Roland Games

Before 1992/93 or something, there were only three real standards for game sound: AdLib, Soundblaster, and Roland. In contemporary books you usually read that Roland gave the best sound, but was also the most expensive. Roland cards were MIDI devices, forerunners of the General MIDI standard. Only three possible setups were fully compatible with this standard:

1. A fully MPU-401 compatible interface with an MT-32 or compatible attached.
2. A Roland LAPC-I card, usually, but incorrectly, referred to as LAPC-1 (probably due to the odd font Roland used on the packaging). The I stands for IBM; a similar card for the NEC PC-98 was called LAPC-N. This was a full-length 8-bit ISA card (thus fitting into any kind of PC) that was basically an MPU-401 interface and MT-32 (to be exact, a CM-32L) in one. If you have one of those, you're all set and don't need anything else.
3. A SCC-1 (or Sound Canvas, connected via a fully MPU-401 compatible interface) in MT-32 emulation mode.

Let's take a look at the MT-32-compatible modules first:

1. The original MT-32. It is still fairly common, you should find one on eBay nearly all the time.
2. A CM-32L. Technically more or less identical with an MT-32, it was expressly aimed at computer users. It has no LED display and no controls except a simple volume control, and its case was designed to fit well with a computer optically, too. It has less noise than the MT-32 and 33 extra SFX samples, which were used by games from about 1992 on. Less common than the MT-32, it is still not all too difficult to get.
3. A CM-64. This is a CM-32L and a CM-32P combined in one box.
4. A CM-500. This is a CM-32L combined with a Sound Canvas 55. Thus it can do both LA and GS synthesis.
5. An MT-100, which is a disk-player/sequencer with an MT-32 built in. I know little about it, I could not even find a good picture on the web.

Now let's take a look at the interface cards:

1. The original MPU-401. This was a still comparatively largish box (sort of like a small hub) with its own interface card. Unfortunately, this card is often missing now, rendering the device useless. It was available at least for the Apple ][ and the PC98, too.
2. An MPU-IPC. The box has become smaller, presumably because more circuitry was put on the card.
3. An MPU-IMC. Basically the same, but for the MCA bus used in the IBM PS/2 series of computers.
4. An MPU-IPC-T. The box had lost the sync out, and you could jumper port and IRQ to different values.
5. An MPU-401/AT. In spite of its name, this is still an 8-bit card. Here, everything is on the card, there is no extra box, but you need special adapter cables between the mini-DIN connectors on the card (similar to PS/2 connectors) and standard midi cables. You can mount a wavetable daughterboard on the MPU-401/AT.
6. An SCC-1. This isn't just an interface card, it is a whole Sound Canvas 55 on a card.
7. An SCC-1b. This is just the second revision of the SCC-1, it had 354 instead of 317 samples and came bundles with Ballad Sequencer Junior and Band-in-a-Box software.
8. An LAPC-I. This is, of course, kind of pointless, since this card is a CM-32L. But in some instances you might want to hook up an external MT-32 to it to play around with the settings, and anyway it does have a fully compatible MPU-401 interface.

Other setups may or may not work, depending on how the game uses the MT-32.

• Some GM device, usually a wavetable daughterboard fixed to a Soundblaster card. In some cases, this technically works (I've marked these games with •W• in the table below), but it cannot be recommended. The tone mapping of the MT-32 and of General MIDI are completely different, the acoustic pianos are about the only instruments that match. Surprisingly, this method will sometimes still return acceptable results. For Origin games, this does not work at all.
• An MT-32 attached to an UART-only MIDI interface, as found on Soundblaster and compatible sound cards. For most Sierra games there is a patch that allows this setup, but only for Sierra games. According to an email I got it works for the Origin games, without a patch.

For Sword of the Samurai we even have instructions from the sound engineer how to program the sound effects on other MIDI devices, but that does not work with a wavetable daughterboard.

Budokan	Fighter	89
Space Quest III	Adventure			Patch for SB port
The Bard's Tale III	RPG	90		•W•
Chip's Challenge	Puzzle			•W•
Circuit's Edge	Adventure			•W• (Speaker SFX)
Loom	Adventure			Patch for floppy version
Sword of the Samurai	strat			•W•
Bad Blood	RPG			Speaker SFX
Ultima VI	RPG			Speaker SFX
Zeliard	Action
Elite Plus		91
Another World	Adventure
Space Quest I VGA remake	Adventure
Space Quest IV	Adventure			Patch for SB port
A-Train	strat	92		Take the A-Train III
Carmen Sandiego Deluxe CD-ROM	edu			•W•
Contraption Zack	Puzzle
Dune	Adventure
Alien Breed	Shoot-'em-up	93
Lemmings 2: The Tribes				New only

Up to this point, all the games had comparatively low system requirements. They would run on a 286, and they would not need any extended memory. From 1992 on, the situation changed twofold. More and more games began supporting General MIDI, thus breaking Roland's monopoly for good music. On the other hand, some didn't, but were more demanding for general computing power, requiring a 386, extended memory, or both. There are not many of them, but unfortunately, some real classics.

Ultima VII: The Black Gate	RPG	92
Railroad Tycoon Deluxe	strat	93
Ultima Underworld	RPG			CM 32L
Ultima VII Part 2: Serpent Isle	RPG
The Hidden Below	FPS	94
The Settlers	strat			supports GUS

After 1994, all the games that supported Roland supported General MIDI too, and sometimes Gravis Ultrasound or Soundblaster AWE32 as well. Besides, these games often need an additional Soundblaster card for digitized speech. This is no problem if you use a Soundblaster compatible card with a wavetable daughterboard, but becomes an annoyance when used with an MT-32 or LAPC-I, because you'll have two seperate outputs and will need a mixer.

Availability

Maybe I was lucky, but within two weeks of getting interested I had acquired a whole set of Roland devices: an MT-32, an MPU-401/AT, an LAPC-I, and additionally an SCC-1 (which is basically a Sound Canvas on a card) and an SCD-15, which is the same on a daughterboard that can be plugged unto the MPU-401/AT or any sound card with a Waveblaster compatible wavetable connector. Most of them I bought on eBay.

The MT-32, in fact, is rather common, and it is not all too expensive. Here are some I watched on eBay in March 2005:

• $61, including a third-party book.
• $40.
• $41.05.
• $32, reserve not met.

I guess you can say $40 is a realistic price to get one. You will find them not under computers, but under musical instruments. If you go looking for one in brick and mortar stores, then, too, you should go looking in stores that cater to musicians, not computer people.

The other devices are rarer, but do not necessarily fetch high prices. I saw a CM-32L offered on eBay for $150; it received not a single bid, was on auction again for $125, and finally for $95. That was when I bought it. There was no other bid.

The Best Setup

I have been asked what the best setup for old games is. Questions like these are of course difficult to answer, anyway, here is what I wrote:

The market being what it is, this depends a lot simply on what you can get and how much you are willing and able to spend. It also depends on what other games you want to play.

The most versatile combination would be an SCC-1 (or, equivalently, an MPU-401/AT with an SCD-15 daughterboard) and an MT-32 or CM-32L. The CM-32L has less noise, but with the original MT-32 it is easier to fiddle with the settings, you can basically rearrange the music within limits. The MT-32 is more common, too.

This combination gives you both GM/GS synthesis for later games and MT-32 compatibility. It can be had for about $150. Unfortunately, you could not switch the Roland power supplies between 110 and 220 V AC, so best get one from a region that has the same voltage as you have.

Mind that nearly all of the later games support MT-32 as well, but GM/GS, when available, will usually sound better. Just an MPU-401/AT, of course, will cost a lot less than the SCC-1.

The LAPC-I is far less common, and those that have it often ask (but not necessarily get) prices of $200 and more. With some patience, you might find it for $100. There is no particular advantage to it, except maybe that you have no external device and don't have to worry about the power supply. The LAPC-1 has no GM/GS of course, but you could hook up a Sound Canvas to it.

Combine this with an AdLib or, better, an old Soundblaster where you can disable the MPU port, the Soundblaster 2 for example. If you're very lucky you might even find one with the Gameblaster chips on it. I haven't, yet.

All this is really relevant only for games between 1988 and 1992, and thus mainly for XTs and 286s. For later games like Doom and Daggerfall and Dungeon Keeper it's a better idea to have a Soundblaster (preferrably, the AWE32) with a wavetable daughterboard. But here again, nothing beats the SCD-15, especially as a lot of GM game music was written with the Sound Canvas in mind.

But if you're a big fan of Ultima VI/VII, getting an MT-32 might be worthwhile.

Links

• Roland Equipment Specs Digest, mainly from 1996/97.
• Roland MT-32: Linear Arithmetic is a good introduction to the device and the synthesis it used.
• The Roland MT-32 Sound Module Resource Center: you can download utilities and patch banks here.
• MT-32 Emulation Project. Roland wasn't very happy about this. Read the history.
• Roland MT-32 PC Game Music in mp3 format.
• The CM-32L and CM-64 were MT-32 compatibles especially designed for computer users (as opposed to musicians and composers).
• Programming the MPU-401 in UART mode
• Best Audio System for PC Games