The MMAS & QSA Message Board

What music mode did they use for the transfer? Is that supposed to be Soundblaster 16 music?

Not quite sure what you mean, more information please

Compared to DOSBox, is that OPL3 music?

The Space Quest Collection is a series of games produced over many years. Technology changed over that period and different games were composed on different playback chipsets/devices. None of them were originally designed for OPL3.

The original Space Quest (1986) & Space Quest II (1987) were composed for a Tandy/PCJr, and do not natively produce MIDI. DOSBox can emulate this experience.

Space Quest III (1989) was composed for the Roland MT-32. The game includes drivers for a few other sound cards around at the time, such as the AdLib which is OPL2. Check the list of DRV files for what is supported, and try configuring DOSBox for different cards to see what it would have sounded like. Most players heard this game with the PC speaker (beeps) or AdLib card. For the best experience, configure DOSBox for MT-32 emulation.

Space Quest I VGA and Space Quest IV (1991) were also composed for the MT-32, and include drivers for more devices than SQ3 did, because more sound cards had come to market over the two years that had passed. Most players would have experienced this on an AdLib or Sound Blaster card (but the SB16 was not out yet, so we are still in OPL2 territory).

Space Quest V (1993) was composed for the Roland SC-55 and is the first Space Quest in the collection to support the General MIDI standard. Gamers would have enjoyed its sound on a variety of devices including the SB 16 or Gravis Ultrasound, just to name two popular ones, but the SC-55 would be the best experience.

Space Quest VI (1995) was also composed on the SC-55.

If you mean whether they have recorded the original midi soundtrack to a wav format for this dosbox based release.?...the answer is no.

The collection, at it's default configuration plays back the original soundtrack in adlib/soundblaster mode using dosbox's OPL emulation. The collection does not have the Sierra setup program that comes with the original releases, so you will need to edit the resource.cfg file individually for each game, if you wish it to output the music in General Midi/MT-32 mode.

In addition, you will still need an actual MT-32/munt emulator for mt-32 playback or a GM compatible device or software synthesizer (you can use Microsoft's default GS synth) for GM option . Dosbox does not actually emulate those, but you can configure it to redirect the output to those devices.

Good points bevil.

Another option is to use ScummVM, which makes configuration simple with a GUI, and it supports MT-32 emulation without requiring another program.