There is a related article about this here too:
http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=802320

I'd prefer the EGA version too (and own it, although I fear the extra included floppy disc for Roland MT support does not work anymore).

The FM-Towns is probably the definitive but I didn't much like the constant music playing in every scene (EGA had some silent intervals after the main themes played). I still would prefer the FM-Towns one much more than the CD version*.
Could you expand on what was censored on the FMTowns version and what you mean by different overture?

At some point there was a way (I am not certain about how much legal it was though) to get the FM-Towns version if you could prove that you owned the Steam (CD Talkie) version. It does sound a bit shady though, and I am not sure if this is an option any more.

The voice overs in the CD talkie are great, but that's about the one good thing I can think of for that version.

*. I know this is wishful thinking but I'd hate it if at some point a sequel was to be made, and they used the cut/ changed story version of the CD Talkie as basis for the continuation, simply because that's the one that is/and has been available to public. Man, that would suck.

Do you mean THIS patch? (You can open the exe-file with a tool like 7-zip and manually place the files in your LOOM folder)

Huh... That could probably be it, I guess. I didn't know that LucasArts had released it as a digital download/ patch
:) Thanks!

^I can't get that patch to work. I did about everything - I dropped the loomup.exe file in the directory for the EGA version of Loom, placed the loomup.exe file over DOSBox which added extra files, downloaded the munt emulator, went to options in ScummVM to MIDI and selected MT-32 Synth Emulator, selected the munt soundfont (both the qt and smf2wav applications), did so with and without selecting and checking boxes in the MT-32 section of ScummVM, and I still get the same opening screen, that or I get an error message. HOW DO I GET THE OVERTURE? And the rest of the Roland music for that matter? >:O

You need to set music in ScummVM to MT-32 & make sure MUNT is selected in your Windows MIDI settings.

There is also the PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 version, which uses 64 colours, I'm told. I don't know if the graphics were based on the 16-colour version or the 256-colour version, but a bit of work, unfortunately.

Heh. Looks it's based on both, but more on the VGA one.

HOW do I do that though? I explained in great detail what I tried to do and failed, I would like a less vague, more step-by-step friendly answer please.

OK so what I've found out doing this requires actually having the MT-32 ROM files. Unfortunately they appear to be impossible to find unless you actually own a Roland MT-32 which I don't. So unless someone wants to *cough*PM*cough*me*links*cough* I'm just gonna say fuck this.

The overture is absent from the FM Towns version. Here's some info on violence being censored out of FM Towns version (not as severe as DOS CD-ROM one): http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=378995

Regarding FM Towns being a "definitive version", Brian Moriarty had this to say:

IMHO it's best to have all 3 versions to choose from. Those old games evolved with the versions. Look, how different maps of DOOM! are between the versions? Or even Lucasfilm/Lucasarts. Starting with CD version Monkey Island the gag with missing diskettes is absent, where you try to look into the stomp in the woods. (This is the very same stomp your head get's out in an easter egg in Monkey Island 3).

MIDI settings have unfortunately grown rather confusing in ScummVM, to the point where I no longer fully understand them, but as far as I know the patched EGA version will play the MT-32 tracks as well as it can if you use Edit Game... from the launcher menu, and change the Music Device on the Audio tab to a MIDI-capable device. On Windows, the most common choice would probably be "Windows MIDI". If you don't hear anything, that may be Windows's volume settings. (Setting it to "AdLib", "PC Speaker Emulator" or "IBM PCjr Emulator" will cause it to play the old music, and therefore skip the overture.)

"FluidSynth" should work too, but is a bit more work. I need to specify a SoundFont file for it to use - I did that on the MIDI tab of the Options... dialog - and then you may have to play around with the MIDI gain setting to get the right volume.

And of course, there's the MT32 emulator which, as you say, requires dumps of the MT-32 ROM files, and it should be possible to use a real MT-32 though I don't know how to do that at all.

DOSNostalgic great review.

Yes, I too would like to have 'both' included. BUt also have the FM-TOwns version as well, as that is basically a VGA version of the EGA version... Don't know if it has the censorship issue or not though?.


One thing I noticed you mentioned that Chaos is a woman in the remake?

Actually Chaos voice over sounds like a woman and man's voice overlapping to me. Sort of strange androgynous creepiness to it.

There is a bit of censorship in the FM Towns version & I'm just not happy with colors they choose for the update. Closeups are all over the place too. Brian Moriarty recently said that happened because about five different artists worked on updating the graphics and they didn't have anyone coordinating their work to be consistent in any way.

Chaos is specifically referred to in dialogue as HE in the original version and as SHE in VGA.