Loom FM-Towns sound correct?

[diznanl]

It doesn't seem that the sounds in the FM-Towns version are correct... I find the EGA/MT-32 version working just find but FM-Towns has some odd sounds, especially when clicking on objects which lead to learning more spells.

https://youtu.be/fRinFOSLjvM

Does this sound right to you guys? Sounds better on my "ad lib card" in the DosBox or PC speaker card even.

[Praetorian]

It doesn't seem that the sounds in the FM-Towns version are correct... I find the EGA/MT-32 version working just find but FM-Towns has some odd sounds, especially when clicking on objects which lead to learning more spells.

https://youtu.be/fRinFOSLjvM

Does this sound right to you guys? Sounds better on my "ad lib card" in the DosBox or PC speaker card even.

I think it's the correct sound that the original Fm-Towns computer played.
https://youtu.be/XbTBy9lDjrs?t=1023

[diznanl]

Thank you! I now fully believe that Brian was right ... the EGA/MT-32 or even Adlib sound version is the superior version.

[maccentris]

I remember the MacPlus sounds (it played in B/W graphics), sounded like an 8bit console, newer Macs sounded more "stereo" and played in 16 colors. This sounds pretty good.

Liliana

[eriktorbjorn]

I remember the MacPlus sounds (it played in B/W graphics), sounded like an 8bit console, newer Macs sounded more "stereo" and played in 16 colors. This sounds pretty good.

If you have the old 16-colour Mac versions of Loom or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you can tell ScummVM to use the "Macintosh b/w" rendering mode. It simply replaces each colour with its own 2x2 pixel pattern. You'd think that this would make an unholy mess of the picture... and to an extent you would be right. But it can also look surprisingly good:

scummvm-loom-ega-mac-00002.png (20.89 KiB) Viewed 1239 times

Unfortunately (?) ScummVM doesn't emulate the Macintosh synthesizer, so Indiana Jones probably doesn't sound anything like the original. (I can only hope that Loom sounds reasonably close!) And only some aspects of its distinct user interface are implemented yet.

One "problem" with the more obscure versions of games, other than tracking down a used copy of them of course, is that it's not always easy to find what they sounded like. Original hardware can be scarce, emulation can be glitchy, and most videos you find online were probably made with ScummVM.

[maccentris]

Yes!! It was wonderful and it worked. Plus, in 1992-94 we also had no choice! A Mac Performa wasn't going to be within our budget for another 2 years

But boy, when I was able to afford it (as an adult in 1996), I got myself a Mac Centris 650!
Hence my name. My best Mac ever!

Liliana

[eriktorbjorn]

Yes!! It was wonderful and it worked. Plus, in 1992-94 we also had no choice! A Mac Performa wasn't going to be within our budget for another 2 years

If you didn't already see it, here's the older thread about the black and white rendering mode. It has some further screenshots: viewtopic.php?p=95644#p95644

The pull request for it also has some screenshots, both from ScummVM and from a Mac emulator to demonstrate some differences between the two: https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/3146

(If there's further discussion about the Mac version, it's probably better to use that other thread since this one started out about the FM Towns version. Sorry about that! )