Rayman on Windows 98

[haker120]

Hello again, I built PC to play good old games I own and Rayman is among them, my problem is I've installed all Rayman games I own on original CDs (Rayman, 60 levels, by his fans, designer): Rayman USA v1.12, Gold, 100 levels, french Rayman Collector and Rayman Compilation disc (for updated levels).

All games but Designer have sound and music but in main Rayman it plays just wrong.

Any way to fix it as any modifications like Rayman Plus don't work on 16bit Operation System?

With Rayman 2 hits me with graphics dll not found run install (obviously I installed from original disc).

Any ideas much appreciated.

[dr_st]

Be more specific.

Are you playing the games under pure DOS or from Windows 98?

What do you mean by 'in main Rayman it plays just wrong'? What is wrong?

[haker120]

More specific: I want soundtrack in Rayman 1 as on ps1, if that possible, 60 levels and 40 levels plays fine (I don't really know how they should so I'm ok with this) and as for Gold (designer) I would love to have music, not only sounds.

And I play with window in win98, going to DOS 7.11 isn't a problem as I use 'restart to DOS' with all these nice important features like memory management and drivers (mouse, Sound Blaster AWE32).

I managed to fix Rayman 2 (but forces me to use CD, I would love to get rid of it, but my exe from GOG version is too new for the system). I'd 'crack' my legal version if I'd have correct EXE.

As for Rayman 3 I am surprised Nvidia FX5500 128MB RAM and 500MHz Pentium 3 plays it fine as 16 bit uncompressed textures 800x600.

[PluMGMK]

The Rayman 1 PC version is incapable of playing the full PS1 soundtrack, as the game's code only provides for a single "normal" track and a "boss" track for each world. Dosbox can be patched to mute the game and play the PS1 soundtrack, but obviously using Dosbox would defeat the purpose of a retro PC.

I was playing with the idea of making a native DOS TSR to do it without Dosbox, but it would probably require two CD drives. Maybe now that I've a use-case (your retro PC) I might think about it more seriously – not promising anything though!

EDIT 7 JULY: What I wrote above is BS. The game has a table where a unique track and length are assigned to each level. They just chose to use it in a stupidly limited way on PC

[dr_st]

More specific: I want soundtrack in Rayman 1 as on ps1, if that possible, 60 levels and 40 levels plays fine (I don't really know how they should so I'm ok with this) and as for Gold (designer) I would love to have music, not only sounds.

Plum already answered regarding the PS1 soundtrack. As far as Gold - it should play music, but if your original CD is the Focus/Revival UK release - then that's unfortunate, cause that one is bugged and the audio tracks are missing completely.

You can try the image here, because it looks like it may have the full tracks (judging by the file size). You would have to burn it on a CD to play on a real retro PC.

I managed to fix Rayman 2 (but forces me to use CD, I would love to get rid of it, but my exe from GOG version is too new for the system). I'd 'crack' my legal version if I'd have correct EXE.

Me too, I don't think I ever had a cracked "classic" Rayman 2. I play it on modern PCs (or the Dreamcast version via emulator) most of the time, so I don't mind. I still have that one retro PC with an actual 3dfx video card, where I have to use the CD...

As for Rayman 3 I am surprised Nvidia FX5500 128MB RAM and 500MHz Pentium 3 plays it fine as 16 bit uncompressed textures 800x600.

Nice! My first Rayman 3 playthrough was on a laptop with Radeon Mobility 7500 (probably weaker than your FX5500), but the CPU was a 1.8GHz P4-M, so quite a bit stronger. I think it ran on max settings and 1024x768 (which was the maximum for that laptop screen).

[haker120]

So my answers.

The Rayman 1 PC version is incapable of playing the full PS1 soundtrack, as the game's code only provides for a single "normal" track and a "boss" track for each world. Dosbox can be patched to mute the game and play the PS1 soundtrack, but obviously using Dosbox would defeat the purpose of a retro PC.

I was playing with the idea of making a native DOS TSR to do it without Dosbox, but it would probably require two CD drives. Maybe now that I've a use-case (your retro PC) I might think about it more seriously – not promising anything though!

That would be great! It's annoying all ps1/Saturn versions have constant music and PC has so many versions that can be confusing. xD

@dr_st, yeah, my GOLD is Focus Essential...

Actually Deamon Tools helps but still, Rayman 2.ISO needs to be mounted so partly this is a workaround for me.

On the box for Rayman 3 I see it requires at least 600 MHz processor and my P3 is 500MHz (max that this mobo can support) and still works good enough unfortunately none of the Voodoo juices available, only DX6.1.

I was looking at local market and I found this and ordered, hopefully that's verion with all music.


EDIT: This version doesn't have music as well. I wonder where I could buy Rayman Designer with CD Audio.

[PluMGMK]

I was playing with the idea of making a native DOS TSR to do it without Dosbox, but it would probably require two CD drives. Maybe now that I've a use-case (your retro PC) I might think about it more seriously – not promising anything though!

Well, after exactly two months, I've delivered: https://github.com/PluMGMK/rayman-tpls-tsr
So, haker120, if you're still here, and still interested, maybe you could give it a try if you like.

[dr_st]

This is amazing! I tested it on my Rayman 1.12 EU via DOSBox and so far it worked flawlessly.

I can see another Rayman 1 DOS playthrough in my future, just to experience the music the way it was supposed to be.

[PluMGMK]

Thank you! It's great to know that it's working for you!

[Fifo]

Ouch, seeing that it’s written in Assembly makes me feel bad for you.

Why’s the audio lossy, though?

[Hunchman801]

Great stuff, PluM! Given how confusing the beginning of this topic is, I guess this tool could use its own thread!

[PluMGMK]

Ouch, seeing that it’s written in Assembly makes me feel bad for you.

I've actually grown to love writing in Assembly over the past year or so! The Dosbox debugger was a big help to me…

Why’s the audio lossy, though?

Because I had OGGs/MP3s ripped from different Rayman CDs (including my PS1 Platinum one) and re-burned them to a CD to make the BIN/CUE pair I've shipped here. I knew it wasn't the best idea, but I didn't feel there was much I could do about it. Maybe I'll do better for version 2 Anyway, this should also work with an original PS1 CD, apart from the cutscenes.

Great stuff, PluM! Given how confusing the beginning of this topic is, I guess this tool could use its own thread!

Thanks! Indeed, I might make a dedicated thread, maybe when I'm finished with that other thing I was supposed to be working on

[Fifo]

Why’s the audio lossy, though?

Because I had OGGs/MP3s ripped from different Rayman CDs (including my PS1 Platinum one) and re-burned them to a CD to make the BIN/CUE pair I've shipped here. I knew it wasn't the best idea, but I didn't feel there was much I could do about it. Maybe I'll do better for version 2 Anyway, this should also work with an original PS1 CD, apart from the cutscenes.

Oh, I see now! I was just curious.

Wishing you luck with version 2!

[PluMGMK]

Well, that's assuming there is a version 2! If I add support for more versions of the game, that will of course be a new release, but right now I don't have any particular plans in that direction.

[Fifo]

Well, that's assuming there is a version 2!

I know, I know, haha.

[dr_st]

If you have an original PS1 CD you can rip the music as WAV, and then reburn it. And isn't there a FLAC version of the soundtrack on Raytunes?

BTW, anyone can do it, as the CD image is independent from the TSR, and should work just fine as long as the track indices match.

[PluMGMK]

Yes, it's funny how obvious these things become in hindsight! I spent most of the development cycle testing it with OGGs in Dosbox, so when I made the final push to release I couldn't see past that.

But yes, I encourage users to make their own CD images if needed or desired!

[PluMGMK]

I've released version 1.1 which includes a CD image burned from WAVs instead of OGGs, so that should solve the lossy audio problem: https://github.com/PluMGMK/rayman-tpls- ... s/tag/v1.1

This new release also includes the support for the Italian / Spanish / Dutch version, which I had added with David's help: https://raymanpc.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 3#p1438893

[Fifo]

I’m tempted to pack an installer into a mixed-mode CD containing the audio tracks… whad’ya all think?

[DavidSosa]

i have InstallShield installer, sure i can too