Considering buying a MT-32

[Tom]

No, you'll need the ISA card, too.  The MPU (or, box) is the processing unit, and the card is the interface.  (Don't know if the "T" makes a difference, but that's a pretty standard arrangement with Roland interfaces.)

[Fancia]

If you're interested, I have an MPU-IPC-T I'm not going to be using; it has both the box and the ISA card.

[Blackwolf]

From what I understand, the MPU-IPC-T just means that the box was made in Taiwan.

(See, I really DID research this stuff before asking dumb questions!)

Fancia, I am VERY interested...I'll PM you with my email...

[Tom]

Taiwan, eh?    Could be.  But the whole interface consists of a MIDI Processing Unit and the Interface that connects the MPU to a computer.  I never new what the 'T' stood for -- I just thought it was another variation of the MPU-401 & MPU-IPC.

[Blackwolf]

Taiwan, eh?    Could be.  But the whole interface consists of a MIDI Processing Unit and the Interface that connects the MPU to a computer.  I never new what the 'T' stood for -- I just thought it was another variation of the MPU-401 & MPU-IPC.

Yeah, that's what this usenet post says (there's a few others, too.)

Just means that it was assembled in Taiwan so they tacked on the -T.  The MPC-IPU is the same hardware, it's just made in a different place.

[Dustin]

I think you'll find (As I did) that any MPU card will work fine for what you want to do.  I just bought the MPU-IPC-T because thats what was available to me at the time. I am very pleased with the way the MPU-IPC-T works with my MT-32.  You are really going to enjoy your MT-32 for playing old games.  I use mine for both playing old games, and just listening to MIDI files in general.  I use my minidisc player to record the game music while it is playing on my old 486 computer, (much like the way Tom records the music that he puts up here)... Before I bought my MT-32, I used to use the Adlib feature on my Creative Labs Soundblaster 16 to play these games.  I always thought that Adlib was the best it got, I also wasn't 100% sure what a MT-32 was.  I was always under the impression that the MT-32 was a daughter card for a Soundblaster.  Well, after not playing my old Sierra games for about 5 years, I was itching to play them again.  But this time I wanted to really experience these games at there best.  So I bought a MT-32 off of ebay,  then a MPU-IPC-T, after that I bought a older 486 computer for 40 dollars and set it all up.  I must say that it was worth both my time and money, I now have one really nice vintage gaming machine.  

I hope you can find that MPU unit,

[Blackwolf]

Fancia has graciously offered an MPU-IPC for me, it should get here Tuesday.

See, for me, one of my friends in middle school (which was from 1988-1991) had an MT-32.  I went there a whole lot to play Sierra games.  I even took my boom box and recorded the music to an old tape so I could listen to it at home.  (I distinctly remember recording the PQ2 intro theme from his MT-32 and then coming home and playing the tape instead of what my Sound Blaster was pumping out, to pretend that I really had an MT-32.)

It was at the top of my birthday and christmas lists for about five years, unfortunately my parents couldn't see spending $550+ to get me one.  (Apparently I didn't whine enough, I proudly explained to them that I finally got one this week, and they were clueless and don't remember me asking for one.)

I have an old box (well, it's a P-166) that's running MS-DOS 6.22 and has a Gravis Ultrasound in it for the PC Demos that I was into in high school and college, and the good thing is that the MPU-IPC interface card is a half-size ISA card so it will go in nicely.  (The GUS is a full size, and I only have two ISA slots on this motherboard.)  The games do run a little bit faster since it's a Pentium and not a 486, but I'm pretty sure there are DOS utilities that can slow them down.  (I've been loading up my old Sierra disks and testing them out with the crappy SB emulation on the GUS for the past few days.)

The funniest install screen, though, is a game that wasn't a Sierra game, but Wing Commander III.  It said, and I quote: "Your CD-ROM drive is reading faster than is possible."  I have a 24x speed CD-ROM drive in there - it's expecting a 4x.

[HondaSiR]

The games do run a little bit faster since it's a Pentium and not a 486, but I'm pretty sure there are DOS utilities that can slow them down.

Download a copy of DosBox from the net. It's free and it slows down the games with ease...way way better than MoSlo. I have a Pentium 2 to play older games and DosBox has really helped me solve the overspeeding problems.

[Zemus]

DOSBox on a P-166? That sounds redundant.
If you want your computer to run slower, go into the BIOS and look for external and internal cache. Most BIOSes should let you disable one or both of them. That will seriously slow down your computer so you can play some of those games with speed bugs.

[Blackwolf]

Thanks, Zemus...I never tried that before, but turning off both the internal and external caches slows it down to about a 386.  I tried using MoSlo on Wing Commander but it didn't work too well on the parts that needed slowing down and it worked all too well on the parts that didn't.  (It'd take 20 seconds to fade out, but the intro would still run way too fast.)

Fancia's MPU-IPC came today while I was home on my lunch break and I got it all working no problem.  The MT-32 sounds just as good as I remember it!

Thanks for the help, guys!

[Dustin]

Here is my system, I run MoSlo for most of my games (both for the MT-32 and the gameplay) and I never have had a problem.

[Blackwolf]

Here's my area - the classic machine is the one on the far right.  (The far left is my P4-2.4Ghz XP box, the one in between is my Linux server.)






I'm such a cheater.

[Tom]

I haven't seen one of those Acer's in a while!  Let me guess, circa 1994?  One of the first with a plastic shell, I do believe.  We used to run our whole laboratory with an Acer 486 DX2...with 1 whole MB of RAM.

And it's always nice to see somebody else that still has a 5.25" drive up and running!

[Blackwolf]

I actually have a combo drive (both 3.5" and 5.25") in one bay of my classic box.

It works, but most of my disks are bad by now so I can't really use it often.

[Dustin]

I haven't seen one of those Acer's in a while!  Let me guess, circa 1994?  One of the first with a plastic shell, I do believe.  We used to run our whole laboratory with an Acer 486 DX2...with 1 whole MB of RAM.

And it's always nice to see somebody else that still has a 5.25" drive up and running!

You know your computers Tom It is indeed a 1994, It is the Acer Acros model and believe it or not, these little things are highly sought after.  This one has 36 MB of RAM, Also a 132 MHz Overdrive chip (I can cut the speed in half to 66 MHz by way of the BIOS).  I love this thing... Never once has it ever had an issue with anything I have tried to do with it.  I run Windows 95 on it now and it all works very well for playing the Sierra games with my MT-32.  As for the 5.25" drive,  I can't begin to count how many times that I use that thing in a day, I use 5.25" disks all the time for games and just storing information.  All in all, this little gem has always been there for me when I needed it, and always worked flawlessly.  I will probably keep it for the rest of my life.

I am glad there are still some people like yourself who have an apprecition for the old 486's.

[Tom]

It hurt, but my 486 gave up the ghost last year and I had to toss it; a TDK that developed some motherboard issues.  I still have a couple of older Pentiums (a P90 and P166) in use, though, and they can run old Sierra games very well.  My primary music computer is the P166, and the 5.25" 1.2 MB drive is right at home in it.  Wish I still had my Tandy 1000, though.  Now, there's a classic!  Between my wife and I, we owned several early Tandy PC's (TX, SL, HX, and the 1000A.)  Our MT-32's started life connected to a 1000A and HX, and have migrated to every PC we've upgraded to since.

[Dustin]

It hurt, but my 486 gave up the ghost last year and I had to toss it; a TDK that developed some motherboard issues.  I still have a couple of older Pentiums (a P90 and P166) in use, though, and they can run old Sierra games very well.  My primary music computer is the P166, and the 5.25" 1.2 MB drive is right at home in it.  Wish I still had my Tandy 1000, though.  Now, there's a classic!  Between my wife and I, we owned several early Tandy PC's (TX, SL, HX, and the 1000A.)  Our MT-32's started life connected to a 1000A and HX, and have migrated to every PC we've upgraded to since.

Tom,

  I would love to get a Tandy 1000 TX, and am working on getting one.  How does your P166 play the Sierra games with MoSlo?  Is there any noticeable animation problems? or do the games run perfectly smooth?

[Tom]

They run well with MoSlo on the P166.  Seems to eliminate all timing issues with old games.  It's a Compaq PC, and the CMOS does allow for disabling the cache...which I find a better option for most old games.  On my PIII 1GHz system, disabling the external cache allows me to play most games properly, as well.  I haven't tried playing any Sierra games on my P4 2.8 GHz PC.  I'm guessing, I'd have some problems with that.   :smt119

[Blackwolf]

Tom, what's the setting you use most with Moslo with the VGA games?  I use /50 with the ones I have and that seems to slow them down enough to not speedfeed the MT-32, except Oil's Well won't work with Moslo at all.  (It keeps searching for the A: drive whenever I run it through Moslo!)

The only game I haven't gotten to work in Moslo is Wing Commander - that one requires the internal and external caches to shut off.  Even at Moslo /5, it's too fast...

[Tom]

Haven't used MoSlo in a while, but I was using pretty low settings...like 25 or so.  I wasn't consistent, though.  Mostly, I used it to get through game sections while recording the music, not to play an entire game.