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CD-ROM upgrade options for an old computer hardware?

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First post, by BLockOUT

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Some of the branded PCs back in the day 386 or 486 came limited only for floppy discs and HDD
CDROM was not standard for some models therefore they released quine NICE SLIMS PCs without a 5 1/4 bay. Just a floppy and a HDD.

So my question is regarding that.
Is it possible to do a cdrom upgrade to play certain games that required a CD. Lets suppose C&C or WARCRAFT, those games required CD and had audio tracks in them , also some of Larry games had cd audio and space quest too.

So my question is more regarding on how to do it, How is that upgrade done?

You put an ISA I/O card on the pc and make the cdrom external sending the IDE cable on the back of the pc?
or
You put a soundblaster 16 ISA card and connect the cdrom to the soundblaster? is that possible with any cdrom brand?

For example i got a SB CT3600 that has an IDE connector on the card, but i never understood soundcard IDE conectivity.

I might also have a soundblaster CT17XX model somwhere that i think i read was SCSI. but never understood how to connect it because i think it will work with only few cdrom models.

Reply 1 of 4, by cyclone3d

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For the IDE connector on a sound card. As long as it is IDE, it should work with any IDE CD-ROM drive. There were proprietary CD-ROM drives back in the day that had the same/similar number of pins for the connection but were not actually IDE. Running the IDE and power out the back of the computer is not ideal but should work fine.

You can also get external CD-ROM drives that hook up to the Parallel port.

And of course, you can also do external SCSI.

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Reply 3 of 4, by jheronimus

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cyclone3d wrote:

For the IDE connector on a sound card. As long as it is IDE, it should work with any IDE CD-ROM drive. There were proprietary CD-ROM drives back in the day that had the same/similar number of pins for the connection but were not actually IDE. Running the IDE and power out the back of the computer is not ideal but should work fine.

You can also get external CD-ROM drives that hook up to the Parallel port.

And of course, you can also do external SCSI.

I'd like to add that you really want an ECP/EPP capable parallel port for an external CD-ROM. That is common with VLB multi I/O controllers, but not too common for ISA multi I/O or onboard ports in 386/486 era machines. I actually found such a controller for my Compaq Presario 433, I wrote about it here. Long story short, regular parallel port only gives you 150 KB/s, enhanced port gave me around 850 KB/s. As to sound — you just need to route CD-ROM's headphone jack into your soundcard's line-in.

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Reply 4 of 4, by chinny22

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I play both the games mentioned on a 486 without a working CD drive.

C&C music is actually stored in a file, and the game supports running off the hard drive natively
(Almost solved) Trying to run Command & Conquer without CD

Red Alert doesn't support this, I've got a virtual disk changer for this but cant remember the name.

Warcraft's requires a NoCD patch, and you do loose CD Music, but Midi isn't that bad? especially if you have a midi device attached.

Only game I haven't got working is original Need for Speed SE, annoying as I did get it working in late 90's was a simple hex edit, but cant seem to find how to do it anymore.

For file transfers I have a CF card mounted on the back of the PC, The PC is networked and lastly have a zip100 parallel with windows cab files. Just offering food for thought, totally get the desire to have a CD drive though

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