of what they mean and what they should be, and it doesn't work at all anymore. GOG strives to offer a simpler "just click to play" also for DOS games, that has less probability for user errors.
If they left it in the game directory but without any magic dosbox shortcuts to it then the newbies wouldn't even know how to run the setup program. Problem solved maybe?
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tburger: Voted yes, but I don’t think many of GOG’s customers would benefit from it. As timppu said – I’m fine with status quo as long as GOG doesn’t remove sound/music executables.
They frequently do. It appears I misunderstood the purpose of this thread. I thought it was a call for them to stop removing the setup programs, but it appears it's actually a request for them to have shortcuts to them. Still voted yes because hopefully it'll stop GOG removing them.
Post edited July 28, 2013 by SirPrimalform
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SirPrimalform: If they left it in the game directory but without any magic dosbox shortcuts to it then the newbies wouldn't even know how to run the setup program. Problem solved maybe?
I could live with that. Still easier for those who want to meddle with it, but hidden from newbies. And it could be thought as a clear sign that it is an unsupported feature, as it can't be found from the start menu. So if some newbie touches it anyway, I think it would be perfectly ok for GOG to offer "reinstall the game" as the proper solution.

If some newbie wants to meddle with the sound setups anyway, it would be then much easier for other forum members to instruct them how to change the settings, when they don't have to instruct first how to set up DOSBox for the sound setup executable, even if it is merely "drag the setsound.exe on top of dosbox.exe".
Post edited July 29, 2013 by timppu
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SirPrimalform: They frequently do. It appears I misunderstood the purpose of this thread. I thought it was a call for them to stop removing the setup programs, but it appears it's actually a request for them to have shortcuts to them. Still voted yes because hopefully it'll stop GOG removing them.
WTF?! Sersiously? They did remove setup files in newer versions of installers? Or what you wanted to say is that they just don't include them in recently released games (examples pls)?
Post edited July 29, 2013 by tburger
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tburger: WTF?! Sersiously? They did remove setup files in newer versions of installers? Or what you wanted to say is that they just don't include them in recently released games (examples pls)?
I'm not sure that they're removing them with newer installers, just that some games right from their release here have had them missing for no good reason. I can't remember which games off the top of my head, but there have been complaints in the individual game forums.
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tburger: WTF?! Sersiously? They did remove setup files in newer versions of installers? Or what you wanted to say is that they just don't include them in recently released games (examples pls)?
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SirPrimalform: I'm not sure that they're removing them with newer installers, just that some games right from their release here have had them missing for no good reason. I can't remember which games off the top of my head, but there have been complaints in the individual game forums.
hmm... I've only stumbled against WC1&2. Smannesman mentioned some Sierra titles...Will check this out.
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SirPrimalform: I'm not sure that they're removing them with newer installers, just that some games right from their release here have had them missing for no good reason.
Note that some GOG releases such as Ultima Underworld have the sound setup program inside the CD image so it's still there but you won't find it with a casual investigation of the installation folder.
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Arkose: Note that some GOG releases such as Ultima Underworld have the sound setup program inside the CD image so it's still there but you won't find it with a casual investigation of the installation folder.
Thanks for that tip! Good thing I know how to mount disc images...