Re: Sound Blaster 16 Clones

Posted on 2020-02-14, 09:53

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

As for the ISA bus speed in the BIOS: depends on the BIOS. It's normally in the advanced section or chipset features and should be called "AT-BUS Clock". It's set using the formula CLK/x, whereas CLK is the FSB and x whatever value needed to get ~8 MHz. Doesn't look like my BIOS has that setting. I …

---

Re: Sound Blaster 16 Clones

Posted on 2020-02-14, 09:19

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

This is a very important hint, as it implies that your ISA bus is probably running too fast, which would explain your sound card issues. Make sure the ISA bus is not running faster than 8.33 MHz. The other guy is having problems with his ALS100, my card works fine other than the aforementioned FMV …

---

Re: Sound Blaster 16 Clones

Posted on 2020-02-14, 08:53

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

In what kind of machines are you using your ALS100 card(s)? Mine is a P3-550, 440BX. I'm using mine on an Athlon XP 1500+ (downclocked to 500 MHz) and an Abit KT7A motherboard (KT133A chipset). The downclock is because I get garbled sound in FMVs on all ISA cards (not just this one) at any clock …

---

Re: Sound Blaster 16 Clones

Posted on 2020-02-13, 20:40

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

It might be due to a resource conflict. Under Win98 go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Information > Hardware Resources and check the IRQ, DMA and Address sections to see if anything shares those resources with the ALS100. Under DOS, disable the game port and the MPU-401 via alconfîg.exe …

---

Re: Bunch of soundcards, anything particularly worthy of interest?

Posted on 2020-02-13, 16:47

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

That ALS100 looks different from mine which doesn't have the Crystal chip on board, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. ALS100 is a SB16 compatible card with proper High DMA functionality. I have tested about 30 games with it and have yet to encounter one which didn't work. Games …

---

Re: Pre-1999 games that support 32-bit 3D rendering?

Posted on 2020-02-13, 09:37

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Tomb Raider 2 (1997) and Tomb Raider 3 (1998) both supported 32-bit color rendering.

---

Re: Best imaging software for old operating systems

Posted on 2020-02-13, 07:19

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Acronis True Image 8 works great for my needs. I run it off the bootable CD and have used it to image and restore DOS 6.22, Windows 98SE, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It natively supports my USB 2.0 NTFS-formatted external HDD, so imaging is fast and space constrains aren't an issue.

---

Re: Some guys opinion about DOSBox

Posted on 2020-02-12, 20:31

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Milliways

in Milliways

A game doesn't work, you Google "Game X doesn't work", you find instructions to make it work by editing dosbox.conf... However, the frontend you're using doesn't use dosbox.conf, so you can't follow those instructions and make the game work. I've seen a few programs which offer a ton of settings in …

---

Aladdin (DOS) music - SB16 vs. SBPro vs. WSS

Posted on 2020-02-12, 16:26

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So I noticed something interesting with this game. Aladdin has a number of different options in SETSND.EXE of which I've tried "Sound Blaster & AWE32", "Sound Blaster Pro" and finally "Windows Sound System". Testing those options on my Opti82c930 and Avance Logic ALS100 (not plus) with "Enhanced …

---

Re: 9x Era PC Setup Help

Posted on 2020-02-11, 21:52

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Audigy 2 ZS is arguably the best sound card out there for Windows 98SE, both in terms of audio fidelity (SNR) and 3D positional audio. It just doesn't like the 686B (Audigy is just a souped-up SBLIve, so suffers from the same issues). This is true, but it should be noted that some motherboards …

---

Re: Sound Blaster 128 and SBLive

Posted on 2020-02-11, 14:53

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The SB Live has better FM synthesis capabilities. This will matter in older DOS games that don't support General Midi. Of course, the FM synthesis on the Live is not as good as on a card with a genuine OPL3 chip, but it's still leagues better than what the SB128 is doing. Without exaggerating in any …

---

Re: Welcome to the updated VOGONS

Posted on 2020-02-11, 12:10

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Milliways

in Milliways

This is normal for almost everything that goes under that title bar, because the title bar has an glass transparent effect. I have visited dozens of other websites and never seen the flickering appear. On those websites, items that go under the transparent title bar become blurred and meld together …

---

Re: Welcome to the updated VOGONS

Posted on 2020-02-11, 07:45

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Milliways

in Milliways

Just upgraded my iPad to iOS13 and noticed another flickering issue. On the main page, when the dithered rows pass under the Safari title bar, they flicker... a lot. Screenshot attached for clarity. If possible, please replace all remaining instances of those dithered patterns with solid colors, as …

---

Re: Some guys opinion about DOSBox

Posted on 2020-02-10, 19:07

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Milliways

in Milliways

If you want what you're used to in the past, there's already a perfect solution; don't upgrade. If you mean "don't upgrade from your DOS-capable PC" then you aren't taking hardware failure into account. No matter how well you take care of your components, time does its thing, and eventually they …

---

Re: Do newer PCI cards offer 320x support and compatibility ?

Posted on 2020-02-10, 09:55

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

- Ati 9250 PCI - VGA output is ok, nothing to complain but not the sharpest, for games is ok. However the Card also had DVI so I went with that. I had some bad experiences with my Ati 9000 Pro AGP while using DVI for DOS games. From what I've read on this forum, some early DVI cards have problems …

---

Re: Voodoo 3 2000 Artifacts and noisy video.

Posted on 2020-02-09, 20:49

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

See if your mobo has Frame Buffer Posted Write under chispet features setup if you haven't already. I tried turning off various BIOS settings that seemed related to the graphics card, but no dice so far. I'm not familiar with tweakbios so i guess use it at your own risk if you decide to go that …

---

Re: 1998 rebuild of a Pentium II with Voodoo 2 SLI

Posted on 2020-02-09, 18:55

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Sound: SB 128 PCI, CT4700 (1998) A SB Live would probably be a better choice while still remaining period correct. I still have nightmares of the godawful FM synthesis emulation (or whatever it was) on the SB128. Great rig overall though! Love the Voodoo cards + Matrox combo in particular. Razor …

---

Re: Article about the history of Creative Labs / interview with its founder/CEO: The Sound Blaster Story

Posted on 2020-02-09, 17:53

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Thank you. And clearly your attention to detail is better than mine or my wife's! Wanna be my proofreader ;) Heh, I think it's just a case of having a first time reader go over it. I often botch proofreading my own work documents simply because I know their content well and therefore don't pay …

---

Re: Article about the history of Creative Labs / interview with its founder/CEO: The Sound Blaster Story

Posted on 2020-02-09, 17:04

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

brassicGamer wrote on 2020-02-09, 14:23: The Sound Blaster Fairytale That's a really nice read, and it's awesome that you are linking to the sources that were used. One minor typo, the caption for the first image states "Source: PC Resource's PC Games, Autumn '98" while it should probably be " …

---

Re: Voodoo 3 2000 Artifacts and noisy video.

Posted on 2020-02-09, 15:00

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I fixed it on my machine by disabling "VGA Frame Buffer" under Chipset Features Setup Interesting, I am experiencing the same issue with my Voodoo 3 2000 (AGP version) but unfortunately, my BIOS doesn't have that option. My motherboard is Abit KT7A in case anyone knows a different solution for it. …

---