Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-15, 15:53:

Phil just released a video review of the MK1869. He covers the card in great detail, though I do have small note regarding his experiences when using the native AudioDrive mode in Tomb Raider and Descent.

As Phil correctly observed, digital audio becomes more filtered when using the AudioDrive mode in the aforementioned games. However, this issue only occurs in games which use the HMI Sound System (both Tomb Raider and Descent do) and is likely caused by a bug in HMI's own drivers. In contrast, if you select the native AudioDrive mode in games which use the Miles Sound System (e.g. Heroes of Might and Magic 2) you will get crystal clear 16-bit digital audio, with no excessive filtering. Just thought I'd clarify that.

thanks for this bit of info Joseph_Joestar
what other secrets are you hiding? 😁

keropi wrote on 2025-04-15, 16:03:

thanks for this bit of info Joseph_Joestar
what other secrets are you hiding? 😁

Heh, it's not exactly new info. I posted about it here almost five years ago, when I got my ESS 1868F.

Personally, I never found this to be a huge issue since ESS cards sound fantastic in SBPro mode, which can be used without any problems with the HMI Sound System. Though maybe someone could hack the HMI drivers to fix the AudioDrive mode bug. I'm not a programmer, so I can't be of any help there. 😀

P.S.

There was another issue where older Sierra games like Gabriel Knight would mute the Line In of certain ESS cards for some reason. Falcosoft explains it here: Re: Release -New Aureal DOS Mixer Util-

Also, I was never able to get FM synth to work in Rambo 3 on any ESS card. Seems to be an issue specific to that game.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-15, 16:37:

Heh, it's not exactly new info. I posted about it here almost five years ago, when I got my ESS 1868F. [...]

ah I have read these posts ofcourse back when we were researching the ESS chips... but ofcourse forgotten about it 🤣
that info might sound trivial but having it here can save lots of searching so thanks! 😁

I know this board is gaming leaning but I like my demos.
Nice ESS audiodrive implementation from recent years emergency by Disaster Area No quality issues whatsoever.
Also more period correct Event Horizon and Sleepless by Smash Designs do support ESS.
So far I'm happy with this one...

Old and New 😀

keropi wrote on 2025-04-14, 15:12:

apparently the packages to AU were blocked by the export center because of "included batteries" and they are being sent back
this mess will be sorted out, still it is an added delay - someone in the post needs a slap or something :\
will update the affected people as things get more clear in the next couple of days

Not sure why these issues are occurring.
I received mine last week from Portugal without a problem. GST shouldn't be incurred either, as long as the transaction is like a private sale/gift, nothing extra should be paid by the receiver.
AusPost are all over the place with their requirements, very inconsistent and past experience has shown me that at times they have no clue how things work even in accordance with their rules.

My card arrived today. I am very happy. Thanks to all the developers, testers and everyone in the background.

Got mine, working like a charm on Slot1, Socket7 and Socket 370 MB's.
Will check it with Advantech p4 ISA MB , this one have a problem with MK8330.
Thanks again for nice development.

Thank you all for the support, I hope the card will bring you countless hours of retro gaming joy 😀

@keropi any ETA on when the MK1869 Extreme will be ready?

CHA0SHACKER wrote on 2025-04-16, 13:54:

@keropi any ETA on when the MK1869 Extreme will be ready?

need to order the protos alongside the 2nd batch of MK1869 and pcmidis, we will do that either this weekend or the next ...
so it will be a month or so extra before XTREME is actually available - it needs to be perfect before release 😀

keropi wrote on 2025-04-16, 14:55:

CHA0SHACKER wrote on 2025-04-16, 13:54:

@keropi any ETA on when the MK1869 Extreme will be ready?

need to order the protos alongside the 2nd batch of MK1869 and pcmidis, we will do that either this weekend or the next ...
so it will be a month or so extra before XTREME is actually available - it needs to be perfect before release 😀

Thanks 😀

So I don’t need to refresh the page everyday to not miss the order window.

Found another game for which ESS card is a inferior choice - Little Big Adventure 1. The game has SB and SB Pro drivers but those seem to be partially broken. If a speech starts it cuts off any currently playing sound effect and stereo effects (in the case of SB Pro mode) have weird stereo separation issues. You need to hear it for yourself to understand. It's not a HW problem, it behaves like that on all cards.

Solution is to use either SB16 or WSS mode, which is not compatible with ESS Audiodrive chips.

Other game is of course Tyrian, you're stuck with crackling Sound Blaster sounds there.

Paar wrote on 2025-04-17, 12:44:

Finally found another game for which ESS card is a inferior choice - Little Big Adventure 1. The game has SB and SB Pro drivers but those seem to be partially broken. If a speech starts it cuts off any currently playing sound effect and stereo effects (in the case of SB Pro mode) has weird stereo separation issues. You need to hear it for yourself to understand. It's not a HW problem, it behaves like that on all cards.

Solution is to use either SB16 or WSS mode, which is not compatible with ESS Audiodrive chips.

Other game is of course Tyrian, you're stuck with crackling Sound Blaster sounds there.

I did not know about LBA
but Tyrian works fine for me with ESS, at least on my 233mmx system that I tested
makes you wonder what these programmers were smoking 🤣

Paar wrote on 2025-04-17, 12:44:

Finally found another game for which ESS card is a inferior choice - Little Big Adventure 1. The game has SB and SB Pro drivers but those seem to be partially broken.

I think the DOS version of Fallout also has broken SBPro drivers. But it's been ages since I tried it, so I'm not sure.

Also, the Win9x version of Fallout is better anyway.

keropi wrote on 2025-04-17, 13:22:

I did not know about LBA
but Tyrian works fine for me with ESS, at least on my 233mmx system that I tested
makes you wonder what these programmers were smoking 🤣

Weird, I have tried the game with various ESS chips from ES688 to ES1938 (Solo 1) and all behaved like that. Tried with various motherboard chipsets too, mainly SiS 471, Intel 430VX/HX and Intel 440BX.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-17, 13:26:

I think the DOS version of Fallout also has broken SBPro drivers. But it's been ages since I tried it, so I'm not sure.

Also, the Win9x version of Fallout is better anyway.

Sometimes it's fun to try DOS version of mainly Windows game (like Fallout, or Time Commando or LBA2 from Adeline). Just for giggles. There is a semi-official port of LBA1 to Win9x called LbaWin but it has it's own set of issues and never got out of a beta phase. So I usually stick to the original in this case.

Paar wrote on 2025-04-17, 15:42:

Weird, I have tried the game with various ESS chips from ES688 to ES1938 (Solo 1) and all behaved like that. Tried with various motherboard chipsets too, mainly SiS 471, Intel 430VX/HX and Intel 440BX.

my 233mmx is a VIA MVP3 system... will try it again in case I do not remember correctly - there is always this chance! 🤣

I love the project and the idea, but one question...

Does this require a 16-bit motherboard, or can it work on an 8-bit PC? I own the NuXT 8088 board from Monotech.

I have looked through the 12 pages of comments thus far and the product page and (unless I missed it) there's no mention of 8-bit compatibility.

I have probably very niche use case, but have anyone tried card with Impulse tracker in native ESS mode on early 486 era PnP boards.
My PVI-486SP3 is refusing to detect it. Card works fine otherwise. For example Mpxplay with native ESS support works.
Card however gets detected just fine on my Apollo Pro133T and 440BX late ISA era boards.
I suspect early PnP BIOS implementation quirks on 486 era board...

Impulse tracker is one of rare module players with native ESS support

vutt wrote on 2025-04-18, 09:51:

Impulse tracker is one of rare module players with native ESS support

Thanks for that info...
So it seems that - apart from games - there are four DOS programs with ESS support:

Impulse Tracker
Mpxplay
Open Cubic Player
QuickView Pro