First post, by Aladim
Hello folks,
During PC Gaming years, I mostly used SB1-2-PRO boards, that's what I had access during that time. Recently I've acquired some boards like ES1868 and a Audician 32 Plus (2 of each, models are different brand/make).
The ES1868 works on everything I've tried so far. The Audician 32 Plus fails on some games. The 2 games with issues: X-Wing 1993 and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis CD Version
My setup - Asus P2-99 MB (Intel ZX), P3 600MHZ Slot 1, 256MB, GF4 Mx4000, Audician 32 Plus on default A220 IRQ5 DMA 1 (and resources reserved on BIOS setup), etc ..
I don't get any music or voices/fx when choosing SBPro or SB on X-Wing. I can only get music if choosing Adlib. On Tie Fighter 1994, it works perfectly as SBPro, with FM and voices.
I've tried initializing the card with the SETUPSA v2.20, UNISOUND 0.8 and SETYMF - no difference in the result. EMS386 has provided also plenty of memory.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (standard) works, but the CD version doesn't - it freezes on load (I got it working 2-3 times with FM only, no voices - but it was random. Exiting to DOS and loading it again didn't work).
Worth mentioning that the ES1868 cards work perfectly on both games, using the same initialization through UNISOUND or the specific ES1868 DOS files. I've tried also setting up as IRQ 7, no changes.
I've tried looking into the forums here and also some external reviews - Dosdays.co.uk reviewed the card recently (Jan2023) and posted X-Wing audio sample there, setup as SB PRO, however listening to the audio (game introduction movie), I can only hear the music, not fx sounds or voices - as it was setup as Adlib. I've wrote to the author asking about this, no replies so far.
In addition to that Philscomputerlab reviewed the card a long time ago, he demonstred it on Descent setup and Doom , no mentioning of any compatibility issues with "famous" games if I recall correctly.
Most games people are using for test works on the Audician 32 Plus: Descent, Doom, Duke3d, Prince of Persia, Lemmings, etc. The fact that these games worked ensures that the card is working properly on the hardware, software and installation aspects. That it doesn't work on these 2 games, most likely is a compatibility issue. I could not find examples of it working online.
Everybody talks highly of this card, I agree it sounds terrific and performs very well. However, I don't see remarks about compatibility.
I love this card, would like it to be in my main retro PC, it sounds very good but compatibility seems to be a notch under the ES1868 - which is the card that runs 100% on my setup.
Did I miss anything? Any hints on what else I could try?
Thanks in advance, regards
