China DOS Union

First, let's get to know what BIOS memory holes at 15-16M are.

15-16M: Since ISA expansion cards can't access memory space higher than 16MB, if this item is set to Enable, it reserves the memory space address from 15-16M as a buffer for data exchange between the ISA expansion card and the host memory, and the system no longer uses this space. But if the system configures more than 16MB of memory, this item must be set to Disable; otherwise, the system will only recognize 16MB and ignore the extra memory. This refers to DOS. If it's WINDOWS, it's just that 1M is less.

Note that this option only exists in the BIOS when the motherboard has an ISA slot.

Today, our memory is all higher than 16MB, generally there are 64MB or even 128MB or more.

Taking MSDOS 6.22 as an example, the maximum manageable memory is 64MB, and beyond that it's not possible. So 128MB of memory can only be displayed as 64MB. Everyone knows the game Xianjian. If the memory is higher than 32MB, it will calculate incorrectly and display a negative number. We have two methods. One method is to enable 15-16M in the BIOS, which makes DOS only recognize 16MB of memory, so it can run directly without using software to eat up part of the memory. At the same time, the BIOS reserves the address for ISA buffering. At this time, your sound card will produce sound effects, referring to the Xianjian game, not other games. Most games can produce sound effects without buffering, but Xianjian basically can't. If the address is not reserved, there is a high possibility that there will be only music without sound effects, or the sound effects will be incorrect and there will be a crackling sound phenomenon. You have to be forced to enable the 15-16M address, but then you must be uncomfortable, heh heh, wasting memory in vain. Even if you adjust it back in the BIOS after playing Xianjian, it's annoying to run back and forth to adjust every day. Today I discovered a secret that I can get Xianjian sound effects without enabling 15-16M. How to do it? If it's not enabled, the memory capacity under DOS is very large, and you need to use XMSDSK to eat up some. DOS 6 can manage 64MB, so you have to eat up 32MB to enter the game. The method is XMSDSK 33056 H:

In this way, you can enter the game. My CD-ROM is drive G, and LASTDRIVE is H, so it is allocated to drive H.

There must be no sound effects after entering the game, haha, that's because you forgot to add the parameter! Add the /T parameter and it will be perfect.

Look at the picture, haha, really happy. I don't know what top xms memory means, it's really powerful, a one-hit solution. From now on, I don't have to run back and forth to adjust in the BIOS

Don't force it with PCI sound cards or AC97. If it doesn't work, just forget it. I've had a headache with the sound effects of Xianjian using an ISA sound card. And by adopting a compromise method of changing the BIOS every day, I finally solved it completely today. I didn't expect that the /T parameter of XMSDSK has such a magical effect.

Top XMS memory means to resident the XMSDSK memory virtual disk at the top of the memory, which is equivalent to reserving the top memory space (including the memory space address from 15-16MB, if the memory disk is not less than 15-16MB), probably because of this that the Chinese Paladin can make sound.

After testing, it is indeed effective for ISA sound cards (such as my ESS688 ISA), but unfortunately it is still ineffective for my Sound Blaster 128 PCI sound card.

Yeah, so excited, finally saying goodbye to the trouble of modifying the BIOS every day

PCI sound cards might not work because there are no so-called DMA channels in terms of hardware. There is an SB-LINK on my motherboard, which is specially used to forcibly allocate DMA to PCI sound cards to make them produce sound effects under DOS, but I don't have that kind of sound card. It seems that there were PCI sound cards with this interface during the SB LIVE! era

"Specially used to forcibly allocate DMA to the PCI sound card to make it able to produce sound effects under DOS" This is a driver issue of the PCI sound card itself under DOS. Different PCI sound cards have different solutions for making sound under DOS, including different methods such as DOS drivers, SB-LINK virtualization, etc. Currently, the sound production of my PCI sound card under DOS is basically no problem, and there are music and sound effects in most software and games. Unfortunately, there are only music but no sound effects in individual games such as Sword and Fairy. I remember that I once saw on an English web page that the option of memory holes at 15-16 in the BIOS can solve the sound production problem of ISA sound cards or a few problematic PCI sound cards (such as SB PCI, SB Live! etc.) in some software. Unfortunately, there is no such option in my BIOS, so it cannot be implemented and verified. Now the /T option of XMSDSK can perfectly solve the problem of ISA sound cards, but it still seems powerless for SB PCI 128. But at least my old computer doesn't need to modify the BIOS anymore.

I bought a Sound Blaster Live! sound card these two days and loaded its DOS driver (SBEINIT). After testing, the above method is also effective for the SB Live! sound card, so the Legend of Sword and Fairy has both music and sound effects!

Oh, after enabling 15-16, many unnecessary troubles will occur. This option is generally not enabled.

Originally posted by xuantian at 2006-4-10 05:03 AM:
Oh, enabling 15-16M will cause many unnecessary troubles, and this option is generally not enabled.

So the method introduced by the building owner is exactly the method of not enabling 15-16M to make the sound effects of Sword and Fairy appear, and it has been tested that this method is effective for most sound cards (except SB PCI 128 exceptions).

Just saw this post and was very excited!
This is the problem I've been dreaming of!
But, only ISA and SB LIVE are effective, feeling very sorry!
Wengier said that SB PCI 128 doesn't work, do I have a SB PCI 64 one, does it work?
(I've tortured my computer to the point of falling apart, and I'm too lazy to try anymore)

Also, that SB-LINK seems to be available in Yamaha series

I can't test the SB PCI 64 sound card here (I don't have this sound card). However, since the driver it uses is different (it seems to be APINIT, not SBINIT used by the SB PCI 128 sound card), it's hard to say whether this method is effective for it unless it's tested.

Wait a minute, I'll still give it a try!Really can't resist the temptation!

Is there any good news?

Tested on my AWE64. Thanks to the LZ!
In addition, the sound card interrupt of the Xianjian hard disk version downloaded from the internet is 7, and you need to run install.exe to reset it yourself.

SB AWE uses the EMU8000 chip, while SB Live! uses its updated version, the EMU10K1 chip. These two chips have some kind of kinship, so I think once one is effective, both should be effective.]

Originally posted by baby15500 at 2005-12-18 07:36:
Yeah, so excited, and I'm finally free from the trouble of changing the BIOS every day

Sweat, it seems that the LZ plays the DOS version of Sword and Fairy every day... :P

Originally posted by Wengier at 2006-4-20 04:00:
The SB AWE uses the EMU8000 chip, while the SB Live! uses its updated version, the EMU10K1 chip. These two chips have some kinship, so I think once one is effective, both should be effective.

The EMU series is Creative's wave table synthesizer, which should be irrelevant to audio effects. The PCM decoder should be done by a dedicated DSP.