Could you try with the Cardsoft software instead?

bjwil1991 wrote on 2021-11-21, 20:24:

Databook CardTalk Not Loaded.

I think CardTalk intended especially for IBM laptops, not for NEC.

I use this lines in config.sys for my Nec Versa 4000c:

DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=D000-D7FF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\CARDSOFT\SS365SL.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\CARDSOFT\CS.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\CARDSOFT\CSALLOC.EXE C:\DOS\CARDSOFT\D000\!TOSHIBA.INI

my cardsoft folder you can download here:

There different INI files compatible with different laptop brands, not sure if all they perfect, but in most cases they work.

lolo799 wrote on 2021-11-21, 21:49:

Could you try with the Cardsoft software instead?

I'll give that a whirl and see how that performs and I'll post back (all of the files are on my main laptop at the moment and the floppy drive never worked on my phone, sadly).

Edit: tried that and nothing happens.

The laptop is an Austin PN/312TFT. I had an NEC laptop until the power brick died and so did the motherboard.

I've made some FM recordings of Wavjammer card. It sounds to me as if there was a genuine Yamaha OPL chip in it. What do you think?

Only based on E1M1, yes, it's likely.
Could you post a sample from an ess based card?

I should have made ingame recordings when I had all those cards but I mostly used midi files provided in one of the sound cards comparison thread and played them with the Win9x Media Player, the output is wildly different from ingame...

lolo799 wrote on 2021-12-02, 12:27:

Only based on E1M1, yes, it's likely.
Could you post a sample from an ess based card?

I should have made ingame recordings when I had all those cards but I mostly used midi files provided in one of the sound cards comparison thread and played them with the Win9x Media Player, the output is wildly different from ingame...

Sure, I can make a recording of an ESS card on one of the coming days. But it actually sounds as any other ESFM card.

In the meanwhile I tried the VEW211 and KXL-D20 on a "modern" laptop from 2006, Thinkpad x60s. It's one the last ones to have a Cardbus slot. All later model had ExpressCard.
Surprisingly both cards worked fine including SB Direct mode. The Intel 82365 compatible enablers did not work. So one needs CS and SS drivers loaded. IBM was kind enough to issue DOS drivers for its laptops from 2006.

Old recordings, e1m1 midi file played in Win9x Media Player except for the ingame recording

Hey guys,

I hope you can help me. I have a beautiful IBM Thinkpad 360CSE and I would like to use it for some retro games like Doom, Duke Nukem, Wolf3D, Lemmings etc.
Unfortunaly this model has no internal soundcard. Is there any low budget option to play these games with sound? At the moment Windows 95 is installed, but Windows 3.11 is also possible.

I guess this Thinkpad needs a 16 bit (or 32?) PCMCIA sound card. But I can not find any card here in Europe (germany). There is a soundblaster Audigy 2 zs on ebay, but I do not know if it is working for me.

Maybe there is an option for the parallel port. I found this adaptor in russia: Covox Speech Thing Sound Card for Parallel Port LPT with resistor DAC. But my games are not in the supported list.

Have you any idea? Thanks a lot.

brandinho wrote on 2021-12-08, 09:03:

Hey guys, […]
Show full quote

Hey guys,

I hope you can help me. I have a beautiful IBM Thinkpad 360CSE and I would like to use it for some retro games like Doom, Duke Nukem, Wolf3D, Lemmings etc.
Unfortunaly this model has no internal soundcard. Is there any low budget option to play these games with sound? At the moment Windows 95 is installed, but Windows 3.11 is also possible.

I guess this Thinkpad needs a 16 bit (or 32?) PCMCIA sound card. But I can not find any card here in Europe (germany). There is a soundblaster Audigy 2 zs on ebay, but I do not know if it is working for me.

Maybe there is an option for the parallel port. I found this adaptor in russia: Covox Speech Thing Sound Card for Parallel Port LPT with resistor DAC. But my games are not in the supported list.

Have you any idea? Thanks a lot.

Hi brandinho, welcome to the forum.
If your aim is to play DOOM, Duke, etc, then the only card that would work for digital sound is the IBM 3D Sound card. But it's hard to find. Most other PCMCIA cards would work as Adlib music source. You can see my signature for more details.
A good way to go in yur case would be a Disney Sound Source (DSS) that connects to LPT port. It's supported by Duk3D, Wolf3D, ROTT and even DOOM (Fast Doom mod) and many other good games, overall around 150 games. But it only supports digital sound, so no FM music.
For music you can use a OPL2LPT device. But it's also an LPT dongle and cannot get along with the DSS.
So a perfect solution does not really exist. Unless you get a 3545 Docking station for your 360CSE.

brandinho wrote on 2021-12-08, 09:03:

To add to Bondi's reply, the parallel port devices from DSP Solutions, the PORT.ABLE Sound Plus or the DigiSound Plus may be interesting to you.

Found a driver to use the SCP-55 under MacOS 7.6.1 on the following laptops (from the readme):
Tested only on the PowerBook520c + PCMCIA Expansion Module (TypeC)
Probably working on those models:
PowerBook500series + PCMCIA Expansion Module (TypeC))
PowerBook5300
PowerBook190
PowerBook1400
Not working on the PowerBook3400 and further PCI-based models.
http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/mac/art/se224171.html

Also to add to what Bondi and lolo799 said as I was in a similar position with a Dell Inspiron laptop...

The cheapest way to go other than OPL2LPT for music and something like DSS for soundfx would be DOSbox. It sounds daft but DOSbox does a great job audio wise. Plays Doom and other older DOS games great on Windows 9X.
There's videos on Youtube showing DOSbox comparisons agains OPL3 hardware and its very difficult to tell the difference

Either that or get something totally different. I got a PSP Go and can play Doom for PSP and other Doom / Duke Nukem 3D / Lemmings (any PSX game) plus Amiga, SNES, Megadrive and many other systems all on a device that fits in your pocket. You can also connect a Dual Shock 3 pad via bluetooth and other bluetooth devices like headphones and speaker and also put it in a cradle and output to TV

Just an idea instead looking for looking for super rare PCMCIA soundcards. Cost of a PCMCIA soundcard, you could buy another (vintage) device or new device to play older games

Thank you very much guys!

DOSbox or any other device is not an option for me, because I want to use my Thinkpad. I will have a look at ThinkPad Dock I (3545), IBM 3D Sound card, Disney Sound Source or maybe a Thinkpad model with integrated sound and TFT display.

re: the IBM 3D Sound. Has anyone ever seen even a picture of the midi connector dongle for it? the "3D PCMCIA Sound Card Attach Module"

Seeing as my reproduction card uses the same HRS connector, I thought it would be helpful to try and make the midi/gameport dongle compatible to it. I have not yet sat down and figured out which pins are sound/gameport, I don't think that has been done by anyone so far?

13D PCMCIA Sound Card Attach Module
215-pin, female D-shell type connector for attaching a joystick or a MIDI breakout cable
3Built-in microphone
4Two 1/8-inch, 3-connector phone jacks for attaching, connecting, or receiving (stereo or CD function)

yyzkevin wrote on 2021-12-20, 07:28:

re: the IBM 3D Sound. Has anyone ever seen even a picture of the midi connector dongle for it? the "3D PCMCIA Sound Card Atta […]
Show full quote

re: the IBM 3D Sound. Has anyone ever seen even a picture of the midi connector dongle for it? the "3D PCMCIA Sound Card Attach Module"

Seeing as my reproduction card uses the same HRS connector, I thought it would be helpful to try and make the midi/gameport dongle compatible to it. I have not yet sat down and figured out which pins are sound/gameport, I don't think that has been done by anyone so far?

Copy code to clipboard

13D PCMCIA Sound Card Attach Module
215-pin, female D-shell type connector for attaching a joystick or a MIDI breakout cable
3Built-in microphone
4Two 1/8-inch, 3-connector phone jacks for attaching, connecting, or receiving (stereo or CD function)

The only picture of it I've seen is the one in the manual https://archive.org/details/ibm-3-d-sound-car … age/54/mode/2up
And yes, making your breakout box compatible with the original card is a good idea, all the owners of the IBM card will appreciate it for sure.

In terms of cards that have the option to output to the internal laptop speaker, have you noticed some are better than others? I have only tested one so far (the panasonic VEW211P) . I tried it out on my Thinkpad 230cs and I found it to sound terrible, but it could be the laptop. Once I put my Toshiba LTE Elite back together I will try it on there.

yyzkevin wrote on 2021-12-28, 06:44:

In terms of cards that have the option to output to the internal laptop speaker, have you noticed some are better than others? I have only tested one so far (the panasonic VEW211P) . I tried it out on my Thinkpad 230cs and I found it to sound terrible, but it could be the laptop. Once I put my Toshiba LTE Elite back together I will try it on there.

I think it mostly depends on speaker quality, yet this output method doesn't allow for very clear sound. VEW211 sounds acceptable on my TP 360CE, which has a good quality speaker.
VEW212 aside, the only other card capable of internal speaker output is the Yamaha card. Tried it on TP A31p with superb speaker quality. Still it does not sound perfect.

I made a small breakout for the 25pin connector on the IBM 3D Sound, and after some initial poking around I was unable to identify the gameport or midi port.

- does sending the midi messages to the soundblaster midi port actually goto the external connector when in dos? I could not identify any serial data on any of the pins while playing with dosmid /sbmidi=220 I also did not hear any audio output (wavetable not loaded to dsp when in dos?).

-gameport, I also do not know does this work in dos? I am using the 220h setting which sets the pcmcia window to 200-22f to cover those ports. I saw one configuration option about gameport speed in mwave.ini but I did not see it mentioned in the manual.

maybe there are a set of pins that get bridged when the attachment module is installed and that brings the external functions to life? Given the cost of this card I am just not ready to cut it open to look at the inside for any hints on the purpose of each pin.

I suppose I should also try in windows for the purpose of identifying these pins. I am not going to sink too much time into it though as this is just to try and make my dongle/breakout usable on the ibm card also.

Bondi wrote on 2021-12-20, 07:44:

yyzkevin wrote on 2021-12-20, 07:28:

re: the IBM 3D Sound. Has anyone ever seen even a picture of the midi connector dongle for it? the "3D PCMCIA Sound Card Atta […]
Show full quote

re: the IBM 3D Sound. Has anyone ever seen even a picture of the midi connector dongle for it? the "3D PCMCIA Sound Card Attach Module"

Seeing as my reproduction card uses the same HRS connector, I thought it would be helpful to try and make the midi/gameport dongle compatible to it. I have not yet sat down and figured out which pins are sound/gameport, I don't think that has been done by anyone so far?

Copy code to clipboard

13D PCMCIA Sound Card Attach Module
215-pin, female D-shell type connector for attaching a joystick or a MIDI breakout cable
3Built-in microphone
4Two 1/8-inch, 3-connector phone jacks for attaching, connecting, or receiving (stereo or CD function)

The only picture of it I've seen is the one in the manual https://archive.org/details/ibm-3-d-sound-car … age/54/mode/2up
And yes, making your breakout box compatible with the original card is a good idea, all the owners of the IBM card will appreciate it for sure.

yyzkevin wrote on 2021-12-29, 05:40:

I made a small breakout for the 25pin connector on the IBM 3D Sound, and after some initial poking around I was unable to i […]
Show full quote

I made a small breakout for the 25pin connector on the IBM 3D Sound, and after some initial poking around I was unable to identify the gameport or midi port.

- does sending the midi messages to the soundblaster midi port actually goto the external connector when in dos? I could not identify any serial data on any of the pins while playing with dosmid /sbmidi=220 I also did not hear any audio output (wavetable not loaded to dsp when in dos?).

-gameport, I also do not know does this work in dos? I am using the 220h setting which sets the pcmcia window to 200-22f to cover those ports. I saw one configuration option about gameport speed in mwave.ini but I did not see it mentioned in the manual.

maybe there are a set of pins that get bridged when the attachment module is installed and that brings the external functions to life? Given the cost of this card I am just not ready to cut it open to look at the inside for any hints on the purpose of each pin.

I suppose I should also try in windows for the purpose of identifying these pins. I am not going to sink too much time into it though as this is just to try and make my dongle/breakout usable on the ibm card also.

Bondi wrote on 2021-12-20, 07:44:

yyzkevin wrote on 2021-12-20, 07:28:

re: the IBM 3D Sound. Has anyone ever seen even a picture of the midi connector dongle for it? the "3D PCMCIA Sound Card Atta […]
Show full quote

re: the IBM 3D Sound. Has anyone ever seen even a picture of the midi connector dongle for it? the "3D PCMCIA Sound Card Attach Module"

Seeing as my reproduction card uses the same HRS connector, I thought it would be helpful to try and make the midi/gameport dongle compatible to it. I have not yet sat down and figured out which pins are sound/gameport, I don't think that has been done by anyone so far?

Copy code to clipboard

13D PCMCIA Sound Card Attach Module
215-pin, female D-shell type connector for attaching a joystick or a MIDI breakout cable
3Built-in microphone
4Two 1/8-inch, 3-connector phone jacks for attaching, connecting, or receiving (stereo or CD function)

The only picture of it I've seen is the one in the manual https://archive.org/details/ibm-3-d-sound-car … age/54/mode/2up
And yes, making your breakout box compatible with the original card is a good idea, all the owners of the IBM card will appreciate it for sure.

My understanding is that MIDI does not work in DOS, but the game port should work. It refers to mwave.ini in the manual here. I assume they mean DOS environment here, but who knows...
https://archive.org/details/ibm-3-d-sound-car … age/72/mode/2up
Do you also load the resource map utility DICRMU01.SYS? Aren't there any ports excluded with /PX switch?

EDIT. I doubt It would output MIDI to 220 port (/sbmidi=220 in dosmid). Theoretically I'd rather expect it on 330 port. Regular MWAVE card actually outputs MIDI to 330, I checked it on my 755CD laptop. Interestingly, it does not mention port 330 anywhere in .ini or readme files, but it works (in pure DOS). So just for fun you may also want to try /mpu=330 in dosmid.

Guys I remember there was a project on creating pcmcia sound card, what’s the status?

And remind me please, it supports both sound effects and have opl / wavetable synth?

Thanks

vorob wrote on 2022-01-05, 10:00:

Guys I remember there was a project on creating pcmcia sound card, what’s the status?

Here's the thread: Newly made PCMCIA sound card