Reply 20 of 38, by dh4rm4
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I know this is going to sound one-eyed but VDMsound is stupid and really poorly implemented by modern standards, mainly because NTVDM specifically sucks so much as to make the use of either or both to run DOS games in a WinNT environment a really dangerous and silly exercise. This is further compounded by the use of NOLFB and other such utils that directly access hardware. Anything that mucks about at ring 0 is just an accident waiting to happen.
I agree with the need for a proper 16/32bit WinG/early DirectX Windows solution for x64/x86 users though. An emulation layer of sorts would fulfill a niche need and would allow the use of many later Sierra Windows and a whole host of 'multimedia' titles from other companies new leases of life in XP and Vista but I think that having such a layer parse hardware calls and redirect them to real hardware is pointless. Even the most generic of AC97 chipsets does more than a real SB16 can and a real GUS is far more limited and prone to error than most of the emulated versions.
As far as the MT32 goes, after mucking around with MEGAEM back in the day and Munt more recently, I decided to get the real thing. I can't see much point to an LAPC or real MPU401 though.