First post, by Joseph_Joestar
- Rank
- l33t
Introduction
Hi there, long time lurker, first time poster here! A while ago, I came across Phil's Computer Lab youtube channel and it got me all fired up for some DOS retro gaming. So I dusted off my old PC and installed DOS 6.22 on it, but soon realized that it came with an SB128 PCI card which has some truly awful FM synth emulation. After a quick search in my local classifieds, I found a couple of ISA sound cards that seemed perfect for my needs, one of which was this OPTi 82C930. I have been using this card for several months now and was quite impressed by what it had to offer.
Pros
- Good compatibility in SBPro mode
- Delivers crystal clear 16-bit sound in Windows Sound System mode
- Has a 1:1 pin-compatible OPL3 copy on board, providing excellent FM synthesis
- Has ADPCM support, so games like Duke Nukem 2 work fine
- Has a proper low pass filter in SBPro mode
- Not plug and play (this actually makes configuring easier)
- Has WSS compatible drivers for Windows 3.1
- Has a dedicated Line Out port
- Does not suffer from any bugs which are present on Creative cards
Cons
- Somewhat noisy. It's not really perceptible while gaming, but you may notice it when recording gameplay audio
- A couple of games needed patching/workarounds in order to get the highest quality sound
- Stereo is reversed in some games (e.g. Doom and Quake)
- Windows 98 drivers are pretty bare bones, with very few options to select
From what I can tell, pretty much everything that Phil mentions in his excellent OPTi 82C929 video applies to the 82C930 as well. However, I did notice a few additional details that might be of interest to anyone who has one of these OPTi cards.
My test rig
- Intel Pentium MMX 166 MHz
- Soyo SY-5BT (Intel 430TX)
- 64 MB SDRAM
- S3 Trio64V+ (Hercules Terminator 64/Video)
- 3DFX Voodoo Graphics (A-Trend VD102P)
- OPTi 82C930
- NEC 3.5" floppy drive
- CF to IDE adapter + 4 GB CF card (DOS 6.22 / Win 3.11) + 8 GB CF card (Win95 OSR 2.1)
- LG 48x CD-ROM
- LC Power 420W PSU
- Samsung SyncMaster 795MB 17" CRT monitor
Card settings
I use A220 I5 D1 P330 T4 when running this card in SBPro mode under DOS, as that seemed to give me the best compatibility. As for its Windows Sound System (WSS) mode, I found it best to use port 530 IRQ 7 and DMA 1 as that seemed to work fine with the vast majority of games that support WSS. I also found it helpful to mute any unused inputs (e.g. line in and mic) via SNDINIT.EXE in order to minimize noise. Setting the volume sliders to 80 or lower also helps with that. Lastly, be sure to use the Line Out port when connecting the card to a set of powered speakers.
FM synthesis
According to this website the DXP44Q chip is a 1:1 pin-compatible copy of the Yamaha YMF289B chip (OPL3-L). To my ears, it sounds the same as the real thing. Here are some music samples:
Note that there may be other versions of this card which use an actual OPL3 chip instead of the 1:1 copy that mine has.
Windows Sound System mode
The OPTi 82C930 can operate in 2 modes: Sound Blaster Pro (default) and Windows Sound System. When running in WSS mode, this card can provide crystal clear 16-bit sound (samples attached below). You can switch between the two modes at any time by running SNDINIT.EXE. There is no need to restart your computer after making the switch.
Contrary to popular belief, a decent number of DOS games do support Windows Sound System. Despite its name, WSS works just fine in pure DOS and you don't need to have any version of Windows installed to make use of it. Note that it's sometimes called "Microsoft Sound System" in setup options, but it works all the same. I also found it helpful to add the following line to AUTOEXEC.BAT as it helps some games and programs to better detect WSS:
SET ULTRA16=530,1,7,1
For clarity, 530 = WSS port; 1 = WSS playback DMA; 7 = WSS IRQ and 1 = WSS recording DMA. I realize that most DOS games used 8-bit sound samples, but I did notice increased clarity when using WSS instead of SBPro in some titles that were released during the last years of DOS. For reference, here are some of the games that I have personally tested on this card using its Windows Sound System mode.
Games with native WSS support that worked fine:
- Aladdin
- Command & Conquer
- TES II: Daggerfall
- Descent
- Descent 2
- Fatal Racing (a.k.a. Whiplash)
- Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (CD version)
- Heroes of Might and Magic 2
- King's Quest VI (CD version)
- Lost Vikings 2
- Police Quest IV
- Red Alert
- Settlers 2 Gold
- Space Quest V
- Tomb Raider
- Turrican II
- Tyrian
- Witchaven
Games with native WSS support that didn't work:
- Lion King (crashes on start in WSS mode, works fine in SBPro mode)
- WarCraft 2 (occasionally freezes in WSS mode, works fine in SBPro mode)
Overall, my suggestion is to select WSS mode whenever a game supports it in setup, in order to get the clearest possible sound out of this card. Interestingly, certain games like Turrican II even support a 48 KHz sampling rate in WSS mode.
Transplanting WSS drivers
From reading various posts here, I have learned that you can transplant WSS drivers into some games which use the Miles sound system, even if they don't natively support WSS. Results will vary of course, but I had pretty good success so far. For reference, I used the WSS driver from Settlers 2 Gold as the source. By copying SNDSYS.DIG to other games, I was able to add WSS to the list of sound card options that are available during setup. Simply placing SNDSYS.DIG inside the folder where the rest of the .DIG files reside was enough to make WSS appear as a valid option. I did not have to overwrite any other files with it.
Games with transplanted WSS drivers that worked fine:
- Ascendancy
- Jagged Alliance (choose OEM driver, then select SNDSYS.DIG)
- Master of Orion 2
- Mortal Kombat 3
- Privateer 2
I have gotten noticeably clearer sound in all of the above when using the WSS driver instead of the SBPro driver. Here are two examples where you can hear the difference in clarity:
Mortal Kombat 3 (1995)
Master of Orion 2 (1996)
As you can hear, using the card's SBPro mode may be suboptimal in some late-era DOS games. For more details, see this thread: A List of DOS Games with 16-Bit Sound
OPTi game fixes
I did encounter compatibility issues with a couple of games when using this card. It was mostly related to Epic Megagames releases (see below) which didn't want to recognize it as a proper SBPro. They still worked with the "Sound Blaster Clone" setup option, but that resulted in lower quality sound.
However, as I have been using the DOS drivers from this site I noticed a couple of extra zip files in that archive: EPICFIX.ZIP and HMIGAME.ZIP. Turns out these two files contain the sound fixes for the following games:
- Epic Pinball 2.1
- One Must Fall 2097
- Jazz Jackrabbit
- Any problematic games which use HMIDET.DRV, HMIDRV.DRV, HMIDET.386 or HMIDRV.386 (e.g. Descent)
Before applying these fixes, I was only able to select "Sound Blaster Clone" and "High Quality" in all of the Epic games mentioned above. After applying the fixes, I can now select "Sound Blaster Pro" and "Ultra High Quality" and all those Epic games work perfectly, providing much cleaner sound then before. Descent also works fine in SBPro mode with the HMIGAME.ZIP fixes applied, though I still prefer to run that game in WSS mode for even better audio quality.
Conclusion
Back in the day, I remember dismissing most clone cards and arguing with my friends that a genuine SB16 was the only way to go. I'm very glad to be proven wrong. The SBPro mode of this OPTi card is great for DOS games from the early 90s, when Creative's SBPro was king. For later games, WSS is the preferred option as you can get 16-bit sound, when it is supported. The FM synthesis on this card sounds great, and the drivers come with a nice GUI which makes it easy to configure everything in seconds. Overall, I'd say the OPTi 82C930 is a pretty solid, cheap solution for DOS retro gaming with some interesting extra features that make it stand out in a good way.