it's not so trivial because the signal path is totally different. you're not inputting a stereo audio signal into the card where it's expected to be mixed in hardware, instead you're trying to read the audio data from a software running in the background, so in addition some kind of software mixer would need to be running to do this in DOS. both would also probably come with noticeable overhead on slower machines. it's probably possible in win9x with the right card/drivers though.

it's why a hardware optical drive emulator with CD audio out is a useful device.

The Lucasarts talkie games didn't need any sort of CDROM emulation; you can just copy the CD contents into a directory on the HDD and run it from there.

Sam & Max does not use Redbook audio tracks. There is a version that includes some bonus audio tracks for listening, but they're never played by the game.

feda wrote on 2024-12-09, 17:42:

Sam & Max does not use Redbook audio tracks. There is a version that includes some bonus audio tracks for listening, but they're never played by the game.

That’s something at least. Thanks for the heads-up. 😀

jmarsh wrote on 2024-12-09, 16:49:

The Lucasarts talkie games didn't need any sort of CDROM emulation; you can just copy the CD contents into a directory on the HDD and run it from there.

Oh cool. I’ll do that now. Thanks. 😁

auron wrote on 2024-12-09, 15:26:

it's not so trivial because the signal path is totally different. you're not inputting a stereo audio signal into the card where it's expected to be mixed in hardware, instead you're trying to read the audio data from a software running in the background, so in addition some kind of software mixer would need to be running to do this in DOS. both would also probably come with noticeable overhead on slower machines. it's probably possible in win9x with the right card/drivers though.

it's why a hardware optical drive emulator with CD audio out is a useful device.

I see. Is the hardware optical drive emulator similar to the emulated floppy drive? In that it reads image files? How does that work exactly? Thanks.

The game did use the audio track, but only for one particular scene some way into the game. I can recall playing the game with a particular GM capable sound card back in the day, and as that card didn't have any inputs for CD audio, that portion of the game was silent.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2024-12-09, 17:48:

auron wrote on 2024-12-09, 15:26:

it's not so trivial because the signal path is totally different. you're not inputting a stereo audio signal into the card where it's expected to be mixed in hardware, instead you're trying to read the audio data from a software running in the background, so in addition some kind of software mixer would need to be running to do this in DOS. both would also probably come with noticeable overhead on slower machines. it's probably possible in win9x with the right card/drivers though.

it's why a hardware optical drive emulator with CD audio out is a useful device.

I see. Is the hardware optical drive emulator similar to the emulated floppy drive? In that it reads image files? How does that work exactly? Thanks.

look for ZuluSCSI/ZuluIDE, though can't speak to how far the cd audio support is perfected as of right now. they also still seem to require an add-on DAC to do this.