Are you a fan of old Sierra games? Do you particularly enjoy blip-blops? Did you know that the soundtrack for many of the games were actually written specifically for the Roland MT-32 synthesizer? These are games like King’s Quest 4, 5 and 6, Space Quest 3, Leisure Suit Larry 2, 3 and 5, Police Quest 2 and 3.

If you are lucky enough to have one of these Roland babies the games sound really awesome. But is there a poor man’s solution? There sure is. The Munt synthesizer emulator does a fine job at emulating an MT-32.

So what are the steps for settings this up? It turns out it is easy. As a prerequisite you will need a copy of the MT-32 ROMs, but these are easily available at TheOldComputer.

1. Start up the Munt MT-32 Sound Module Emulator with the proper ROMs installed.
2. Among the actual game files are a RESOURCE.CFG file, change its “soundDrv” setting to say:
   soundDrv = MT32.DRV
3. The last thing you need to do is to set the MIDI device to be the MT-32. I recommend running the games in DosBox using D-Fend Reloaded. Assuming you have the game added there, it is as simple as going to the Hardware/Sound/MIDI setting, click the “Select MIDI device from device manager” button and select “MT-32 Synth Emulator”, which should be visible to DosBox when the emulator is actually running.

You *could* use the default Windows MIDI device also, leaving all DosDox settings in peace, but lots of the sound effects will then come out wrong, so taking the trouble to download and install the MT-32 emulator is definitely worth it. You can also experiment with other sound drivers if you want, but for the soundtracks that are actually written for the MT-32 that makes little sense.

To be able to “solve” the MO:ULa pod ages in a convenient manner it helps having a pod age calendar (or clock). Try e.g the Pod Clock application, available for most platforms. There is also information about the Pod Age Calendar available on the web, but its actual calculations does not seem to work in any modern web browser. Your best bet would be something like Opera 12.

Update: I can also confirm that the Pod Age Calendar page works in IE7 and IE8.

Update 2: A very quick reaction from the maintainers of that site! We already have a fix!

If you try installing MO:ULa on any recent version of Windows you will need to add these legacy drivers if you have an NVIDIA graphics card. This worked well for me also on Windows 10. Install the drivers before attempting to install the game. If you do not install the drivers first, the game installation will probably offer (or tell you) to downgrade your current PhysX drivers. That does NOT sound like a good idea…

I had no idea this was still available, and it is even FREE. Brilliant game! For more information see http://mystonline.com.

1001 Nights. Goodnight! LOL.

A couple of decades and genre inventions later 2003’s Nordland II became Quorthon’s last record, as he died before he could finish this proposed 4 album cycle. After a rough patch in the 90’s Bathory’s return to form is truly awesome and, it seems, underappreciated. My advice is, do not miss the Nordland records.

When evil and bad religion in some way or another is choking most of this planet, and people get killed for criticizing it, it is good to promote freedom from slavery, and to subscribe to a different style of life. In music, if someone want to know the origin of Black Metal, here it is, the self-titled debut of Swedish “band” Bathory (mostly a one man project actually). The phrase had been coined previously, but with a different style of music. Earlier than you might think, in 1984 genius multi-instrumentalist Quorthon released this album, he was only eighteen years old at the time. Less known perhaps, but it can be said to be similar in impact to the debut of Black Sabbath back in 1970. I have gone through the history and discography of that band here.

As a keen walker it was inevitable that the ultimate black Trekker medal was achieved at some point. A bit ironic perhaps that the final kilometer was achieved from my sofa while the GPS drifted me around a bit… 😉

Levelled up twice in a couple of weeks now…

This weekend I have been sampling this very nice Moshofilero. Fairly inexpensive too. Warmly recommended! I cannot remember I have ever had a Moshofilero more than once before, and that was the Skouras version (unforgettable dinner at Petrinos, Kos Town). As far as I can remember (it has been a few years…) this one is equally good.