Re: Mocking Board Problems with IIGS

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article british@imap1.asu.edu writes...
>
>Help! My newly acquired IIGS runs all II+/e software well but
>it doesn't work with my old mocking board.
> 
>Games either failed to recognize the board or simply crashed. 
>I've set the IIGS at normal clock speed and tried two different
>boards but the symptoms were just the same. It makes me wonder
>whether a II+/e mocking board will work on a IIGS at all.

	The Apple IIgs is not 100% compatible (although close to it) 
with older 8-bit software and hardware, so on occation there is a 
chance you'll run into non-compatibility issues. Try installing the
Mockingboard in slot-4 and setting the slot to 'Your Card' from the
Control Panel. 

>If a special mocking board is required and if anyone has one for
>sale please let me know. Thanks!

	There are other sound boards which use the General Instrument
(AY-891x) chipset and will emulate a true Mockingboard. One board that
comes to mind is the Applied Engineering Phasor card. You may have a
little trouble fitting the board inside the IIgs's with the lid shut,
but it works with a number of Mockingboard titles (with perhaps one or 
two exceptions, Ultima V comes to mind).

	Another option, little known to most, is a Mockingboard
software emulator which MDIdeas wrote for the IIgs about a decade
ago. It was a musical jubebox demo which played Christmas themes
to show off their SuperSonic stereo card. Upon closer inspection 
I learned it used the Ensoniq chip to emulate a dual pair (or more?) 
of AY-8913 chips. If you drop in music files from an ALF, Mockingboard
or Phasor card, it will actually play them back using the Ensoniq.
It's only useful if you have separate music-files however, it will
not work in conjunction with a bootable game disk.

>Acho

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca