* Lemmings 2 The Tribes. Adlib sfx when SB is not selected or can't be initialized (not enough memory).
* NOVA 9 all sfx are adlib.
* Wing Commander 2 original version. All sfx are adlib (except speech in some cutscenes).
* Prehistorik 1. Same as Lemmings 2.
* Stunts. All adlib sfx even with Sound Blaster chosen.
* TMNT Manhattan Missions: Mix of adlib sfx and SB sfx.
* F117: All adlib sfx, even speech before take off!
* Wrath of The Demon: All adlib sfx.

Just off the top of my head 🙂

wbahnassi wrote on 2022-01-12, 22:29:

* Lemmings 2 The Tribes. Adlib sfx when SB is not selected or can't be initialized (not enough memory).

See also all the 1st-generation Lemmings games - Adlib SFX only.
There was digitized sound in the original Amiga version, but in the PC port it was all FM.

The Flashback can use the Adlib for SFX.
I remember I did hack it to make it play sounds using Covox clone instead of Adlib that I didn't have at the time.

NOVA 9 all sfx are adlib.

This is a MT-32 game with MT-32 effects, ported to Adlib. By this logic, every single Sierra game has Adlib music and Adlib SFX, even though it wasn't composed this way. (Basically, every Sierra/Dynamix game have MT-32 or General MIDI music, early games use MIDI for SFX, later ones use MIDI or PCM, player's choice.)

Also, Apogee games are almost all Adlib for music and SFX, depending what the OP means or is asking.

Das Boot

https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/das-boot-g … boat-simulation

I think Tunnels of Armageddon by California Dreams also has Adlib sound effects.

A good number of Apogee games also can use the Adlib for sound effects and music.

Ultima VII has most of it's sound effects in Adlib IIRC, only the Guardian's voicelines are digital.

I think this discussion is conflating two distinct questions here:

1. Games that supported the Adlib FM synthesizer for non-sampled sound effects
2. Games that supported the Adlib FM synthesizer for sampled audio playback (using the special tricks that Cyberdyne referred to, the same way as certain MOD players did it)

There were plenty of games in the former category, including many earlier games that did not play back audio samples, and used only the FM-part of the Sound Blaster card.

Games in the latter category are a lot rarer, and such a list would be even more interesting, I think. I also wonder how practical it was to use the OPL2 chip on the Adlib (and compatible cards) to handle both music and digitally sampled audio at the same time. I assume at least some of the channels would have to be reserved to use as a DAC. Would only one channel have to be reserved for it, for instance?

digger wrote on 2022-02-04, 12:36:

I think this discussion is conflating two distinct questions here: […]
Show full quote

I think this discussion is conflating two distinct questions here:

1. Games that supported the Adlib FM synthesizer for non-sampled sound effects
2. Games that supported the Adlib FM synthesizer for sampled audio playback (using the special tricks that Cyberdyne referred to, the same way as certain MOD players did it)

There were plenty of games in the former category, including many earlier games that did not play back audio samples, and used only the FM-part of the Sound Blaster card.

Games in the latter category are a lot rarer, and such a list would be even more interesting, I think. I also wonder how practical it was to use the OPL2 chip on the Adlib (and compatible cards) to handle both music and digitally sampled audio at the same time. I assume at least some of the channels would have to be reserved to use as a DAC. Would only one channel have to be reserved for it, for instance?

Pinball Dreams and Fantasy Pinball did real FX from Adlib sound cards, like they did over the PC Speaker.

I guess the routine uses a CPU-based noise modulator for both cases.

"Prince of persia" also had adlib FX

"Bubble Bobble" also

Rescue Rover 2 also purely uses AdLib for sound effects (non-digitized sound).

Tubular Worlds plays Adlib SoundFX and Music!

(1994 / Dongleware)

As alluded to earlier, which .MOD players could play .MODs using only the OPL2/OPL3 chip?

I haven't come across any. Tricking the Adlib to "sample" PCM audio via PWM through the OPL2/OPL3 would be quite a feat. Stereo .mods (with sampled audio, of course) through the Adlib? Wild!

zyzzle wrote on 2023-11-05, 21:01:

As alluded to earlier, which .MOD players could play .MODs using only the OPL2/OPL3 chip?

Inertia Player
Crystal Player

zyzzle wrote on 2023-11-05, 21:01:

I haven't come across any. Tricking the Adlib to "sample" PCM audio via PWM through the OPL2/OPL3 would be quite a feat. Stereo .mods (with sampled audio, of course) through the Adlib? Wild!

The method used is not PWM.
Instead the oscillator is triggered and then stopped at its maximum amplitude, so it effectively outputs a signal of 0 Hz. This can then be manipulated by the 6-bit volume control to get pseudo PCM sample playback.
It's very similar to the method used on the C64's SID or the Tandy/PCjr SN76489 chip.

Windows 3.1 adlib only driver output decent quality PCM sound effects.

Scali wrote on 2023-11-05, 21:14:

The method used is not PWM. Instead the oscillator is triggered and then stopped at its maximum amplitude, so it effectively out […]
Show full quote

zyzzle wrote on 2023-11-05, 21:01:

I haven't come across any. Tricking the Adlib to "sample" PCM audio via PWM through the OPL2/OPL3 would be quite a feat. Stereo .mods (with sampled audio, of course) through the Adlib? Wild!

The method used is not PWM.
Instead the oscillator is triggered and then stopped at its maximum amplitude, so it effectively outputs a signal of 0 Hz. This can then be manipulated by the 6-bit volume control to get pseudo PCM sample playback.
It's very similar to the method used on the C64's SID or the Tandy/PCjr SN76489 chip.

Does this take up all of the available "voices" of the FM synthesizer? Or is there a way to combine PCM sample output with FM music playback, albeit with fewer channels/voices? And are there any games that do that?

digger wrote on 2023-11-06, 10:24:

Does this take up all of the available "voices" of the FM synthesizer? Or is there a way to combine PCM sample output with FM music playback, albeit with fewer channels/voices? And are there any games that do that?

You can use any individual FM channel as a pseudo-DAC in this way.
However, especially on the OPL2 the limiting factor is how quickly you can write the volume commands to it. I worked out the limits of the OPL2 chip once, based on the timings, and I believe that 30 kHz was about the best you could get.
While it is possible in theory to reserve one channel as a DAC, and use the others for regular FM music, in practice you can only do that when you use relatively low sample rates (less than 15 kHz, to leave room for other commands), else there is no time to update the other channels between sample outputs.
I'm not sure if any software actually combines the two.
The OPL3 is much faster, so it can reach higher sample rates, and it would also be easier to combine sample output with FM channels.

The games I could find that supported this trick. I believe some (all) of them were previously mentioned already.
- Sango Fighter (a new (version?)game from 2010)
- Stunt Driver
- Pinball fantasies
- F-15 Strike Eagle II
EDIT: - Fastdoom mod also supports FX sound via Adlib (with no music in the background, though)

The method itself is described here in all details https://github.com/leonardo-ono/Assembly8086P … dSoundAdlibOpl2

Scali wrote on 2023-11-06, 10:41:

You can use any individual FM channel as a pseudo-DAC in this way. However, especially on the OPL2 the limiting factor is how qu […]
Show full quote

digger wrote on 2023-11-06, 10:24:

Does this take up all of the available "voices" of the FM synthesizer? Or is there a way to combine PCM sample output with FM music playback, albeit with fewer channels/voices? And are there any games that do that?

You can use any individual FM channel as a pseudo-DAC in this way.
However, especially on the OPL2 the limiting factor is how quickly you can write the volume commands to it. I worked out the limits of the OPL2 chip once, based on the timings, and I believe that 30 kHz was about the best you could get.
While it is possible in theory to reserve one channel as a DAC, and use the others for regular FM music, in practice you can only do that when you use relatively low sample rates (less than 15 kHz, to leave room for other commands), else there is no time to update the other channels between sample outputs.
I'm not sure if any software actually combines the two.

Interesting. Thanks for the info. 15 kHz would be fine, since most DOS games didn't have sound assets that were recorded at higher frequencies than 11 kHz anyway.

Only in MOD players would you want to have the highest possible sample frequency, and in such cases FM synthesis wouldn't be used for music anyway.

The OPL3 is much faster, so it can reach higher sample rates, and it would also be easier to combine sample output with FM channels.

Good point. Also, the OPL3 has twice as many FM channels, half of which went unused in games that only had OPL2-based FM music, which was the majority of games, right? So that would leave several channels available for this PCM trick alongside OPL2-compatible FM music playback.

Perhaps a version of ADLIPT and/or SBEMU could be developed that would combine OPL2-compatible FM playback with PCM output on an OPL3LPT. 🙂

Bondi wrote on 2023-11-06, 11:06:

The games I could find that supported this trick. I believe some (all) of them were previously mentioned already. - Sango Fighte […]
Show full quote

The games I could find that supported this trick. I believe some (all) of them were previously mentioned already.
- Sango Fighter (a new (version?)game from 2010)
- Stunt Driver
- Pinball fantasies
- F-15 Strike Eagle II
EDIT: - Fastdoom mod also supports FX sound via Adlib (with no music in the background, though)

The method itself is described here in all details https://github.com/leonardo-ono/Assembly8086P … dSoundAdlibOpl2

Thanks for the list, Bondi. Do you happen to know which of these also supported digital samples combined with FM music, using this method?

This would be an interesting case for viti95 to take a look at, maybe. 🙂