Can't speak for anything else, but my first sound card was a SB2.0 - mono, of course, but a useful feature was the analogue volume control wheel on the actual card bracket.

The Pro's and earlier SB16's had the volume adjustment wheel too.

Honestly, unless you want it for a collection, or you want CMS compatibility, I can't think of a good reason to pick any of these over an SB Pro 2.

There is probably some obscure game or demo that can leverage the dual OPL2s on the original SBPRO.

Otherwise the older cards are just less capable AFAIK.

They are less capable. They've only got OPL2 FM Synthesis from a YM3812(two YM3812s on the CT1330 SoundBlaster Pro) and Mono digital sound.

One thing I would use those old SoundBlasters for is for an emulator box running old versions of MAME for MS-DOS with support for OPL2/OPL3 FM Synthesis from a sound card's YM3812/YMF262. Other than that, I'd personally go for a dual setup with a SoundBlaster Pro 2.0/SoundBlaster 16 with a good mixer chip and another SoundBlaster 16 with a good mixer chip/SoundBlaster AWE64(preferably the Gold model) to which you'd attach a Roland Sound Canvas/Ensoniq Soundscape(original or Elite).

Actually, I do want to know two things about the original SoundBlaster Pro:

1) Which games support Stereo OPL2?
2) How rare is the SoundBlaster Pro?
3) How rare are clones of the original SoundBlaster Pro(I actually own one such clone and the audio output is EXTREMELY noisy, but besides the noise, it's very clear)?

RG100, the old Sound Blaster cards have little shielding and have a lot of that "I can hear the computer think" noise. Adds character though 🤣

DK is on the money, grabbing a 1.5 and some CMS chips is really the thing to do.

However RG100 already has a real Game Blaster 😁

And for quick testing, these old cards are actually too expensive and precious IMO. A 1 dollar Sound Blaster 16 will do just as fine 🤣

Thanks a lot for everyone's advice! 😀 I always listen to you guys, and I've learnt lots over the years. But just this one time I couldn't stop myself from getting an old SB model, so that I can compare it with the CT1600.

At some point in the future, I'm planning a "youtube spectacular", when I'm going to showcase a lot of this old junk. I had the idea of starting off with a 386 mobo/system, and continuously upgrade it, over and over again, until I arrive at the last useable mobo/system for Windows 98. I'll need an old SB model to get started with the 386 mobo.

Also for the same reason, I've got my first Adlib arriving soon, but now I'm all done with old soundcards. Naturally, I haven't managed to collect every card out there, and I never found an affordable LAPC-i for instance, but I'm happy with the external unit such as the CM-32L.

Ohh, was it you that got the boxed Adlib from Germany 🤣 Or the one from the UK? If so, you got a good price! I always see these 200+ buy now auctions 🤣

Nothing wrong with having an old Sound Blaster. In fact everyone should have one 😜

On OCAU (Australians best and busiest IT community), someone asked what he could do with a boxed SB 1.5. Made an offer right away and it's underway!

The 1.5 was my very first Sound Card AND internal upgrade thingy. I worked as a kid for 4 weeks during the summer to afford it! 4 bloody weeks! ARG it was earned with blood and sweat 😜

But once I heard Monkey Island 2 and Fate of Atlantis with the Sound Blaster, it was well worth it. I remember my friend coming over and his jaw dropped. So he begged his mum and she bought him one 🤣

I still didn't get to trying to repair the buggered volume wheel, as currently I have no time whatsoever. Still I bought the card. Never know when something fails.

I also got another PAS16, but the speech / thunder board part is faulty. But the seller gave me a refund right away (just for the card) and I don't have to ship it back, which is awesome. But a shame they didn't test it properly...

I purposefully avoid boxed versions of rare items, because they always attract high prices. I just can't afford them. Also, I'm not interested in boxed stuff, simply because I have no room for them! I squash all of my junk in to packing boxes, to save space. Anyway, I'll report back with some news when the Adlib + SB 1st gen card arrive. Should be fun! 😀

Regarding the Adlib card, I made a recording here. It's from the Adlib Jukebox program, called "Highways". I think it sounds OK, for a card manufactured in 1987! I'll try and fix my camera tomorrow, and take a picture. There's a serial number on it, and it reads 14555. I wonder if that's the actual number made at that moment in time, when this card was in the factory?

Yup, sounds like Adlib!

1987. Wow...

24 years ago...

AFAIK Kings Quest 4 was the first game to support Adlib and Roland MT-32. Thanks Sierra! Awesome

Can you post a pic of your Adlib card? I am waiting for a 1987 Adlib to arrive. The 1987 version is much rarer than the 1990 version.

Here's my 1987 Adlib

Here's mine - I had no idea it was much rarer than the 1990 version. I like the way the Yamaha chip identification label has been primitively obscured. Looking at the Wikipedia page for this card, one difference between the '87 and '90 versions is the size of the headphone jack.

@retro games 100

Yours has the s/n sticker, unfair!! 😁

edit: and a slimmed capacitor 😎

Hehe! I got lucky. I didn't notice the capacitor size difference. Well spotted. Here's the back of the card. If you look in the top left corner, the "squiggle" looks like someone's signature. Back in the day, what did people use for sound effects? Was it either the PC speaker, or the Covox speech thing device?

I notice in the Wikipedia webpage for the SoundBlaster, the first model was released in 1989. That's two years after the Adlib. Were people really stuck with the PC speaker and the Covox thing until 1989? If you think about the Amiga's 1985 launch year, this apparent lack of basic sound hardware for the PC seems almost unbelievable.

retro games 100 wrote:

Hehe! I got lucky. I didn't notice the capacitor size difference. Well spotted. Here's the back of the card. If you look in the top left corner, the "squiggle" looks like someone's signature. Back in the day, what did people use for sound effects? Was it either the PC speaker, or the Covox speech thing device?

I notice in the Wikipedia webpage for the SoundBlaster, the first model was released in 1989. That's two years after the Adlib. Were people really stuck with the PC speaker and the Covox thing until 1989? If you think about the Amiga's 1985 launch year, this apparent lack of basic sound hardware for the PC seems almost unbelievable.

Must check if my Adlib is autographed too 😀

I think they used the PC speaker for sfx.

The PC was not thought of as a gaming platform until the early 90's and here in Sweden it was not until 1994-95 that people started gaming on them.
We Amiga owners use to laugh our pants off when the PC guy tried to show off in the late 80's by showing a game that sounded "beep", "squeak"
Even a Commodore 64 had massive sound/music compared to the standard eqipped PC, 🤣

Yea the Amiga was very popular at our school. For ages it was the better choice, but once games went VGA and Sound Blaster, the PC ruled.

For me it was around 1990 when the dominance shifted. At that time, most Amiga versions of games had less colours and slow loading times, unless you had a hard drive.

VGA / MCGA and Adlib / Sound Blaster really helped push the PC.

I dug out Creative's 1988 Gameblaster CMS music card. I ran Quest for Glory 2, and made a recording. It's here.

Awesome!

Also sounds very clear. No static or "computer thinking" sound...

Another good game is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade! Because this game has no MT-32 support, so CMS is as good as it gets on the PC...