Newbie needs suggestion for best DOS sound hardware? \ VOGONS

Newbie needs suggestion for best DOS sound hardware?

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First post, by Unrealcpu

Posted on 2015-11-06, 06:54

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Please recommend me the perfect sound hardware for DOS /WIN98SE?

I see they have wave table hardware that can be installed on certain sound cards to produce better sound than a Roland device.

Most dos games i would like to play are from 1990-00 year

Will be making these systems to a Win 98 SE system

I own a cyrix 533mhz with PCI slots "no ISA"
P4 , 3.2 extreme edition Abit Engineering sample
Epox KT7A AMD 1400-2500XP chips /Voodoo 5500 AGP "other voodoo cards consist of Voodoo 3;2000 PCI/ Voodoo 2 PCI, Voodoo 3 AGP

Geforce FX 5200/ and some other old school cards

oh and tons of ram for each generation

Sound blaster 64 value 4520 model , 4500 models, "no gold"
THREE Aureal Vortex 2 CARDS / Turtle beach model 8830 /OPtical model BBA88DL30A-01, 8830 chip/Aureal vortex 2 SQ 2500 SPDIF rev. b 8830 chip "bought on ebay for like 30 bucks for all these cards".
SBLive 5.1
SBAudigy card i think value not sure but can reverify if need

Thinking about getting a deamblaster X1

This hardware i listed practically got for free, less than 100 bucks , GOODWILL 😉 over the past year. Yes i found a Voodoo 5500 for like 5 bucks... All The hardware was tested and works but nothing is installed hardware/software . I was a big gamer back in the 90s and want to get back into retro gaming on a pure dos system and not DOS BOX or GoG. Just dont like emulation for dosbox

and Phil if you read this i am a big fan of your channel

hurry up and post the updated FPGA system

just ordered the GOTEK USB floppy emulator
and like 5 OE Sata to PATA IDE converters you recommended.

Last edited by Unrealcpu on 2015-11-06, 07:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 8, by Evert

Posted on 2015-11-06, 07:02

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For DOS gaming you really want to get an ISA sound card, but the Creative Sound Blaster 128 PCI cards have good compatability and are cheap, so do the Aureal Vortex 2 cards. If you're willing to gamble you could try an ESS ES1938S PCI sound card. They're very cheap, the drivers are easy to install and they mostly work, from what I've heard.

Reply 2 of 8, by Unrealcpu

Posted on 2015-11-06, 07:06

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I believe i have a sound blaster that is a PC 128 card..

its a CT 4810 but has no wave table connector

Reply 3 of 8, by PhilsComputerLab

Posted on 2015-11-06, 07:15

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Ha, thanks 😀

Regarding the Mist. I'm thinking of starting with a C64 core as it's very easy to get going. No rom files or OS needed 😀

There really is no "ultimate" sound card, but you already know that.

For hybrid DOS / Windows 98, you can either go with an ISA card, which is stronger in DOS and a weaker in Windows, or a PCI card, which is stronger in Windows (A3D or EAX) but weaker in DOS (they work great with late DOS games, but struggle with older games like the ones from Sierra or Lucasarts).

The AWE card you have is a great start. It should work with all DOS and Windows games, so it has excellent compatibility. For MIDI, all you need is add an external MIDI device.

You could get the S1 or X1 together with the Chil and Phil MPU adapter. That way you get awesome General MIDI and you can keep the AWE.

YouTube, Facebook, Website

Reply 4 of 8, by Tertz

Posted on 2015-11-06, 10:05

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16 bit, SB Pro compatible card with OPL3, ISA

Unrealcpu wrote:
Just dont like emulation for dosbox

You'll just don't notice the difference in most cases if will use CRT.
But Win9x games need real hardware still.

DOSBox CPU Benchmark
Yamaha YMF7x4 Guide

Reply 5 of 8, by collector

Posted on 2015-11-06, 12:47

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This should be in Marvin, not DOS Games.

The Sierra Help Pages -- New Sierra Game Installers -- Sierra Game Patches -- New Non-Sierra Game Installers

Reply 6 of 8, by Unrealcpu

Posted on 2015-11-07, 06:40

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collector wrote:
This should be in Marvin, not DOS Games.

I also own a Silicon Graphics SG520 CRT
Refurbished
Looks just like this...

Bought it for 399.99 back in 2007...

im good no need to dosbox

Reply 7 of 8, by Stiletto

Posted on 2015-11-07, 11:58

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Moved.

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto

Reply 8 of 8, by Scali

Posted on 2015-11-07, 12:46

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My favourite card is the GUS Extreme.
It combines an ESS AudioDrive Sound Blaster clone with a classic Gravis Ultrasound on a single ISA card.
The ESS is a decent quality clone with good compatibility for old Adlib/SB games. It also has good support in Windows.
The GUS is nice for games with native GUS support, or for use with MegaEm if you want MT-32 or Sound Canvas audio rather than Adlib/SB.
Best-of-both-worlds really.

http://scalibq.wordpress.com/just-keeping-it- … ro-programming/

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