So I am under the impression that the DOS CD-ROM editions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter are absent from GOG, offering the floppy versions and garbage Windows versions instead.

In the case of X-Wing, having the floppy version may actually be a good thing for some.

Here's why - what follows is something I have read, so anyone please correct me if I am wrong in any little detail. The music for X-Wing was composed for the Roland MT-32, an old MIDI synthesizer. But to maximize compatibility, they converted the tracks to a newer standard called General MIDI. Both track sets are included in the floppy version, but the converted tracks lack some of the richness and complexity of the original MT-32 tracks.

This was fairly common for games made in 1993. Oddly it's only common in games made in this exact year - games from 1991-1992 seldom supported General MIDI, and games from 1994 and later were usually composed for the Roland SC-55; a true General MIDI device.

Of course, you will either need an actual Roland MT-32 or MUNT emulation in order to hear the music the way it was meant to be heard. Either way, you'll need to run the setup and configure the music for Roland MT-32 mode.

Also, if you have an "old" Roland MT-32 module (there were two major revisions), X-Wing will actually cause it to lock up. This can be prevented by using an SVN build of DOSBox and enabling "delaysysex" (Google it).

The DOS CD-ROM version was released in 1994, and it only included the converted General MIDI tracks. Even when the game is configured to MT-32 mode, it is just the GM tracks being converted to MT-32 compatibility on the fly. Only the floppy version has the iMuse in its full glory. The CD-ROM version is just an approximation of it (albiet a far preferable approximation than the Windows version's looping audio).

This information pertains only to X-Wing. TIE Fighter was composed for the Roland SC-55 in the first place, so the music will sound the same regardless of which DOS version you have. So as far as I know, there is no reason to prefer the floppy version of TIE Fighter to the DOS CD-ROM version.

That's a great silver lining you found there! :)

I didn't know this. Actually since the DOS CD-ROM doesn't offer any better graphic resolution than the floppy version, I don't see any particular reason to use that version over the floppy version. I'm fine with playing the game without the extra voices and stuff, so it's not a great loss to me.

However, I'd really like to see the DOS CD-ROM on gog.com if only to satisfy my completionist tendencies and own every single PC version of the game!

Interesting information.

I'll stick to the later version for its joystick support. Dosbox has quite poor joystick, I wish they could improve it for when I fire up Wing Commander 3 again.

I dont like the midi sounds. The recorded orchestra sounds so much better.

you could actually do real good midi orchestrated tracks - but even those wouldnt come close to a recorded orchestra. and you would have a need for several gigabyte orchestra library in the ram in order to play it live..

midi is just a digital playlist triggering instruments and extra info... for the old soundblasters the midi files dont contain much info and it sounds cheap.

If you don't have the floppy version and an MT-32, then you wouldn't know what the right MIDI actually sounds like. In fact, if I understand you correct, you're not even listening to the "wrong" MIDI, but to the Sound Blaster music mode!

Sound Blaster synth sounds quite different from MIDI. I don't know if this is the case here, but GOG often preconfigures games to use Sound Blaster OPL synth instead of MIDI for music, even if the game was composed with General MIDI in mind, and I feel this is a mistake.

This is a flawed example, since GOG could not be reasonably expected to give out of box MT-32 quality music support, but here's what Wing Commander is supposed to sound like, for instance (LucasArts copyrighted videos don't seem to last long on Youtube, unfortunately):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atu2VfCl6U4&feature=youtu.be&t=51s

The Adlib rendition of that is much weaker. The same can be said for X-Wing running in Sound Blaster mode; it's a weak rendition of the General MIDI tracks, which themselves are compromised versions of the original MT-32 tracks.

That said, all music modes for the DOS versions support iMuse. Not having it is what really kills the newer 3D accelerated Windows ports of these games - instead of dynamic music that reacts to the situation and bridges from piece to piece seamlessly, you get looping John Williams score, with swelling orchestra whether anything is going on or not.

I always prefered just selecting General Midi for music in the installer of the built in Roland or adlib/soundblaster.

Just found this out the hard way :) Scared me at first actually, hope locking the thing up does not cause damage or firmware corruption?

Anyway, I downloaded the latest SVN build of DOSBox (r3871) and enabled delaysysex. Now my MT-32 doesn't crash anymore and the game sounds fine overall, but there are a couple of effects that still sound 'off': for instance the flyby sounds of the shuttle that flies you to the training course sound distorted and there is a click in the x-wing's blaster sounds. I have a recording of it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fc7yvzwcvnw9uz2/xwing.wma

Is this how the game sounds on a 1st gen MT-32 period, or is something wrong here?

Dunno. I have it set to "Roland with Sound Blaster," so my sound effects are the normal digital samples.

Lucasarts didn't use the MT-32, but the LAPC-I (ISA card) or CM-32L with the 33 extra sound effects. The fact that it doesn't work on the MT-32 (Old) is one hint, but I have observed sounds in other games that only sound 100% correct on the latter units.

They also refer to it as just Roland and not MT-32 in most cases.

Sierra on the other hand used the MT-32 (Old) in most of their games.

I wouldn't mind if GOG eventually adds the DOS Collectors CD-ROM while maintaining the floppyversion, though it might be a bit confusing for players which version to play.

Personally I like the OPL3 music but maybe that is just nostalgia. :^P

For me, that *overlays* digital samples over Roland music and effects, so the MT-32 effects are still (distractingly) there in the background. That doesn't happen for you? Are you using MUNT or an actual MT-32 or CL unit?

Actual MT-32, old module. I hadn't noticed the overlaying, but I realize that doesn't mean it's not happening.

Possibly dumb/newbie question here...

I have a vague recollection of having a Roland daughter board for the SoundBlaster in the 486 on which I originally played X-Wing. The MIDI tracks sounded great.

I haven't really kept up with the state of MIDI in PCs since then - do modern, on-the-motherboard sound chips have MIDI capability? Is there any way (short of installing a MIDI card) to enable MIDI playback on modern, onboard sound hardware with the 1994 version of X-Wing?

(I've been playing both versions since I bought the game, but may end up sticking with the 1998 version since both the graphics and the sound from the original are a little rougher than I recall...)

(Edit - nevermind, I found another thread here with links to VirtualMIDISynth, which seems like the answer I was lookign for...)

JRjr

But it does not sound as, subjectively, 'horrible' as in my recording? Which version or build of DOSBox are you using and are there any other settings than delaysysex possibly related?

Like I said, I didn't even notice the MT-32 sound effects being played. So I really can't tell you whether they sound bad or not.