It's a pain... You will have to download a few things from Creative to get it working, I can say that much.

Here's an old AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS I have lying around.

AUTOEXEC.BAT
SET CTCM=D:\AWE64\CTCM
SET SOUND=D:\AWE64
SET BLASTER=A240 I5 D3 H6 P300 E640 T6
d:\AWE64\CTCM\CTCU /S
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
d:\AWE64\DIAGNOSE /S
d:\AWE64\AWEUTIL /S
d:\AWE64\MIXERSET /P /Q

CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=C:\AWE64\CTCM\CTCM.EXE
FILES=40

Thanks. I will igve it a try. I already have the pnp drivers installed, and this is recognised during the bootup sequence.

I downloaded the DOS drivers from creative, however they will not install as the program recognises win95 running (actually running win98). I have exited to dos with a empty config.sys and autoexec files but same problem. I made a floppy boot disk via win98 and it still insists I am running win95. I even downloaded the patch that enables install on faster machines running windows. I need to boot to super PURE dos mode. HELP!

Maybe I need to download win98 drivers instead of dos/win3.x. Will try this first.

As recently discussed on another thread, the Creative install program for the DOS drivers will detect a Windows installation even if it isn't running, and will abort. Someone mentioned that you can get the drivers and utilities individually and make them work, though.

May I suggest a different solution? I have had the same problem, in fact, I do have the working ctcm or ctcu etc. files somewhere. I grew tired of this and found salvation in the ESS Chipsets. I have an old notebook that uses the ess688 chip, which works with dos games without any driver whatsoever. So I went to my local computer store and looted his cases of "junk". Picked out an ESS (688) ISA board that had jumpers for IRQ etc. It cost me a buck. Works perfect with all my dos games and SBPro settings, requires NO drivers whatsoever and ended all my sound worries. My AWE64 is packed away. It may have had the better sound quality, but was just too much trouble to set up. It actually sound more like my old sbpro than the AWE64 did... 😁

Just my two cents...
ux-3

All of Creative's ISA wavetable cards are useless junk for DOS games IMO. They use huge TSRs for MIDI and you CAN NOT get MIDI out of a game that uses a DOS extender unless it directly supports AWE. And even if the game supports it you still can not use soundfonts because the AWE game drivers that games use don't access anything but the trash 1MB ROM.

I wasted hours trying to get Soundfonts working with DOS games until I read this on newsgroups. What a pathetic level of compatibility.

This is not the case with AUDIOPCI with which you use the Ensoniq .ECW files, so also the SB PCI64/PCI128. SBLive supports soundfonts & DOS games within Windows.

The problem with the Ensoniq .ECW banks is that there were only ever 3 of them made. They're decent, but even a Roland Sound Canvas sounds better.

Also, the SBLive has DOS drivers that are nearly identical to the PCI128's, including using .ECW files.

In my case I only need an ISA card for a particular game - Turrican 2 from the 386 era. It won't work with a pci card since it does not like EMS. I will also get around to plaing UFO X-com and Ultima Underworld and WOrlds of Ultima series.

I have a Roland SCC-1 for midi, and an LAPC which I was going to sell but have ended up keeping. So I just need a card for digital sound for earlier DOS games. WIll an Ensoniq do the trick?

If you don't care about Windows games, then an ISA SoundBlaster 16 is the best way to go (since you have an SCC-1 for Sound Canvas and General MIDI and LAPC for MT-32 MIDI) in my opinion.

Will a non-pnp make life easier?

yup

HunterZ wrote:

The problem with the Ensoniq .ECW banks is that there were only ever 3 of them made. They're decent, but even a Roland Sound Canvas sounds better.

Also, the SBLive has DOS drivers that are nearly identical to the PCI128's, including using .ECW files.

The ECW files are still better than an AWE's 1MB ROM. And actually if you use a SBLive in Windows you can use Soundfonts for DOS games. In DOS, yes you would use the exact same drivers as a AudioPCI/SBPCI64/128

The quality of the AWE midi emulation is not important in this case, since buckrogers seems to have a real MPU401 (SCC-1) installed.

The only thing needed for digital sound in pure DOS mode is the PnP utility (CTCM). It doesn't use any memory after the card is initialized.

I'm sure we can help you getting that AWE64 working, but we need more info:
Please list all the cards you have currently installed, as well as your config.sys and your autoexec.bat files. The output of the CTCM utility would also be interesting.

A non PnP card would be exactly the same, except you'd set jumpers manually instead of using the software configuration utility.

I have an AWE64 myself, along with 2 AWE32s and 2 SB16s. The CTCM utility is easy enough to configure but it's just another step. Actually I don't think there's anything to configure (just run it and it automatically sets the card up). AWE64 is a SB16/EMU8000 combo (AWE32), you should just need the sbbasic.exe or s64basic.exe file from Creative I believe for their DOS TSRs. I don't think I tried getting the AWE64 working in pure DOS, but the PNP AWE32 I have and PNP SB16 both worked pretty good once you had CTCM, Diagnose, and Mixerset set up.

If you don't need MIDI out of that AWE64 you don't need to load AWEUtil for sure. It will function exactly like a SB16 for digital sound. The biggest concern is whether CTCM assigns your card proper settings near 220,5,1,5. If it goes wacko you could have to mess with it more... But it worked flawlessly for me.

Some progress has been made. I got a set of the creative win9x/dos drivers and utilites from Keropi over at the English Amiga Board - thanks Keropi! This time, during diagnosis, the soundcard was configured, and I could hear the test music provided at the end of setup. The setup utility changed the autoexec file in C drive by adding the line: SET BLASTER=A280 I10 D0 H6 P300 T6 E680
Otherthan that there are just a few linesregarding windows and paths. In the config sys its jsy DOS=HIGH, UMB and Device=C:\WINDOWS\Himem,Sys

Cards: Matrox G450 pci, pair Voodoo 2 Orchids sli'd, SCC-1 isa, creative CT4810 pci - nuttin else.

For a start I woul like to get Albion sound working on the AWE64 when booting from DOS (it already works when booting from win98). Then I can try to egt Turrican 2 working, which is a bit fussier with the the kinds of memory systems loaded. Not sure if I have the CTCM files being mentioned. Will see tonight.

Congratulations!
Games that support SoundBlaster16/AWE should now work with your card, if they auto-detect your BLASTER setting, or if you enter the right values at the sound setup program.
With older or badly programmed games, there still may be problems, since addresses other than 220H or 240H and interrupts above 7 couldn't be used by older SoundBlaster models, so very old games won't find the card at the settings you currently have.

Normally CTCM assigns the standard resources for SoundBlaster cards, which are A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6 E620, unless these resources are blocked by other cards. In your case these are most likely the SoundBlaster PCI (CT4810) and the SCC-1 (All the other cards usually don't use SB resources). The SB PCI is worthless for DOS games since you have a real ISA card, so it can be set to other values. On the other hand, the SCC-1 is a much better choice for General MIDI than the AWE64, it can be left at the standard port 330H.

Thanks 5u3. Its working fine udner windows and in the diagnostic utility, especially after I ironed out some conflicts with other devices. My Matrox G450 uses interupt 5, so I have gone with 7. I disabled the CT4810, and a LPT printer port too. ALbion setup under DOS does not detect the card. I assume my config.sys for my exit to DOS prompt is lacking, and may be my autoexec.bat. Here they are:

Config.sys:
DOS=SINGLE
DEVICE=C:WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
buffers=40
FILES=40

Autoexec.bat:
@ECHO OFF
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H7 P330 T6 E620
REM (something about modified by Windows do not touch)
REM (something about modified by Windows do not touch)
REM (something about modified by Windows do not touch)
C:
CD C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP
CALL C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM
C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM /W

Can any DOS freaks give me the right commands to get the AWE64 working under DOS?

Try some other games and see what settings work, or just see if it works at all. You may need to go into the BIOS and set IRQs to specific cards or set IRQ reservations for ISA.