that's an excellent find!!

Im a big fan of the DX4-100 chip. Is it an intel overdrive?

You didn't mention a sound card?

Upgrade would be a Roland MPU401 + Roland SC-55 + SB16:)

200MB hard disk? ...How about a 1GB at least.

It came with a generic sound card which I'm going to throw away. I have two Sound Blaster Live! cards in the stash but that doesn't feel right 😀

Here's a couple of photos:

excellent find! and that BIOS is nice to have, a welcome change from the stock AMIBIOS 😀
The live! won't be good in such a machine, tbh it needs and ISA sound card, not a PCI one

rgart wrote:

that's an excellent find!! […]
Show full quote

that's an excellent find!!

Im a big fan of the DX4-100 chip. Is it an intel overdrive?

You didn't mention a sound card?

Upgrade would be a Roland MPU401 + Roland SC-55 + SB16:)

I'm not sure about the chip.. would have to look under the heatsink but I'm feeling a bit lazy at the moment 😁

I never really understood what Roland was all about. I always assumed those were just your regular ISA sound cards.. what's the big deal? 😀

if the heat-sink is removable it can't be an overdrive chip.

nice case you have....it just requires a badge 😀

having a Roland MT-32 or Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 ...is like having a mini orchestra in your computer room.

I don't believe any sound card can compare to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316i0uV32WE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN_uvF0XM5g

if those vid's dont impress you I cant help 😜

Yes, I'm working on a custom case badge 😉 Might take a while tho..

Let me get this straight. You connect SC-55 to the SB16 and MPU401 connects to SC-55?

The music from Doom didn't really impress me but I guess that's mainly the composer's fault 😉

No.
There are two routes:

1) Purist soul, heavy purse
You put the MPU-401 card in an ISA slot, then connect its external breakout box. (Each MPU-401 card has its proprietary breakout box. Make sure you get BOTH.) The box will have one or two standard DIN OUTs, there you hook the MIDI brains (MT-32, SC55 etc.) MPU-IPC-T , S-MPU/AT, MPU-401AT kits are recommended.

2) Just to feel the good vibes along memory lane
You buy an external MIDI/joystick port splitter (to joystick and DIN) for the Sound Blaster or other MPU 401 compatible card and connect the SC-55 or other MIDI brain to the splitter's DIN. And you shall use SoftMPU on that Blaster. 😀

Jolaes76 wrote:

No. There are two routes: […]
Show full quote

No.
There are two routes:

1) Purist soul, heavy purse
You put the MPU-401 card in an ISA slot, then connect its external breakout box. (Each MPU-401 card has its proprietary breakout box. Make sure you get BOTH.) The box will have one or two standard DIN OUTs, there you hook the MIDI brains (MT-32, SC55 etc.) MPU-IPC-T , S-MPU/AT, MPU-401AT kits are recommended.

2) Just to feel the good vibes along memory lane
You buy an external MIDI/joystick port splitter (to joystick and DIN) for the Sound Blaster or other MPU 401 compatible card and connect the SC-55 or other MIDI brain to the splitter's DIN. And you shall use SoftMPU on that Blaster. 😀

Wow these things are expensive! Somebody is selling an MT-32 locally for 70€. Might get it..

Half-Saint wrote:

It came with a generic sound card which I'm going to throw away.

Care to show us a picture of the card? Some generic cards can actually be pretty good!
Anyway, nice find! DX4/100 are not the easiest to find.

Sure, here it is:

...not a keeper.
See opinions on this card here:

A pile of new soundcards for my 486.

Found an OPTi 82C930A in storage. Would it, by any chance, be usable with Roland stuff?

There's a Wave Table header on board. What is it for?

Likely yes, but Typically you would connect roland stuff with the joystick port as they are external modules.
Wave table header is to connect internal wave table expansion board, like the popular NEC XR385.

Your crystal Card also looks like it has GM compatibility.
Also, take ACE with a grain of salt he is ultra picky about authenticity and will typically dislike whatever is not a yamaha chip.
I think some crystal clones are not as bad as others, im not sure about this one though.

OK so basically I could use any MPU-401 compatible card, connect an MT-32 via joystick/MIDI port and I'm ready to rock or is there more to it? Maybe it's time to open a new topic 😁

basically, but be aware of the so called MPU-401 intelligent mode, which none but the original and a few MPU-401 clones can achieve.
This special mode is requiered by some games for MT-32 compatibility.

Sound blasters and SB clones are not compatible with the intelligent mode.

I can but repeat myself, that is what SoftMPU is for 😀

Jolaes76 wrote:

I can but repeat myself, that is what SoftMPU is for 😀

Ha! I didn't even know this existed.

Until very recently.
Not yet "complete" but already with double the power of a Roland MPU. Sort of a Death Star against purist Rolanders 😀
Over 50 games are proven to work with it. There cannot be too much DOS game resistance left. Maybe some hide in remote corners of the Far East... Japanese, Taiwanese titles I mean 😀

One thing is not clear to me. Do I need a Wavetable daughterboard to be able to use an MT-32?

Is this any good? http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-S-16WP1-ISA-Sound … 321161924494%26