AlessandroB wrote on 2020-03-20, 08:13:[...] […]
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The project is to allocate each one to a computer permanently so as not to have to disassemble and reassemble it every time and I thought to follow the progression "Power CPU-Games-sound card" to this:
1) Sound Blaster 2.0 -> Amiga 4000 Bridgeboard 386SX
2) Sound Blaster Pro 2 -> Pentium1 (75Mhz to 200Mhz)
3) Sound Blaster 16 -> Slot1
I know there is a link between CPU power - games released in the period when the CPU was current - compatibility of the sound card with those games related to that CPU. I have some knowledge up to Sound Blaster Pro because it is the card I had in my first PC, but I don't know in detail the SB 2.0 and I don't know in detail the limits and the exact meaning of the two CMS chips.
With those three, this would be the logical allocation, but the cards are significantly older than those systems, so it wouldn't hurt to bump them down and get something fancier for the Slot1.
As a rule of thumb:
Soundblaster 1/2 XT-286 (it's not an 8b card for nothing...)
Soundblaster Pro 1/2 286-386
Soundblaster 16 386-486
Soundblaster AWE32/64 486/Pentium
Of course that's no hard rule - an AWE64 would technically work in a 386 (maybe even 286- but possibly you hit driver CPU instruction requirements there), but looking at the games actually using the cards this is an indication. Some early PPro games might run very fast on a Pentium. Note that everything is backwards compatible with the original Soundblaster. SB16 is mostly backwards compatible with SBPro, but stereo can get mixed up/flattened to mono.
CMS is a different kettle of fish, it's a completely different sound standard, based on square-wave synthesis. If anything it sounds a bit like Atari ST sound on a PC (although the Covox Sound Master was closer to that). Support is very limited, as unlike its offspring the Sound Blaster, the Creative Game Blaster did not sell well so few games used it. The original SB1.0 was fully CMS-compatible, by the SB1.5 there were sockets for a CMS (actually: 2x Philips SAA1099) upgrade. On the 2.0 even the logic to hook up the CMS chips was left out, so there was a third socket for a PAL or GAL to do that, along with sockets for the CMS. Finally, as of the SBPro, CMS support was left out completely.
I built myself a Snark Barker (SB1.0 replica) and added the CMS chips. It's sort of interesting, but hardly essential unless you're competely into one of the handful of games that supports it. It is however the one feature your SB2.0 offers (if you get the additional chips) that your newer cards don't - which is why I mentioned it.