Project: The VDMSound Project: Release Notes 

 Release Name: 2.0.4

 Notes: 

 REQUIREMENTS

 VDMSound will only run on Windows NT 4 SP3, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
 It will not work with Windows 95, 98 or Millennium. A soundcard is
 optional (although recommended). Any soundcard will do (be it ISA, PCI,
 new or ancient), and as long as other Windows programs (like Media Player,
 Winamp, etc.) work with your soundcard, so will VDMSound.

 N.B.: There have been, in the past, problems reported on systems running
 certain software like Motherboard Monitor, SANDRA, and CPUCool. These
 programs use special drivers to give them full, direct I/O access. While
 full I/O access does not constitute a replacement for soundcard emulation
 (the aforementioned drivers do not -- and can not -- handle IRQs and DMA
 transactions), it will effectively disable VDMSound as soon as the DOS
 window goes in full-screen mode. You might have to uninstall the
 problematic driver (typically called giveio.sys) or the software that uses
 it in order for VDMSound to work. This, unfortunately, is not a problem
 with VDMSound, and I have no control over it.

 INSTALLING VDMSOUND

 Windows 2000 / XP users: download the MSI file and simply open it, and it
 will take you through the installation procedure.

 Windows NT4 users: it is possible that you already have the Microsoft
 Installer runtime on your machine, in which case you will be able to open
 the .msi file. If you don't, you can install the runtime by downloading it
 from MSDN Downloads
 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?URL=/code/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/001/456/msdncompositedoc.xml).

 USING VDMSOUND

   o Integration with Windows Explorer: 

     This is the quickest, safest and most convenient way of running your
     games with sound.

     Right-click on the DOS game executable that you wish to start (any
     .exe, .com or .bat), and select the << Run with VDMS >> action. A DOS
     window entitled "VDMSound 2.0.4 - DOS Prompt" will pop up; VDMS will
     automatically take care of emulation, environment and memory settings
     for the game.

   o Running VDMSound manually: 

     This method gives you the most control over what is happening inside
     your DOS box.

     You are able, at any moment, to manually invoke VDMSound inside a DOS
     window by typing dosdrv at your command prompt (you can do this from
     any directory on your system). The emulation is active from the moment
     dosdrv returns control to you until the DOS box closes.

     Should you choose to run VDMS manually, however, you will have to set
     up the DOS environment and memory options yourself.

 Changes:

 This version (VDMSound 2.0.4) features the following changes and
 improvements:

   o AdLib emulation, now fully integrated with the existing SB16 emulation;
   o DirectSound support for audio mixing; 
   o Added optional low-level CD-ROM support in AUTOEXEC.VDMS for games
     that try to access the CD directly as part of their copy-protection
     scheme(s);
   o Modified VDMSRun.bat to include the SB model type in the BLASTER
     variable.

For more information refer to the VDMSound webpage at http://ntvdm.cjb.net/.
