Midi Support on Non-PC Platforms

[Great Hierophant]

I know that Sierra supported using an MT-32 with an Atari ST for the SCI games it ported to that platform.  After all, every ST came with a midi port, perhaps the standout feature of that system.  I was even able to get it working through an emulator.  They also ported their games to the Amiga and the Macintosh.  Now, those systems did not come with midi interfaces, but do those ports support using an MT-32 or other external midi module?

[Zemus]

A few of the last SCI games that were ported to the Amiga came with two sound drivers, one for the Amiga's internal sound generator and one for the MT-32. You needed to buy an external MIDI interface to be able to use it. I don't remember which games came with the driver, but I can see if I still got them around tomorrow.

[Doctor Creep]

A few of the last SCI games that were ported to the Amiga came with two sound drivers, one for the Amiga's internal sound generator and one for the MT-32. You needed to buy an external MIDI interface to be able to use it. I don't remember which games came with the driver, but I can see if I still got them around tomorrow.

The other day I had a look at a installed Police Quest 3 using the Amiga-Emu Winuae.

Here's the recource.cfg:

videoDrv=
soundDrv=amigasnd.drv
minHunk=220
minChip=240
kbdDrv=
mouseDrv=YES

I need a sort of mt32.drv to edit the config file. But there are only two *.drv in the dir: amigasnd.drv and amiga3v.drv.
Perhaps amiga3v.drv is the midi driver?

[BlueMax]

Mac's serial MIDI interface was really common...  it BETTER have been used, especially since its internal sound was a DAC only.

[Doctor Creep]

Ok - PQ3 seems to have no midi support on Amiga. During install there's no option for choosing MT-32.
I tried Space Quest 4 - voila, it works (incl. mt32.drv in the dir) - so after a few hours trying this morning I got the famous msg "CALLING ROGER WILCO" on my MT-32 display!   I'm using the Amiga Emu WINUAE + XPpro + MT-32 connected to the gameport. Just choose MPU-401 out (game I/O port emu menue))!
BTW: The Amiga SQ4 version is no beauty - the gfx are horrible - and the native amiga sound poor, but now with the MT-32 music it's far better
I'm thinking about getting a midi interface for my Amiga 1200 now... 

[Ari]

Ok - PQ3 seems to have no midi support on Amiga. During install there's no option for choosing MT-32.
I tried Space Quest 4 - voila, it works (incl. mt32.drv in the dir) - so after a few hours trying this morning I got the famous msg "CALLING ROGER WILCO" on my MT-32 display!   I'm using the Amiga Emu WINUAE + XPpro + MT-32 connected to the gameport. Just choose MPU-401 out (game I/O port emu menue))!
BTW: The Amiga SQ4 version is no beauty - the gfx are horrible - and the native amiga sound poor, but now with the MT-32 music it's far better
I'm thinking about getting a midi interface for my Amiga 1200 now... 

I watched the SQ4 graphics of the Amiga port a couple of days ago. Pretty awful. All washed out and dull, but hey, what do you expect from a conversion from 256 color vga to 32 colors?

[BlueMax]

The Amiga was such a capable machine...  even at 32 colours, it could have been great.....  IF someone had made it for Amiga from the beginning.  I remember the conversion process made it run SUPER slow...

[Doctor Creep]

I watched the SQ4 graphics of the Amiga port a couple of days ago. Pretty awful. All washed out and dull, but hey, what do you expect from a conversion from 256 color vga to 32 colors?

The SQ4 conversion is very poor - Monkey Island 2 for example looks great on Amiga.

Space Quest 4/PC:



SQ4 Amiga:

[Kaminari]

but hey, what do you expect from a conversion from 256 color vga to 32 colors?

Well, maybe this. Or this.

Of course, not all developers were comfortable (read: talented) with working in 32 colours.

[Ari]

I see your point... 

I didn't mean to dis the Amiga, rather specifically the SQ4 conversion.

I remember being extremely impressed by a friend's Amiga 500 back in 1989.

[Great Hierophant]

Talk about resurrecting an old post.  For more examples of how Sierra's 256-color games fared on the Amiga, look here:

http://home.comcast.net/~ervind/sierraamiga.html

[Caliburn]

Nice screenshots, Kaminari.  Both have the same "flavor" as my 256-color PC versions, albeit with less nuance.  It goes to show how much of a difference it makes when someone with the skill and the time puts some tender loving care into converting for a specific device.

The SQ4 conversion, by contrast, looks more like the 256-color screens were run through an automatic filter to reduce the colors (like you have in a paint program) and given few, if any, manual adjustments to improve them under the reduced scheme.  I'm no techie, so I can't swear to that, but that's definitely the impression it gives.  Either Sierra didn't assign a sufficiently skilled staff member to do the conversion, or they didn't give that staffer enough time to work, or both.  Great Hierophant's link only seems to confirm that with the right staff and enough time, Sierra games can look fairly nice on the Amiga.

-Luke

[Doctor Creep]

I'm thinking about getting a midi interface for my Amiga 1200 now... 

Got this Amiga midi interface now:

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1505

Works without problems - got "CALLING ROGER WILCO" on the MT-32 display the first time running SQ4 on my Amiga 1200 the other day.
Checked Space Quest 1 Enhanced - seems to have no MT-32 support (like SQ3 and PQ3).
BTW: Is there somewhere in the net a list for Amiga Games with Midi (MT-32) support (also non sierra)?

[NewRisingSUn]

The actual reason why SCI Amiga ports look so horrible is that they use the same 32 colors throughout the game, whereas good conversions change the palette from picture to picture.

[Great Hierophant]

The actual reason why SCI Amiga ports look so horrible is that they use the same 32 colors throughout the game, whereas good conversions change the palette from picture to picture.

Maybe the MT-32 opening text should be changed to read "LAZY PORT" "USE A PC INSTEAD"

[Doctor Creep]

Got this Amiga midi interface now:

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1505

Works without problems - got "CALLING ROGER WILCO" on the MT-32 display the first time running SQ4 on my Amiga 1200 the other day.

In the "What kind of MIDI device do you have?" Thread I posted a few shots of my Amiga setup: 

http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php/topic,1001.120.html





The other day I did this Amiga games with midi support clip:
 
http://www.alice-dsl.net/verena.schwatlo/amiga1200_mt32.avi

Space Quest 4 and Larry 5 use Sierra's SCI VGA engine, here are the other games that Sierra released for the Amiga that use SCI VGA (And maybe also have MT-32 support?):
Castle of Doctor Brain
Conquests of the Longbow
Hoyle's Book of Games Vol. 3
King's Quest 5
Larry 1 (1991 remake)
Space Quest 1 (1991 remake)
Police Quest 3

Tried SQ 1 (remake) + PQ3 already - no MT-32 support...

BTW: Are there any non Sierra Amiga Games with Midi/MT-32 support?

Doc

[Doctor Creep]

Checked King's Quest 5 Amiga the other day. Voila! MT-32 support!

Doc

[Doctor Creep]

The other day I did this Amiga games with midi support clip:
 
http://www.alice-dsl.net/verena.schwatlo/amiga1200_mt32.avi

Here's a new improved clip with audio track recorded directly from the roland sound module

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZDCshk1Q0Ak

Doc

[endre1952]

I love the Amiga and own several such computers, but honestly, I don't see much fun in trying out these - the MT-32 support is identical to the PC versions, while the graphics are poor straight conversions. (Yes, I've tried them in WinUAE, and the MT-32 support does work.)

Can anyone recommend a game with MT-32 support I might on my Atari Mega ST 1 (recently fitted with an SD card-based floppy emulator?) I can get midi output from a game called "Eco", but the midi support seems very poor in this case.

  Endre

[Great Hierophant]

The other day I did this Amiga games with midi support clip:
 
http://www.alice-dsl.net/verena.schwatlo/amiga1200_mt32.avi

Here's a new improved clip with audio track recorded directly from the roland sound module

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZDCshk1Q0Ak

Doc

Your video is very interesting, but I would not two issues with the Amiga and MT-32:

1.  The music sounds like it is being played back too slowly.  I have played Sierra games with an MT-32 on slower computers, but the music itself played back at normal speed.  I wonder if this is being played back slowly because the system is European, and therefore is using PAL 50Hz speeds?

2.  The saxophone is missing from the LSL5 opening as heard on your video, any reason why?