Games and the Gravis Ultrasound
This Canadian card became the darling of the German demoscene. It was one of the first that could do both DAC and serious MIDI with wavetable synthesis. It had no ROM, so the patches (soundbanks) had to be loaded into RAM at the start of the game. Games that supported it natively had a special batch file or program for that.
The first Gravis Ultrasound card was released in 1993, accompanied by a series of patches that ensured compatibility of already existing games. For those games that used Miles drivers for the Roland MT-32, there was a driver as well.
| Dune II | RTS | 92 |  |
Patch |
| Wolfenstein 3D | FPS | |
Patch | |
| Gabriel Knight | Adventure | 93 | |
Patch |
| Return to Zork | Adventure | |
Miles | |
| SimCity 2000 | strat | |
Miles | |
| SimCity Classic | strat | |
Patch | |
| Ultima Underworld | RPG | |
Miles | |
| Ultima VIII | RPG | 94 | |
Patch |
| Warcraft | RTS | |
Patch |
Soundblaster compatibility was to be ensured with a TSR. I haven't tested this much yet. It works well for Whale's Voyage. Then, more and more games started to support the card natively (Apogee, Epic MegaGames, Bethesda, Sierra, Impressions):
| Doom | FPS | 93 | |
TESTED |
| Tetris Pro | Tetris |  |
TESTED | |
| Arena | RPG | 94 | |
TESTED |
| Heretic | FPS | |
MobyGames | |
| Rise of the Triad | FPS | |
SETUP | |
| The Settlers | strat |  |
MobyGames | |
| System Shock | FPS | |
GUSMID32.DLL | |
| Transport Tycoon | strat |  |
MobyGames | |
| Blue Ice | Adventure | 95 | |
MobyGames |
| Caesar II | strat | |
ULTRA.MDI | |
| Transport Tycoon deluxe | strat | |
MobyGames | |
| A Tribute to Tetris | Tetris |  |
README | |
| MEGA Tetris | Tetris |  |
TESTED | |
| Morphello | Othello | |
Version 2.0 only | |
| Tetrix II | Tetris | |
TESTED | |
| 3D Tetris | Blockout | |
TESTED | |
| Descent | FPS | |
SETUP | |
| Warcraft II | RTS | |
ULTRA.MDI | |
| William Shatner's TekWar | FPS | |
MobyGames | |
| Witchaven | RPG | |
MobyGames | |
| Xixit | Columns | |
TESTED | |
| Afterlife | strat | 96 | |
README |
| Chain Reaction | Columns | |
README | |
| Daggerfall | RPG | |
SETUP | |
| Descent II | FPS | |
MobyGames | |
| Duke Nukem 3D | FPS | |
Apogee FAQ | |
| Dungeon Keeper | strat | |
MobyGames | |
| Greedy | Pac-Man |  |
README | |
| K³ | Pac-Man |  |
README | |
| Maxtris (JFP) | Tetris | |
README | |
| The Settlers II | strat | |
ULTRA.MDI | |
| ACiD Tetris | Tetris | 97 | |
TESTED |
| Aleshar: World of Ice | RPG |  |
README | |
| Shadow Warrior | FPS | |
Apogee FAQ | |
| Tetr'Is ][ | Tetris | |
README |
The rightmost column lists my source of information:
The Gravis Ultrasound was never a typical game card. It's main support was from Apogee and the demoscene. The other games support it, if they do, as one of many. The only game I currently know where the developers recommended the GUS is Aleshar: The World of Ice.
Its main strength was its hardware mixing. It would play samples always at the highest quality, no matter what speed the processor was. There are several games that have significantly lower system requirements when a Gravis Ultrasound is used.
From my personal experience, the card does not work well with 16-bit Windows (I have never used it with 9x). On my 486, Windows inevitably locks up as soon as a game that is already playing MIDI music tries to play a sample, too.
