VOGONS


Reply 80 of 83, by canthearu

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i personally think Adlib is too primitive for a 386.

Most games by this time were expecting basic sound blaster DSP functionality. (digital audio)

Reply 81 of 83, by appiah4

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Yeah, jump on the Snark Barker Train 😁

Reply 82 of 83, by novasilisko

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appiah4 wrote:

Having an adlib clone PCB printed would probably not have been that much more expensive.. Of course, if that's the kind of project you want to undertake, by all means.

I dunno, I did a fair bit of looking around and every fab price I could find for something as large as the adlib board would have been far, far higher. But I also don't know terribly many places to look, so maybe I missed out on a chance to get one for 10 dollars or something. Though I would like to use these little boards (I've got 3) for other tinkerings as well, not just a breadboard adlib.

canthearu wrote:

i personally think Adlib is too primitive for a 386.

I mean... have you seen the rest of the build? 😜 I'm not exactly going for a strict adherence to era, this is very much an experimental beast... regardless though, I don't expect an adlib clone to be the last sound card I put into this thing.

Phoenix / The Disasterpiece
Processor: Am386DX-40 | Memory: 20 MB | Graphics: Trident TVGA9000B | Sound: TBD | Era: No

Reply 83 of 83, by SirNickity

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It wouldn't be cheap at any of the PCB houses that I usually haunt. You're kind of limited to a minimum board size of 8-bit ISA slot length by (at least partial) ISA slot bracket height. That's why a lot of really cheap cards started coming out with a diagonal cut -- so they could put two back-to-back on the PCB panel and cut them in half, ending up with 1/2 or 2/3 the net area per card.

Be glad you're not making VLB cards. 😉

Small run PCBs are getting cheaper, but still kinda brutal with larger boards. And I do wish turnaround was a little faster. Still... beats messing around with home etching, IMO. Ugh. What a PITA.

Good luck with the Ad Lib clone. I see it as a rite of passage for any PC hardware hacker. It's the "blinking LED" of DIY ISA. 😀 (That or a POST card -- you get to pick.)