DOS doesn't install sound by default since there was no such thing as sound when DOS first came out. To install sound onto DOS you need a DOS driver for your sound card. This will probably come with an install program that will insert the required entries into your config.sys file to tell DOS about the driver.

I think I can get myself sound if I can figure out where autoexec.bat are and config.sys are, but they don't seem to exist. Where can I find them and how do I edit them?

It's IBM DOS 5.0

DOS 5.0? YOIKS!! http://www.stevewolfonline.com/Downl...suals/eek3.gif

autoexec.bat and config.sys should live in the root (C:\) directory, although IIRC they may have their attributes set such they aren't visible using the normal "dir" command. I haven't touched IBM DOS in about a decade, but in MS-DOS the following syntax of the dir command will display all files in your current directory, regardless of their attributes; the syntax might work for IBM dos as well:

dir /a

MS-DOS had a program called edit.com which you could fire up from the command prompt to edit files like autoexec.bat and config.sys, but I can't remember if IBM DOS had the same or similar. Regardless, you'll probably have to change some of the attributes before you'll be able to edit the files and save your changes. The following commands (again, if I remember correctly) will remove all of the attributes which might prevent you from editing/changing the files:

attrib -r -s -h autoexec.bat
attrib -r -s -h config.sys

Yes, I remember well trying to get sounds in my DOS games under Win95. Firstly, you MUST have DOS drivers for your sound card. Then you must manually edit the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys file to set the correct addresses for the card. It's been a loooong time and my memory is fading, but the line in Config.sys will look something like this:
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D3
The "A" is the memory address, the "I" is the interrupt, and the "D" is the DMA channel. The above are very common settings, but your sound card manual will tell you the correct numbers.
As far as I know most cards in the last, hmm, probably 5 years, do NOT come with DOS drivers!
Autoexec.bat and Config.sys can be edited from within XP, but you must set XP to show ALL files-- "hidden" and "System" etc.
They are in the C: directory. Click MY COmputer, the C: drive, and they should be there.
If you need more help, post back and I can dig up some old stuff on how to get DOS sound.
Good luck,
Donk

I thought I could get it working, but I can't, I just get errors.

Well, I have no drivers at all for dos, so that certainly complicates things. Is there somewhere I can look up the values for my card? And is there somewhere I can get generic sound card drivers for DOS?

If all else fails, would it work for my Mom and I to trade sound cards? She has a sound card on her 98. I looked at her autoexec.bat, and it lists addresses, along with a .com file it referrs to which must be her DOS drivers. Is there a big enough difference between MS-Dos mode and DOS 5.0 that those drivers/entries won't work?

The only "generic" type drivers you'll find would be SoundBlaster compatible DOS drivers. Most all sound cards will run in a SoundBlaster emulation. You could go to Creative.com and search the support section to see if they still have DOS driver downloads.

Can you get the sound to work on your Mom's PC? If it won't work there, then no use switching the cards.

It might help to know exactly what you are trying to do? Is it a certain program that you want the DOS sound in - if so what one?

You can sometimes right-click the .exe file for a program in XP, choose PROPERTIES, then click the COMPATIBLILTY tab. There you can edit lots of things about how you want the app to run.

Good luck,
Donk

Well, I tried switching cards, using her autoexec.bat sound lines, and moving the drivers over, and it worked...sortof. The sound effects are fine, but the music is distorted. Certain notes don't play, and a few others play wayyy off tune or with the wrong instrument. I know this isn't normal for the card, because this didn't happen to my mom on her 98 computer in MS-DOS mode.

This distortion happens in ALL games with MIDI sounding music, and seems to be better or worse depending on the song playing. Here are a few examples of music problems:

About 75% of the songs in Chex Quest 1 and 2 are severely distorted, and the rest all have minor problems with them at some point in the song. In the Chex Laboratory, the part that's supposed to be some kind of organ instrument sounds like a bicycle bell being hit over and over.

The Amazing Spiderman's single song also has minor distortion, but it's mainly missing a lot of notes.

Duke 3d's theme song is missing very few notes, but has a lot of distortion whenever the notes get higher pitched. I have not tested the rest of the game because I don't have my mouse working yet, but that's a minor thing I'll take care of later.

The Mario Teaches Typing theme song is really bad. No notes are missing, but nearly every single note is distorted. Interestingly, the ocean level music in the same game plays flawlessly.

All of Ugh!'s music plays flawlessly. It's rather quiet, but that's probably just the game itself.

Oh, and it isn't as simple as using XP's compatibility mode to get these games to run on it. You can get regular DOS programs to run on XP fine, but not games (or at least, not the majority of them). They run unbelievably slow, and crash very soon after they start. I fixed one or two of them with a DOS emulator program called VDMsound, but that created new problems (mainly with speed jerking fast or slow randomly) and I still had a pile of them I wanted to play that either wouldn't run in VDMsound, or wouldn't run any better on it than on regular XP. I think the reason why so few people know of these problems is that they simply don't care about DOS anymore and haven't tried. If you don't believe me, try playing the original Doom or Doom II on XP and see what happens.

Wow, Duke 3D!! The BEST 3D shooter of ALL TIME!!! I'm serious. I loved that game to death. Played online deathmatches until my hand deformed into a mouse shape, lol. Eventually, I upgraded to a fast Pentium (for the time), and it wouldn't run anymore. I spent months trying to get it to run but finally had to give up. Anyway...

Sounds like you are almost there. Grats on getting the card to work (almost). It sounds like it is playing .wav files fine (those are the spoken voices and explosions (usually)). The prob seems to be midi. Seems like the midi info being sent to the card isn't being interpreted correctly by the card. If the music seems to cut in and out, it might be an IRQ conflict. But this wouldn't cause the distortion you describe (I think). So, you could try a different IRQ. Doesn't Duke have a built in option to set the sound card parameters? (A=220, I=7, DMA=5, for example)? Experiment.

I'm not sure about the distortion with the high notes, etc. I'm thinking it is probably the driver. In the Autoexec.bat file, what driver is being loaded?
Will look something like: set Blaster = c:\sb16.exe
Where the sb16.exe is the driver file.
Do you know the manufacturer of the sound card? Have you checked their site for DOS drivers? If that fails, try out a couple Creative drivers, such as SounBlaster, or Soundblaster16. They are still available for download at the Creative website:
http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/

Please let me know if you get Duke working. I might re-try it myself when I have some time.

Donk

I am very pleased to see that I am not the only one who wants to play these old games. It makes me feel a little less crazy...what processor was it exactly? And are you using 98?

If it's just that one game, I think your solution might be JonoF's source port. Here's a link to the project:

http://jonof.edgenetwork.org/index.php?p=jfduke3d

It's a bit hard to get running. I'll try to help you after I've tested these SB drivers.