Link to video
This pool game was developed by Bitmasters, Inc. and published by Mindscape, Inc. on December 1995.
After some trouble I managed to get it to run in Dosbox-x running Windows 95 on it.
Although I remember the game well from my childhood, there is barely any information on the game online apart from the above video.
I will try to play through it and put some information here. Maybe I will come up with some bugs.
Basicly, you start out in your home town where you can go to certain locations to play pool against other people to earn money.
You start out with 50$, and a flight to las vegas costs 250$, where a tournament is held - winning the tournament is the goal of the game.
The help pages mention that a small tournament takes place every 1st Saturday of the month in the location "Billiard Hall", and winning that apparently quickly gives you the needed money for the plane ticket. (The game uses the operation system's date so you could start on the day that tournament takes place.)
It looks like it's recommended to buy a better cue stick and "take lessons" (in "Billiard Hall"), but it costs a lot of money and maybe it is not required for beating the game.
The game uses a lot of hotkeys, so the mouse is only really required for actually aiming at the ball on the billiard table.
Sometimes hotkeys will work even when greyed out in the drop down menu.
Help pages say, if your money depletes to less than 10$, you can gain 10$ at a time by "doing chores" for a week at your home location, selectable in the game's drop down menu or via CTRL+O.
The help pages say, in the bars people wager up to 50$ per game, and in billiard hall it's up to 200$ per game. Perhaps you can fly to las vegas after playing just two games?
The game has a Demo mode, selectable when on the title screen. Interestingly, you get a "Forfeit the match" option but it will just take you back to the title screen.
And exiting while on the Demo doesn't bring up a "Do you want to save your game" dialog.
The game states in its About section that it's version 1.00.
No information on patches or version differences are known yet.
It's actually two tournaments in Las Vegas you have to compete and win in, one amateur and one pro tournament.
You have to win the amateur tournament before you can enter the pro tournament.
The amateur tournament consists of 128 players double-elimination. That's 8 sets of 4 games each. After winning, you get to choose a prize, either a new cue stick or 100$.
The pro tournament consists of 32 players.
The Las Vegas tournaments are of the game type "9-Ball". One rule is that if you pocket the 9-ball in a legal shot, you win the game.
This can happen on the opening shot. Just repeat that a lot of times to easily win each game. Should be easy to do in TAS.
More information maybe later.
Hotkeys
Hotkey
Effect
Notes
F1
Practice Mode
Title screen
F2
Play vs. Computer
Title screen
F3
2 Player game
Title screen
F4
Adventure
Title screen
F5
Overhead view
Table
F6
Left view
Table
F7
Center view
Table
F8
Right view
Table
F9
Wide angle view
Table
F10
Camera position
Table
N
Show ball numbers
Title screen, Table
A
Show aiming lines
Title screen, Table
C
Call a shot
Table
S
Safety
Table
P
Push out
Table
R
Replay
Table
End
End Replay
Table
U
Speedup replay
Table
D
Slow down replay
Table
L
Load a shot
Table
V
Save a shot
Table
CTRL+N
New Adventure
Home, Map, Calendar
CTRL+L
Load Adventure
Home, Map, Calendar
CTRL+S
Save Adventure
Home, Map, Calendar
CTRL+M
Exit to Main Menu
Home, Map, Calendar
CTRL+R
Basement
Home, Map, Calendar
CTRL+B
Bar
Home, Map, Calendar
CTRL+H
Pool Hall
Home, Map, Calendar
CTRL+E
Tournament
Home, Map, Calendar
CTRL+V
Las Vegas
Home, Map, Calendar (greyed out when in Las Vegas)
CTRL+O
Do Chores
Home (when <10$), Map, Calendar
CTRL+I
Player Info
Home, Bar, Hall, Map, Calendar
CTRL+T
Statistics
Home, Bar, Hall, Map, Calendar
CTRL+C
Challenge patron/friend
Home, Bar, Hall, Facing Challenger
CTRL+P
Practice
Home, Hall
CTRL+Z
Buy a lesson
Hall
CTRL+D
Call it a day
Bar, Hall, Facing Challenger
CTRL+G
Leave the location
Bar, Hall, Facing Challenger
Secret stuff:
You can get a gameover by turning age 90. This can be easily done using the calendar in your home.
You can click on the watertank in your home for a watery sound effect.
You can click on the telephone in the Pool Hall for a ringing sound.
Bugs:Chores into death bug
If you are less than a week before turning age 90 and have less than 10$, do chores at your home (via clicking CTRL+O).
The game brings up the "you are dead" dialog followed by the "you did chores and earned 10$" dialog.
Nothing interesting happens from this since you are taken to the title screen anyway.
Chores on table bug
Entering a tournament in the Pool Hall (1st Saturday of the month), then starting the match and pressing CTRL+O will bring up the "you earned 10$" dialog.
You can repeatedly do this for free money.
Las Vegas cancel
Pressing one of the hotkeys for going to a location will cause you to go there even from Las Vegas, causing you to be back home.
Las Vegas Flight during tournament bug
When in the tournament back at home, while in a match, press CTRL+V to go to Las Vegas and press CTRL+S during the flight to save your game.
The game will think you are in a match when you are actually not.
When in Las Vegas, you might be able to hover your mouse at where the calendar, map or bed in Las Vegas would be.
When loading the game, you will be in the tournament back at home but when it finishes you will still be in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas map/calendar/bed bug
When in Las Vegas and loading a save from your hometown, the map, calendar and bed might no longer work. This fixes itself after going to another location and then back to your home.
Save game anytime
You can save your game even at times where it is not normally possible, by exiting the game.
When exiting, the game always asks "would you like to save your game", except on the title screen and in demo mode.
This trick is not really useful though.
Skip talking cutscenes
Normally you have to listen to your uncle at the beginning of the game, or the clerk at the Las Vegas tournament.
The game continues when they stop talking.
You can turn off voices in Sound Settings, allowing you to skip the talking and continue right away.
Don't win the amateur tournament
In Las Vegas, in order to enter the pro tournament you don't have to win the amateur tournament. Placing 3rd is sufficient. That's 6 sets of 4 games each. After that you can forfeit the next two sets.
Hotkeys on the title screen
On the title screen, the normal way to start the game is to click anywhere and then load a savegame or start a new adventure.
However, the game still lets you perform hotkeys on the title screen which causes some side effects.
Press CTRL+L on the title screen to load a savegame, the game will think it is still on the title screen in some aspects.
The game will then list the same drop down menu items it would only list when on the title screen.
Press CTRL+R to go directly to your basement or CTRL+B to go to a bar. The game will use stats and data from the most recent playing session or if there was none, it uses uninitialised values (0$, 0 stats, date will be something weird like 02/05/2106 on the calendar but it's actually 31th Dec 1969). TAS may be able to get around having 0 stats but otherwise it should be avoided, since at 0 accuracy the ball gets shot in a random direction 30° to the left or to the right.
Pressing CTRL+H to go to the Pool Hall, it will assume it it Saturday and a Tournament takes place.
Pressing CTRL+O to do chores agains you 10$ and can be done repeatedly. This can eventually lead to a game over from turning age 90.
Pressing CTRL+S to save the game. This will save a game based on the data from your most recent playing session, or if there was none it will use uninitialised values. Saving and loading a savegame like this skips having to talk to uncle at the start of the game, but having 0 stats is undesirable. If you got a game over from turning age 90 and then save, the game will properly load the savegame but you will get the game over again after doing any action.
Press CTRL+M to go back to the title screen. It asks you if you want to save. Kind of pointless.
Press CTRL+T to show statistics.
Press CTRL+N to start new game. This is better than clicking on the title screen and then selecting "New adventure".
Skip uncle
Apart from other ways to skip uncle (see "Hotkeys on the title screen" above), you can also skip uncle by pressing a location hotkey (such as CTRL+H for Pool Hall) right before uncle talks to you at the start of the game. Notes:
Although stats will be initialised correctly, the date will assume the date from the most recent playing session, and if there was none it will be set to 31th Dec 1969.
It is also possible to press CTRL+D to "call it a day" but the timing is more specific. The date will be 1st Jan 1970.
Ok, game is broken.
I entered the tournament in the Pool Hall (1st Saturday in the month), pressed CTRL+O and got the dialog to pop up.
Free money!
Looks like we can go to Las Vegas without playing a game first.
Nice find! This'll be a really short pool run. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
You might save a few seconds of boot time (on the 1994 preset, at least) by using Windows 3.1. But it's not required, especially if W95 is what you grew up playing it on.
Nice find! This'll be a really short pool run. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
You might save a few seconds of boot time (on the 1994 preset, at least) by using Windows 3.1. But it's not required, especially if W95 is what you grew up playing it on.
I did try Windows 3.1 but didn't get the game to work on it, although I might have messed up somewhere.
Then I used this guide that is based on standalone DosBox-X. Some setting in the config file mentioned in that guide made Win95 crash on booting up. I had to do some working around to get it to work. Turns out the game itself wouldn't start unless I set up a sound blaster (sbtype=sb16vibra).
I will be interested in TASing this, as well as other games (e.g. Tyler and Repro Man) but I will need some help with how everything works in the latest Bizhawk.
Then I used this guide that is based on standalone DosBox-X. Some setting in the config file mentioned in that guide made Win95 crash on booting up. I had to do some working around to get it to work. Turns out the game itself wouldn't start unless I set up a sound blaster (sbtype=sb16vibra).
I will be interested in TASing this, as well as other games (e.g. Tyler and Repro Man) but I will need some help with how everything works in the latest Bizhawk.
Thanks for the link/topic, Dimon12321. Though, I got the game running on W3.1 with the 1994 preset's default settings. I'm on a driving trip right now but will finish and post a verification movie tonight.
MUGG wrote:
I will be interested in TASing this, as well as other games (e.g. Tyler and Repro Man) but I will need some help with how everything works in the latest Bizhawk.
I'd be happy to help you, MUGG. We'll get you set up with this game, then the other ones next.
I'm not sure why the game wouldn't work for you with the regular SB16, but I uploaded a Userfile here that sets up the game on Windows 3.1 with the default 1994 preset. Details are in its description, starting with the official setup movie for the OS.
It looks like you have the English 1.00 version, so that's what I used. I also found what seems to be a German 1.00 on a multi-game disc if that's more comfortable for you. Nowadays, a TAS can use any language officially supported by the game (fan translations are still prohibited).
I can make a Win95 one if this one doesn't work for you, but you'll see the bootup time is very short.
The way the mouse works is there's a cross-shaped section in the middle of the screen where either horizontal, vertical, or both will "center", except it's not really centered. The screen is divided into quadrants with relative movements controlling its position on the screen. I recommend the upper-left quadrant, but any of them are fine.
After running that movie and exporting the HDD as pool.hdd, run this userfile to start your TAS. You have time during the intro cutscene to get your mouse where you want it for aiming the cue stick. And 9-Ball or 8-Ball, whichever is faster. I'll help with the other two games you mentioned whenever you want, I'm happy to do this early Windows stuff.
It's great to see this project looks possible.
Unfortunately, ever since I installed DosBox-X a few days ago I'm running into some trouble with my computer. Although I'm not sure if it is DosBox-X causing it, I decided to uninstall it as a safety measure but I'm still running into the trouble. I will not be able to start any TAS for now. I will be happy to assist if you want to start the TAS yourself.
EDIT:TODOs completed:
Does winning or placing 3rd in your hometown's "1st saturday of the month" tournament fulfill the requirement to enter the Las Vegas pro tournament? No, it does not.
Does placing 3rd in the Las Vegas amateur tournament win you any money? No, 3rd and 2nd place gives no money, and placing 1st gives you the choice between a cue stick and 100$. Placing at least 3rd qualifies you for the pro tournament.
Does the time advance by any amount of days when flying to Las Vegas? No, the date does not change when flying to Las Vegas or back to your hometown.
Any possible version differences? The german version only changed the help file. Not sure about other versions but I assume nothing game-play related was changed.
Route:
Verification movie
1) Make sure a sound blaster is installed. (Perhaps it is possible to install a sound blaster better than sb16vibra.)
2) Install game, then start the game
3) Audio -> Sound Options -> turn voices off
4) Options -> Skip Opening Intro
5) Place Game Shortcut on the Desktop?
Actual TAS
1) Boot into Windows and run the game
2) On the title screen, press CTRL+N, confirm name. (NEW)
3) Press CTRL+D before the talking with your uncle starts in order to "Call it a day" and skip uncle.
4) You should be on 1st Jan 1970. Click on the bed twice to advance to 3rd Jan 1970 (Saturday).
5) CTRL+H to go to the Pool Hall.
6) Pay entry fee - 10$ is best - might need to manipulate for it by delaying a frame or starting the system on a different date, etc. If it can't be manipulated, it is fine, though.
7) When at the table, press CTRL+O and confirm, repeat until you have 370$ (250 for the flight, 20 for the amateur tournament entry fee, 100 for the pro tournament entry fee).
8) CTRL+V and confirm, to fly to Las Vegas
9) In your room, click on your calendar, advance until 27th June
10) Click on the door to go to the amateur tournament.
11) Win 6 sets with 4 games each. Win on your opening shot each time, by landing the 9 ball in a pocket each time.
12) After the 6 sets, on the next match, drop down menu -> forfeit
13) On the next match, again drop down menu -> forfeit
14) Click on your bed until you are on July 2nd.
15) Click on the door to go to the pro tournament.
16) Win 5 sets of 4 games each to place 1st. Again, win on your opening shot each time, by landing the 9 ball in a pocket each time.
17) Ending
Some good news.
I managed to reinstall everything and retrieve the deleted hdd.img, and all savegames I had are still there. Ignoring my computer problems for now. I backed up most of my files.
So I can finish my testing and finalize the route in the next few days.
Here is the new verification movie. It does all the same things as well as turning off voices to skip cutscenes. Export pool.hdd and use for your TAS. This movie now fulfills the following route requirements so they won't have to be done during a run:
1. Sound Blaster activated and MIDI set up, turn off MIDI errors on all future game sessions
2. This doesn't seem to be needed anymore, as the TAS does Ctrl+D immediately to reset the date to 1st Jan 1970
3. Installs the game
4. Sets all future sessions to skip intro automatically
5. Sets all future sessions to voices off
I updated the start of your TAS. I found a window for Ctrl+D to skip uncle a frame or two after starting a new game. (Ctrl needs to be held by itself for a frame before the second key is combined with it.) At the pool hall game, Ctrl+O can be done every 2 frames (Ctrl, then Ctrl+O+Enter) without breaks, meaning the first-frame $25 fee only loses 4 frames to a $10 fee, which by wasting frames alone, looks to be a 61 frame wait for the $10 fee.
The userfile above completes steps 6-12 of your route. And yes, I can confirm clickng your room door for step 14 takes you to the tournament.
May be a single frame save on the first Ctrl+D, but while resyncing, I missed one of my Ctrl+O inputs. I'll look into it later.
Thank you, CoolKirby. As you may have noticed, I've been editing the route to incorporate changes. I will use strike-through text from now on.
I found a window for Ctrl+D to skip uncle a frame or two after starting a new game.
Nice!
4. Sets all future sessions to skip intro automatically
It isn't required to turn off the intro, since we are only watching it once. The game doesn't have to be restarted during a run.
At the pool hall game, Ctrl+O can be done every 2 frames (Ctrl, then Ctrl+O+Enter) without breaks, meaning the first-frame $25 fee only loses 4 frames to a $10 fee, which by wasting frames alone, looks to be a 61 frame wait for the $10 fee.
Yeah, if it can't be manipulated, we just do CTRL+O more often and there is almost no time loss.
You're welcome. I did notice that, and I'll refer back to your previous post for the updated route.
MUGG wrote:
4. Sets all future sessions to skip intro automatically
It isn't required to turn off the intro, since we are only watching it once. The game doesn't have to be restarted during a run.
Maybe I didn't explain this well, but I turn the intro off during the verification movie. So the TAS itself doesn't have to watch or press buttons to skip the intro at all, probably saving a couple of frames.
Is step 2 still needed? The movie I posted works even with keeping Windows 3.1's date/time at the DOSBox-x core's default 05/27/2017 and roughly 12:44 PM. There are two ways I found to set the date:
1) In the DOS prompt, type "date MM/DD/YYYY" with the numbers you want. I think it took around 60 frames to set this way, which is slow.
2) Control Panel>Date/Time. You can use Tab after typing numbers, Enter when you're done, then click on the game to start it. This is much faster, but won't be necessary if the date gets reset to 1970 anyway.
Maybe I didn't explain this well, but I turn the intro off during the verification movie. So the TAS itself doesn't have to watch or press buttons to skip the intro at all, probably saving a couple of frames.
Oh, that is allowed? I assumed we start the game fresh.
I think we will not need to set a date as the game sets the date to 1/1/1970 regardless of the system's time.
I found that you can press CTRL+N on the title screen to start a new adventure directly, saving some frames.
Btw, it seems the entry fee for the "1st Saturday tournament" is determined ahead of time. When entering Pool Hall and looking at the clerk, you can click on the sign that mentions the tournament and it will state the entry fee.
CoolKirby wrote:
I managed to follow all the instructions. The win3.11 disks, the resulting w311.img and Pool Champion have the correct SHA-1 hashes.
However, I used the official Bizhawk 2.11 instead of the interim mentioned in the win3.11 install instructions. I set DOS core -> Sync Settings -> Video card type to SVGA S3 Trio 64.
It looks like your verification movie doesn't sync.
It starts Windows and until about frame 600 everything looks normal but then it is stuck on a window to install a driver. The mouse cursor is centered and never moving. When looking at the sync settings during this movie, the video card type is set to auto.
I found an alternative route, but I'm not sure if it is faster.
1) start game
2) CTRL+N to start adventure, confirm name
3) CTRL+D at uncle to call it a day
4) CTRL+M to go back to the title screen, "No" to "Do you want to save?"
5) On title screen, CTRL+O until 370$ (32 times)
6) CTRL+V to fly to Las Vegas
7) During the flight, CTRL+S to save a savegame
8) Press F4 and choose "Load", load your savegame
You should now be in your aunt's home in Las Vegas.
I was not able to press CTRL+M before uncle starts talking.
I ended up with 14th August 1970. The date should now again be set up in the verification movie so we end up directly at 27th June of any year. The date the system should be set to needs to be figured out yet.
Pressing F4 is like clicking on the title screen to open the dialog that lets you choose if you want to load a savegame or start a new adventure. However, Pressing F4 causes the game to play no music whereas clicking on the title screen does.
The saving and loading has to be done to fix the bug side effects from doing hotkeys (CTRL+V) on the title screen. Otherwise the game thinks it is still on the title screen and doesn't let you click on elements such as the map or the calendar, and it is required to click on the map and the tournament location on the map to continue.
@CoolKirby
Perhaps you can figure out if the previous route or this route is faster?
Just check which route arrives in Las Vegas first.
Sorry for delays, I've been on a driving trip the last few days and have not had time or energy to do what I want to with this project. The good news is the trip is ending soon.
MUGG wrote:
Maybe I didn't explain this well, but I turn the intro off during the verification movie. So the TAS itself doesn't have to watch or press buttons to skip the intro at all, probably saving a couple of frames.
Oh, that is allowed? I assumed we start the game fresh.
I think it's okay since the pool save at least is only made during the actual run. These may be considered environment settings that are allowed to be set anytime, including before the run's timing begins. My original reasoning was that skipping all future MIDI errors (during the verification movie) was needed, as it should not appear during a run anyway, being from the game not realizing a MIDI device is installed. We could always Ask a Judge though.
Regarding 1970, it looks like BizHawk initializes the date to 05/27/2017 (it uses U.S. format). The game reads this, or whatever the date is, whether you play uncle or decline. When you call it a night normally, you will progress to Sunday 5/28/2017.
However, if you Ctrl+D to skip uncle, that's what resets the date to 1/1/1970, the first date that can be represented by the computer clock. This is a bug in Pool Champion and does not actually set your Windows clock. What we need to test is whether using Ctrl+D and the calendar in Las Vegas to progress to the 27th June is faster, or setting Windows' date to something other than 27/5/2017, and declining uncle twice instead to potentially save time later.
Thank you for testing the verification movie. I would like to test your new route (in the next 72 hours), but I think I should fix the movie first so we're on the same page. You're loading this XML, right? Was the fmsynth install successful? After that, it should reboot Win3.11, then go through a list and set all the MIDI channels to itself (window title is "MIDI Setup: 'FM Synth All'"). Then it opens File Manager and loads Pool Champion's setup.exe. I did keep the mouse cursor still and used keyboard shortcuts until I needed mouse for the ingame dialogs at the very end.
MUGG wrote:
However, I used the official Bizhawk 2.11 instead of the interim mentioned in the win3.11 install instructions. I set DOS core -> Sync Settings -> Video card type to SVGA S3 Trio 64.
I used the official 2.11 for mine too, and synced my verification movie in a fresh download of 2.11 just now. Auto is the default for a new movie, and I think the movie will overwrite your settings to be Auto too so you may see your S3 Trio 64 disappear. Auto defaults to standard SVGA when the 1994 preset is loaded,
MUGG wrote:
5) Place Game Shortcut on the Desktop?
This shouldn't be needed as Win3.11 keeps the game's shortcut onscreen the next time you boot Windows after the verification movie finishes running.
However, if you Ctrl+D to skip uncle, that's what resets the date to 1/1/1970, the first date that can be represented by the computer clock. This is a bug in Pool Champion and does not actually set your Windows clock. What we need to test is whether using Ctrl+D and the calendar in Las Vegas to progress to the 27th June is faster, or setting Windows' date to something other than 27/5/2017, and declining uncle twice instead to potentially save time later.
Right, I forgot. Therefore you can't set the date beforehand and we need to handle date ingame. Handling date ingame should be way faster than talking to or declining uncle.
Clicking on the bed advances by 1 day, the calendar can be navigated quickly to advance forward by several weeks or months, and doing chores (CTRL+O) advances the date by 1 week. Calling it a day (CTRL+D) or clicking on the casino in Las Vegas advances by 1 day.
That being said, winning at the casino may be faster than clicking CTRL+O a bunch of times. But it's luck-dependent.
My original reasoning was that skipping all future MIDI errors (during the verification movie) was needed, as it should not appear during a run anyway, being from the game not realizing a MIDI device is installed.
What are MIDI errors anyway? I didn't encounter them while playing casually in Windows 95 in standalone DOSBox-X.
@CoolKirby
I managed to solve the desync with your verification movie by changing the XML file. I managed to export the resulting hdd and played back your beginning from this post, which ends view the view of Las Vegas' streets. Still please do let me know if you find out which starting route is better.
Music does play when choosing a track from the dropdown menu, during a match. But it doesn't play in your basement or on the map where it's supposed to always start. Not sure if this is a quirk of the game or of the emulation. I'm afraid, like this, the game would not play the ending music either. Perhaps we should look at fixing this first before doing TASing?
I'm floored the problem was something so small. I guess I didn't update the XML disc order before uploading. Sorry, MUGG. Glad it's solved at least.
Looks like it's Ctrl+N that disables mouse in rooms. I didn't test if Ctrl+M alone also does. And your F4 shortcut is the only way I found so far to reload the file with mouse working again, as Ctrl+L does not clear the bug.
I finally tested the starting routes:
The original route I tested, using F4 to start a savegame, Ctrl+O at the Pool Hall after a $25 fee, and flying to Las Vegas without saving or loading at all. Clicks the calendar on frame 321.
The second route uses Ctrl+N and, since mouse in rooms is disabled, warps between basement (Ctrl+R) and Ctrl+D to reach 3rd Jan and start Pool Hall chores. Unfortunately, this adds lag, as the game pauses to load a new area a few times. Basement is the fastest area to warp to, though, by ~4 frames. Saves and loads during the Las Vegas flight, but is wrong warped(?) back to the local 9-Ball tournament on loading instead. That's not where we want to go, but if there's savewarping potential here, that could be useful to know about.
Your Ctrl+M title screen route is indeed faster. Never having to load the Pool Hall cashier and wait, not spending any money during this segment, and completely skipping the Las Vegas flight cutscene allows us to feed the game inputs as fast as it can handle them. All the calendar inputs will be done offscreen because we are that far ahead of the rendering (~74 frames)! It's amazing how you keep finding ways to break this game, MUGG.
I'm no good at the actual pool-playing controls. I hope you can do those sections, and I can help with the rest. I'm back from my trip now.
MUGG wrote:
Music does play when choosing a track from the dropdown menu, during a match. But it doesn't play in your basement or on the map where it's supposed to always start. Not sure if this is a quirk of the game or of the emulation. I'm afraid, like this, the game would not play the ending music either. Perhaps we should look at fixing this first before doing TASing?
That does seem like a problem. Now that you mention it, the lack of music doesn't match the video you shared, which was also captured on Windows 3.1. I tried changing FMSynth's mappings in Control Panel>MIDI Mapper>Edit... (setting everything to MT32) but it didn't fix the songs that won't play. I don't know if they're MIDI sequences or audio (possibly WAV) though. Either we need a replacement for FMSynth, a way to repair the install process(?), or a switch to Windows 95. However, we should see if the ending song plays first, since that will play for much longer than the title screen.
MUGG wrote:
CoolKirby wrote:
My original reasoning was that skipping all future MIDI errors (during the verification movie) was needed, as it should not appear during a run anyway, being from the game not realizing a MIDI device is installed.
What are MIDI errors anyway? I didn't encounter them while playing casually in Windows 95 in standalone DOSBox-X.
The error first pops up before playing uncle. Strangely, it didn't pop up for the missing audio on the title screen, and MIDI does play during pool games. Of course, we don't know if the title screen is MIDI; it could be missing files from the CD for some reason, even though I didn't run into any errors during installation.
@CoolKirby
For now, here is a savegame from after defeating the final opponent in the pro tournament.
Just click to play the ending, it should look like this.
I tested the savegame and no, it shows the ending but doesn't seem to play its music. Whenever we make changes, it's nice to have a save like that we can go back and test with.
CoolKirby wrote:
Saves and loads during the Las Vegas flight, but is wrong warped(?) back to the local 9-Ball tournament on loading instead. That's not where we want to go, but if there's savewarping potential here, that could be useful to know about.
Now I'm not sure if this save goes to the local tournament after all, since it says "Nine Ball Tournament" just like that ending savegame does. Maybe it actually is the end? Should be worth playing through the tournament to find out when I have time again.
Ah, I noticed something like that happening during testing but I'm not sure about the details.
It might be that if you escape the tournament you were in by using hotkeys, then save and reload, you might be put back in the tournament you escaped.
Did this happen by using my route step by step? I thought I had tested it...
Let me know if you find a fix to the music problem.
I looked at the game files. Sound effects, voices and the short music tracks when on the map, in the basement bed room or when triggering the game over from becoming old or the ending from winning the tournament are WAV files, whereas the music tracks that play when in a match are MIDI files.
I guess the problem is that WAV files won't play.
Your clue about the on-disk WAV files not playing led me to a fix for the issue! The SB16 is missing its driver. Without it, Win3.1 can only play 8-bit mono WAVs up to 22050 Hz, like chimes.wav (Win3.1 Startup sound) and Pool Champion's sound effects like the audience moaning (which plays at 11025 Hz).
Since those specific WAVs are installed to the HDD for fast loading, there are two possible fixes:
1. Replace all C:\POOL\music WAVs with converted 8-bit mono 22KHz versions. Tested and working.
2. Install SoundBlaster 16 drivers (on Interrupt 7) to support the original game MIDI and WAV files. Also works.
Here's the newest verification movie for option 2. You will need the linked free driver floppy instead of FMSynth, and the linked new XML for verification only (the TAS WIP uses its same XML). Details are in the userfile descriptions. The TAS WIP now loses 8 frames to a longer Win3.1 startup. Probably nothing to be done about it.
You were right about S3 Trio 64 being required to be set manually. I forgot about that part of the Win3.1 instructions, and have set it for the new WIP. The MIDI error I described above still happens with SB16, and appears to be from Windows, occurring for any MIDI played, including in Media Player. So we don't actually need to turn future errors off from within Pool Champion, but it's easiest since otherwise File Manager would have to be opened, a .mid played, then closed so the game shortcut is still in focus for the next boot.
The game disc needs to be inserted to play because nearly all the files remain on disc. Only large music files and a few essential ones are actually copied to C;.
MUGG wrote:
Did this happen by using my route step by step? I thought I had tested it...
Actually, that was a route I was testing to avoid use of Ctrl+M. Your route worked just fine.
I'm looking at your new files and the new wip ended on the calendar in Las Vegas.
I guess clicking on the Las Vegas casino on the map in favor of doing chores is not viable? Doing chores is faster?
Looks like musics are playing correctly now. :)
Please see my PM I sent you to ask some further questions. I will try to get familiar with TASing in Bizhawk's DosBox-X.
WIP
I'm doing fewer CTRL+O presses on the title screen so we end up at 25th June in Las Vegas.
I click on the bed twice to advance to the 27th June.
The remaining CTRL+O presses can be done during the first Las Vegas tournament during table matches.
This includes the first match. I'm getting the "you win the match" message on frame 1101, which was the fastest result out of about 5 scenarios I got in about 2 hours of testing.
Ok, game is broken.
I entered the tournament in the Pool Hall (1st Saturday in the month), pressed CTRL+O and got the dialog to pop up.
Free money!
Looks like we can go to Las Vegas without playing a game first.
The error first pops up before playing uncle. Strangely, it didn't pop up for the missing audio on the title screen, and MIDI does play during pool games. Of course, we don't know if the title screen is MIDI; it could be missing files from the CD for some reason, even though I didn't run into any errors during installation.
