Odd-looking AWE64 Value \ VOGONS

Odd-looking AWE64 Value

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First post, by mattrock1988

Posted on 2016-04-05, 05:22

mattrock1988 Offline

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So I have an AWE64 Value CT4520 that seems different from the other models I've seen to date. It appears to be missing the ROM and memory chips as well as show signs of further consolidation. It even has a copyright date of 1999 on it, which seemed odd to me as I thought Creative abandoned ISA cards by early 1998.

For the record, my current retro rig also has an AWE64 Value CT4520, but it has the ROM, built in memory chips AND pinout headers for memory expansion. Any ideas?

~~Retro PC: Intel Pentium III @ 1 GHz, Intel SE440BX-2, 32 GB IDE DOM, 384 MB SDRAM, DVD-ROM, 1.44 MB floppy, Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti 4600 AGP, Creative SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold, Aureal Vortex 2~~
I only rely on 86box these days. My Pentium 3 PC died. 🙁

Reply 1 of 4, by keropi

Posted on 2016-04-05, 06:55

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most likely a card build for some pc assembler of the time (dell, hp, etc) with missing features but enough to provide a somewhat good sound solution in a windows environment.

🎵 🎧 ⏳ ⚡ MK1869, PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 2 of 4, by mattrock1988

Posted on 2016-04-05, 07:05

mattrock1988 Offline

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The funny thing is, it's not designated as such upon first examination. Besides, you'd think the model number would be different right?

Reply 3 of 4, by keropi

Posted on 2016-04-05, 07:13

keropi Offline

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why? left-over cards sold in bulk at a good price for some assembler , that's what I think this is.

🎵 🎧 ⏳ ⚡ MK1869, PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 4 of 4, by Imperious

Posted on 2016-04-05, 07:17

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I think the most likely scenario would be an OEM contacts Creative with a view to purchasing 100000 sound cards,
in negotiations the price gets bumped down at the expense of features that the OEM couldn't care less about.

No Dos Midi support for that card, but not required for Win98 Dos mode. Another example of this would have been
Atari negotiating with Mos Technologies to purchase the 6502 Cpu for the 2600, and didn't want to pay the price, so
ended up with the 6507 that only can access 4KB Ram as opposed to 64KB, but that was 1977.

Atari 2600, TI994a, Vic20, c64, ZX Spectrum 128, Amstrad CPC464, Atari 65XE, Commodore Plus/4, Amiga 500
PC's from XT 8088, 486, Pentium MMX, K6, Athlon, P3, P4, 775, to current Ryzen 5600x.

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