Old soundcard for retro box

[Unknown_K]

Whats the best sound card for the older dos games?

I use a sb16+ yamaha dx50 wavetable addon for the last generation dos games on a p200mmx (shitcanned the 486), and now I am looking at a 286/386 system for the games that run too fast on the pentium.

I have a reveal brand original soundscape card, any other suggestions?

Also anybody know of a place to get the old roland, GUS, soundblaster pro cards? looks like ebay doesnt list any that old.

[486 player]

GUS is best sound card to 286. (Just make sure it's compatible with thy slots.If game recuires 386, it'll work best in 486.

[Unknown_K]

Havnt seen a GUS forsale in a while, I figure a game made for 286 will run fine in a 386, plus the 386 can be taken out of turbo and run at 8mhz.. that should be slow enough for the real old games.

[486 player]

So does 286. Maybe Sound Blaster Pro's easier to find.

[Unknown_K]

Somebody is sending me a 386/33 motherboard, 4mb ram, hd, controller, video card for free (just pay shipping). Its a start. Will try resurecting the soundscape sound card while i look for a GUS

[J-Man]

The Sound Blaster ISA card (any model) is the KING of sound cards (It's the original, most others are copycats).

Most ISA sound cards are fine anyway. (With 16-bit power, don't expect massive quality)

[Kazer0]

Im not going to lock this despite how old it is, since DB will be after me again. However, ts moved to the appropriate forum.

[Oz]

i have a sound blaster pro ISA, if you want it.

[Kazer0]

I have a soundblaster vibra ISA card. Its so old, its not supported by XP.

[Unknown_K]

I have a soundblaster vibra ISA card. Its so old, its not supported by XP.

The vibra is a SB 16 PnP, you sure xp doesnt support it?

[Kazer0]

I emailed creative support. They said no.

Here it all is:

Andrew,

I regret to inform you that there are not any drivers or support for the
sound card in Windows XP.

Thank You.

Nathan - CLI Tech Support

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
=======================

Subject: CLI - Support Request Form
Name: Andrew Charron
E-mail Address: [email protected]
Self Description: Advanced PC User
------------------
Support Inquiry: My Creative hardware stopped functioning correctly
Product: Sound Blaster 16
------------------
Operating System: Windows XP
Creative Model Number: CT2504
Computer Brand/Model: Home Made
Processor/CPU: 266mhz PII MMX
Memory: 192 mb SDRAM
BIOS Type/Revision: Unknown
System Board/Chipset: Unknown
------------------

Detailed Problem Description:
I previously sent this inquery:

"My sound card (With a game port) came inside a computer
I
bought. It is an older pc (PII MMX), and I was running
98se. It worked fine. I then upgraded to windows ME. It
worked fine then too. I then upgraded to windows XP
professional. The card did not insatall with the OS, so i
had to do it myself. It detected a soundblaster 16 or AWE
compliant sound card. I then went to install my game pad
(Using the game port), and it said that there was no
gameport installed. This worked before I upgraded to XP.
So
I got the information off the card. It says Vibra 16s
CT2504-TCQ on it. I couldn't find this on your site, even
after i searched CT2504."

And you gave me this response:

"Andrew,

This card is not technically supported in this OS. However I
can provide the following suggestion:

Windows XP has native support for this card. This means
that the card will function using the drivers that come with
the operating system. Please follow the below steps to load
the native support drivers for your card.

LOAD THE XP NATIVE SUPPORT DRIVERS FOR THIS CARD
1. Go to control panel
2. Go to "Add New Hardware"
3. Let it do the PNP search.
4. Select the option that allows you to select the driver
manually from a list.
5. Pick Creative , and the model of your sound card.
6. Hit OK.
7. Follow the rest of the on-screen instructions to finish the
driver install.



Jason"

Well, in reply,

This doesn't work. The only option it has for creative
is "Soundblaster 16 or AWE compliant". It installs, and the
sound works, but the gameport does not.

[jmmijo]

I understand the importance of the gameport working and all but under XP I don't think this is neccessary as you would rather have a USB input device for use under this OS, IMHO

As for DOS however, it makes total sense to have a support gameport device as DOS doesn't support USB or at least I haven't found one that does. Of course there's FreeDOS and who knows if that support USB devices or not, I suppose I'll have to look...

[-finch-]

hi, i have a one question. do you have (anyone) driver for SF-16FMP-03 SoudnForte RadioPlus ISA card with Vibra 16s CT2504-TCQ chipset? Thanx

[Interon]

Try this one, finch:

http://www.dosgames.com/~jms/vibra16s.zip

[NIGER]

FINCH i have a driver! It's for Soundforte sf16-fmp-02! but it must work! If you want this driver write me MY eMAIL is [email protected]! and i will send it to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cheers_rules]

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]

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]

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!

[dr_st]

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

Soundblaster AWE64
Soundblaster AWE32
Soundblaster 16 PnP

All ISA cards.

[kreats]

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.