Hello from the Pacific Northwest

[patrick_wd]

#7781

Someone posted a link to this podcast on HN a few days ago and I knew I had to check it out. Listened to the Doom and Descent episodes so far and it’s great.

I got into DOS gaming in 1993 when we got a new 486 DX-33 as an upgrade from our aging Apple IIGS. Unfortunately, nobody told us that PCs only came with a basic beeper for sound, and it was a pretty crushing disappointment from the 16-voice synth of the IIGS. Eventually my brother and I managed to land a Sound Blaster 2.0, and with Doom coming out later that year, the rest is history.

I loved the sound of FM-synth, and the whole “feel” of DOS games. I’d save up my allowance for the latest Sierra adventure and my brother and I would play through it together. Once PC Gamer started shipping CD-Rom demo discs that was a whole new world of games to try, and I’d dream of making my own one day, but never did get around to it.

After decades, I’m finally trying to make it happen and recapture that distinctly DOS flavor, including using a high-quality OPL3 emulation core for just the right sound.

Anyway, I look forward to discussing the old classics, and maybe even discovering a few gems that I missed.

[TigerQuoll]

#7782

Hey there, great to meet you!
I love the sound of OPL synthesis too, and I think it’s sometimes underappreciated in favour of wavetables.
(I admit I actually have a soft spot for the PC speaker too, and I love the sound of games that get OPL and PC speaker working together!)

[patrick_wd]

#7783

Indeed, the OPL3 especially never really saw its true potential. Most games used it merely as a stereo version of the OPL2, and even then only to play MIDI conversions using off-the-shelf General Midi patches. When the chip is programmed directly and its full capabilities are used, it can do some amazing stuff.

[DJ_HiP]

#7788

Welcome!

Can’t wait to see some of your game programming work too, and there are many DOS Music lovers here so if you have some links to your work I’m sure it would be very welcomed here 🙂

[patrick_wd]

#7789

Thanks. Unfortunately I’m definitely more programmer than musician. I got myself lost in the weeds of designing an efficient song format with support for digitized drum samples because it was a fun challenge and something I hadn’t done before, but now that it’s mostly usable I’m going to need to learn how to actually compose music at all :/

In the meantime I just use converted VGM dumps of classic DOS tunes to make sure it’s working properly, and I’m working more on the renderer, since that’s the most crucial part. I’ll definitely share once it’s far enough along to be interesting!