I know that is not best combination, but when i started with it, i finished testing of ESS SOLO1 + VIA 880 ultra, all 165 games in my suite tested. Results is 55%, some but unexpected games work fine. If you now purist you can combine it with Win98, i still need to test SB Live on i865, i compatibility would be probably on similar level.

Now i plan to test at least few games on Yamaha + VIA 880 combination. I have also Aureal Vortex 2 on way, but its from China, so it would take ~month.
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid= … 9e034&mode=html

Is for someone working Yamaha 744 + modern Via chipset like 880 Ultra, or is expecting that it will work?

Because for me, is not for now, Driver is able to find card its installed, DSMA is installed also fine, but no sound at all, even FM. I tried also IRQ edge or not use DSMA but its the same, IRQ5 and IRQ7 tested, card is found on IRQ5.
Im using driver 3.16, im not sure if there is some special patched driver for VIA? Setup utility give me this message: Error: Codec may not be connected.
I kind of expected that it will work, because otherwise with MB last chance is Aureal, other is doomed from pure DOS gaming perspective. Second option is that card is half dead, i didnt test this one in other machine or OS yet..

ruthan wrote:

Now i plan to test at least few games on Yamaha + VIA 880 combination. I have also Aureal Vortex 2 on way, but its from China, so it would take ~month.
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid= … 9e034&mode=html

What site did you buyed the AV2?

ruthan wrote:

I know that is not best combination, but when i started with it, i finished testing of ESS SOLO1 + VIA 880 ultra, all 165 games in my suite tested. Results is 55%, some but unexpected games work fine. If you now purist you can combine it with Win98, i still need to test SB Live on i865, i compatibility would be probably on similar level.

Now i plan to test at least few games on Yamaha + VIA 880 combination. I have also Aureal Vortex 2 on way, but its from China, so it would take ~month.
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid= … 9e034&mode=html

Have you tried this in pure DOS? VIA KT chipsets and Solo-1 are alleged to be very compatible so I am more than a little surprised with how testing with PT chipsets turned out..

MKT_Gundam wrote:

What site did you buyed the AV2?

Nothing special, Ebay.

appiah4 wrote:

Have you tried this in pure DOS? VIA KT chipsets and Solo-1 are alleged to be very compatible so I am more than a little surprised with how testing with PT chipsets turned out..

Its in sheet name its only Pure DOS 7.1 testing, maybe with older VIA chipsets these cards are working better.

I also have Aztech AZF3328 PCI on way.

appiah4 wrote:

ruthan wrote:

I know that is not best combination, but when i started with it, i finished testing of ESS SOLO1 + VIA 880 ultra, all 165 games in my suite tested. Results is 55%, some but unexpected games work fine. If you now purist you can combine it with Win98, i still need to test SB Live on i865, i compatibility would be probably on similar level.

Now i plan to test at least few games on Yamaha + VIA 880 combination. I have also Aureal Vortex 2 on way, but its from China, so it would take ~month.
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid= … 9e034&mode=html

Have you tried this in pure DOS? VIA KT chipsets and Solo-1 are alleged to be very compatible so I am more than a little surprised with how testing with PT chipsets turned out..

My Asus P5VD2-VM SE (P4M900/VT8237S) has less issues. Tested games I got on my harddrive that's not working on the PT880 Ultra/VT8237A combo.

1Setup: Asus P5VD2-VM SE running integrated graphics, Terratec ESS Solo-1 (TDMA mode, PCI and SB IRQ=7), MS-DOS 7.10, JEMMEX.EXE (NOVME MAXEXT=131072), CTMOUSE.EXE
2
3Games not working on the PT880 Ultra/VT8237A tested on the P4M900/VT8237S
4  Descent          Works (both Sound Blaster Pro and ESS)
5  Duke Nukem 3D    Works
6  Transport Tycoon Works
7  GTA              Works (GTA8.EXE using DOS32A)
8  Quake Demo       Works (in 640x480, very garbled sound in 320x200)
9  Dune II          Works
10
11Games tested on the P4M900/VT8237S that's not a part of ruthan's test run
12  Speed Haste      Works (garbled sound on hard drive access)
13  Slipstream 5000  Works
14  Death Rally      Works
15  One Must Fall    Works (select Sound Blaster clone for best quality)	
16  Pinball Fantas.  Works (needs L1 cache disabled or else very garbled sound)
17  Space Quest IV   Works (disabled L1 cache)

Kamerat wrote:

My Asus P5VD2-VM SE (P4M900/VT8237S) has less issues. Tested games I got on my harddrive that's not working on the PT880 Ultra/V […]
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appiah4 wrote:

ruthan wrote:

I know that is not best combination, but when i started with it, i finished testing of ESS SOLO1 + VIA 880 ultra, all 165 games in my suite tested. Results is 55%, some but unexpected games work fine. If you now purist you can combine it with Win98, i still need to test SB Live on i865, i compatibility would be probably on similar level.

Now i plan to test at least few games on Yamaha + VIA 880 combination. I have also Aureal Vortex 2 on way, but its from China, so it would take ~month.
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid= … 9e034&mode=html

Have you tried this in pure DOS? VIA KT chipsets and Solo-1 are alleged to be very compatible so I am more than a little surprised with how testing with PT chipsets turned out..

My Asus P5VD2-VM SE (P4M900/VT8237S) has less issues. Tested games I got on my harddrive that's not working on the PT880 Ultra/VT8237A combo.

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1Setup: Asus P5VD2-VM SE running integrated graphics, Terratec ESS Solo-1 (TDMA mode, PCI and SB IRQ=7), MS-DOS 7.10, JEMMEX.EXE (NOVME MAXEXT=131072), CTMOUSE.EXE
2
3Games not working on the PT880 Ultra/VT8237A tested on the P4M900/VT8237S
4  Descent          Works (both Sound Blaster Pro and ESS)
5  Duke Nukem 3D    Works
6  Transport Tycoon Works
7  GTA              Works (GTA8.EXE using DOS32A)
8  Quake Demo       Works (in 640x480, very garbled sound in 320x200)
9  Dune II          Works
10
11Games tested on the P4M900/VT8237S that's not a part of ruthan's test run
12  Speed Haste      Works (garbled sound on hard drive access)
13  Slipstream 5000  Works
14  Death Rally      Works
15  One Must Fall    Works (select Sound Blaster clone for best quality)	
16  Pinball Fantas.  Works (needs L1 cache disabled or else very garbled sound)
17  Space Quest IV   Works (disabled L1 cache)

This is a lot more in line with my experience in and knowledge of the matter..

Kamerat wrote:

GTA Works -GTA8.EXE using DOS32A

This could working for my machine too, i tested also only with DOS4GW.

Other cards update:
Yamaha + VIA880/8237A - card is not working with Linux and XP too, so it could be dead. I have stupid problem, because of my poor mans wooden test bench i can try my proven Yamaha 744, because of connectors position, i need to adjust top bar thickness.
Aureal V1 is working with VIA880/8237A - i just tested 25 games, but it seems to that results are a bit worse than with X58 / i865, what is something what i didnt expected.

I tested whole game testing suite on i865+SB Live! because its quite common combination, these cards are still cheap and its good baseline for compatibility comparison, results is ~80 % what is pretty good. Detail here:
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid= … 9e034&mode=html

Only big surprise/disappointment is that i didnt managed to get working are Doom engine, ones, i have pretty bad memory, but i thing that few years ago, they was working, but im not sure and for me personally Stonekeep (DOS4GW start freeze, no any details) and Warcraft I (logo freeze).

Otherwise most common error message is any is shown is DOS4GW error 2001/2002.

For me it would be interesting compare SB Live! VIA880/890/900 with i865 what is better, VIA has advantages in Intel Quad cores support and PCIE/AGP/PCI so if pure DOS compatibility would be same or slightly worse than with i865, it would be interesting solution.. for now VIA is disappointment - ESS-Solo results are bad and earlier AurealV1 results are worse than on X58, so it make not really sense to use it.

I finished VIA 880 Ultra + Aureal V1 testing:
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.d ... &mode=html

Result is good 86% of game is working, that is a bit worse than X58 same sound card, few games as Warcraft I, Another World, Prehistoric 2 is not working on VIA (i hope that i doesnt matters for Dos compatibility but i intentionally tested with 3 videocards (PCIe/AGP and PCI for Dos) plugged in, because this is big advantage of this MB).. otherwise results are very consistent with X58, so if game is not working its probably because of game code shortcomings or Aureal drivers (more likely).
Only main problem with Aureal V1 is really lots of fidling to find right mode for problematic games, i tested i865+SB live few days ago and whole testing was much quicker, less possibilities and difference is only 5% of compatibility for much more fiddling and worse FM.. and FX too (it could be problem my Orchid card, but SB Live sound is much cleaner in DOS).

I wrote about Aztech 3328 card and some previous post, because someone on internet claimed that in working with Z97, i can but only with Win9x and its Dosmod.. i tried to find DOS drivers they probably doenst exists, because in Win9x driver is that card doesnt have pure dos support.

I tried SB Live! CT4670 and CT4830 with VIA 880 ultra and for both there is additional unwanted noisy crackling mixed into sound, so no go.

I tried more investigate VIA + SB Live! crackling, it happens only sometimes and its FM related, FX are clean. I hapens in all FM modes - Sound blaster, Adlib and General midi, but for example in Doom 2 only in menu and end of level screens. It looks like some resource conflict or something like that. Any ideas how to debug it are welcome.

I tested my second Yamaha 744 with VIA 880 Ultra its, working so first but only with:
EMS + IRQ5, when i try IRQ7 sound card is still using IRQ5.. With NOEMS, JEMM EMS, QEMM EMS .. only FM is working, but not FX, no crackling.

Aureal V2 at home, but not tested yet. Update: Its working, and its SQ2500 model, if someone care.

I tested whole suite with Aureal V2, its very, very similar to AV1, from user perspective it has same behavior od driver in DOS, advantages and disadvantages.
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid= … 9e034&mode=html
- compatibility is almost the same 87% vs 88%
- list of not working games slighly differs from V1, 5-10 game is working on AV1 not working on AV2 and vice versa
- its not probably main chip feature, but manufactors thing, but well i compare AV1 and AV2, AV2 has less noise, sound is cleaner
- AV2 is Phils recommended Windows 98 card, if you dont consider price, is probably better choice than AV1

Other things:
- i added sheet with tested card models info
- i also added second column with info and link, if tested game has demo / shareware version, its free etc.. good is that 3/4 of games are free, that is good for testing by other people, most of the job, could be done any investments. If now that there is demo, for game, which has NO as value, just write me PM.
- i tested ~1/3 of games with VIA 880 Ultra + Yamaha 744, this will be probably last of card, which i will test,except maybe Yamaha 724 quick test with VIA 880 ultra (there some crackling with Y744, not nearly so bad like with H67 + Y744 in Rayers case, but Y724 could be solution), which i dont have yet + there is some retesting, there are very few new tricks, which i discover during testing, which can work for already tested cards to - such lines have red comment text.

There are still some combination which would make a sense to test:
- VIA K8T890- (AM2 MB with Ahtlon X2 support - its probably the best for AMD world and CPUs are 8-10$
- P4/ Core 2 MB with ISA slots - has much it can improve compatibility..
- P31 - ICH7, if there is difference between ICH6 and ICH10, personally i doubt it, except maybe SB Live, its not working on ICH10, on ICH6 it does.

But it would be work for someone one, framework is ready, i can give other people rights to edit and if find some FTP hosting for, i would say 2-3 GB of demo and shareware version collection testing package, which can be easily created. It could look easy, but download zillion of demoversions and extract them, install them, check patches and other thing, could take lots of time and its unnecessary.

We also can create some online poll and vote for lest say TOP10 most important games, which are missing in test suite.. Test 10 more games is not huge work.

I just finished testing of Yamaha 744 with VIA 880 Ultra - 66%
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid= … 9e034&mode=html
For this chipset, is with big lead best Aureal V1 - 86% (my educated guess is that Aureal V2 would be very similar), ESS solo - 55%, SB Live not working at all.

So my testing is done.

You may want to give FM801 a chance as well..

appiah4 wrote:

You may want to give FM801 a chance as well..

Im always interesed in new players, hidden gemsm if they are real.. Do you have any additional info why? Which chipsets are proven? Sound quality etc.. Im not sound guy, but i need heard about it this card, i know only brand.

It is highly compatible and has a decent OPL implementation, better than Vortex in compatibility and OPL, better than Solo-1 and YMF7xx in positional audio.. kind of a compromise middleground between PCI carda that are best for Early Win9x/DOS and cards for late Win9x/WinXP

appiah4 wrote:

It is highly compatible and has a decent OPL implementation, better than Vortex in compatibility and OPL

Do you have any sources or personal experience? I mainly care about compatibility, make sense to try it with VIA 880 or i865 or X58(ICH10) etc.. otherwise it would be waste for me, because with other architectures, i can buy MB with ISA, or SB-Link etc.

I found some OPL3 test if someone is interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA_wPYxULCo

Update i found this:
Re: Fortemedia FM801 for DOS Games

Kamerat:Good motherboard chipset compatibility, works on Intel chipsets up to i875.

In his comp sheet:
Is in i875 row - Legacy mode 2, i dont know what it means exactly..

The ALS4000 is also a potential contender.