If you take a look at the screenshot here, this is how it is supposed to look like on a real VGA :http://i031.radikal.ru/1301/cc/81997ec29367.jpg.

It clearly uses custom text mode fonts and while the mixerset can load custom fonts on a real VGA card, maybe custom font loading is not possible on MCGA cards or the mixerset does not understand MCGA cards as VGA so it does not try to load custom fonts.

That said, maybe they never thought someone would put a 16-bit sound card into a computer that only has 8-bit slots and expect it to work, while assuming everyone already has VGA graphics card.

btw. the manual says that the card requires a VGA card. So these might be the glitches sub req.

Well yeah MCGA would just use static character roms so tools changing fonts will look messed up. But otherwise it seems to run fine.

Thanks for all the comments. So I'm thinking an earlier (circa 1989?) version of mixerset.exe would work (pure character mode), but that it would probably fail to engage with the SB16's mixer hardware correctly. ..

Might not answer your question, but you can use command line parameters to set the mixer 😀

The ONLY game I've come across that had issues in text mode is Alone in the Dark, the setup menu. On many cards there is a TSR utility you can run for it to display the correct characters.

Don't ask me for details, I can't remember. But I documented it all here on Vogons, so you might find that thread.