Really nice haul! Covers a lot of eras.

However, to get an advice, you'd need to be more specific:

1) what kind of a machine do you want to build?
2) what era of games you want to play?
3) what kind of music do you like in games?

Basically, when it comes to music in DOS games, there are three main standards:

- OPL3 aka AdLib aka FM synthesis;
- General MIDI aka wavetable synthesis;
- Roland MT32 aka linear arithmetic synthesis;

Also different kinds of SoundBlaster implementation (namely, Pro/Pro 2 and 16) for digital sound and speech.

For example, your AWE64 Gold and AWE64 Value have built-in wavetable, but somewhat inferior OPL3 implementation, so overall it's a better fit for later builds and games starting from ~1993-1994. Your Labway has a true OPL3 chip, but only a software MIDI synthesizer that needs Windows to work. Your ESS has an okay clone OPL3 chip but is really easy to set up under pure DOS. And so on.

jheronimus wrote:

Really nice haul! Covers a lot of eras. […]
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Really nice haul! Covers a lot of eras.

However, to get an advice, you'd need to be more specific:

1) what kind of a machine do you want to build?
2) what era of games you want to play?
3) what kind of music do you like in games?

Basically, when it comes to music in DOS games, there are three main standards:

- OPL3 aka AdLib aka FM synthesis;
- General MIDI aka wavetable synthesis;
- Roland MT32 aka linear arithmetic synthesis;

Also different kinds of SoundBlaster implementation (namely, Pro/Pro 2 and 16) for digital sound and speech.

For example, your AWE64 Gold and AWE64 Value have built-in wavetable, but somewhat inferior OPL3 implementation, so overall it's a better fit for later builds and games starting from ~1993-1994. Your Labway has a true OPL3 chip, but only a software MIDI synthesizer that needs Windows to work. Your ESS has an okay clone OPL3 chip but is really easy to set up under pure DOS. And so on.

Thanks you so much to your reply 😀 interesting informations 😀
My aim is to search info and make two Win98/dos 6.22 machine.
I'm keen on Win98/95 and DOS... Incredible era in my opinion, i don't like modern games. ( max 2010 no more)
I don't have any particular request about music or games my oldest games are ( Legacy of Kain Blood Omen, Heroes of Might and Magic 1-2, Quake2) my aim now is to play games from 1992-1997 or near that because is obscure for me.
Never played gems like DOOM, Quake1, Monkey Island, Heretic, Hexen, Duke Nukem etc...
My machine at the moment:
Case AT
PSU AT 250w recapped
AMD K6-3+ 400ATZ
Shuttle 591P
64mb Samsung EDO ram
Matrox mistique 220
Orchid 3dfx Voodoo 1 4mb

Stermy57 wrote:

Never played gems like DOOM, Quake1, Monkey Island, Heretic, Hexen, Duke Nukem etc...

Then I'd probably start with AWE64 Gold. DOOM, Heretic, Hexen and Duke Nukem 3D all support it natively (AWE32 mode which is basically wavetable) and should sound nicely.

Monkey Island might be a bit off (because it only supports OPL3 and MT-32), but you can get one of its later re-releases that either has CD Audio or DirectSound support (don't remember exactly).

Quake uses CD audio, so you don't need support for any particular standard, just make sure you have a CD audio cable plugged into your CD drive and sound card.

Alternatively, since it looks like you're willing to spend some money (judging by your SS7/Glide setup) you might want to invest into something like a Dreamblaster X2 and use it with your Labway.