And you know for a fact that these "Classic Characters" had speech?

That's right. They definitely used to speak.

I should be a bit more specific. When I play the game without DOSbox, there is no sound. When I play with DOSBox and Adlilb/Soundblaster or any other sound card selected, all the sound works except the speech from the classic characters. Same thing with VDMSound. Now, granted when I played the game back in the day I played it on a Mac, and it wasn't the PC version. But the characters definitely spoke in the version I had and that seems a really odd difference to have between a PC version and a mac. When the classic characters should be speaking, there is a sound effect, sort of a clinking noise. When I select "No Sound or Speech Card" in the install, the Sierra characters make the same noise when they should be speaking. I have tried all the different "sound card selections" that are "available for my system." If I think of anything else of note, I'll let you know, but all the other sound seems to work perfectly.

Any ideas, anyone?

If it helps, the sound information is all contained in one file, resource.aud, so if some of the sound is working it would seem that the file isn't itself corrupt.

Are you playing with the original cd? If you are playing a version from an abandonware site or elsewhere there is a good chance that the speech files have been ripped to make the size smaller.

I doubt you can find the game at an abandonware site.

I know years ago there was a rip of the game that had the speech files removed. The music and sound effects would still play and the characters lips would move but there was no speech, that's why I suspected that maybe he has the rip instead of the full version.

My wife had the original, but it actually performed better on her 486 at the time if speech was disabled. The Classic Games were the first on CD, before they were called Hoyle's Book of Games and they were only on floppy.

Yes, I am indeed playing with an abandonware copy, but here's the thing: ALL of the speech for the game is contained in a single file, RESOURCE.AUD. That file is included, and HALF of the characters have speech. Now, if the file were corrupt, I'd think that NONE of the characters would be able to speak. If speech in general were cut, then that file would not have been included. Interestingly enough, the game is listed on the DOSBOX compatibility chart as being very compatible, but the bar doesn't look like it's at 100%. Of course, no specifics are given as to what the remaining compatibility issues are, but maybe this is the one. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to try to help me figure this one out. I must admit, a file half working has me mystified.

Only way to know for sure is to play the game in real ms-dos with a real SB sound card. But if the game has the same problems with NTVDM emulated SB/VDMSOUND/and DosBox then I'd say that's the way it's supposed to be.