Using Certain Midi Modules on Older 16-Color Sierra Games

[Great Hierophant]

Sierra's SCI0 games eventually supported a wide variety of devices, including the Game Blaster, the Yamaha FB-01, the Casio CSM-1 & MT-540 & CT-460, the Roland CM-32L & LAPC-I & CM-64 & CM-500; they did not support these devices in their earlier 16-color games like KQ4, LSL2, SQ3, PQ2, Hoyle 1, and Silpheed.  However, all these early games can use any of these devices, here is how:

Game Blaster - Copy a CMS.DRV driver from any later SCI0 game that comes with it.  If you have the Game Blaster disks, you can use the driver and install program on them.
Casio CSM-1 & MT-540 & CT-460 - Copy a CSM1.DRV or MT540 driver from any later SCI0 game that comes with one.  If you have an MT-540, you may hear more sounds if you copy a driver from a really late game like KQ1SCI, because they may be able to get an extra 10 sounds out of the MT-540, which are available instantly on the CT-460 or CSM-1 through a sysex hack. 
Roland CM-32L & LAPC-I - Select MT-32 & MT-100 in the install menu
Roland CM-64 or CM-500 - Copy an MT32.DRV driver from any later SCI0 game that comes with one.  This will mute the PCM midi channels of these modules so that only the intended sound is played back. 

One caveat here is the following, SCI0 interpreter versions 0.000.274-0.000.343, which is limited to early versions of KQ4 and LSL2, will not work with drivers from later games.  For those two games, find later versions of them, usually on the Collection CDs. 

[Cloudschatze]

However, all these early games can use any of these devices...

Sorry, no. If the game's resources don't include the appropriate patch map, simply copying in an appropriate driver isn't going to work. Case-in-point: I have yet to see a version of KQIV with the Casio patch maps.

get an extra 10 sounds out of the MT-540, which are available instantly on the CT-460 or CSM-1 through a sysex hack.

You mean program change messages?

[Great Hierophant]

However, all these early games can use any of these devices...

Sorry, no. If the game's resources don't include the appropriate patch map, simply copying in an appropriate driver isn't going to work. Case-in-point: I have yet to see a version of KQIV with the Casio patch maps.

I see your point.  The Game Blaster drivers actually copy a "patch.101" in addition to the CMS.DRV for KQ4 New, LSL2 New, SQ3 & PQ2.  101 is the Game Blaster patch designation.  For the early versions of King's Quest IV and Leisure Suit Larry 2, the patch designations must be contained within the DRV file itself. 

Hoyle & Silpheed contain native support for the Game Blaster (they include the patch on the disks themselves.)  Hoyle 1 supports the Casio devices as does Leisure Suit Larry 3, so the none of the previous games can support a Casio device. 

get an extra 10 sounds out of the MT-540, which are available instantly on the CT-460 or CSM-1 through a sysex hack.

You mean program change messages?

I think that was the idea.  I read something once to the effect that the extra sounds were not available through the controls on the keyboard, but only through midi.  I thought maybe sysex was the cause, but it seems more likely that program change messages would allow access to the extra sounds.  I wonder if Sierra used them. 

[Great Hierophant]

I tried the patches on the Game Blaster disks. While they work just fine, they are god-awful!  They really want to make you drive a knife in your ear.