Fixing GUS problems with Doom

The thing is, I forgot this page was here, and I don't update it anymore, so don't ask me about this stuff.

Problems to look for (that I have had at some point since Dec. 10, 1993) include:

Scratchy sound
Uncontinous joystick movement
Normal game runs fast, modem games painfully slow.

Get the Newest Version

First of all, make sure you have version 1.9, because everything is supposed to be fixed. Version 1.2 still has the best GUS sound, though.

How to Fix Your CMOS Settings

Note: The application of this fix in regards to Doom problems was not my idea. The basic idea was posted to the GUS Daily Digest by Nicholas Stock. This is the best and simplest way to fix any GUS problems in Doom (and perhaps many more applications). Aiming to push my computer just that extra few million instructions per second faster, I thought I had my CMOS (I just call it "my CMOS" to keep things simple) perfectly tuned. Those new joystick problems in Doom must be the result of my replacement (new revision) GUS board or the new version of the game. Nope. My waitstates were both unmatched (does this matter?) and too low. I set them to their evidently proper values, and all seems fine.

As an example, I run a 486DX2/66 with AMI BIOS and VESA LB Video. My CMOS setup (and AMISETUP :) offers SRAM READ, DRAM READ, and DRAWM WRITE waitstate settings. I had to change from 0, 0, 1 (as my manual suggests) to 0, 1, 1. If anything, Doom sped up, so it seems like a good idea to keep things this way. I have no idea how you can adapt this to different BIOS manufacturers/versions, so don't ask. :)

If this doesn't help, try the PMODE replacement mentioned below.

How to patch the Doom .EXE with PMODE

Note: I didn't figure this out; I just provide this as very useful information. Currently, the GUS support seems flawed in Doom and Doom II, and has been since v1.4. The joystick and modem game problems seem to be more recent (perhaps v1.666 or maybe 1.8), but I could be wrong. Anyway, the solution is simple, and was figured out by someone to whom I owe many thanks [whoever they are :)]. Also, this doesn't always fix everything. There is no gaurantee here.

NOTE: The joystick problems may be related to the newer revisions of the GUS itself. I have used both 2.4 and 3.7 revision UltraSounds with Doom and only the latter gave me any trouble.

Download the PMODE v1.16 package (73,617 bytes zipped), and unzip it to somewhere. Then do the following:

• Type: PMWSETUP PMODEW.EXE
• Change the Low Memory Reserve option to FFFF
• Exit the setup program
• Backup your Doom executable, then get back into the PMODE directory
• Type: PMWBIND /R d:\path\doom.exe where d:\path\ is the path to your DOOM.EXE file.
• Watch the dots go :)
• Play Doom!