How to play old midi files?

razor247ex · Joined: Aug 14, 2005 Posts: 16 Location: Israel

Hello,
I recently installed on my 2 year old computer a game from 1996 - which is called "Time Commando" by ADELINE.
It has a wonderful midi in game music, but with my new sound card the files just don't play... The file begins to run but no music is heard and no signals on screen.... Does anyone know how to fix this?
Here's one of the files:
http://www.geocities.com/razor247ex/0002.MID

edit: my new midi page: http://www.geocities.com/razor247ex/midi.html

mosc · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:18 am Post subject:

The file plays fine on my machine, so apparently it's not problem with the files. MIDI files haven't changed format in decades.

Try playing the file in a player that isn't associated with the game, like Winamp or something - even Windows Media Player. If it won't play, then you probably need to reinstall the MIDI driver that came with your sound card.

Kassen · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:44 am Post subject:

Windows has a setting for the default MIDI output, you could try setting that to Microsofts software MIDI synth thingy.

razor247ex · Joined: Aug 14, 2005 Posts: 16 Location: Israel

mosc · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 3:25 pm Post subject:

You can get an old sound card and put it in a modern PC. They are very cheap.

Kassen · Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:04 pm Post subject:

I hear this from more people. There might be a market for a soundfont based emulator that would simply recreate the tones of old GM sets. It would be a bit niche but "retro gaming" is all the rage right now and lot of other products marketed at gamers seem to sell so....

razor247ex · Joined: Aug 14, 2005 Posts: 16 Location: Israel

mosc · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:27 am Post subject:

You must have an old ISA card. They stopped making those in 1996 or so. There are SB16 PCI cards from that era that you can get that should sound the same or close to it.

Getting an old PC will be a challenge to keep running, but it would be in interesting hobby. I'm sure there are people who are into that.

Kassen · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:04 am Post subject:

As long as it's just for games? I think something like a p150 on win98, perhaps with a multiboot into dos for the realy old stuff should cheerfully run for another decade. Floppy drives are fragile but you don't realy need them al that badly either.

A IBM model M keyboard will never break and those two button Microsoft mice survive for ages too. I'd go for a soundblaster 16 soundcard because everything supports that and a s3 trio video card for the same reason. If DOS gaming is a priority I'd take OS/2 to it with several different dos's in seperate dirs to run in the sandboxes. A system like that should run for decades if you don't torture it.

razor247ex · Joined: Aug 14, 2005 Posts: 16 Location: Israel

Hello folks,
I want to inform you that I came up with a creative solution for the problem!
I'm so happy I can listen to those midi's now the way they used to sound (almost the same).
I even created a web page for that purpose! (spread the word! Very Happy

)
You can try out my solution here: (the guest book is shared with my other page so ignore it :S)
http://www.geocities.com/razor247ex/midi.html

Please let me know what is your opinion about my rather bizarre method Smile

I also recommend you to download my midi files and hear the difference (play them regularly and then using my method).

Kassen · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:38 pm Post subject:

....and suddenly I'm delighted with the internet again.

mosc · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 8:50 pm Post subject:

Wonderful. I hope I get a chance to try this. I never played those old games, but this sounds intriguing. Congratulations and thanks for sharing your discovery.