Lode Runner Online: Mad Monk’s Revenge Music Fix

First, if you are looking for Lode Runner Online: Mad Monk’s Revenge, you can get it HERE.

You might have noticed that the version provided on the other page does not include the awesome background music. Why, you might ask. LRO:MMR uses a redbook driver to play the background music. On the original disk, the music was burnt on the same disk as separate, non-data tracks, so they could be played in the CD player. As a result, the disk had to be in the CD drive for the music to play. Try as I might, I have been unable to find a way to bypass that function short of drastic and ugly methods.

Therefore, I have decided for the present to not fight it, and to instead provide the disk image for you all to use. It is in the mdf/mds format because of its multi-track nature. I have not been able to convert it to ISO, but I think that is the point – ISO only stores the first track. It will give you much more of a 1995 gaming feel, having to put in the disk each time but, hey! That’s the point, isn’t it?

The following instructions will get you music on LRO:MMR.

1. Download Lode Runner Online: Mad Monk’s Revenge Music
   1. MD5: 40081a54f21fba056b0097dbd12b0f9a
      SHA-1 [160]: e4c5abe0cdba3220bf7297f030eaa4d956074df8
   2. Extract the two files (mdf and mds) to a location where you know where they are.
2. Download and Install Astroburn Lite
   1. Please! Choose “free install” option, and skip on the other junk! I warn you because I hate installers that install random junk software along with the program!
3. Open Astroburn Lite
4. Choose the “Image” tab
5. Under “Image file path” select the mds file you extracted
6. Choose the drive with the blank CD in it from the “Device” drop down.
7. Select “Start Burn”
8. Next time you launch lode runner, if the cd is in the drive, you should hear music.

 

Alternative: Mount the Image

If you do not want to burn a CD, you can mount the image to a virtual drive instead. To do this, download and extract the image as described above, then follow these steps:

1. You should have the mdf and mds files downloaded and extracted to a location where you know they are.
2. Download and Install Daemon Tools Lite
   
   1. Please! Choose “free install” option, and skip on the other junk! I warn you because I hate installers that install random junk software along with the program!
3. Open Daemon Tools Lite
4. Choose the “Add Image” icon.
5. The image will show up in the image catalog
6. Right click on the image (should be called LODERUNNER.mds), choose “Mount” and select the virtual drive you want to mount to.
7. The cd should now show up as a cd on your computer with the name LODERUNNER.
8. Now the big question: what is its drive letter? If it is the first letter alphabetically among all of the CD drives you are good to go. Otherwise, you will need to follow these additional steps.
9. The virtual drive must be the first CD drive for lode runner to detect it. For example, if your primary cd (physical) is drive D:, and the virtual device it E:, it will not work.
10. Open Disk Management
    1. Press Win+R (the windows key on the keyboard and R simultaneously.
    2. Type in diskmgmt.msc and hit enter.
    3. From the list, select the LODERUNNER virtual drive.
    4. Right click, select “Change Drive Letter and Paths”
    5. Click the current drive letter, then choose “Change…”
    6. Select the desired letter from the dropdown on “Assign the following drive letter”. I would recommend B: because it is alphabetically high, and it is rarely used (it used to be reserved for the 5¼ inch floppy drive 🙂 ).
    7. Choose OK and OK.
11. Next time you launch lode runner, you should hear music.

 

Here is the download again in case you missed it:

Download Lode Runner Online: Mad Monk’s Revenge Music

MD5: 40081a54f21fba056b0097dbd12b0f9a
SHA-1 [160]: e4c5abe0cdba3220bf7297f030eaa4d956074df8

Note: the disk theoretically contains the original installations files which I could not remove because it would upset the track offsets. However, installing from the disk may corrupt your installation, or do other ugly things. The CD is provided for the music purposes only. Any other use has not been tested by me.

 

That’s it! Enjoy your quazi-retro gaming experience!

If anyone knows how to map the mcicda.dll calls from the “CD” to wav files or MP3 files I would love to listen. I just don’t want to pull out more of my hair on this.

Coming soon, the Mad Monk’s Revenge Soundtrack.