BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-24, 22:10:

I swear I went from no hair to grey hair in my ears in only a decade 🤣

Novelty hair growth is definite proof that god has a sense of humor, albeit a cruel one.

Got a couple things I have been looking for for a while:

ATI Mach64 VLB 2MB upgrade:

Matrox M3D - was listed as a Matrox 2MB upgrade. Got for a pretty cheap price:

A Hi-Five SC988 (ESS Canyon 3D). Unlike the Diamond Monster MX400, this one lacks PC/PCI. Got it because it included the driver CD.

I/O Magic Hurricane Extreme (ESS Canyon 3D 2) boxed. Super-duper rare as far as I know. Supposed to support DOS through XP. Part number indicates it was made by Labway.

brostenen wrote on 2022-03-24, 21:45:

Why would he have a GUS in an Amiga? As far as I know, it would only be useable for the Dos side of an Amiga, if there were a bridge board installed. I dont think AmigaOS can access any ISA cards.

Interesting... I just read AHI + PC Soundcard support was available for both classic and PPC amigas... But only for PCI soundcards.
So far doesn't seem possible for any non-DOS bridgeboard, like Omnibus, Crosslink, etc... To do ISA + DMA access to/from the Amiga chipset, thus no accelerated ISA sound support possible from AmigaOS.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-24, 10:27:

GM devices, including the MT-32, were unknown to all but a very niche subset of musician/gamers who were seriously into the former profession. I knew of only one person who used General MIDI for gaming, and he was an Amiga guy. He used his synth keyboard for this purpose, not a separate GM synth though.

This is my anectodal experience. I'd be happy to know if any figures exist that could shed light into the penetration of MT-32 or Sound Canvas as a gaming peripheral. I doubt there is, though.

That has always confused me , you had these incredibly expensive sound modules most people never would touch yet so many games supported them.

Meanwhile the gravis never caught on.

Did Roland just throw that much money at different game developers that the marketing strategy worked?

AppleSauce wrote on 2022-03-25, 04:06:

That has always confused me , you had these incredibly expensive sound modules most people never would touch yet so many games […]
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appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-24, 10:27:

GM devices, including the MT-32, were unknown to all but a very niche subset of musician/gamers who were seriously into the former profession. I knew of only one person who used General MIDI for gaming, and he was an Amiga guy. He used his synth keyboard for this purpose, not a separate GM synth though.

This is my anectodal experience. I'd be happy to know if any figures exist that could shed light into the penetration of MT-32 or Sound Canvas as a gaming peripheral. I doubt there is, though.

That has always confused me , you had these incredibly expensive sound modules most people never would touch yet so many games supported them.

Meanwhile the gravis never caught on.

Did Roland just throw that much money at different game developers that the marketing strategy worked?

No, the people making the music for the games were musicians and they happened to have those sound modules and considered them far superior, that's all.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-25, 07:58:

AppleSauce wrote on 2022-03-25, 04:06:

That has always confused me , you had these incredibly expensive sound modules most people never would touch yet so many games […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-24, 10:27:

GM devices, including the MT-32, were unknown to all but a very niche subset of musician/gamers who were seriously into the former profession. I knew of only one person who used General MIDI for gaming, and he was an Amiga guy. He used his synth keyboard for this purpose, not a separate GM synth though.

This is my anectodal experience. I'd be happy to know if any figures exist that could shed light into the penetration of MT-32 or Sound Canvas as a gaming peripheral. I doubt there is, though.

That has always confused me , you had these incredibly expensive sound modules most people never would touch yet so many games supported them.

Meanwhile the gravis never caught on.

Did Roland just throw that much money at different game developers that the marketing strategy worked?

No, the people making the music for the games were musicians and they happened to have those sound modules and considered them far superior, that's all.

This. They were sound nerds and artists so they included what they thought would be the best sound. I don't think they expected most users to ever hear the music that way.

Doornkaat wrote on 2022-03-25, 08:08:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-25, 07:58:

AppleSauce wrote on 2022-03-25, 04:06:

That has always confused me , you had these incredibly expensive sound modules most people never would touch yet so many games supported them.

Meanwhile the gravis never caught on.

Did Roland just throw that much money at different game developers that the marketing strategy worked?

No, the people making the music for the games were musicians and they happened to have those sound modules and considered them far superior, that's all.

This. They were sound nerds and artists so they included what they thought would be the best sound. I don't think they expected most users to ever hear the music that way.

MT-32 was designed as expansion for Roland D-50 - it was never meant to be used by gamers. Home-musicians maybe but not gamers. It was just later that
There were also cheaper, cut-down versions of MT-32 (like CM-32 module or LAPC music card) - with CM-32 being designed somewhat for gaming purposes as it lacks any controls but volume knob.

Gravis lacked Sound Blaster compatibility so it was a no-go for gamers and it also had horrible midi patches. But it's DSP had some useful features and was well documented that's why it was demoscene's favourite (also it has nothing to do with Amiga's Paula like somebody stated above - even it's approach to sound processing is a bit different - it just happens to do similar things, like so many other DSP chips).

Picked this Speedstart 64 ISA. Possibly the fastest ISA card ever made

mpe wrote on 2022-03-25, 11:42:

Picked this Speedstart 64 ISA. Possibly the fastest ISA card ever made

Hi 😁

I didn't know you could get a TGUI 9680 on ISA until right now.

I have an Orchid Kelvin 64 ISA with the GL5434 and know that's damn fast though.

imi wrote on 2022-03-25, 13:25:

mpe wrote on 2022-03-25, 11:42:

Picked this Speedstart 64 ISA. Possibly the fastest ISA card ever made

Hi 😁

hardware40_73.jpg

How fast are we talking here ?

Ferrari?
Bugatti Veyron ?
McLaren F1 ?

Superman ?

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-25, 13:46:

How fast are we talking here ? […]
Show full quote

imi wrote on 2022-03-25, 13:25:

mpe wrote on 2022-03-25, 11:42:

Picked this Speedstart 64 ISA. Possibly the fastest ISA card ever made

Hi 😁

hardware40_73.jpg

How fast are we talking here ?

Ferrari?
Bugatti Veyron ?
McLaren F1 ?

Superman ?

at least Spaceball I

While there are several rather quick ISA Tseng and WD on the heap, I've yet to find an affordable ISA card with 2 MB - never mind the speed.
How rare are they really? Am I being to stingy or too lazy dumpster diving?

I remember at least in Germany, very few people could a fford a screen that would do more than 800 x 600 until mid 90s.

imi wrote on 2022-03-25, 13:25:

mpe wrote on 2022-03-25, 11:42:

Picked this Speedstart 64 ISA. Possibly the fastest ISA card ever made

Hi 😁

hardware40_73.jpg

Oohhh... Nice bridge chip there.

Would be cool to have a remake of that card if the needed chips are still available.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-25, 14:08:

at least Spaceball I […]
Show full quote

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-25, 13:46:

How fast are we talking here ? […]
Show full quote

imi wrote on 2022-03-25, 13:25:

Hi 😁

hardware40_73.jpg

How fast are we talking here ?

Ferrari?
Bugatti Veyron ?
McLaren F1 ?

Superman ?

at least Spaceball I

While there are several rather quick ISA Tseng and WD on the heap, I've yet to find an affordable ISA card with 2 MB - never mind the speed.
How rare are they really? Am I being to stingy or too lazy dumpster diving?

I remember at least in Germany, very few people could a fford a screen that would do more than 800 x 600 until mid 90s.

Thats a nice ISA card then 😁

Now I want to watch Spaceballs again, wonder if its on Itunes Australia yet.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-03-25, 14:08:

imi wrote on 2022-03-25, 13:25:

mpe wrote on 2022-03-25, 11:42:

Picked this Speedstart 64 ISA. Possibly the fastest ISA card ever made

Hi 😁

hardware40_73.jpg

Oohhh... Nice bridge chip there.

Would be cool to have a remake of that card if the needed chips are still available.

I'm guessing the bridge chip is that ID Data one ?

Is there something particularly great about it ? never heard of ID Data myself.

imi wrote on 2022-03-25, 13:25:

mpe wrote on 2022-03-25, 11:42:

Picked this Speedstart 64 ISA. Possibly the fastest ISA card ever made

Hi 😁

hardware40_73.jpg

Are there any tests out there? I wouldn't automatically assume it's faster than the Speedstar64.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-25, 15:07:

I'm guessing the bridge chip is that ID Data one ?

Is there something particularly great about it ? never heard of ID Data myself.

it's I/O Data, a japanese company, I'd assume it's some proprietary silicon, so I don't think it would be easily attainable, they made a variant of this card for C-Bus as well.

kixs wrote on 2022-03-25, 15:20:

Are there any tests out there? I wouldn't automatically assume it's faster than the Speedstar64.

I doubt it, it's a very obscure card, almost all the ones you can find out there are the C-Bus variant for PC-98 (I got an older one of these too), and yeah, I don't know if it's actually faster in real world scenarios but it certainly is a faster chip ^^ unfortunately I don't have a GD5434 myself.

here's the official site for the card, "DragonStar 64V"
https://www.iodata.jp/products/graphics/gadrv.htm

That Trident 9680 ISA is cool. I also wonder how does it perform.

CL-GD cards are known to be fast in passive DOS mode with no accel. I wonder if the bridge chip on the trident could slow things down slightly (but I am sure it would still excell in GUI due to better acceleration architecture).

imi wrote on 2022-03-25, 15:40:

it's I/O Data, a japanese company, I'd assume it's some proprietary silicon, so I don't think it would be easily attainable, the […]
Show full quote

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-25, 15:07:

I'm guessing the bridge chip is that ID Data one ?

Is there something particularly great about it ? never heard of ID Data myself.

it's I/O Data, a japanese company, I'd assume it's some proprietary silicon, so I don't think it would be easily attainable, they made a variant of this card for C-Bus as well.

kixs wrote on 2022-03-25, 15:20:

Are there any tests out there? I wouldn't automatically assume it's faster than the Speedstar64.

I doubt it, it's a very obscure card, almost all the ones you can find out there are the C-Bus variant for PC-98 (I got an older one of these too), and yeah, I don't know if it's actually faster in real world scenarios but it certainly is a faster chip ^^ unfortunately I don't have a GD5434 myself.

here's the official site for the card, "DragonStar 64V"
https://www.iodata.jp/products/graphics/gadrv.htm

Do you have it? Can you make some tests? The usual 3Dbench, PCPlayer, DOOM, Quake.