Nice YMF289B-S OPL3-L spotted 😀 (Low power variant of YMF262).

You could probably do a CT2290 (or 2230) + CT1920 for 30 bucks and have yourself a merry midi little Christmas:

Pentium 166MMX tower of power

Does that CT2290 have the bus chip which avoids the majority of hanging note problems?

gdjacobs wrote:

Here ya go. Let me know if you have luck.

One of the lovely features of the Aztech installer is that I haven't found a way of unpacking it without having the card in the machine. Maybe it's doable with non PnP cards.

No luck yet. HWSET.EXE says sound card not detected. DIAGNOSE.EXE says to please install Plug and Play Configuration Manager first. And AZTPNP.EXE /A:ON says unable to access the file C:\AZTPNP.CFG. I tried creating a blank file with that name in that location but it did not do the trick. I do appreciate you taking the time to upload the files for me to try. 😀

Okay, sounds like there's parts that are hard coded for the PnP Aztech cards. I'll see if I can unpack the older drivers in my Dos/Win 3.1 VM tomorrow.

This is the Win 3.1 driver set for the Sound Galaxy Pro II (b model), an AZT2316 based card. DOS utilities are in the UTILITY sub folder.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, gdjacobs! I'll let you know how it goes. Blessings to you and yours!

Thanks very much! Likewise to you and your family!

gdjacobs wrote:

This is the Win 3.1 driver set for the Sound Galaxy Pro II (b model), an AZT2316 based card. DOS utilities are in the UTILITY sub folder.

Hope this helps!

Some success! FM and 8-bit works in the Aztech diagnostics. 16-bit and MIDI do not. I suspect these may require Windows MS-DOS mode. I only have a couple of games installed so far. Eric the Unready seems to have fully functioning sounds and music. Wings of Glory is another matter. Its sound configuration program plays sound effects and music when set to Sound Blaster. Sound Blaster 16 setting plays music but not effects. General Midi does not work. So I set both music and effects to Sound Blaster, but when I get into the game, the only sounds I get are the voice acting in the intro and the prop engine starting in the cut-scene before take off. No music or gun sounds in flight. I don't know if it's a limitation of the card or maybe I need to play with the memory configuration. At any rate, I've got more sound than before. I'll probably still end up getting an SB16 Vibra since this card's DOS compatibility seems a bit castrated..

A few remarks:

1- MIDI is about the MIDI output for the daughterboard or external module. Without something connected it will not play anything. This is true for Creative ISA cards as well.
2- There should be an utility to set the EEPROM settings under DOS. Use it to check the ports/IRQs/DMA channels used by the board (and move them away from anything that might be conflicting)
3- Sound Blaster 16 SFX settings will never work. The Aztech chip is SBPro compatible, not SB16. Some games (Contructor comes to mind) supports the Sound Galaxy directly, and I believe the board also has a WSS mode which will allow more games to use 16-bit sounds, Windows drivers will also support 16-bit playback.

Yes, it does have WSS. Some early Aztechs support Covox as well apparently, but I doubt yours is one of those.

alexanrs wrote:

A few remarks: […]
Show full quote

A few remarks:

1- MIDI is about the MIDI output for the daughterboard or external module. Without something connected it will not play anything. This is true for Creative ISA cards as well.
2- There should be an utility to set the EEPROM settings under DOS. Use it to check the ports/IRQs/DMA channels used by the board (and move them away from anything that might be conflicting)
3- Sound Blaster 16 SFX settings will never work. The Aztech chip is SBPro compatible, not SB16. Some games (Contructor comes to mind) supports the Sound Galaxy directly, and I believe the board also has a WSS mode which will allow more games to use 16-bit sounds, Windows drivers will also support 16-bit playback.

Hi alexanrs,

Thanks!

1- I wasn't sure how this particular card worked wrt MIDI. But I'm probably confused by the SB Live! in my Win98 rig that plays MIDI out-of-the-box.
2- Yep, got that covered. I set this up in the Aztech config.exe (which put the proper settings in autoexec.bat) and made sure when setting up sound in Wings of Glory to match the settings up. They are all defaults anyhow (A220, I5, D1).
3- I wonder then why they have options in the Aztech diagnose.exe for 16-bit tests? Maybe it's strictly for WSS mode? (which I disabled since I don't have any Windows OS installed).

Yes, it's for WSS. Some DOS programs can natively play WSS (with greater or lesser success). If you've disabled WSS, that would also explain why the 16 bit diagnostics failed.

Yeah, the SBLive and many PCI cards emulate the MPU-401 interface and redirect it to its synth. Some better than others.

Thank you everyone, especially gdjacobs for providing the drivers. I turned WSS back on and confirmed the 16 bit diagnostic passes. And my issue with Wings of Glory turned out to be those sound settings turned off by default. The only way to check/adjust the sound/music options in WoG is by hitting Alt-O while in flight. Good thing I still have the CD insert manual with that info. 😉 I've also tested X-Com and get full sound support there too. This is turning out to be a pretty decent sound card after all. I've got about a dozen more games to go through and install/test.

What started this whole journey was my sister going through my old bedroom many states away and boxing up and shipping a bunch of old games I'd held onto before I moved out of my parents house. I even got my old CH Products Mach I joystick which works great with WoG. There was even a Cirrus Logic VLB video card (though I have no mainboards with VLB slots). Now I get to share this experience with my son (so far he's been only mildly interested--he's spoiled by his high-end Win10 gaming rig).

Christmas blessings to all who celebrate!

I would suggest a Yamaha YMF718 card which supports Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 and original OPL3.
Search Ebay for "Yamaha Audician 32" these are completely new in a box and the seller has plenty of them.
The driver is still available on the official Yamaha website.

Furthermore, to complete the package you should buy a midi daughterboard which attaches to the audio card and gives you General Midi audio in Dos or Windows (98SE).
I would suggest a Dreamblaster S1 from here: http://www.serdashop.com/waveblaster.
It's completely new, sounds excellent and only 30 euros; try to find original wave-blaster midi daughterboard for under 100$ on ebay, good luck.

From personal experience, all dos games will run perfectly and have sound and music with absolutely no problems.

In my experience (I own both YMF-71x, Aztech, OPTi cards and so on), Aztech cards, when coupled with a genuine OPL3 chip, are very compatible with everything you throw at them. And, unlike the Audician 32, can hold full sized daughterboards just fine. Unless he has issues with his games I'd just stick to the card he already has and maybe get a Dreamblaster (or something from either Yamaha or Roland if he can find one at a good price) for better MIDI through the MPU-401 interface...
Or do it the poor man's way, get a decent USB->MIDI interface and use a modern PC with VirtualMIDISynth or Fluidsynth as a GM module.

Oh, and Merry Christmas to all!

No new info here but the AWE32 is mad expensive on eBay. I would recommend to keep your eye out for an AWE64. When searching for any Creative card though, try searching with just the model number of the card such as CT4500 or CT4520. eBay or I would think any other auction website won't show results for AWE 64 if you search AWE64 (notice the space in the first). Obviosuly, patience is key when trying to find the right card for the right price.

Merry Christmas!

alexanrs wrote:

In my experience (I own both YMF-71x, Aztech, OPTi cards and so on), Aztech cards, when coupled with a genuine OPL3 chip, are very compatible with everything you throw at them. And, unlike the Audician 32, can hold full sized daughterboards just fine. Unless he has issues with his games I'd just stick to the card he already has and maybe get a Dreamblaster (or something from either Yamaha or Roland if he can find one at a good price) for better MIDI through the MPU-401 interface...
Or do it the poor man's way, get a decent USB->MIDI interface and use a modern PC with VirtualMIDISynth or Fluidsynth as a GM module.

Oh, and Merry Christmas to all!

If your SB Live equipped PC has the Live Drive or a rear joystick port, you could look at software synth that way as well. You'd just have to source or make the appropriate cables, but the cost would be small.

alexanrs wrote:

In my experience (I own both YMF-71x, Aztech, OPTi cards and so on), Aztech cards, when coupled with a genuine OPL3 chip, are very compatible with everything you throw at them. And, unlike the Audician 32, can hold full sized daughterboards just fine. Unless he has issues with his games I'd just stick to the card he already has and maybe get a Dreamblaster!

Doesn't look like my Aztech has a MIDI header for daughterboards (see photo on 1st pg). But it does support OPL3 based on the dozen or so games I've installed and played today. Picking SBPro (new/OPL3) for those games that offer, or just Sound Blaster for the older games. 100% compatibility so far.

Even so, I picked up a CT2800 with a midi header since it was only $15 shipped. Here it is:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291625506853

Hopefully I won't regret that decision. It will be nice to have the daughterboard option for down the road.