Search \ VOGONS

Re: Has Anyone Ever Seen/Heard of a DigiSpeech Plus?

Posted on 2019-05-28, 23:13

One thing that puzzles me about the Port Blaster is why Creative thought they could run the device off the parallel port power anyway. You can barely make a SoundJr. run off of it. There is no way the Port Blaster would have run on it.

Re: Has Anyone Ever Seen/Heard of a DigiSpeech Plus?

Posted on 2019-05-28, 23:00

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

I wonder if this device's Sound Blaster emulation driver works like OPL2LPT's TSR driver. Considering how it requires at least 80386 to work and it doesn't work in protected mode, I think this might be the case. And if it does, maybe a game patcher could also be made. I think it's likely, but I'm …

Re: Has Anyone Ever Seen/Heard of a DigiSpeech Plus?

Posted on 2019-05-28, 22:08

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

Creative scrapped the Port Blaster shortly before it would have launched, purportedly due to incompatibilities between parallel-port implementations . Dave Compton, who worked for Creative Labs at the time, provides additional clarification in a YouTube comment : Back in around '93 when I was …

Re: Has Anyone Ever Seen/Heard of a DigiSpeech Plus?

Posted on 2019-05-28, 06:00

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

The problem is, many places in those old magazines will list an item for sale, with a price, before they ever receive it from the company. So, when you would call, they'd say "Oh yeah, it's coming in on so and so, do you want me to put you down for one? I'll call you as soon as they come in" and …

Re: Has Anyone Ever Seen/Heard of a DigiSpeech Plus?

Posted on 2019-05-28, 04:41

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

I don't see how the hardware is the hard part. The software is what is going to be capturing the DMA and the Sound Blaster and Adlib I/O addresses and then just sending those commands to the device on the parallel port. The DOS part was what the Backpack CD-ROM drives with the built in 16-bit sound …

Re: Has Anyone Ever Seen/Heard of a DigiSpeech Plus?

Posted on 2019-05-26, 23:56

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

Man I wish someone could recreate this device (or at least it's board) with modern components. Both DS311 and DS301 are extremely rare, and that's unfortunate, because, unlike DS201, this is basically Sound Blaster on a parallel port. If you want sound on your old DOS laptop (or, perhaps, if you …

Re: Tiny mouse driver ?

Posted on 2019-05-26, 08:56

by Paralel

in Milliways

This entire discussion on cloaking is fascinating. I wonder if I can use it to hide the TSR's that certain games hate since the use DOS extenders and allow the TSR to continue to function.

Re: Has Anyone Ever Seen/Heard of a DigiSpeech Plus?

Posted on 2019-05-25, 23:02

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

Mine arrived, and of course, I immediately cracked it open to see what was inside. Lo and behold: https://i.imgur.com/hH9RoFk.jpg https://i.imgur.com/JsZfKpO.jpg It's the guts of a Digispeech Port-Able Sound Plus, interfaced to a mainboard, using its native parallel pinout! The TI chip even says " …

Re: Replicas of Covox Speech Thing, FTL Sound Adapter and SiliconSoft SoundJr

Posted on 2019-05-25, 18:55

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

Looks good to me. I look forward to hearing how it goes with the prototype.

Info On The Port Blaster

Posted on 2019-05-24, 20:51

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

Is there much of any information on the Port Blaster made by Creative? I haven't been able to find out much about it from searching other than a few old old articles in magazines that were contemporary at the time. I'm mostly interested in the software, how they managed to present it to DOS programs …

Re: Does Anyone Here Have Any Idea On The Two Main Chips Used In This Sound Device?

Posted on 2019-05-24, 20:44

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

Thanks for the replies so far, looks like I have a solid lead on the TI. Anyone have any ideas on the GPS chip? Is that some sort of ASIC? I couldn't find much information regarding the company GPS, due to the search pollution from the usual usage of GPS. Anyone know much about this company or what …

Re: Does Anyone Here Have Any Idea On The Two Main Chips Used In This Sound Device?

Posted on 2019-05-24, 06:37

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

It's actually an RJ-45 jack for hooking up a proprietary speaker to the unit, and the hardware depicted above was capable of CD-quality (16-bit, stereo, 44.1 KHz) sound, as well as Sound Blaster emulation (FM Synthesis & Digital Audio) and AdLib support, on a parallel port. That's why I was …

Re: Sound Blaster Emulator for Dos?

Posted on 2019-05-24, 06:33

by Paralel

in Milliways

Also late to reply, but you guys may want to take a look at the DSP Solutions Port-Able Sound Plus software. It has a Sound Blaster emulator that was capable of FM Synthesis and Digital Sound. It was able to do this with a piece of hardware that was just essentially just an ASIC and a DSP, hanging …

Does Anyone Here Have Any Idea On The Two Main Chips Used In This Sound Device?

Posted on 2019-05-24, 04:19

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

http://nwserveur.no-ip.org/win3xorg/devices/Parallel%20Sound%20Cards/Digispeech%20DS301A%20Portable%20Sound%20Plus/pictures/ds301-board-front.jpg http://nwserveur.no-ip.org/win3xorg/devices/Parallel%20Sound%20Cards/Digispeech%20DS301A%20Portable%20Sound%20Plus/pictures/ds301-board-back.jpg I've …

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2019-05-22, 19:04

by Paralel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Digispeech Plus & Port-Able Sound Plus Drivers v4.05 Also contains the last version of the Sound Blaster emulation software, BMaster v2.07 Device must be attached when installation occurs, or installation in DOS or Windows will error out.

Re: Has Anyone Ever Seen/Heard of a DigiSpeech Plus?

Posted on 2019-05-22, 17:06

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

Huge props to cyclone3d! Due to his heads up, I was able to get one as well. I can't wait to open it up! I suspect it contains the same/similar hardware as the DS301/DS301A. I owe you one!

Re: Replicas of Covox Speech Thing, FTL Sound Adapter and SiliconSoft SoundJr

Posted on 2019-05-12, 20:36

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

So, this is what you get when you put them together? Interesting. I'm very sorry I couldn't be more help with working out the design for the SoundJr. In the end the only thing I could do is get the original software. I'm glad you were able to determine it is an 8+3 system. I didn't think the …

Re: Replicas of Covox Speech Thing, FTL Sound Adapter and SiliconSoft SoundJr

Posted on 2019-05-10, 19:45

by Paralel

in Marvin \ Sound

So, this is what you get when you put them together? Interesting. I'm very sorry I couldn't be more help with working out the design for the SoundJr. In the end the only thing I could do is get the original software. I'm glad you were able to determine it is an 8+3 system. I didn't think the …