Tempest 2000 dos version

[sirlynxalot]

Yep I have all of that Gravis stuff.  The pnp version of the gravis card has a different chipset than the earlier cards and has its own drivers, including a version of a soundblaster emulator "SBOS", which has a very different (and usually worse) sound compared to other soundcards (hence why I have also put a generic soundblaster in the machine).  For most other games, I can use either my soundblaster or the gravis, its just this game where I can have sound or music but not both.  Using the gravis soundblaster emulation doesn't work either.

 

I have at least 50 other games on this pc and don't have this either/or audio issue with any of them

[zzip]

10 minutes ago, sirlynxalot said:

Yep I have all of that Gravis stuff.  The pnp version of the gravis card has a different chipset than the earlier cards and has its own drivers, including a version of a soundblaster emulator "SBOS", which has a very different (and usually worse) sound compared to other soundcards (hence why I have also put a generic soundblaster in the machine).  For most other games, I can use either my soundblaster or the gravis, its just this game where I can have sound or music but not both.  Using the gravis soundblaster emulation doesn't work either.

 

I have at least 50 other games on this pc and don't have this either/or audio issue with any of them

I had a SB16/Gravis ACE combo.   The ACE was a minimal version designed to be a companion to another sound card and just added wave table and multi-channel PCM (take the mixing load off the CPU).  It worked well.   If the game could't handle Gravis, it would certainly work with the SB16 OPL3.   I've never tried Tempest 2000 on it though

[sirlynxalot]

Any idea if these are both the Dos version?  Looking to pick up a CD so I can try out the CD soundtrack w/ SFX.  I think the top one is the original Atari release, while the bottom one is a re-publication after Atari was merged into JTS?  I heard there is a windows version as well, so I think I want to avoid that as my PC won't be able to run it.

 

[Zerosquare]

I can't find it at the moment, but I have the DOS version somewhere, and I'm almost certain that the CD case is the one shown in the upper picture. It also includes the same CD audio tracks that were featured on the Tempest 2000 soundtrack CD. I don't remember if the Windows version is on the CD as well.

 

No idea on what's on the CD in the bottom picture.

[sirlynxalot]

I found a PDF copy of the manual from the bottom version. It is the Windows 95 version (maybe the dos version is on the disc as well?).  I wonder if you can increase the game resolution in the windows version... could be cool to see it at a higher res.

 

In the windows 95 instruction manual in the credits, it says "Several credits didn't quite make it into the original manual text. They
deserve recognition, and are listed below:" and then, among other people, it lists "Jeff "Yak" Minter".

 

That's kind of incredible they didn't mention him in the credits for the dos version.  Aside from it being his brainchild, the dos version has little messages when you quit at the dos prompt, one of which is something along the lines of "may the Yak be with you"
 

[eightbit]

On 4/22/2024 at 9:51 PM, sirlynxalot said:

So I have to agree with this topic I just found when googling my issue. The game is picky with soundcards and I can't get SFX and adlib music to play simultaneously!

 

The configuration program seems to autodetect my isa soundcards correctly.  If I use my generic opti soundblaster, I can get music but no sound. If I use my gravis ultrasound pnp I can get sound but no music.  If I select both cards together, the music plays Ok but the sfx don't, and there is a loud repeating glitched sound that plays while the game runs. 

 

If I had the CD I would try the CD audio option, and I have a hunch that would work, but I don't understand why having both sound and music would be so tough to get working.

 

 

 

Find yourself a OPTi MAD16 Pro card. I installed it in my 486 and I have never looked back. I also have a GUS in this machine for other stuff, but I no longer need to use one for effects and one for music. The MAD16 covers it all, not to mention it is a freaking awesome SB16 clone.

 

A quick search found one at a reasonable (for today at least) price...with real Yamaha OPL:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/156167227472

 

If you need the driver floppy image I have attached it to this post.

 

 

MAD16PRO.IMA

Edited April 24 by eightbit

[Austin]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:54 PM, sirlynxalot said:

I think the game is outstanding on the Jag, and its probably one of the best looking games that runs well on this old pc as well.  I don't know if that means the game is actually not as taxing as its visuals would lead you to believe, or if both the Jag and the dos versions are coded very efficiently... but nonetheless, given the rudimentary stuff that this old pc runs, and its age (1991) its almost hilarious to see it running T2K so well.  I heartily recommend getting a copy if you have any old PCs kicking around and are wondering what to do with them!

It's a neat version of the game. Good to see you were able to get it running fully. I have the DOS versions and could never get it functioning with my sound card(s) for sound effects, only music. I also tried the Windows version and it refused to run smooth (it was like, 3fps on a 2ghz Athlon, which makes me think there's some kind of incompatibility or glitch). I don't have a 486 or 386 setup, so in order to get it fully working I ended up using the 486 core on the MiSTer.

 

I do have complaints with the game. The web shading is pretty bog standard with none of the shifting/warping effects of the Jag game. The colors are also pretty muted in comparison (lower available color count, I'm guessing). Some of the physics are slightly off too and the enemy balancing is crazier later into the game. At the time a few years back I was on a quest to finish every Tempest 2000 version, but had to give up with the DOS one because the difficulty was through the roof.

 

Still, it was cool to have it on PCs at the time. I'm not sure if I'd really have a desire to go back to this version when a 60fps Jag version exists in packages like the Atari 50 and Jeff Minter collections, but it was solid enough for the time.

  

On 4/23/2024 at 3:23 PM, sirlynxalot said:

Btw, I've tried out the dos port of Raiden as well. Graphics are on par with the jaguar version but it has some quite terrible aspects that make it way less fun to play. For instance, you may choose to play either sound effects or music, but not both simultaneously.  Additionally, the game slingshots between being quite a bit faster than the arcade or jaguar version, and then slowing down substantially when many enemies are on the screen simultaneously.  Slowdown is ok sometimes in shmups but the slingshotting between very fast to very slow to very fast again just makes it an absurd proposition to play the game.  Imagine 10 fireballs coming towards you at faster than normal speed, and then one second later they are crawling toward you, and one second after that they are coming at you again faster than normal!  It's not very fun to play this version of the game!

Raiden is an interesting one and the quality of it is going to depend on your setup. When I first played it in the '90s I was running it on a P166mhz based system. It never once slowed down (it was a tad speedy, but you got used to it). The sound effects are pretty awful and are nearly non-existent. You can have them running alongside the CD audio soundtrack, but for me I could barely hear them. The gameplay itself is okay if you can get it to run smoothly, and the remixed CD audio is pretty good IMO. The rest of the game is pretty disappointing though. There's zero added layers of background scrolling (i.e., no Stage 2 bridges/highways scrolling faster, adding a cool depth effect), no massive bomb explosion when you drop one (the screen just flashes white or something like that), etc. Being a big fan of the series (and especially the first game), I'd probably notice lots of other issues if I could get the damn thing running again, but I just haven't had any luck on either of my old PC setups. Couldn't get it functioning right on the MiSTer either, so one day I might resort to DOSbox and see what the results are.

On 4/23/2024 at 3:23 PM, sirlynxalot said:

Any idea if these are both the Dos version?  Looking to pick up a CD so I can try out the CD soundtrack w/ SFX.  I think the top one is the original Atari release, while the bottom one is a re-publication after Atari was merged into JTS?  I heard there is a windows version as well, so I think I want to avoid that as my PC won't be able to run it.

I believe they both include the DOS version. The updated one by Interplay should have the Windows '95 version as well.

[Zerosquare]

6 hours ago, Austin said:

The web shading is pretty bog standard with none of the shifting/warping effects of the Jag game. The colors are also pretty muted in comparison (lower available color count, I'm guessing).

Yes. The DOS version uses a 8-bit graphic mode (256 colors), while the Jaguar one uses a 16-bit one (65,536 colors).

[eightbit]

The Jaguar version is certainly superior, but the DOS version is no slouch. I fired it up again tonight after some time of not playing it (and playing the Jag version quite often) and I will say that the gameplay "feel" is on par with the Jaguar version. I am using a Gravis PC gamepad and it feels quite nice. It's an impressive port and I would have been really satisfied with it on the PC back in the day. It runs smooth as silk on my DX4-100.

[sirlynxalot]

I got my CD version, which seems to be the same as the version I had downloaded and was running earlier.  I also got a new PC, a pentium 166 and moved my opti pnp sound card from the 386 to the pentium. The soundcard settings are pretty typical for compatibility, base 220, irq 5, Dma 1....

 

And the game is still eccentric with the sound!  I can have CD music or adlib music, but no sfx... Oddly, I can't even get the sfx playing if I shut off music like I could on the other PC with this same card, so it's not even an either or situation like it was before, it's just a no sfx at all situation. 

 

 

[eightbit]

Its the sound card you are using. It's been a while now from what I can recall I ended up going through a few soundcards before I found one that can play SFX and music in game out of one card. 

Edited Saturday at 09:59 PM by eightbit