Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[kodak80]

Music + SoundFX through the Soundblaster card:



https://github.com/agranlund/opentyrian/releases
(use tyrian00.prg if you have an LC cpu)

Wow, another one working.

Tested with full 68060 and works great with the PicoGUS in SB mode. If PicoGUS is in GUS mode, the game hangs on a white screen and I need to reboot the Raven. Just need to remember to change the PicoGUS mode to SB before playing.

Well done on getting soundFX and music working.

Yeah I'm pleasantly surprised and happy to have been proven wrong about Soundblaster on Raven!
I had initially dismissed Soundblaster for PCM output due to lack of ISA-DMA but it turns out letting the CPU push samples from a high-frequency interrupt works just fine.

It's simple and far from optimal and it makes me feel a bit like a caveman, but if it works it works

More demanding games would very much benefit from getting GUS support, that'll make both mixing and playback practically free. Looking forward to start to experiment with that.

I'll take the caveman approach for now and look forward to the journey...

[agranlund]

Demons deserve sound too!
https://github.com/agranlund/pmdoom/releases/tag/latest




I renamed the executable to .PRG instead of GTP.
Figured you can always rename it, or start from the emutos shell, if you want to use commandline options.

[Oldskool]

Scummvm and Doom work great with SB (a “real” one and the PG).
With Tyrian the OPL works great however the digital sound playback is not stable.
At the start of the game it is there but if I play for 10 seconds it’s gone on both the YM SB clone and the PG.
Tried to reinstall the game with the same result both in Emutos and Mint.
Also it seems that the volume of the playback of the digital sounds seem to vary.

[agranlund]

I'll take the caveman approach for now and look forward to the journey...

It's the way of the Raven in general

[agranlund]

Scummvm and Doom work great with SB (a “real” one and the PG).
With Tyrian the OPL works great however the digital sound playback is not stable.
At the start of the game it is there but if I play for 10 seconds it’s gone on both the YM SB clone and the PG.

This is good information, thanks!

Scummvm did soundblaster by the book.
For Tyrian I probably went overboard in the pursuit of efficiency. I was actually surprised the method worked, but then again it sounds like it didn't on all cards.
The soundblaster code in Doom was based on the one in Tyrian but I toned the madness down a bit.

Have a look if this works for you. I played through a couple of levels here with sound working good:
https://github.com/agranlund/opentyrian/releases

[Oldskool]

This indeed solved the issue on both soundcards (PG and ymf719 based one).
Tyrian works great now.
Thanks!

[Oldskool]

Some other sound related things I noticed:

Scummvm ST Dott
PG: no remarks
Ymf719: Better digital sound quality then PG. Midi sound pitch seems a bit off sometimes to my ears. The game can crash when they all enter the car in the intro (about 70 % of the time. Always at the same moment in the game).

Doom
PG: No remarks
Ymf719: Midi pitch can somtimes be a bit off to my ears.

Tyrian
PG: A bit worse opl due to emulation
Ymf719: No remarks

[agranlund]

Some other sound related things I noticed:

Scummvm ST Dott
PG: no remarks
Ymf719: Better digital sound quality then PG. Midi sound pitch seems a bit off sometimes to my ears. The game can crash when they all enter the car in the intro (about 70 % of the time. Always at the same moment in the game).

Doom
PG: No remarks
Ymf719: Midi pitch can somtimes be a bit off to my ears.

Tyrian
PG: A bit worse opl due to emulation
Ymf719: No remarks

How interesting! I wonder why the pitch can appear off on the ymf719. I’m so used to the sound from it now, think I’ll have to swap in the PG and compare too.

I see the same crash as you in the intro which is a big shame. pretty confident it works in the ST version so I’m hoping it’ll be an easy fix.

[Oldskool]

Not sure if it is really the pitch maybe its the mixer level. Found it noticeable on in the beginning of the song in the guitars at the start of the first doom level (especially when I lowered the volume of the music a bit via in game soundlevel).

PG does not seem to crash in DOTT.

[agranlund]

basilisk.jpg (68.59 KiB) Viewed 555 times

It doesn't reach the desktop yet, and there's a couple of platform specific stuff to tackle once it finally does.
But a surprisingly good start for an evenings work!

Quite fun to revisit that old Basilisk code and hopefully the work I'm doing now to get it running on Raven will benefit potential support for Vampire too.