I'm wondering if that defacing actually prevented somebody from cloning the card.
For somebody with capacity to manufacture clones, how long could it take to figure out what chips they were?

Errius wrote:

If they hadn't done that someone else might have sourced the same chips cheaper and begun knocking off clones. You can't be too careful.

Agreed

for anyone with even casual familiarity with FM chips, the sound alone would have been an obvious tell

Errius wrote:

If they hadn't done that someone else might have sourced the same chips cheaper and begun knocking off clones. You can't be too careful.

Well I guess competitors just had to get Creative, am I right?

I'll see myself out.

mothergoose729 wrote:

Errius wrote:

If they hadn't done that someone else might have sourced the same chips cheaper and begun knocking off clones. You can't be too careful.

Well I guess competitors just had to get Creative, am I right?

I'll see myself out.

🤣

also it's not like there weren't a million adlib clones anyways, so they weren't really successful with that 😁

keropi wrote:

... A real adlib will always be a real adlib and a replica will always be a replica ...

This.

Replicas of any kind will never feel the same, and feeling, that is everything. To each his own I guess.

a replica adlib still feels way more like an adlib than not having either though... this isn't a contest imho, some things are just prohibitively expensive, replicas have their place to make it more accessible.

Still kicking myself years later for tossing my old Adlib card.

Who would have thought they would be worth so much now!

Marmes wrote:

If a replica does replicate 100% the original, is it really a replica or is 100% the same?

No! Replicas are not history. Of course you can use a replica. You can go further down that slippery slope and emulate. A perfect emulator gives you the same result. How about an old building? A fire destroys it. Then some people build a replica thereof. But that replica is masquerading as something it is not - the truth. People didn't live there, events didn't happen there, and there are obviously little differences, in some cases intentional. It's a facade. They would be better served building a new building in the style and method of the original than pretending the original hadn't been destroyed and that the history is present when it isn't. At all.

There is no substitute for history.

hwh wrote:

How about an old building? A fire destroys it. Then some people build a replica thereof. But that replica is masquerading as something it is not - the truth. People didn't live there, events didn't happen there, and there are obviously little differences, in some cases intentional. It's a facade. They would be better served building a new building in the style and method of the original than pretending the original hadn't been destroyed and that the history is present when it isn't. At all.

There is no substitute for history.

But at some point, everything is destroyed and the only way to keep the history alive is to replicate it.

You might not be able to save a building for all time using exactly the original materials, but if you reproduce the the same construction methods using similar materials, then you can still show the history and teach how things were.

Is it as good as having the original, no, but you can still use and experience and learn from it, which means that replicas are far from having no value at all. The history of having the original is more about sentiment then practical value.

A Perfect Adlib Replica is unlikly ever done.
As you need the whole PCB Process from the 80s 😀

is there any manufacture that still makes oldstyle PCBs ?

The whole Adlib Replica does not look like the Original its tooo shiny 😁

There are some more rare computer parts for sure not saying adlibs are not but I just dont think it will ever arise to the level to the level of rarity that i think some people think they are. 🤣 To be real, something mass produced in a factory, with millions of copies produced somewhere automatically kills it. If it is somthing only thousands ever existed. That be a different story. 🤣 😘

But that is how you determine the real value of something that is. If someone can probably find a real adlib somewhere. Its not at all like other items that you can search for years and not find one. 🤣 😘 😀 😵

It's a mistake many collectors make in all fields of collecting in over valuing the things they collect. Just becasue it has a box doesn't really change the fact that these cards were sh*t out of factorys.

Problem is when our generation gets older and starts to die, and all of the things that go hoarded will start floating on to the market and the younger generations not only wont care about them but there will be more in the wild driving costs down. Just like the baby boomer generation might of collected popeye stuff now they start to die off and plenty of popeye sh*t is around and no one wants it because it wasn't really rare to begin with and only they cared.
edit
The last fact is having a billion replicas floating around might not affect collectors who want the real thing but it actually kills the value of them because anyone who wants an adlib card can have one and that means people who wanted one are not going to pay a price of somong who is out of their minds. 🤣 😘

matze79 wrote:

A Perfect Adlib Replica is unlikly ever done. As you need the whole PCB Process from the 80s :) […]
Show full quote

A Perfect Adlib Replica is unlikly ever done.
As you need the whole PCB Process from the 80s 😀

is there any manufacture that still makes oldstyle PCBs ?

The whole Adlib Replica does not look like the Original its tooo shiny 😁

Ah? A chap in the UK just bought a pile of sound cards for 45 quid and in the bunch was a pristine original Adlib card and it is shiny.

Just out of interest how much are we talkin' for a CMS card or original Sound Blaster with the CMS chips installed (can they or reproductions be bought separately)?

I would buy a replica CMS card in an instant (I am no collector!)

Almoststew1990 wrote:

Just out of interest how much are we talkin' for a CMS card or original Sound Blaster with the CMS chips installed (can they or reproductions be bought separately)?

I would buy a replica CMS card in an instant (I am no collector!)

There are at least two projects that would qualify:

The MUS1099 MUS-1099 GameBlaster Sound Card
The Snark Barker Tube Time: Announcing The Snark Barker, a 100% Compatible SB 1.0 Replica!

Ballpark figures, depending on how and where you get the PCB and parts the cost will be around $40 for the MUS and maybe $100 for the Snark Barker? This is assuming you will assemble them yourself.

CMS/SAA1099 chips are available on eBay.

CMS is stereo I think? Not many game supported it though.

non-boxed from 1987 appeared:

Almoststew1990 wrote:

Just out of interest how much are we talkin' for a CMS card or original Sound Blaster with the CMS chips installed (can they or reproductions be bought separately)?

I would buy a replica CMS card in an instant (I am no collector!)

Monotech in New Zealand does a CMS kit for SB 2.0s https://monotech.fwscart.com/CMS_Upgrade_for_ … 4_19821556.aspx

Grzyb wrote:

I'm wondering if that defacing actually prevented somebody from cloning the card.
For somebody with capacity to manufacture clones, how long could it take to figure out what chips they were?

Amstrad shipped systems with an Adlib clone in the early '90s. I've one around somewhere. Just remembered I fitted to my Redstone XT Turbo system.

CMS in some form is not really hard to come by. The chips are available cheap on Ebay, and you can just pop those into an OG SB 1.5. The SB 2.0 requires a glue logic chip that has been cloned.

The original CMS card -- i.e., not a Sound Blaster, but aka the Game Blaster -- that's an expensive card. I saw it going for around $1000 last time one showed up on Ebay. Whoever pays that much, I hope you find some happiness in owning the original. It's not a complicated card (can be cloned easily enough, if one were to bother), and doesn't differ much from a SB with CMS chips. (The real card has some auto-detection magic that is not present in the SB.)