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Questions about audio cards

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 3:27 pm
by fabiobol
I have at home 3 ISA audio cards:
1) Ess1868 Plug and Play Audiodrive
2) Yamaha OPL3-SAx
3) CMI 8330.

What is the best for dos games, in your opinion? I have a question, too: why the default WDM-Audio drivers can play only SFX in dos games? Why can't we use audio in DOS games under Windows 2000/XP? Aren't there any drivers?

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 5:32 pm
by Elign
Use the first one (ESS). From personal experience, ESS tends to be a decent sound card.

As for your other question, it would appear that DOS music in the MIDI/Adlib format is not supported. Unless the NT/2000/XP MIDI driver supports DOS games, you will not hear MIDI-based music.

I hate to be picky, but it would be best if titles are not all capital letters. In general netiquette, people find that annoying (and it is percieved as shouting). Your best bet is to use normal titles so people don't think you're shouting. Thanks :)

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:03 pm
by fabiobol
Ok, sorry, I didn't know that capital letters were equal to shouting... But... unfortunately, I tried to install the ESS AudioDrive on Windows ME, but with the default Windows ME WDM drivers, I couldn't listen to the music on some dos games like Doom, Doom2, Hexen, Heretic, Winter Challenge and Summer Challenge. So I downloaded the latest drivers from the official site www.esstech.com. I Installed them, and the audio seemed to run well. When I tried to connect to the Internet, when the modem does the number, the audio seems to "block", and the same sound is played repeately. When I try to play the music, nothing happens, and at the and I had to install the Yamaha Audio card that runs well.

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 9:29 pm
by Elign
Modems sometimes strangle sound cards, since some modems "borrow" the sound card for its own sound functions.

Trial and error is sometimes the only way to really find out, due to the zillions of possible computer configurations.