Re: Will a Mockinbgoard work in a IIgs

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Blake Patterson writes ...
> 
> I might want to go ahead and play Ultima IV all the way thru again.  I
> remember with fondness the fine music that me IIe and Mockingboard C at
> the time provided in this game (and others).  Will the IIgs accept a
> Mockingboard and allow it to work with IIe games

     Yes.


> (I am aware that no
> IIgs game supports it, as the GS has far superior sound built in)?
>

     The IIgs has better sound capabilities, yes. Even so, there may be a few
IIgs-only games which use Mockingboard.


> If it will work...which slots can it go in?  I've got slots 4 (stereo
> board) and 7 (FOCUS Drive) filled -- I assume it can work in others?
 ....

     As was mentioned by Supertimer, the Mockingboard can go into most Slots.
The best Slot to pick is Slot 4 because some software using the board expects
to find it there and will not work otherwise.

     There are few problems with running Ultima IV (and Ultima V) with
Mockingboard sound on the IIgs. For one thing, the IIgs needs to know that
the Slot in which the board is located 'belongs' to the Mockingboard and not
to any IIgs firmware which may usually be associated with the Slot.

     Another problem (really, the main problem) is correctly handling Ultima
music interrupt routines. Other problems are game speed and
text/background/border colors.

     A few years ago, Marvin (Boris Guenter) the sys admin for Uni-kl.de A2
sent me a copy of a fix for the Ultima V interrupt problem released by Origin
and published in Computist. This led to some programs to simplify getting
Ultima IV and Ultima V running on the IIgs with Mockingboard sound. (You do
need a Mockingboard with at least one sound/music channel.)


     The programs with docs are currently available at ...  


Ground archive:
ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/Games/

  U4MBonGSv22.SHK
  U4MBonGSv22info.txt
  U5MBwGSlnch.shk
  U5MockBmusicWithGSLauncher.txt


Uni-kl.de archive:
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/apple2/gs/gamestuff/patches/

  U4MockV2.shk
  U5MBONGS11.shk    



Rubywand