VMusic extpack - FM/Adlib & MIDI/MPU-401 support

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javispedro
Posts: 58
Joined: 29. Jan 2022, 15:31
Primary OS: openSUSE
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Guest OSses: Old & New Windows, Linux

VMusic extpack - FM/Adlib & MIDI/MPU-401 support

Post by javispedro »

In the spirit of contribution and also to show the community that some developers are indeed creating VirtualBox extension packs, I am releasing VMusic.vbox-extpack.

This is a very simple extpack containing support for simulating 2 music devices popular in the DOS/early Windows era:
  • An Adlib/Adlib Gold card containing an OPL3 (uses the Nuked OPL3 emulator to play FM synthesized sounds directly on the host via ALSA)
  • A "dumb" UART-only MPU-401 emulator for getting MIDI out from the guest to the host machine (i.e. you will need a real MIDI device or synthesizer configured in the host to play anything). There is also minimal MIDI IN support.
  • An EMU8K (from the PCem project), bringing builtin SBAWE32 compatibility.
Enabling all devices as well as VirtualBox's builtin SB16 gives you a slightly better "out-of-the-box" Sound Blaster AWE32 experience, with working FM & AWE synthesis and external MIDI input/output.

This extpack works on Linux hosts only. Windows host support is likely impossible due to the strict kernel-mode signature requirements for any Windows extpack.
However you should be able to use any operating system as guest. E.g. Windows 95's SB16 driver recognizes and works with both devices (you can also install separate Adlib + MPU-401 drivers if you don't want SB16 at all).

For further details and instructions, see https://git.javispedro.com/cgit/vmusic.git/about/.
You need to at least follow the "Using" part, to enable the virtual devices and to connect the MIDI output if necessary.
Here is an extpack file you can use that I have built for 6.1.32: VMusic-0.3.1-vbox6.1.32.vbox-extpack

The source code of VMusic is also released under GPL2+ (license of Nuked is LGPL2+).

Your old software/games are still likely to run better on a (slower) PC emulator, so this is mostly just for fun, completeness, and because why not :) . Also, it is a feature that is sometimes requested #1 #2 ( and VMware implemented only a couple years ago, around version 15.5 ). Feel free to ping me if you find any issues, comments, etc.
scottgus1
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Re: VMusic extpack - FM/Adlib & MIDI/MPU-401 support

Post by scottgus1 »

Please see Discussion: VMusic extpack - FM/Adlib & MIDI/MPU-401 support (3rd-party) to ask questions or report results for this topic.
javispedro
Posts: 58
Joined: 29. Jan 2022, 15:31
Primary OS: openSUSE
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Old & New Windows, Linux

Re: VMusic extpack - FM/Adlib & MIDI/MPU-401 support

Post by javispedro »

Happy to report that it wasn't very hard to port this to VirtualBox 7. I've updated the website. Here's the latest extpack: https://depot.javispedro.com/vbox/VMusi ... ox-extpack .
Still Linux hosts only, though.
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