DOS Games Discussion

Solar Winds is now the first and only game that I have not been able to tweak into functioning properly in DOSBox.

I have tried several things to get sound to work, but I'm running up against a wall here. Here are my current SB settings:

type=sb16
base=220
irq=10
dma=3
hdma=7
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=22050

I have also tried:

type=sb16
base=220
irq=5
dma=1
hdma=5
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=22050

And:

type=sb1
base=220
irq=5
dma=1
hdma=5
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=22050

Always gives me the error "An error was detected initializing the Sound Blaster card..." I get a similar error when it tries to play the musical score as well (...error detected initializing the FM...).

For those who have gotten this to work, what settings did you use, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Where did you download it from?

Didn't d/l it. I've got a CD which I had burned from the original disk years ago (piled with other old games). Last I knew, it worked on one of my old machines that ran Win98, but I gave that machine away years ago - DOSBox has been great to me ever since, but it just won't give me sound in this one game.

Can't edit my prev post, so here's what I wanted to add:

The files shouldn't be corrupt either. I zipped them up before putting them on the CD, so if it had succumbed to bit-rot, the archive should have been corrupted, not the individual files.

Yeah Win98 is a much kinder O/S to old school games then XP. Indeed you're right it would be the entire archive that would have corrupted not just individual files.

Now onto the sound issues, have you tried anything apart from DOSBox? Such as VDM Sound?

Oh and BTW, if the file isn't too large, I'd greatly appreciate a copy of this game, it's rather impossible to track down online.

Haven't tried VDM Sound yet. I had heard of people having crashing problems when running the game under XP natively, even when using VDM so I never tried it.

The thing that gets me is that so many people claim to have had no problems at all when running Solar Winds in DOSBox - their sound and everything just work right away. I remember the days back when some games required the sound hardware be set to specific DMA and IRQ settings, but I can't find any info (and can't remember) what those might have been for this one in particular.

Let me know if you got my email.

Nothing there, did you send it to my DOSgames account or hotmail account?

try top two with irq set to 7

The_Sinister_Mastermind wrote:Nothing there, did you send it to my DOSgames account or hotmail account?

DOSgames account. That's the only one I found via the forums.

Top two? Oh! You mean my listed configs.

I'll give it a shot this afternoon when I get home!

Nope still nothing there, the file is over 10MB then it probably is to big for the inbox, try sending it to my hotmail account. (Click my profile or MSNM buton to get the address).

I'll try again then. The file is under 1MB, so I don't think it's a size-over-limit problem.

I'm off to try those audio settings...

w00t!

7, 1, 7 worked! I don't have music, but sound works fine! That's all that matters to me. Thanks for the help!

Nope still nothing there, glad to hear it's working though. Not sure why I didn't think of suggestion the IRQ thing, I use 7 by default most of the time.

EDIT: Oh wait just checked my hotmail account as well; there it is, thanks, it's much appreciated.

5 and 7 are most common used irq settings. (or im pretty sure they are)

Sorry for reviving such an old thread. But I recently discovered DOSBox/Boxer, and have been on a huge retro kick, and Solar Winds was one of the games I first got. And I was googling about how to change the sound (I have a Roland MT-32 driver from an old game, so I've been using it because it really is superior). And I was trying to see if Solar Winds would let me change my configuration to use it, and this post came up.

7 and 5 are common, but 7 was the default except for rare occasions.

Also, AFAIK, Solar Winds didn't allow you to customize the sound settings.. You either wanted sound, or didn't, unless I missed something when I double checked and tried to reinstall.