All are collectable. In my opinion the best one is either classic or max version because of its innovative things at the time, like RAM for MOD songs.

Stojke wrote:

All are collectable. In my opinion the best one is either classic or max version because of its innovative things at the time, like RAM for MOD songs.

I know in the demo scene, they did rave about the GUS, since you could upload all the samples into RAM with very little overhead on CPU usage.
Is this the main reason for its collectability?

Opinions differ, other people have better view of the opinion of wider masses than me. I like the card because it is massive, has socketed processor, cool pcb color, one of the best commercials for a sound card I saw as a kid and still remember to this day, and of course demo scene compatibility.
Other things but playing some modules / midi do not interest me. But I guess if I had one again I would try some games with it.

3.) A classic GUS doesn't work without RAM except for General MIDI - same for the InterWave (which can also partially emulate a soundblaster without RAM installed). Compatibility of the InterWave seems to be quite good - haven't found a single program that wouldn't work yet. Yet there may be minor issues due to Point 2.

4.) No idea. Never cared too much about MIDI.

5.) Some could call the Gravis UltraSound Extreme the best of both worlds others would call it the pest of both worlds (limitations of the GF1 combined with a more or less accurate Soundblaster chip).

Best Gravis is ARGUS 😁

Marmes wrote:

Best Gravis is ARGUS 😁

+1 😀

GUS has cult status because it was the underdog in the sound card race. Ultimately Creative crushed everyone in sales volume, with generics flooding the market from the Windows 95 era and beyond and some other companies catered to a very small niche (such as Roland / Yamaha for MIDI, Turtle Beach and others for quality sound cards). GUS was pretty amazing with regards to affordable quality and technology but was a marketing flop.

I personally prefer compatibility and ease of use: hence I stick with Sound Blaster and Roland MIDI exclusively. I never took an interest in composing music, creating my own wavetable, composing demos and such. I simply start a game and play it. This makes Sound Blaster combined with Roland GM/GS very nice IMO: everything simply works.

Growing up in the EU (NL) in the 1980s/1990s you had the following divisions in the computing scene:
-> Cool kids: GUS, AMD 386DX40 PCs, alternative generic components: self built.
-> Poor kids: generic SB rip-off, SLC/DLC CPU, cheap generic components: sketchy PC shop build.
-> Snobs: OEM SB & Roland, Intel 386DX/486DX, ASUS MOBO, brand VGA: OEM or high end PC chain build.
-> Rich: AWE32, early Pentium adopters, maxed out on RAM & VGA: OEM or high end PC chain build.

I was a snob back then. I had a SB16 and Roland SCD-10 (later on a SCD-15). I had a genuine Intel 486DX-33. I remember debates / arguments / discussions on performance and bench marking with my friends who were in the other categories. A few friends were rich and had totally maxed out systems (that never worked in LAN parties: maxed out systems were often unstable because games could not handle 64MB RAM or the mix of components made the system crash).

The GUS also had it's niche with the demoscene - with some productions exclusively supporting said cards.
Which pretty much is the perfect reason why I care about the cards. If you're just into gaming and/or MIDI better go with a SoundBlaster or a Roland card.

After grabbing one or two from all major GUS releases (Classic, Ace, Extreme, PnP) I was trying to find a place for each in retro rigs.
As I had never even seen/heard a GUS back in the day, I have become particularly interested in the the zone where the GUS clearly pawned contemporary competition. Emulation was never really my thing, so I am always using only the synth part, no SBOS-like nightmares. The real McCoy always does better... one can always get a real Sound Blaster for the dirty work.
To me, the Ace proved to be the most useful; as not utilizing Adlib, SB emulation and gameport, it works as a synth-only sidekick. I have yet to find a thing that works on a Classic with 1 MB and not on an Ace with 1 MB. The GF1 is quite easy to set up and compatible with many older titles where it rivals the Japanese modules of the day, in games that support both.
By the time of the Interwave's launch, the competition got much stronger, Sound Canvases dropped in price and most audio engineers steered development towards them. The IW does not dominate any more, except for the odd midi track here and there. (Quality is still excellent, though.)
Plus, despite beeing more capable in hardware terms, the PnP is less than 85% Classic compatible in my estimation, considering all preceeding demos and games.

Jolaes76 wrote:

Plus, despite beeing more capable in hardware terms, the PnP is less than 85% Classic compatible in my estimation, considering all preceeding demos and games.

Examples would be great to back up that statement.

I haven't extensively tested the InterWave yet, but so far everything worked ... even some oddball software that allows one to use the RAM on the GUS as a Fat16 formated RAM-Disk under DOS.

Yes, I am completely aware I should have made notes. Being a family man, I usually do my tests at a hasty pace. So you take my estimation with a pinch of salt, fine 😀
Lacking the time, I never thought of making comparison tables, matrices etc. I recall 2 years ago I run thru 80 or so games and demos with GUS support and was disappointed enough to relegate the PnP to a Pentium Win9x rig. It was a PnP rev 1.0 for the record. Some game setups could not detect it as an ultrasound, even after the "prepgame" juju I got sound issues (cracks, sudden muting, tempo issues etc where the Classic played fine.)
For someone with a LOT of time on his hands, it would be great to check surviving demo repositories as well to find the differences between the Classic and PnP line. Other than the obvious, I mean that the PnP is a Windows oriented card and not natively supported by many DOS apps (trackers).

On the other hand, I wish you good luck with the ARGUS project so that prices can drop eventually 😀