The music sounds very awful and synthetic. I love the old and abstract sound blaster sound. How I can get this original sound blaster feeling? Very abstract instruments sounds better than a very bad attempt to sound like real instruments (The "Uncanny Valley" of music emulation in my eyes).

Thanks!

I don't remember what the default settings for sound in DOSBox are on the clean install of Colonization, but you can change it by editing the DOXBox config file plus running the sound setup exe on the game's directory.

I always recommend using a front end to make all changes instead of manually editing the files. I use D-Fend Reloaded (http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/)

Even if GOG does a really good job at configuring DOSBox so that the games run properly on most peoples computers, you can almost always improve it; in addition to being able to change things like in Colonization's case.

If you are still interested in this (seeing now the thread is from October) and need help, let me know.

There is no sound settings file/application in the Colonoze directory - there is an install.exe which iirc is what is needed to run this but it wont work running directly from file manager... and good luck geting it to run under DOSBox while recreating the settings used by GoG r.e. image mapping the drive etc. so that the correct files are edited. If someone knows a way to run the install.exe so that I can set it to use SB16 rather some other sound card emulatror I would like to know too.... I am at a loss - the sound is atrocious compared to what I have on my XP box. I also have mouse issues with it... and I'm going to check if it's actually got the patch I have on floppy disk because it sure doesn't look like it

Tell a lie... I got it to work r.e. sound changing. Here's how:

1) edit: dosboxCOL_single.conf to simply comment out the command 'exit' (make it '# exit')
2) run the game and quit - you will be presented with the DOSBox command prompt in dir c:/mps/colonize
3) type install.exe and choose your soundblaster of choice be careful to make sure all settings match the settings given in dosboxCOL.conf (I had to change the I/O in the install program from 210 to 220 to match my dosbox setting)

enjoy decent sound again :-)
(it still doesn't match my original SB16 set up in my XP box but it's a truckload better than that godawful synth emu)

New GoG, the last post I made no longer works sadly. Working on it.

Found a workaround.

1) Open dosboxCOL_single.conf
2) Insert a new line BEFORE the 'exit' statement and put 'install.exe', save
3) Run Colonization as usual
4) Exit the game, give it a moment and the setup program should start
5) Tweak your sound settings to the sound card you remember :-) (I use Soundblaster Original) - don't forget your Soundblaster configuration is in the main dosboxCOL.conf file, you probably have to set your doodad to 220 in the install screen
6) Save and exit the install program
7) Re-Edit dosboxCOL_single.conf to comment out the install.exe line by putting a '#' at the start of the line else you will get the install screen every time you play, but if I need to tell you this bit you probably shouldn't be doing all this anyway...

Enjoy

p.s. I *still* can't quite get the synth I remember but believe me the quality is 100x times better than the MIDI default. I also set the mpu401 line in main dosboxCOL.conf to none I think it helped a little, but the real problem I have I believe is that my old rig with the original game on it actually has an original SB16 card in it ;-)

Also note - the Mouse Issue I am having is just that for some reason I have to right click sometimes instead of left-click to kick start the mouse to behaving properly (it always behaves fine in actual game i.e. the map screen with units on it etc.) I think this might be cos of my mouse being USB and not PS2 on this rig.

Lastly I had to run the dosbox configurator and check the 'aspect ratio' box, and set the res to 1920x1020 to get the main visuals working properly but that was no biggie (it was some kind of Letterbox on my 1080p until I did this)

Thread-necromancy from almost 10 years ago.

I also want to swap the music / sound effects card via INSTALL.EXE to use sandblaster emulation instead of the standard MIDI default - however, I get following error message:

"Failed to open Config file for write operation". I'd edit the config file by hand if I knew what file it is. I guess INSTALL.DAT looks suspicious, but for that I need a hex editor + some idea what to do.

Any hints?

Cheers