Two things have come to my attention recently. First, from watching youtube, a lot of you play with the music on. This seems strange to me, seeing as Master of Magic's music loops endlessly and plays the same tune over and over again. Especially in combat, it just drives me nuts. I turned the music off back in 1995 and never looked back. If I want music, I'll play mp3s in the background, or I'll just play silently. It's not a big deal for me. But some of you like it, which leads me to my second point.

Second, those of you who DO keep the music on, you use the horrid Soundblaster music. Why, why, why? Dosbox includes support for Roland MT-32 and General Midi. Both of these options are far, far superior to the bleeps and bloops of the Soundblaster. Please, do yourself a favor and enable this in the sound settings. You don't need a $400 card to enjoy the superior sound of midi music any more, the sound support should work in dosbox automatically.

1) Run INSTALL.EXE

2) Select Roland MT-32 or General MIDI. As far as I can tell, there is no difference in the sound. Maybe someone with a golden ear can tell us which one is better. You don't need to click configure card or anything, just click OK.

IT'S BETTER. So much better you don't even know. Those Roland cards were hugely expensive for a reason.

Hey! Some of us actually like the music, and there are at least two different themes that can play over land.

Sometimes, I like to hum the music to myself while doing other things. :P

With a soundfont. Windows GM is rather terrible.

It is still tons better than the Soundblaster music, and doesn't require any additional configuration of dosbox.

Some links would be nice if people should download additional software.

If you actually LIKE the music, then definitely run INSTALL.EXE and change to midi or Roland 32. It's worth it.

Thanks for the tip I am using Gen Midi now and have noticed quite a drastic change right off the bat so will try it for a bit and see how I like it.

For what OS? Here's a sticky in the X-Wing forums that covers most of it. What's "best" will depend on what the game was composed for. Not to mention personal preference.

I changed it to General Midi, but now the game freezes for 5-7 seconds with a black screen every time a new track starts. This means I get a black screen at the beginning before Main Menu appears, and after the first time I load a new game.

While not game breaking, it kind of defeats the purpose, since I'd rather put up with the annoyance of inferior music that this.

Any suggestions? I'm VirtualMIDISynth if it makes a difference.

I tried to run the "INSTALL.EXE" within my MoM folder, but received an error on my Windows 7(64-bit) laptop. Does this have to be run within DosBox and if so how?

Yes, in DosBox.

You can install DosBox and then use it to navigate to the install file and run it. You'll need to mount the drives. If you'd find this too complicated, you can use this method, which might be easier to do:

. Find a file called dosboxMOM_single.conf and make a copy of it. Call it dosboxMOM_install.conf
. Edit the file. You can simply open it in Notepad.
. Change the second last line from magic.exe to install.exe. Save the file before closing.
(So the whole file should be: . Make a copy of the shortcut Launch Master of Magic. Call it "Lauch Install".
. Right click on the new Launch Install shortcut, click Properties. In Target, change the ending to read:
"\dosboxMOM_instsall.conf" -noconsole -c exit
(make sure you keep the install path as it was)

You can then use the new shortcut to launch Install.

Thanks for the info. I was far too lazy to do all that so I looked at GOG's already existing config and replaced magic.exe with install.exe. I ran the install once and selected the Roland MT32 and accepted the default settings. I then exited the program and re-inserted magic.exe in the already mentioned config file. It seems to work but does include that delay you mentioned. Assuming it doesn't screw something else up or cause crashes, I feel it's a fine trade off of improved music for a slight delay during the initial game load.

Does this happen after you load the game? I do get a black screen for a bit on launching but it did that before switching to MIDI. Does it freeze for you when you start a battle? I don't have any issues in-game. Also using VirtualMIDISynth on Win 7. I do have Preload the whole SoundFont into memory checked in the VirtualMIDISynth options.

Yes, I did get it too, but it's noticeably much longer after switching to MIDI. It also happens when I load a new game, but I didn't do any actual playing so don't know if there are any issues in-game.

I'm away from my PC for the next few days, but I'll check my game and VirtualMIDISynth options as soon as I'm back and get back to you.

Played a bit, and it doesn't happen in game. Not before battles or anything. Also it happens when you load a nwe game from main menu, but not when you load a game from the game screen. Basically it only happens before main menu and when loading a game from the main menu.


I have "Preload the whole SoundFont into memory" checked too. Unchecking it doesn't change anything.

It's not such a big an issue since it doesn't affect gameplay, but if anyone has suggestions as to a solution, I'd be happy to hear them.

Maybe you could post your dosbox midi conf? Mine is:

mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default
midiconfig=

My post may not have been clear. I have the same behavior you are experiencing. I just never payed particular attention to it as the black screen on launching the game was there before switching to MIDI. It is noticeably faster turning MIDI off, particularly when loading a game from the main menu.
I meant to check on my Linux machine, also using fluidsynth on that, but forgot. I don't recall noticeably different behavior. This may be an issue with DOSBox and how the game initializes MIDI.

OK, I'll leave it at this then. The better music does make up for the slight delay.