Next LP: Legend of Kyrandia

Well, I got a total of four votes for next Let's Play with an MT-32.  And the results are clear: 3-to-1 in favor of The Legend of Kyrandia: Book One. So here you go.

If you watched my previous LP, you may remember I set the CPU cycles to 500 for the initialization. (Actually, I discovered recently that 1000 works fine, too.) Well, for LoK, it seems the maximum value is somewhere between 150 and 200. It definitely seems to be written for a second-gen MT-32. Someone commented that they have no problem with buffer overflows. This person reported that he or she has serial 871041, which makes it an "old-style rev. 1", a later version that is still considered first-generation. I, on the other hand, have 836243, which is a rev. 0. Supposedly, all MT-32s before 950500 have the buffer overflow problem, but there may be subtle differences; I don't know. I'm not sure why some people like me have the problem and others don't. Apparently no one knows, at least no one who has said anything publicly.

By the way, I also speculated earlier on that Windows XP does some sort of buffering that prevents problems, because I had tried playing MIDI stuff from King's Quest V under WinXP and hadn't seen any buffer overflows. But guess what. I tried that with LoK music, and it does happen. So once again, I can't say for sure just what's going on, except that LoK's MT-32 driver is too fast for whatever Windows is doing to fully compensate.

Happy Halloween! Also, feedback requested

Well, I wasn't even thinking about Halloween when I started Let's Play King's Quest V with an MT-32. I just wanted viewers to hear how the music is supposed to sound, as opposed to the AdLib/SoundBlaster version that most probably know.

But about a week or so ago, I realized that the last area of this classic game happens to have an atmosphere appropriate to Halloween, and better yet, I looked to be on-schedule to show it off just in time for the holiday. And what do you know, I actually timed it just right. Here's episode 10. Enjoy!

And since this LP is just about over, there is the question of which game I should LP next. I have three in mind. Each one has its merits:

• King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella. This one has some pretty good music, which I think sounds at least as good as that of KQ5. There's no speech in this one, which you might regard as a plus or a minus. The intro seems a little on the sugary side, but I'm willing to look past that. Also, I've only played part of the game, so it would be semi-blind.
• King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. Also good music, and really good voice acting ('cause they used professionals this time). I did a recording of the intro while manipulating the emulation speed so you can hear more of the music than you would normally. I'll upload that just before starting the LP. Also, I'd like to try to do all of the different paths in the game and involve you, the viewers in deciding which ones to do when.
• The Legend of Kyrandia: Book One. Fantastic sounding music and pretty good voice acting, although the sound levels can be a problem sometimes, at least in my experience (fortunately my recording setup allows me to balance the sound elements after recording).

So, dear readers, please comment and let me know what you think. Which one would you like to see next?