This Sigmatel AC97 driver package in attachment has VXD driver for Windows 95/98 which installs QSound_SigmaTel Stac97 PCI Audio Legacy Device
So, you have a chance that it will work in Windows 98 Dos mode (plain DOS is no-go).

zyga64 wrote on 2023-01-26, 12:03:

This Sigmatel AC97 driver package in attachment has VXD driver for Windows 95/98 which installs QSound_SigmaTel Stac97 PCI Audio Legacy Device
So, you have a chance that it will work in Windows 98 Dos mode (plain DOS is no-go).

Thank you for the suggestion, I have tried installing this (it installed fine) but it doesn't seem to have had any effect. Is there something more I need to do (e.g. edits to CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT maybe?) to get the sound card recognised under DOS mode?

Installer probably just unpacks its content to folder you choose (i.e. c:\sigmatel )
So:
1.) Uninstall your current AC97 driver, (to be sure remove its .inf file from c:\windows\inf\other)
2.) After restart new device will be found, point new driver location to folder where you extracted driver - in this case c:\sigmatel\driver\VXD

If installer will complain about incompatible device, you may add its PCI ID to inf file.

zyga64 wrote on 2023-01-26, 14:06:

Installer probably just unpacks its content to folder you choose (i.e. c:\sigmatel ) So: 1.) Uninstall your current AC97 driver, […]
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Installer probably just unpacks its content to folder you choose (i.e. c:\sigmatel )
So:
1.) Uninstall your current AC97 driver, (to be sure remove its .inf file from c:\windows\inf\other)
2.) After restart new device will be found, point new driver location to folder where you extracted driver - in this case c:\sigmatel\driver\VXD

If installer will complain about incompatible device, you may add its PCI ID to inf file.

Sadly no luck. It looked like it was going to work, but all I ended up with was the Sigmatel Q-sound showing up with a yellow exclamation mark in device manager and no sound at all (not even in Windows itself, let alone DOS). Have reverted back to the Vinyl AC'97 Combo (WDM) drivers so I still get sound in Windows. It's odd, I can get some DOS games to work with sound (via Windows). Doom 2 plays well, with both music and sound effects... but other games like Wolf3d just have sound effects and no music; then others, like Major Stryker have no sound at all. Peculiar...

I've decided to cut my losses and just run DOSBox on my Win 98 laptop for Wolf 3D, Major Stryker and other games that have sound issues. In fairness to DOSBox it's a lot faster and smoother than I remember it being, and the sound works perfectly. Suits me!

You can also use ports of those games for those games that have ports

There are plenty of pcmcia sound cards, the trick is to find them.
Easier to get are parallel port devices with FM sound and music, or covox clones for digital audio, etc.