Big thanks to friend-of-the-site Chase Dahl for this tip. While the iMuse MIDI music of the 1994 DOS versions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter sound pretty good, there’s a free way to make them EVEN BETTER. First, you have to download and install the current stable version of VirtualMIDISynth from its website (version 1.12.0). THEN, once that’s done, you have to download a SoundFont pack (of which there are several, I’m using this one) and point the VirtualMIDISynth program to it. Once that’s all done, DOSBox will use VirtualMIDISynth rather than the Windows-based MIDI synthesizer automagically. I just did a quick run in the GOG version of TIE Fighter, and it sounds GREAT. I took a recording of my latest mission (which I failed AGAIN, YEESH) using the GOG version of the game to illustrate audibly how great this sounds.
Here’s the video of the same mission using the DOS Collector’s CD I took before making the change.
Personally, I can TOTALLY hear the difference, and I hope y’all can too. If you’re playing the DOS versions of X-Wing or TIE Fighter, you need this. Enjoy!
These games are on my Christmas list along with a new joystick. Thanks for the awesome tip on sound! I’ll file this away for later.
That sounds like an awesome Christmas! Welcome to the comments, by the way!
I think the “TIE Fighter Restored” mod is even better. It’s a one-step process (drop some sound files into the GOG installer folder) and it gives you the 640×480 graphics of TIE98 with the dynamic music of DOS TIE94, all with high quality instruments like this. I found the files on savingcontent dot com.
I love playing this game on my weedy little laptop with an XB360 controller.
Welcome to the comments! Sadly the music isn’t dynamic in the Win95/98 version, since there are no iMuse hooks for it. It’s still MIDI though, which is an improvement regardless. You can download it here folks:
https://www.savingcontent.com/2014/08/09/guide-play-x-wing-tie-fighter-series-on-windows-7-windows-8-windows-8-1-with-an-xbox-xb1-playstation-ps4-controller-flight-stick/7/
Hey Brian, you’re right, it’s not fully dynamic, but it feels a lot more alive than the old TIE98 music, which was a few John Williams soundtrack cuts streamed from the CD. The TF Restored patch also fills in a few quiet moments.
I have heard a recurring rumor that GOG will launch their Galaxy multiplayer portal with X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. Do you think there’s any truth to that?
An alternative program if you run into problems with VirtualMIDISynth is BASSMIDI.
As for SoundFonts, I’ve tried several over the years and I genuinely think my favourite is: https://www.simpilot.net/~richnagel/#soundfonts
Thanks for the tip! VMS seems to be working great for now though!
Do you think using these will incur any performance hit? I’m running an Atom-based laptop and need to think about such things.
Not that I’m aware of, it seems pretty low in its use of resources.
Hi Brian, you seem to have a dead link to VirtualMIDISynth. I was able to find it via a search, and it’s close to what you posted but not the same.
Hey, thanks for the tip! It’s weird, the URL worked with “/en/” but now only works with “/it/” apparently! Thanks so much for letting me know so I can fix ’em, and welcome to the comments!