I guess as this is an XT clone audio card actually woun't matter much. Most games that are playable on this computer come without audio support. And those that do, simply run to slow. Even if your Schneider (neat machine!) runs at 10mhz.

I have tried myself. Finally I installed Sound Blaster CT-1320A in my IBM 5160 (OPL2 + CMS synthesis), but I almost found no games to use it with. On XT even Prince of Persia is rather unplayable and you're really limited to the earliest games which only support PC speaker sound. I doubt that there even are any games for XT with MT-32 support.

So, although it will improve your machine's cool factor, you woun't do much more with it. To think about games with sound support (MT-32, Adlib), you should have at least 286 machine.

286 for suckers. Too fast

Yes it is 9.54 version and it get prehistorik ok (and as I remember from childhood on similar soviet clone of xt - PPersia was better than on nes-clone)
Does somebody tried lo-tech sound boards (lo-tech co uk)?
Adlib hasn't 8bit version?

maybe CMS? I mean if you want to go historically, the Covox Speech Thing and the MT-32 were probably the earliest options for decent sound on the PC that had any support. IBM of course made their card, but like the PGA, as impressive as it was, nobody really bought it, save for those with deep deep pockets. Ad-lib is an option (and indeed you can build one yourself) and probably has the most support, but as was already said, most games with proper sound support will demand something faster than an XT class machine for any real sound besides PC speaker.

tereg wrote:

286 for suckers

Well, if you say so.

I don't know how you play PoP on an xt machine. It's like playing doom on an average 386.

tikoellner wrote:

tereg wrote:

286 for suckers

Well, if you say so.

I don't know how you play PoP on an xt machine. It's like playing doom on an average 386.

Doom is totally playable on a 386.

If you turn the detail off

and put the screen size all the way down

and remove the textures

24FPS master race b0is

Afraid you can not do any of that in Pop when played on XT. Nos settings at all. Using CGA graphics does not help. It's still barely playable on 286 @6mhz and fps is very low. Too low.

No idea how you define "playable", but there are *lots* of games with Adlib/SB support that will run just fine on a 10 MHz XT. For MT-32 support, we have the early Sierra games, which are perfectly playable on an XT as well.

As for PoP: try version 1.0, not the later ones. It runs smooth with 10 MHz.

derSammler wrote:

As for PoP: try version 1.0, not the later ones. It runs smooth with 10 MHz.

I have no idea how can I make PoP state its version but mine has the "V1.0" string in the .exe file.
Yet it lags like hell whenever I try it on my 8088/10 and 8-bit Oak VGA (I know that they're awfully slow but my Intel Kama is even slower 🤣 ). I press a key, I wait, I wait, and finally it'll affect something. And the frame rate perfectly fits this lag.
Even a V20-10 is far from perfect.

On the other hand my 286/16 (+some fast Cirrus Logic or Trident 8900D) runs it nice.

Apart from the fact that the 8-bit Oak VGA (which I have, too) is probably the slowest VGA ever, when played on an XT, you need to run it in CGA or Hercules. VGA is too much data to move around for an XT.

derSammler wrote:

Apart from the fact that the 8-bit Oak VGA (which I have, too) is probably the slowest VGA ever, when played on an XT, you need to run it in CGA or Hercules. VGA is too much data to move around for an XT.

Is there a way to force it into CGA mode with a VGA card?

I'm not sure where I read it, but someone said that VGA usually had a lower overhead that CGA.
Well, at least in the popular 320x200 resolution. Perhaps it was releated to the memory layout and how pixels are packed.

Anyway, contradicting information may also originate because of an episode of Computer Chronicles.
In one episode they said that VGA was too much for an XT. 😕

tikoellner wrote:

tereg wrote:

286 for suckers

Well, if you say so.

I don't know how you play PoP on an xt machine. It's like playing doom on an average 386.

Easy my friend, easy. PoP first time I even saw on xt machine (we hadn't and even didn't know what is nes-clone in 94)
Of course it was grayscale ))))

Jo22 wrote:

I'm not sure where I read it, but someone said that VGA usually had a lower overhead that CGA.

Yeah, "someone said". Overhead doesn't matter here. 320x200 CGA is 16 kb/frame, 320x200 VGA is 64 kb/frame. Do the math and remember that all pixels have to be drawn by the CPU. The game runs perfectly fine on any Turbo XT as well as on the Tandy 1000 RL (9,54 MHz) when *not* using VGA. It does not run at good speed at 4,77 MHz, however.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyUbdxAX6E8

I'm sorry. I believe this was discussed here at vogons several years ago, but I can't remember how that thread was called.
Edit: I was wrong. Now that I think of it, the discussion could also have been taken place in the comment section
of a yotube video with the aforementioned episode. Sorry, my mind is a bit sketchy about it.
I think it was an episode where the presenter talked with a lady about a golf game or something like that.
It's really difficult to tell. But I believe the video I think of was not from the official YT channel.

derSammler wrote:

Jo22 wrote:

I'm not sure where I read it, but someone said that VGA usually had a lower overhead that CGA.

Yeah, "someone said". Overhead doesn't matter here. 320x200 CGA is 16 kb/frame, 320x200 VGA is 64 kb/frame. Do the math and remember that all pixels have to be drawn by the CPU. The game runs perfectly fine on any Turbo XT as well as on the Tandy 1000 RL (9,54 MHz) when *not* using VGA. It does not run at good speed at 4,77 MHz, however.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyUbdxAX6E8

It seems to run better than on my 8088/V20 system. Now I'd really like to try it in CGA mode.

However, having 4 times as big frames isn't everything. Handling CGA pixels is a big hassle compared to the chunky 13h VGA mode. You can easily calculate the address then update the pixel with one single byte move instruction. CGA, on the other hand, has 2 bits per pixel and odd/even lines. But a game rarely draws individual pixels, PoP is about sprites which are pixel blocks. It's a bit better but these sprites don't necessarily match byte boundaries so everything depends on the code. If it's cleverly optimized it can benefit from the much less data move per sprite. If it isn't it can even lose to VGA's simplicity. Let's hope they spent time to write a good CGA code - especially that CGA rigs were usually of lower specs than VGA ones.

Let's hope they spent time to write a good CGA code

They did!

I looked inside prince.exe and found that one can force it into CGA mode with a simple CGA parameter. And it's really much faster. Not perfect but much better. And ugly 😁

EGA mode is slower again, closer to the VGA mode's speed.

ATi Stereo F/X is a good card for that machine. Requirements (as stated in the manual) are IBM PC/XT/AT (no speed mentioned), 8bit slot, 640KB and HDD recommended.

tikoellner wrote:

I guess as this is an XT clone audio card actually woun't matter much. Most games that are playable on this computer come without audio support. And those that do, simply run to slow. Even if your Schneider (neat machine!) runs at 10mhz.

I have tried myself. Finally I installed Sound Blaster CT-1320A in my IBM 5160 (OPL2 + CMS synthesis), but I almost found no games to use it with. On XT even Prince of Persia is rather unplayable and you're really limited to the earliest games which only support PC speaker sound. I doubt that there even are any games for XT with MT-32 support.

So, although it will improve your machine's cool factor, you woun't do much more with it. To think about games with sound support (MT-32, Adlib), you should have at least 286 machine.

Prince of persia, jetpack and historik run great with sound on my Schneider PC1512 + SB 1.5. Lemmings runs OK too. Commander keen is a bit slow tough. Thing is, the 1512 is a 16 bit machine (i8086). I remember trying prince on a friend's XT, and it was a bit slow @ 4.77MHz (nec V20 + SB 2.0) - but when he cranked the machine up to 12Mhz, the game ran great - but again, keen ran a bit slow just like on my 1512.