Might and Magic The Might and Magic Discussion Thread

[JBro]

I've heard it crashes even with a real mt-32. I guess the only solution is to deal with the shitty sounding music. 4-5 needs a remaster, because it's kind of a bitch to emulate for multiple reasons. Which sucks because it is way better than 3. which was already pretty good.

 

[Average Manatee]

Which sucks because it is way better than 3. which was already pretty good.

 

[Mauman]

Which sucks because it is way better than 3. which was already pretty good.

Up's and downs. I consider the 2 (3, but let's face it's really 2) games to be roughly equal. Some good changes, some bad changes.

That being said, if I could somehow mod the mm3 SNES music to the PC game....

I loved the SNES mm3 soundtrack (despite the game being otherwise a dumpster port).

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

The MM2 Genesis is daggers to your ears or worse.

 

[Mauman]

The MM2 Genesis is daggers to your ears or worse.

Yeah.

MM2 SNES was pretty good soundtrack wise (nowhere near as good as MM3)

Even worse of a port than MM3 was though.

 

[unseeingeye]

How the fuck do I get World of Xeen to stop crashing with mt-32 music? I ended up finishing the light side with shitty music, but dark side's music is too good to not listen to using mt-32.

If you ever find the answer, let me know.

I had the exact same issue last time and I found no solution

Unfortunately, I don't think there is an answer, even as Rincewind has mentioned it crashes on the original hardware as well. It is a shame, I'm getting ready to do my delayed series play-through and was looking forward to hearing the different versions of the earlier games soundtracks.

 

[Rincewind]

At least you can listen to authentic Roland MT-32 recordings of the MIDI files extracted from Clouds and Darkside here:

https://xeenmusic.bandcamp.com/albu...official-soundtrack-pc-mt-32-archival-edition
https://xeenmusic.bandcamp.com/albu...official-soundtrack-pc-mt-32-archival-edition

It should be easy enough to track down the MIDI files and do a similar recording yourself using MUNT, but hey, maybe it's worth $10 for some people per OST...

The audio files on the Mac CD version were recorded from an MT-32, but the recordings are 22kHz mono only, unfortunately, and a bit noisy (but like I said, I kinda like the lo-fi atmosphere).

EDIT: Okay, I've just realised they've done this in partnership with the original composers, so presumably they're getting some money out of this. Plus there's some extra material, unused tracks, alternate versions, stuff like. Seems like a worthy purchase, after all. (Interestingly, the below text mentions the 2-semitone pitch shift bug, but not the random crashes. *Maybe* only the World of Xeen release is affected by the buggy MT-32 driver, and the two individual earlier releases are fine... I'd have to check.)

Official soundtrack, produced in partnership with the original composers.

The Roland MT-32 is the original mother version of the soundtrack for Might and Magic IV, present in the original PC MS-DOS version of the game. The music was later edited and converted into the game's final .M music format by Todd Hendrix. But in the process, due to a programming error, the notes of every single song are played in the game itself 2 semitones too low. (An error which has *not* been retained in this recording.)

The soundtrack has been recorded using an authentic MT-32 from the composers' original MIDI files. Due to the hardware limitations of the MT-32 resulting in polysynth problems, each channel has been recorded independently and then merged into a single track. Therefore, no notation data is lost through polysynth limitations and the tracks may finally be heard as intended.

 

[Gregz]

Anyone who voted for Might and Magic X in this poll is a complete tool.

 

[newtmonkey]

(Interestingly, the below text mentions the 2-semitone pitch shift bug, but not the random crashes. *Maybe* only the World of Xeen release is affected by the buggy MT-32 driver, and the two individual earlier releases are fine... I'd have to check.)

In my experience, it unfortunately affects both the combined game and the individual releases (on an actual DOS machine with a real MT32, etc.).

At first I thought this might be one of those games that expects you to use the default Roland MIDI interface settings (IRQ 2 Port 330), but the game still crashes even with my MIDI interface set to 2/330.

It seems the only choices are:

• MT32 for music/SFX, no SB speech
• Sound Canvas for music/SFX, with SB speech
• SB for music/SFX/speech

Personally, I find the speech and SB effects to be annoying in MM4/5 and definitely prefer the MT32 soundtrack, so I just disable speech.

 

[ChaDargo]

Anyone who voted for Might and Magic X in this poll is a complete tool.

Nah, I just don't like any of the other games in the series at all (not that I particularly like X).

 

[Rincewind]

It seems the only choices are:

• MT32 for music/SFX, no SB speech
• Sound Canvas for music/SFX, with SB speech
• SB for music/SFX/speech

Personally, I find the speech and SB effects to be annoying in MM4/5 and definitely prefer the MT32 soundtrack, so I just disable speech.

Yes, the MT-32 music is non-negotiable with this game for me as well, it's sooo good. I'd rather let the speech go too. The other option is to play the Mac CD-ROM version with full-speech and (badly) recorded MT-32 music (mono, 22kHz, a bit overdriven, and there's some background hiss).

You might be interested in the info I posted about the soundtrack here.

Btw, I envy you for that hardware MT-32 of yours! That ship has sailed for me, unfortunately, looking at the current prices. But my SC-55 (original version) is on its way from Japan, found one for cheap!

 

[unseeingeye]

Btw, I envy you for that hardware MT-32 of yours! That ship has sailed for me, unfortunately, looking at the current prices. But my SC-55 (original version) is on its way from Japan, found one for cheap!

Can any SC-55s still be found for reasonable prices? I bought a MPC-2000 for dirt cheap two years ago for my son but that was the last bit of electronic or synthesizer equipment I've picked up in years. I used to be heavily into that stuff; had a Mini Moog, a Micro Moog, a Korg MS-20 (was big into monophonic bass stuff back then), then a bunch of cheaper, more modern pseudo-analog stuff like the Korg MS-2000. Then my heroin addiction took over and that shit all got sold for half what I paid for it, just to avoid getting sick. I remember laying there listening to Untitled 8 by Sigur Ros and weeping at how much I'd lost, and was about to loose... Anyway, I've been clean since 2014 so, ancient history. Just brought back a lot of memories. I would be interested in playing Daggerfall with the original SC-55 hardware though, it has been a dream of mine for a while now. A mod released for the Unity version where the guy actually recorded the soundtrack using the original, which I've been using for now, it is very well done.

 

[lukaszek]

Anyone who voted for Might and Magic X in this poll is a complete tool.

arcane/zen archers are meh in there but its not big enough reason to hate it.
For most of us anyway

 

[Rincewind]

Can any SC-55s still be found for reasonable prices?

The one I bought went for 144 USD which is a good price in 2023, considering old shitty Sound Blasters can easily sell upwards from 300... It's a very early revision, without the GM sign on the front plate, so I'm quite happy I found it.

I got the SC-55 from this seller:

https://www.ebay.com.au/str/kakigori8

I regret I gave my Gravis UltraSound away about 10 years ago; today they go for absolutely crazy prices, easily in the 500+ USD range.

That's some nice analog gear you used to have, I'm also into music production. Well, best to be addicted to that and old games, that's for sure

 

[Blake00]

The MM2 Genesis is daggers to your ears or worse.

Yeah being a MM fan and a Genesis/MegaDrive collector I got MM2 for fun a couple of years back. Started it up, the music played and wow.. what the hell were they thinking...

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

This video explains the worst music on the genesis and how they managed it.

 

[JBro]

So should I just disable voice in the in-game settings and I should be good with my mt-32 settings? Or do I have to diddle the sound settings first?

 

[newtmonkey]

So should I just disable voice in the in-game settings and I should be good with my mt-32 settings? Or do I have to diddle the sound settings first?

I disabled speech in the installation program, probably better to do it that way, just to be sure.

 

[JBro]

Game still froze on me...

 

[Rincewind]

Game still froze on me...

How? More details?

If you enable MT-32 music, and disable digital sound via INSTALL.EXE, you should get zero crashes.

 

[JBro]

It froze as I was leaving one of the towers on the dark side. I'm using the gog version and it has a launcher that lets you do the sound settings before starting the game.

These are my settings. I'm also still using the CD version. Should I switch to the floppy version? Can I even do that with the same save?

 

[Rincewind]

It froze as I was leaving one of the towers on the dark side. I'm using the gog version and it has a launcher that lets you do the sound settings before starting the game.

These are my settings. I'm also still using the CD version. Should I switch to the floppy version? Can I even do that with the same save?

Yes, that should work. I'm using the same one, V2.1.

Btw, you can just run `INSTALL.EXE` from `C:\WORLD` after installation to change the settings.

Never tried using the saves from the floppy version with the CD version, or vice versa, so no idea.
I never completed it myself, so can't help, but vaguely remember there was some CD swapping problem reported with the game. Try mounting both CDs like this:

imgmount D "CD\NEW_WORLD_1_WORLD_OF_XEEN.img" -t iso
imgmount E "CD\NEW_WORLD_2_WORLD_OF_XEEN.img" -t iso

It should be able to handle multiple drives. Or try using DOSBox Staging, I remember we fixed some CD access related bug with this game a while ago.

 

[JBro]

I got the CD swapping to work. I started using dosbox-x when the crashing started, because I figured it was an emulation error on staging. Should I switch back now that I know it's not? Maybe x is causing the non-sound related freezing.

 

[newtmonkey]

JBro
Do you know how your SB and MIDI interface are configured in dosbox? I'm not using WoX CD (I'm using MM4 floppy), but when you run the install program does it ask you for the IRQ and I/O port for the MT32 when you select it? Freezing like that can often be caused by an IRQ conflict.

It's possible that Xeen requires the MT32 on to be on IRQ2 I/O330. Or maybe, you have the SB and MIDI port configured for the same addresses?

 

[NotSerious]

Which of the more modern ones is the best for a first time player?