Ding ding ding, you have a winner! Seems to be an early version. The card is the CT1300A. I would say 95% of CMS cards around are CT1300B. Not sure if i'm 100% correct though. Awesome find!

boxpressed wrote:

I'm curious whether this is the first or second box version of the Creative Music System.

It's at least the second packaging iteration of the Creative Music System.

This is (presumably) the first:

You'll notice that the card is a straight "CT-1300" model, with a copyright year of 1987.

Yours is undoubtedly the first. I think I'm missing the Intelligent Organ disk. However, the previous owner included four backup disks, and no Intelligent Organ either. Here's even another version:

Looks like maybe you need a new volume pot?

CkRtech wrote:

Looks like maybe you need a new volume pot?

Yes. I knew it was missing when I bid on it. Does it look like more than just the wheel is missing?

Oh sorry! I missed that in your original post.

Looks OK. I bet you could order a replacement from an electronics company rather than use another sound blaster for it. Just need the specs on it.

boxpressed
Good item, congratulation. Can you dump all four diskettes?

Nice find!

My advice is to get similar enough volume pot so you can just swap the plastic part without removing the old pot.

If this is not possible, I'd just set the volume with screwdriver or pliers to something that is suitable for speakers/headphones/stereo system and let it stay there, without the plastic part.

Thank you for these picture, boxpressed!

A very long time ago I once had a CMS, but didn't really know anything to do with it.
The only program I had for it, was a christmas demo from Sierra.

Anyway, it's nice to finally see it in it's original box.

I'm trying to figure out what Creative is supposed to be copyrighting on the card, I didn't think CMS had firmware. I guess it's standard boilerplate/a con like the "cms 301/302" labeling.

It is pure corporate prattling, I guess.
Professional stuff always had to be copyrighted, patentet or otherwhise protected to scare users.
And it had to be heavy! Did you know that when technology advanced, pro equipment got metal
(leadl) plates installed inside, just to make it "professional" ?

Hmm, I am no copyright lawyer, but when you hire engineers to put together off-the-shelf components and end up with an original design for a new sound card, why you would not be able to copyright the design? It does not require any firmware to be able to be copyrighted. (OK, I know the big chip on CMS card is some custom logic chip, so they are not entirely off-the-shelf components, but all the others are)

I think it is same when an artist uses common shapes like triangles and circles to create a new piece of art, the artist has the copyright no matter how simple the piece of art is, and the artist can sell posters/copies of it so people can use them like hang them on wall but not replicating and selling further copies.

Tronix wrote:

boxpressed
Good item, congratulation. Can you dump all four diskettes?

Yes, I will try to do so soon.

@Jepael I agree with you. An artist usually doesn't write the copyright symbol in huge golden letters on his/her work. though.
A simple "drawn by Andy Pencil 01/01/81" often suffices (fictitious name here, btw.).
In some countries he/she can't even dismiss the own copyright, even if he/she wants to get rid of it.
That was kind of an issue for the PD software scene back then, I heard.

And I don't know for sure, but in some countries you are even allowed to sell replicas of paintings
if you're honest and mark them as such (as replicas). It's part of that artistic freedom thing, I guess.
However, things are a bit shady here and may not apply for actual products (they're not considered art).

In case of that PCB thing, the situation is a bit more complicated I guess, because it is somehow in between.
The schematic and the drawing of the layout could be protected for sure (if it isn't a basic design), but what about the physical thing (the product) ?
Or let's think of houses: the blueprints of your own house may be copyrighted, but can you also forbid your neigbour
to build a similar looking house (he didn't use your blueprints) ? I've no idea. Even the GPL has issues to handle such stuff right now (link).
Anyway, I'm just a complete layman here and perhaps the original artist can forbidd the creation of replicas.
So please don't take my words for granted. They're just my thoughts, after all. 😀

Hi again, good news. I've found that Xmas demo from Sierra again.

It supports a lot of sound cards, including CMS..

You'll find it at the bottom of the Sierra Help website.

http://www.sierrahelp.com/Misc/Demos.html

It is really funny to watch! 😁

Also let me remind you of the existence of CMS Miles Sound System drivers: Creative Music System (CMS) / Game Blaster MIDI drivers
Thus, you can run over 200+ games with sound on Creative Music System. Rough list: Innovation SSI-2001 MIDI driver

Amazing! Haven't seen this before. Your board looks fine, btw. 😀

Jepael wrote:

OK, I know the big chip on CMS card is some custom logic chip...

In case it's of interest (and since it's mentioned exactly nowhere else on the internet), that particular IC is a "TSGB01" gate array, manufactured by Thomson Composants Militaires et Spatiaux, who are otherwise known as STMicroelectronics today.