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Emulating The Cd Audio Cable (for Old Games)


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#1 JonB

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Posted 30 December 2003 - 02:59 PM

I wonder if it would be possible to do this with the virtual drive? I recently imaged Tomb Raider II to my library, and the CD audio doesn't work at all in-game. Works fine when the CD is in the physical drive with the audio cable plugged in.

I messed with the analog audio option already available in the program with no luck, so apparently that wasn't what I thought it was..

#2 Development

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Posted 05 January 2004 - 12:27 PM

Analog audio exactly emulates 'audio cable' - it just redirects output to Direct Sound and it should work perfectly. But if you have 2000 and above it is not needed - only make sure that digital audio is enabled in the properties of virtual CDROM in device manager. Then all audio play commands sent to CDROM (even by old games) will be redirected to your sound card WDM driver.

#3 IGL

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Posted 05 January 2004 - 02:14 PM

too bad that Pro Pinpall: Timeshock does not play CD-Audio from the virtual drive.

I found out that PP does not like SCSI devices. Would there be any possibility to create a virtual drive on a virtual IDE controller?

#4 Sloopy_DE

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Posted 05 January 2004 - 10:24 PM

QUOTE (IGL @ Jan 5 2004, 03:09 PM)
too bad that Pro Pinpall: Timeshock does not play CD-Audio from the virtual drive.

I found out that PP does not like SCSI devices. Would there be any possibility to create a virtual drive on a virtual IDE controller?

PP: Timeshock analog audio works fine from virtual drive here. DT Version 3.44 with analog audio option turned on.

Maybe there's another problem in your system config?

Sloopy_DE

Edited by Sloopy_DE, 05 January 2004 - 10:25 PM.


#5 IGL

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Posted 05 January 2004 - 11:47 PM

tried it again.
it definately does not work from a alcohol virtual drive.

i have 3 physical scsi drives and not even one of it plays the analog audio. thus i am sure that Timeshock does not work with scsi drives.

#6 Jito463

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Posted 05 January 2004 - 11:49 PM

QUOTE (IGL @ Jan 5 2004, 07:09 AM)
Would there be any possibility to create a virtual drive on a virtual IDE controller?

All "IDE Controllers" are recognized as SCSI by Windows. It's just something in the way they're controlled, that the card and any device on that card is considered SCSI. That's why the virtual drives are all SCSI, not because of the way they're coded, but because of the way Windows handles them.

#7 IGL

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Posted 06 January 2004 - 12:07 AM

now tried it with DT3.44. Guess: nada, niente, nothing. analog or digital output, no difference, no music.
when i insert that cd into my only ide cd-drive (dvr-106) it plays the cd audio. but since this drive is a crappy cd-player (note: not ripper, ripping audio is excellent) its no fun playing that way.

surprisingly, The Web, which is really old does work perfectly, even with CD Audio. Have to admit that it requires Win9x compatibility mode to run.

hmmm... next idea... :woot: -> result: sad.gif

Edited by IGL, 06 January 2004 - 12:20 AM.


#8 IGL

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Posted 06 January 2004 - 12:22 AM

QUOTE (Jito463 @ Jan 5 2004, 11:44 PM)
All "IDE Controllers" are recognized as SCSI by Windows.  It's just something in the way they're controlled, that the card and any device on that card is considered SCSI.  That's why the virtual drives are all SCSI, not because of the way they're coded, but because of the way Windows handles them.

i think you missunderstood me. what i meant is a virtual controller that does identify itself as an IDE controller.

just the way of identifying itself to windows, not the way it is handled by windows.

Edited by IGL, 06 January 2004 - 12:24 AM.


#9 Development

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Posted 06 January 2004 - 12:52 AM

This is surely not SCSI problem. Note that 90% (if not more) of old games can play audio only from first CDROM . Also before checking game try to play form it via WMP or other player.

#10 IGL

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Posted 06 January 2004 - 11:06 AM

it does work from cdplayer.exe or wmp or winamp. thats not the problem.

stupid game only checks ide cd-roms to find the cd. it totally ignores any scsi controller. that's why i asked about a virtual ide controller.

Edited by IGL, 06 January 2004 - 11:12 AM.


#11 Development

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Posted 06 January 2004 - 11:33 AM

There is no old game that asks for IDE CDROM, in fact most of them don't even know how to do it. Make sure virtual drive has first letter.

#12 IGL

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Posted 06 January 2004 - 11:43 AM

that game is not that old. it's a pure w32 exe, no DOS thing etc.
it may have it's own routines to check for cd devices and maybe it does not use the standard apis (getdrivetype etc.)

how would you explain this:

ide cd rom has letter H: (first one after the HDDs). Audio plays (but its crap).
ide cd rom has letter Z: . Audio plays (again, unusable).
xmasscsi has H: with image loaded. No Audio.

somehow it does not work from a scsi (physical or virtual) device. guess i'll have to live with it.

#13 JonB

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Posted 08 January 2004 - 12:36 AM

Thanks, making it the first drive worked. However, the only way I knew how to do that was to disable the real drive. How do you switch drive letters? Seems like that would mess up the paths of everything though.




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