It would help to identify the card itself first. Not all "SB clones" are built alike. Many of the common, cheap ones are WSS-based.

It's this one:

When I do an FCC-ID search, it comes up with the card being an "Anchor Electronics Company" and the card being an "DSP/Sound Card".

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/Generi … uestTimeout=500

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/Eas731 … cc_id=J98MF-002

leileilol wrote:

It would help to identify the card itself first. Not all "SB clones" are built alike. Many of the common, cheap ones are WSS-based.

Indeed, real Adlibs and Sound Blasters don't use any drivers at all, nor do early clones.
It's the later SBs and clones that need utilities because they don't have a jumper-based configuration, but need some kind of soft-config. And some cards don't actually use an OPL synth, so they need to be set to some kind of emulation mode.
But you'd need utilities specific to that sound card.
In this case, the card is apparently very obscure, so I have no idea what kind of software it would need, or where to get it (there appears to be a "j98mf-002.zip", but no way to download it, except via driverguide hell).
By the looks of it though, it's an early clone, and it looks like it's jumper-configured. Since you actually get sound from it (it doesn't appear to have a physical OPL chip on there), that may be as good as it gets.

It's really funny. I had Doom running in Adlib mode, though all other games are giving a really noisy adlib.
I suspect the card of having Adlib capability in some sort of way.

Took a leap of faith, and downloaded the j98mf-002.zip file, though it has some issues. (it's the right installer)
It is missing a file called mf.cfg and it asks for the disk being labeled "DISK1 " (yeah... blank spaces, sort off)
When I copy the files to a specific folder, it asks for this mf.cfg file.
Tried to see if an empty file would do the trick. Hmmm.... Did not work as it is asking for some information.

Found the product name, by the way...
It is called: "Anchor Media Concept 2.0"

SOLVED....

I used the SB 2.0 installation suite from creative labs. The diagnose-tool from creative ran without any issues.
Keen2 is running in Adlib mode, the same does Doom.

What I do not understand. Is the big black chip, labeled: 74LS631 not some sort of Adlib-clone or a chip with Adlib core?

Glad you got it sorted.

74-series chips are logic chips, nothing to do with Adlib or the sound producing portion of an Adlib card I'm afraid...

I think the small chip with lots of pins all around is the main sound chip, doing OPL and perhaps other stuff the card is capable of.
The three sockets without any chips... would those fit the CMS/Gameblaster chips like a real SB does?

oerk wrote:

Glad you got it sorted.
74-series chips are logic chips, nothing to do with Adlib or the sound producing portion of an Adlib card I'm afraid...

It has some really clean and deep sound when it comes to Adlib in games. Though yeah, it has no real OPL-Chip.
Must be why Dynablaster is failing this card. Have to test other games like Monkey, Civ1 and Indy3.
Duke-2 runs great, with some serious bass response and a nice dept to the sound.
No crackling or low quality sound what so ever, when the card is running in Adlib mode.
The major downside, is that it is not real stereo. It's mono, using both right and left channel for the same sound.

Scali wrote:

I think the small chip with lots of pins all around is the main sound chip, doing OPL and perhaps other stuff the card is capable of.
The three sockets without any chips... would those fit the CMS/Gameblaster chips like a real SB does?

As far as I can understand, on different websites with fragment's of information on this card, this is indeed capable of CMS/Gameblaster.
Just need to get those chips. What would they cost by the way, and how/where to obtain them?
It has jumpers for enabling disabling chip's in these socket's, and the jumber is named something like "CMEN" (need to check)

brostenen wrote:

The major downside, is that it is not real stereo. It's mono, using both right and left channel for the same sound.

To be fair neither would a Sound Blaster 2.0 provide stereo sound. Creative only started offering stereo sound from their Sound Blaster Pro onwards.

74LS631 seems to be a "16-BIT PARALLEL ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION CIRCUIT" , it seems OPL2 is integrated in that QFP ic at the lower-left corner, kinda sucks ...

1http://www.datasheet.hk/view_download.php?id=1053794&file=0020\sn74ls631_181120.pdf

Yeah...
Loom sounds great. Monkey Island 1 sound's like crap. It is somewere around 50% of the games that sound like crap.
When it's working, it just gives a fenomenal sound. For that I love it, for the broken part I hate this card.

> 74LS631 seems to be a "16-BIT PARALLEL ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION CIRCUIT"

These are fake part numbers. Neither does a sound card need this type of IC, nor does it have a manufacturer logo and date. I've seen this also on other sound cards, i.e. on the Opti MAD16 the adlib clone has a LS245 or similar part number. No other numbers on the IC package. This IC could be a ROM for the microcontroller, or an Adlib clone.

Why they did this, no idea - hiding from patents maybe?

alexanrs wrote:

brostenen wrote:

The major downside, is that it is not real stereo. It's mono, using both right and left channel for the same sound.

To be fair neither would a Sound Blaster 2.0 provide stereo sound. Creative only started offering stereo sound from their Sound Blaster Pro onwards.

Well, when you have the CMS chips, you do get stereo sound from your SB 2.0.
But yes, OPL2 is mono, and so is the DAC on the SB.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

> 74LS631 seems to be a "16-BIT PARALLEL ERROR DETECTION AND CORRECTION CIRCUIT"

These are fake part numbers. Neither does a sound card need this type of IC, nor does it have a manufacturer logo and date. I've seen this also on other sound cards, i.e. on the Opti MAD16 the adlib clone has a LS245 or similar part number. No other numbers on the IC package. This IC could be a ROM for the microcontroller, or an Adlib clone.

Why they did this, no idea - hiding from patents maybe?

Then it could be an OPL2 clone - still there is an issue of 4 extra pins: YM3812 is a 24pin device whereas this 74LS631 is a 28pin one. Maybe the extra pins are fakes too and installing a real OPL2 works, one needs to desolder the LS631 IC and see what's hoing on under it

It is telling that the original OPL2 needed a separate DAC chip just for the OPL2 data, and these boards seem to have both a large and a small fake-looking 74 chip. I'd be willing to bet one is the OPL2 and the other is the DAC.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

These are fake part numbers. Neither does a sound card need this type of IC, nor does it have a manufacturer logo and date. I've seen this also on other sound cards, i.e. on the Opti MAD16 the adlib clone has a LS245 or similar part number. No other numbers on the IC package. This IC could be a ROM for the microcontroller, or an Adlib clone.

Why they did this, no idea - hiding from patents maybe?

^ This.
Back in the SNES days rumor had it that Nintendo's lockout chip (CIC) was a simple 74LSxx part hiding under a custom Nintendo P/N. It made no sense at all until you realized that bootleg SNES cartridges labeled their CIC mask-clones as 74-series logic to disguise their real purpose. Someone must've opened one of these and assumed the fake P/N was real.

brostenen wrote on 2015-12-15, 15:03:

SOLVED.... […]
Show full quote

SOLVED....

I used the SB 2.0 installation suite from creative labs. The diagnose-tool from creative ran without any issues.
Keen2 is running in Adlib mode, the same does Doom.

What I do not understand. Is the big black chip, labeled: 74LS631 not some sort of Adlib-clone or a chip with Adlib core?

hi, i have the Anchor Electronics MF-002 (J98MF-002) sound card and cant find the J98MF-002 drivers anywhere, the links are dead. Maybe u can help me? I have an old 486 with this card, have tried the soundblaster 2 drivers but no success...

freako666 wrote on 2020-03-31, 10:13:

brostenen wrote on 2015-12-15, 15:03:

SOLVED.... […]
Show full quote

SOLVED....

I used the SB 2.0 installation suite from creative labs. The diagnose-tool from creative ran without any issues.
Keen2 is running in Adlib mode, the same does Doom.

What I do not understand. Is the big black chip, labeled: 74LS631 not some sort of Adlib-clone or a chip with Adlib core?

hi, i have the Anchor Electronics MF-002 (J98MF-002) sound card and cant find the J98MF-002 drivers anywhere, the links are dead. Maybe u can help me? I have an old 486 with this card, have tried the soundblaster 2 drivers but no success...

Sorry.... Can't do. Traded the card a long time ago. Drivers were shipped alongside the card, and I did not keep a backup.

brostenen wrote on 2020-03-31, 21:20:

freako666 wrote on 2020-03-31, 10:13:

brostenen wrote on 2015-12-15, 15:03:

SOLVED.... […]
Show full quote

SOLVED....

I used the SB 2.0 installation suite from creative labs. The diagnose-tool from creative ran without any issues.
Keen2 is running in Adlib mode, the same does Doom.

What I do not understand. Is the big black chip, labeled: 74LS631 not some sort of Adlib-clone or a chip with Adlib core?

hi, i have the Anchor Electronics MF-002 (J98MF-002) sound card and cant find the J98MF-002 drivers anywhere, the links are dead. Maybe u can help me? I have an old 486 with this card, have tried the soundblaster 2 drivers but no success...

Sorry.... Can't do. Traded the card a long time ago. Drivers were shipped alongside the card, and I did not keep a backup.

hi, ok too bad. I just have some drivers but there is this disk label problem.... u maybe solved this problem back then?