VOGONS


OPL2LPT

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Reply 40 of 566, by dreamblaster

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pdw wrote:

Hi. Author of the TSR here..

Hiii pdw, my good friend, a very very warm welcome on vogons.
And thanks for your work the great adlipt TSR 😀

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Reply 42 of 566, by lolo799

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Your OPL2LPT looks like a nice thing to have for old laptops, considering how difficult it can be to find any pcmcia sound card.
It reminds me of the Digispeech PortAble Sound Plus for the AdLib on the parallel port function, but simpler to replicate as the other device was emulating SB as well.
Some inside pics in case anyone missed them: Re: A gallery of strange sound devices

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Reply 43 of 566, by dreamblaster

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lolo799 wrote:

It reminds me of the Digispeech PortAble Sound Plus for the AdLib on the parallel port function, but simpler to replicate as the other device was emulating SB as well.
Some inside pics in case anyone missed them: Re: A gallery of strange sound devices

Hey this is very interesting.
This Digispeech PortAble Sound Plus works well with DOS games ?
Does someone has this device and/or more tech info ?

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Reply 44 of 566, by lolo799

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It works very well with DOS games and in Windows 3.x/9x.
I had that unit but sold it to the member NilsWorld more than a year ago, you should contact him.
He made a bunch of videos of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r6t-c7q-94
It covers the full install so skip to 18:30 for one set of drivers and to 52:00 for the latest ones in DOS, followed by some Wolf3d.
Ultima Underworld:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAoII--IuF8
The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJGsSAcGS_Q

Drivers are still available at:
http://www.expnet.com/know.nsf/a87c96fe8c9775 … 8f?OpenDocument

Last edited by lolo799 on 2017-09-10, 21:40. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 45 of 566, by dreamblaster

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Paralel wrote:

Any idea where the noise is coming from? "

I will not ship any further kits this week, will investigate further if I can improve the sound with the existing PCB.
Again, I think we can wait a little bit longer, to aim for perfect (or at least better)sound.

Visit http://www.serdashop.com for retro sound cards, video converters, ...
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New X2GS SE & X16GS sound card : https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE ,
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Reply 46 of 566, by Paralel

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That Digispeech Portable Sound Plus looks absolutely awesome. Adlib & SB? Sign me up!

It uses an ESS ES688P.

It's capable of:

Stereo (and Mono) playback, 16 or 8 bits per channel
Sampling rates from 4 Khz to 44.1 Khz
Supports DVI (IMA) ADPCM, OKI ADPCM and SoundBlaster ADPCM compression and decompression in real time
Synthesized music, 9 melodic or 7 melodic and 4 percussive voices

press-review-ds301.jpg

Apparently a few other more advanced parallel sound cards existed that we didn't know about:

StreetSound External - Acts as a advanced Covox Sound Master clone

s-l1600-3.jpg

MediaVision AudioPort - Also acts as an advanced Covox Sound Master clone

audioport_l.jpg

Reply 47 of 566, by dreamblaster

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lolo799 wrote:

Most interesting!

Visit http://www.serdashop.com for retro sound cards, video converters, ...
DreamBlaster X2, S2, S2P, HDD Clicker, ... many projects !
New X2GS SE & X16GS sound card : https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE ,
Thanks for your support !

Reply 49 of 566, by dreamblaster

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This is really interesting hardware : in his video, this moment, you see the DOS configuration, TSR load en test in wolf3d of the Digispeech Portable Sound Plus : https://youtu.be/9r6t-c7q-94?t=18m35s
Very impressive. even if it hangs after a while in the demo.

Last edited by dreamblaster on 2017-09-11, 20:43. Edited 1 time in total.

Visit http://www.serdashop.com for retro sound cards, video converters, ...
DreamBlaster X2, S2, S2P, HDD Clicker, ... many projects !
New X2GS SE & X16GS sound card : https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE ,
Thanks for your support !

Reply 50 of 566, by keropi

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Received my kit today (thanks dreamblaster!) and built it:

vN63VdQl.jpg

I found the audio quality to be great - I am not that picky btw 🤣 , it sounds just like every other OPL2 board to my ears. There is some floor noise - yes - but the same exists on older SBs and it doesn't bother me.
I tested it on 2 machines with the latest as of now ADLIPT v0.3 TSR: a 386sx16/16kb cache EGA build and a P233mmx VGA build. I took some quick videos with my phone so please don't expect bluray quality 😵

The 386sx one was slow, you can watch Commander Keen 4 struggling here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xy77UpPVVY
Keep in mind that this is an EGA machine and an upgraded 286/16 motherboard.

The P233mmx didn't care about the extra cpu power that the TSR needed, here are 2 videos I made:
Alone In The Dark (love this game and it's OPL music) : https://youtu.be/rthfXISC090
Wolfenstein 3D: https://youtu.be/v1TXOKabdew

You can also hear my mechanical keyboard working in the background 🤣
Also notice that I did not change any settings or removed my SB or forced Adlib on any of the games - the OPL2LPT just works alongside it 😀

Naturally I like the device but one must keep in mind that it does take some cpu time. I will test tomorrow on a 386DX40/VGA setup and update then - I am sure things will be better on it 😎

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 51 of 566, by Jo22

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Thanks for the videos! 😀
This is a very interesting project.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 53 of 566, by keropi

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^ do you mean if you can install a socket for the YM3812? I have put sockets on both YM3812 and it's DAC, they fit just fine

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 54 of 566, by Beegle

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keropi wrote:

^ do you mean if you can install a socket for the YM3812? I have put sockets on both YM3812 and it's DAC, they fit just fine

Oh yeah I see it now! Hadn't looked closely enough the first time. My bad! 🤣

The more sound cards, the better.
AdLib documentary : Official Thread
Youtube Channel : The Sound Card Database

Reply 55 of 566, by dr.zeissler

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7VxWbCgWHk

Much more interesting would be if this still works on newer machines, e.g. my AMD64 1,6Ghz Laptop.
On these fast machines a covox produces crackeling noises on the lpt-port.

Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines

Reply 56 of 566, by lolo799

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dreamblaster wrote:

This is really interesting hardware : in his video, this moment, you see the DOS configuration, TSR load en test in wolf3d of the Digispeech Portable Sound Plus : https://youtu.be/9r6t-c7q-94?t=18m35s
Very impressive. even if it hangs after a while in the demo.

I don't remember any hanging sound when I had it, maybe because he used the old DOS driver at that point in the video, or his parallel cable caused issues.
Games I remember testing in DOS include Epic Pinball (I found an audio record I made at the time which sounds a bit on the low quality side like Inertia Player in the video linked to by dr.zeissler, an issue with mod music possibly?) and the CD version of Dune which worked perfectly fine.
There's a small list of tested games at http://www.newtale.com/pp/article215.html

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Reply 57 of 566, by dreamblaster

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dr.zeissler wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7VxWbCgWHk

Much more interesting would be if this still works on newer machines, e.g. my AMD64 1,6Ghz Laptop.
On these fast machines a covox produces crackeling noises on the lpt-port.

that should work fine

Visit http://www.serdashop.com for retro sound cards, video converters, ...
DreamBlaster X2, S2, S2P, HDD Clicker, ... many projects !
New X2GS SE & X16GS sound card : https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE ,
Thanks for your support !

Reply 58 of 566, by dreamblaster

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640K!enough wrote:

That's not bad at all. You'll know you've done the job well when the old Ad Lib sound TSR and jukebox will also run with this little device. For an early prototype, it's looking quite promising.

https://youtu.be/YxtoyG7yLOc 🤣

Visit http://www.serdashop.com for retro sound cards, video converters, ...
DreamBlaster X2, S2, S2P, HDD Clicker, ... many projects !
New X2GS SE & X16GS sound card : https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS-SE ,
Thanks for your support !

Reply 59 of 566, by 640K!enough

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dreamblaster wrote:
640K!enough wrote:

That's not bad at all. You'll know you've done the job well when the old Ad Lib sound TSR and jukebox will also run with this little device. For an early prototype, it's looking quite promising.

https://youtu.be/YxtoyG7yLOc 🤣

Very nice! From your video, I didn't notice the noise a few of you have mentioned. Do you have any specific clues about where it is coming from?

I had another thought, too. Do you plan on also trapping the SB FM I/O ports in the TSR? There are probably a few titles that access the OPL2 that way, ignoring Ad Lib altogether. I even seem to remember a few lesser-known titles that needed SBFMDRV.COM. What do you think about the possibility of getting that working as well?