FAQ Needs "Why doesn't sound work in DOS?" questio

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:04 pm

Title explained, see this thread:
http://board.zsnes.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6529

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 11:11 pm

Well, the FAQ already has the question. See "faq.htm#dos_sound_none". Although that particular answer isn't there.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 11:40 pm

Jipcy wrote:Well, the FAQ already has the question. See "faq.htm#dos_sound_none". Although that particular answer isn't there.

I meant to say it needs to be expanded a bit. It needs to consider a couple things..

1) Pure DOS (or "Shutdown to DOS Mode" in Win9x OSes) - make sure the SET BLASTER stuff is done right (and if necessary make sure the drivers for the sound card is loaded, especially if you are using SB emulation software on PCI/modern sound cards)

2) Win9x based OS - if you happen to have a Win9x computer, make sure the SB emulation software is enabled (generally this applies if you have a PCI/modern sound card).. generally the SET BLASTER stuff gets taken care of with the SB emulation software...

3) NT based OS (2k/XP) - if you happen to have a computer using Win2k/XP, you have to use something like VDMSound (anyone try DOSBox?) to emulate it... I wonder if there are any others though... Note that you will need to spare more CPU resources for it...

Edit: Included more info for "pure DOS" users...

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 1:09 am

im unsure of dosbox for zsnes... but i've used it for a couple of other games and they work fine... i have windows xp home sp2.

eason · Post by **eason** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:44 am

Hey guys, I'm trying to play some old zmvs, so I've been trying to get version .989c to work. I'm having trouble getting VDMSound to work - when I try to run a batch with it, ZSNES doesn't produce any sound at all. Do I need to adjust the .ini file for it to work?

Also, I tried DOSbox, which seemed alright, but was really too slow. I turned the priority and cpu cycle all the way up, but it didn't help too much. Maybe it has something to do with my CPU being dual-core and/or AMD?

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:52 am

Umm, I have to say you might be out of luck trying to use a version of ZSNES that is that old. Maybe others have some expertise in running these old versions; I don't.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:20 am

A suggestion is to try an emulate a different IRQ in VDMSound for ZSNES to use.. you may have to set that in the ini as well.

Also try forcing 8-bit sound in ZSNES... you will have to edit the batch file to do it.

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:49 am

eason wrote:Also, I tried DOSbox, which seemed alright, but was really too slow. I turned the priority and cpu cycle all the way up, but it didn't help too much.

Try the 'dynamic' CPU core, usually it's faster. Increase the 'cycles' until the task manager shows 100% CPU usage during gameplay.

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:59 am

Added "You can try using VDMSound." to faq.htm#dos_sound_none.