DOS Games Discussion

cheers_rules · Newbie Joined: 31 May 2004 Posts: 8 Location: Virginia

I, too, have a Sound Blaster Vibra! ISA (16-bit), and I'm running XP Home (SP1a) with no problems. Perhaps you should do a clean install of XP. Drivers settings can get corrupted over all those upgrades. Hope you get your card working!

Guest · Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:36 pm Post subject: Re: SB Vibra

Guest · Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:37 pm Post subject: Re: SB Vibra

dr_st · Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 1:02 am Post subject:

Best sound cards for DOS games are, IMO, in the following order:

Soundblaster AWE64
Soundblaster AWE32
Soundblaster 16 PnP

All ISA cards.

kreats · Member Joined: 26 May 2005 Posts: 25

Best soundcards for dos gaming (after extensive research):

SB16 For sound effects - this is a given. Don't use a AWE32 or 64, as you shouldn't be using it for music anyway (and when you do, you get grief with many games - eg ultima VII). I like the CT1770 as it has onboard SCSI and a volume knob at the back of the card.

For music there are a few options:

Roland LAPC-1: This is the ultimate (expensive) DOS soundcard - a MT32 on a card. Many dos games simply don't have sound other than that designed for a MT32, Everything will be compatible with this. If you really want to get finicky though you can add a...

Roland SCC-1: This does General MIDI (different to what the MT32 does - some games give you this option) and provides a external MIDI port should you need one for a...

Roland MT32: Get one of these if you can't find a LAPC-1. You'll need a MPU401 interface - and it's probably best to use a genuine Roland MPU401 card for this (such as the SCC1). If you can't get one of these get a...

Roland SCD-15 or Yamaha DB50XG wavetable daughterboard for SB16: This will sound pretty good and won't require you to set up anything - you won't have to dick around to free memory for music in games which is a major pain otherwise. Otherwise you can get a...

Gravis Ultrasound MAX: This has a MT32 Emulation mode that sounds pretty darn good - some games support it natively, though these are in the minority. Main utility for these is old PC demos.

So to sum it up:

SB16+LAPC1+SCC-1+GuS MAX = Ultimate
SB16+SCC1+MT32+GuS MAX = 2nd Best
SB16+SCC1 or Wavetable Daughterboard+GuS MAX= 3rd Best
SB16+GuS MAX = 4th Best
SB16 = 5th Best

In the multi card setups it takes a bit of playing around with IRQ's etc to get them all happy with one another. But once set-up, you're golden. You may think this is going to too much effort.. but the difference between SB16 and MT32 is startling in most cases.

Gamer_V · Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 1:23 pm Post subject:

If I ever have to buy an old soundcard, thank you.

Otherwise; Why did you revive such an old topic? (Dred it... I'm starting too:P)

kreats · Member Joined: 26 May 2005 Posts: 25

Because I have valuable information to impart?

Also, I've only recently worked all of this out - so may as well relate it while it is fresh in my mind.

Besides, I couldn't let someone saying an AWE64 was a good option be the final word on this.

dosraider · Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 1:45 pm Post subject:

edited by myself.

kreats · Member Joined: 26 May 2005 Posts: 25

Wow, thanks for that dosraider - makes me not want to ever post here again.

Good to know when you post an answer to a q here you get:

1) people questioning why you posted in the first place
2) people criticizing you for being a ' connaisseur ' (sic)

Way to go guys.

dr_st · Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 2:05 pm Post subject:

You know, I have never used an AWE32/64 myself, but have heard nothing but good from those who did use them. At the very minimum, even if a game doesn't support its advanced features, it still gives you everything SB16 gives you, am I not right?

If not, please explain what the problem with the AWE cards might be.

dosraider · Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 2:06 pm Post subject:

edited by myself.

Gamer_V · Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 2:08 pm Post subject:

Didn't mean to insult you, but you could have started a new topic... Wink

But, as long as a game supports it, what's wrong with an AWE? What the clayface said!

Kazer0 · Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 2:17 pm Post subject:

Dos raider, please shut up right now. Thanks. He posted valuable information, which is allowed according to our rules. If you have something important to add, then you can revive a topic. Now never backseat moderate again.

kreats · Member Joined: 26 May 2005 Posts: 25

Gamer_V: I could have, but it's better to reply to a topic than to start a new one (or so I've been led to believe). What's the difference anyway?

I gave up on the awe64 long ago.. so a little hazy. I vaguely remember CTCM eating up EMS though. It was a real struggle to get music in Ultima VII even when whittling down my autoexec.bat and config.sys. I think this is a problem with all pnp cards?

EDIT: come to think of it, I'm not sure CTCM is required in pure dos. One clear differentiator however is that neither the awe32 or awe64 have a wavetable connector for a daughterboard - which ends up being very handy.

dosraider: I didn't change anything in my post apart from a couple of typos - I think you'll notice that it was edited *before* you made your first posting. So I guess I'm going to have to assume you are damaged in the head.

Gamer_V · Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 3:02 pm Post subject:

But why is it bad? I mean, if you make an old computer nowadays you're sure to make sure it has enough memory... And if the quality of the sound is good, I don't really see a problem... However; nice list.