pentiumspeed wrote:

Will I be good using a ES1868 or ES1869 and using Pentium 133 with speed tricks would be good?
How much of the games supports sound blaster Pro 2 type?

Ten years is a bit of a stretch, but this combo will cover from about 1990 to 1997 or 1998. It can't throttle down below 386 territory, so IBM PC/AT and 286 era games that are speed sensitive will probably have trouble.

ESS cards are some of the best when it comes to broad coverage for DOS titles, although specific titles sometimes give better results with specific hardware (i.e. Crusader games with SB16, some titles with GUS, MIDI hardware, etc).

I have a ESS ES1868F and it's been working great even for early games on an Athlon XP, using tricks such as disabling L1 cache and reducing the multiplier.

However not all models are created equal. The one I'm currently using has extremely low noise and is labeled "Edison Gold 16 Plus" and "KWX-SC200". I find it useful to use it in "line out" mode as the output level range is perfect for headphones, as contrary to the speaker mode which is very loud. The wires you can see are an addition I soldered on the back - it adds an AC'97 header.

One interesting model is also the Terratec 16/96 Gold (ESS AudioDrive ES1868F). It's line out output is however weaker than the aforementioned
cards, but it's still interesting if you're going to use speakers.

About FM synthesis (it's an OPL3 replacement, not an identical clone), it sounds pretty good although I never had a real OPL3 so it's difficult for me to compare. If you're used to the sound of a real OPL3 you might prefer a Yamaha card.

Finally these cards have the advantage of a WaveBlaster header, which in my experience works flawlessly with the DreamBlaster X2.

ESFM has a different sound from OPL3, but I like it