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1. Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 19:54:14 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

   Airball (MicroDeal, 1987) #DOSGaming

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 20:40:38 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     Well, this is interesting. It looks like the game actually came out in 1988 according to the files, which explains a couple of things (16 color VGA support). It supports Creative Music System (SAA1099 PSG) and Innovation SSI-2001 (SID chip) cards for music & sound.
     Both are enabled by using /CMS or /INV parameter respectively. But I can only hear the sound effects. A composer is credited, & it has MUS files in its data directory with names like TITLE, MAIN, and DEATH. Tried 3 cracked versions. 🤷♂️

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 21:10:21 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     • orionwl

     @orionwl It was originally for Dragon 32, and then got ported everywhere. Atari ST, Amiga, IBM PC, Atari XL, Apple IIGS, and TRS-80. There was even a cancelled port for the Nintendo. Eventually the game even made its way onto the Game Boy Advance.

   • orionwl (orionwl@x0f.org)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 21:10:23 UTC orionwl

     in reply to

     @dosnostalgic oh wow this was one of my favorite games as a kid, but only knew it for Atari ST not DOS

   • Hisham (hisham_hm@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 21:26:35 UTC Hisham

     in reply to

     @dosnostalgic I never knew that SID chip on PC was ever a thing! Did any well-known games support it? Curious to check if there's any SID arrangements out there for any game soundtracks that I'd recognize

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 21:29:48 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     • Hisham

     @hisham_hm Weeeeelll, no. Currently we only know about a dozen games, and the support is not great, because remember, those aren't arranged for SID, but rather MIDI-ish data with players specifically programmed to convert that data for the appropriate sound device on the fly.
     The most famous game would probably be Ultima 6.
     https://youtu.be/4JdUdZi97S0

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 22:07:21 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     • Pix

     @pix It works, I tried it. I don't believe MobyGames date is right, considering it supports the Innovation card which wasn't available till around April 1989. The exe is also dated with 89, at least 3 I found.
     If you have an earlier release, that would be interesting to see.

   • Pix (pix@dosgame.club)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 22:07:26 UTC Pix

     in reply to

     @dosnostalgic I had a go at this as well when I was trying out a CMS soundblaster about a year back. It looked like it was the first game to support CMS based on Mobygames. I didn't have any luck either. Not sure I knew about the /CMS option. I'll give it another attempt tomorrow.

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 23:00:54 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     • Pix

     @pix Just tried it. Doesn't work with the drivers either. It would be weird if it did, because it's sound effects only in the Innovation mode as well. Very strange.

   • Pix (pix@dosgame.club)'s status on Friday, 11-Nov-2022 23:00:58 UTC Pix

     in reply to

     @dosnostalgic The dates on the versions I've got are all 89 as well. I get sound effects but no music also. Does seem odd with those .mus files being there.

     I'm wondering if it might need the memory resident Creative drivers. Not that unlikely for such an early game but I've not installed them yet. I'll try that in the morning on the off chance. If it doesn't work, I'll still have a bit of fun messing around with Dr Sbaitso and the music demos.

   • Thomas Leroy 🍣🐈‍⬛ (gamrok@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 12-Nov-2022 10:20:13 UTC Thomas Leroy 🍣🐈‍⬛

     in reply to

     @dosnostalgic I've great memories of the game on Atari ST! The music was mesmerizing 🤩

     I'll try the DOS version some day to compare.