Very quiet sound, predecessor of PC Speaker? \ VOGONS

Very quiet sound, predecessor of PC Speaker?

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by Radinor

Posted on 2007-10-14, 17:23

Radinor Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: 2007-08-23, 11:13

I have a question about a sound system in an old computer.

About 10 years ago, my cousin had a 386 with an amber monitor.
It didn't have a normal PC speaker, it had something different:
It emitted only one kind of a sound: A very quiet barely audible high-pitched beep.
We could hear it if we listened to it, but it was very quiet. I'm sure it wasn't "quiet AdLib" it was some kind of a PC Speaker.

When we played a game that emitted a loud repetitive sound, for example: When you get killed by an electric eel in Alley Cat, we also heard that beeping a bit loudly

Back then I thought that it was simply a broken PC Speaker, but 3 years later, when the computer broke, and he took it apart, we hooked up a battery to the speaker, and it emitted a normal pretty loud sound, so the speaker was capable of emitting loud sound too.

Do you know what could be this mysterious sound system?

Reply 1 of 4, by h-a-l-9000

Posted on 2007-10-14, 17:37

h-a-l-9000 Offline

Rank DOSBox Author

Rank: DOSBox Author
Posts: 4511
Joined: 2005-02-23, 00:14

They put in a 'beeper' instead of a speaker. That is it has its own oscillator. It appears they made a mistake or maybe it was a few cents cheaper...

1+1=10

Reply 2 of 4, by Radinor

Posted on 2007-10-14, 21:25

Radinor Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: 2007-08-23, 11:13

You mean that piezoelectric stuff they put in new PCs too because not much PC speaker sound is needed nowadays?

If it's that, then it is strange that they put it in a PC that was assembled in the early 90s when PC speaker was widely used.

Reply 3 of 4, by h-a-l-9000

Posted on 2007-10-15, 13:01

h-a-l-9000 Offline

Rank DOSBox Author

Rank: DOSBox Author
Posts: 4511
Joined: 2005-02-23, 00:14

There are piezos with and without integrated oscillator. Maybe some engineer was drunk and got the wrong type 😉

1+1=10

Reply 4 of 4, by Radinor

Posted on 2007-10-15, 14:05

Radinor Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: 2007-08-23, 11:13

I've just found a special version a Dosbox in the forums, that someone made. In that you can set different pixelshaders, and with one of them, you can emulate an amber monitor. I downloaded it, and tried it. It's very good, the amber monitor it emulates is exactly like the monitor of that old computer was.

I've just played Prince of Persia, Wolf3D and other games just like I first saw them on that amber-monitored computer. 😀

Though I haven't found any way to emulate this piezo beeper sound system we're talking about, so I just set it to normal PC Speaker emulation, but it's great. Lots of memories are coming back. 😁

You can download this version here: http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to PC Emulation

Main menu

Common searches