Games that use SC's MT-32 set

[jharris01]

This may be old news for some but I found my first one today. The setup program of Legend Entertainment's "Death Gate" is nice enough to ask you what instrument set you would like to use upon selecting Roland Sound Canvas during config. Here is a picture, courtesy of DOSBox:




I am guessing this may be true as well for some of Legend's other games (e.g. Shannara). Too bad I don't have an SC-55/88 to test it. Does anyone know about other games with such specific support?

[Salient]

Cool! I never knew of ANY games that had this possibility at all.
I have recorded the intro music on my sc-55 and mu2000, native (gm/gs) as well as mt-32 emulation mode and on a real mt-32.

- Roland MT-32
- Roland SC-55
- Roland SC-55 @ MT-32 Emulation mode
- Yamaha MU2000
- Yamaha MU2000 @ MT-32 Emulation mode

[jharris01]

Thanks for the MP3s. I was hoping someone would step up to the plate.   

Death Gate's song intro is quite nice (without the music caused by the splash screens at the beginning). Did you notice how (in the SC55 on MT mode) they replaced the strings with the better sounding SC's counterpart? That or maybe the strings in the MT map are already set to sound like that. The MT-32 processing effects are gone for the MT map (as expected).

[Great Hierophant]

I do not know of any other game that specifically supports the MT-32 emulation mode of the SC-55.  The list of MT-32 compatible games lists Death Gate as originally composed for General Midi, but why would the programmers include the MT-32 emulation sound option unless the game was composed for the MT-32? 

If the game was composed for the MT-32, the option could be useful for the owners of an Sound Canvas device, they could get a good approximation of what the music was supposed to sound like. 

Assuming the List is accurate, this creates a more complex picture.  If the game was composed for the SC-55, then it would presumably sound best using the General Midi patchset of the device.  MT-32 emulation would seemingly be inferior to both the GM support and the MT-32 support.   So why include it as an option? 

[Cloudschatze]

The list of MT-32 compatible games lists Death Gate as originally composed for General Midi, but why would the programmers include the MT-32 emulation sound option unless the game was composed for the MT-32? 

You're putting too much thought into this. Death Gate uses the Miles Sound System, which makes this more of a "because we can" option.

[Salient]

@jharris01:

I now am hooked on playing this game.
I never played it back in 'the old days' so its entirely new to me, and I like it a lot!
Are there more old DOS mode adventure games in this genre?

[jharris01]

It's new to me as well. I think it's pretty good! I even prefer the MT-32 score. 

I think Legend did a couple of adv. games under the same engine. I know of Shannara, but let google for more... ok there's Companions of Xanth and Superhero League of Hoboken.

[robertmo]

Legend games grouped by their user interfaces:

Spellcasting 101
Spellcasting 201
Spellcasting 301
Timequest
Frederik Pohl's Gateway
Gateway II: Homeworld
Eric The Unready

Companions Of Xanth
Superhero League of Hoboken

Death Gate
Shannara

Mission Critical
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon


If you haven't heard about Legend's adventure games there is a very high possibility you haven't heard of many other good adventure games. I listed nice adventure games by other companies here:
http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php/topic,221.0.html

[jharris01]

Thanks for the heads up. I have played Spellcasting, but couldn't get into it. Found it to be too similar to the older, plain text parser adventure games. It was before my time so it's harder for me to appreciate. It really tests my retro gamer tolerances! Must have been a hit for them though. 

[BlueMax]

The Spellcasting games were passable...  the lure was "sexiness" that wasn't really there.  Some good humour scattered in there occasionally.  I never got past 101 though, and that was only with a walkthrough.