I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

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MindFuzz
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I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by MindFuzz »

Ok, so I saw something about patreon and beta testing, so has the story progressed past getting eaten by a whale? Also, would anybody happen to have an old version of the game, specifically with the BAM music?
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by Bob the Hamster »

In the latest version, it is possible to get the pirate ship, and sail around the world and access some other islands, but there is not a main quest ready after that point.

I don't remember when I last uploaded the game. I have been meaning to automate that.

The Patreon is a way to show support, but it does not give access to any extra content.

I'm sure old copies are floating around, but I can't remember how long ago I removed the bam music and replaced it with midi. I know that I replaced midi with Ogg just a couple years ago.
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by MindFuzz »

Ok, cool, thank you. I'll need to play this new one as well. I can't think of any old hard drives I have that it could be on. Maybe someone here will have it if I'm lucky. Lol, I need that nostalgic bam!
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by Bob the Hamster »

Unless you are using an old DOS version, the midi and bam music are going to sound identical
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by MindFuzz »

What about a virtual machine with Windows 95 or 98? Would that emulate it, or use modern sound drivers?
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by Bob the Hamster »

A win 95/98 VM is definitely going to be using some kind of emulation

So the thing about original BAM music in DOS was that it was sent directly to the Adlib OPL2 FM chip on the sound card and it used whatever soundfont was built into the hardware-- so different DOS soundcard hardware would sound different. The way you remember the old Wandering Hamster BAM music will be probably different than the way I remember it
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by TMC »

All previous versions of Wandering Hamster since 2006 are available from the git repository at https://github.com/bob-the-hamster/wander/, or alternatively, from 2006-2018 also from the OHRRPGCE SVN repository. But it's not easy to tell which commits were actually released. There are older copies of WH still available too.

Nathan recorded many of the classic BAMs included with the engine on a real soundcard with an OPL2/3. But these days there are high fidelity OPL2/3 emulators available, like Nuked OPL3 and IIRC I couldn't really hear much difference vs. Nathan's recordings when playing those BAMs under DOSbox with playbam.exe. (Can't remember whether I used a DOSbox build patched with Nuked OPL3.)
Bob the Hamster wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:46 pm Unless you are using an old DOS version, the midi and bam music are going to sound identical
Do you mean you just ran all the .bams through bam2mid? I can't see the point of that. But IIRC you didn't do that, you had some original unconverted .midis.

I'm speaking outside my expertise, but OPL2 doesn't use sound fonts since it's purely analog synthesis. (though maybe it could for noise?)
What I only learnt later is that BAM has additional support for OPL3 too, which allows more instruments (16 instead of 8 IIIRC). So a BAM with too many instruments wouldn't play some of them on a OPL2 soundcard.
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by Bob the Hamster »

Yes, right, soundfonts are not an Adlib/OPL2 thing, I remembered incorrectly.

And yes, some of the WH music did have original midi.

I know at least a few current songs are BAM -> Midi -> Ogg conversions, but I don't remember which ones.
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by MindFuzz »

TMC wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 1:51 am All previous versions of Wandering Hamster since 2006 are available from the git repository at https://github.com/bob-the-hamster/wander/, or alternatively, from 2006-2018 also from the OHRRPGCE SVN repository. But it's not easy to tell which commits were actually released. There are older copies of WH still available too.

Nathan recorded many of the classic BAMs included with the engine on a real soundcard with an OPL2/3. But these days there are high fidelity OPL2/3 emulators available, like Nuked OPL3 and IIRC I couldn't really hear much difference vs. Nathan's recordings when playing those BAMs under DOSbox with playbam.exe. (Can't remember whether I used a DOSbox build patched with Nuked OPL3.)
Bob the Hamster wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 9:46 pm Unless you are using an old DOS version, the midi and bam music are going to sound identical
Do you mean you just ran all the .bams through bam2mid? I can't see the point of that. But IIRC you didn't do that, you had some original unconverted .midis.

I'm speaking outside my expertise, but OPL2 doesn't use sound fonts since it's purely analog synthesis. (though maybe it could for noise?)
What I only learnt later is that BAM has additional support for OPL3 too, which allows more instruments (16 instead of 8 IIIRC). So a BAM with too many instruments wouldn't play some of them on a OPL2 soundcard.
Oh wow, thank you! Even if the sound is different, the nostalgia factor is :)
Bob the Hamster wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:16 am Yes, right, soundfonts are not an Adlib/OPL2 thing, I remembered incorrectly.

And yes, some of the WH music did have original midi.

I know at least a few current songs are BAM -> Midi -> Ogg conversions, but I don't remember which ones.
I just remember I had to tweak the settings on my computer (Win98) to hear it, but the Win95 one at my grandparents just played it. My thinking was because Windows was still DOS based in those days, but I don't recall there being a difference. May have had the same sound card or my memory may be failing me. It's the theme song, specifically that I miss. I used to leave the title screen on just to hear the music, lol.
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by Bob the Hamster »

The title music was originally composed in Midi format by a composer named Jeremy Jacobs. The title of the track was "I not human"

A collection of his other work is located here https://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/Jeremy_Jacobs

I really should try to make a better quality ogg conversion of that song for Wandering Hamster.
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Re: I have two questions about Wandering Hamster,,,

Post by Bird »

Lots of often used Adlib music can be found in the "import" folder of old OHRRPGCE versions. Here is the archive of all OHR versions: https://hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/archive/
Maybe try the archive called "ohrdos.zip",that's from 2006. You may find other interesting BAM music there. Now how to play it... does playbam.exe (in the "import" folder) work on your computer, be it a VM or the real machine? Else, just import the BAM files in Custom.exe at "Import Music", then it should give you a preview of the file.

This format did underline the cheesyness of old OHR games, barely having the timing right, or even better: A music note traffic jam! And then, 1000 notes being played all at once! WHAAAAAM! Orchestra fell down!
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