I had ES1868 card, I remember the box, but can't remember at all if I had any use for those apps.

But the Compaq disks for ES688 are still here: https://archive.org/details/compaq-ess-688-driver-disk
There are two disk images included, and one definitely has some windows apps that do look like the ones from the user guide.

I've posted the diskettes shipped with Genius Sound Maker 12E (based on ES488), with version 2.1, from March 1994, here - 12-bit sound card

That stuff from Compaq is version 3.03c, from March 1995.

Thanks both. The first link was exactly what I needed. Other ESS driver archives seemed to have stripped out the bundled apps and only contained the core drivers.

Hello,

I have the audio applications mentioned in this topic that came included with a Nakamichi CD Changer.

Until recently, I was perplexed as to why the applications, Talking Clock, Talking Calculator, Chime etc were not working and why I could not play any .aud files that this software bundle uses. I did notice a clue at the time - an 'AudioDrive' symbol was present in the dialogue boxes of the programs I was attempting to run.

At the time, I was using a Sound Blaster 16 inside my computer. A few days ago I came across a rare but informative document on Scribd that states that the audio applications above were meant to be used with a ESS688 AudioDrive sound card, among a few others.

If I install an ESS688 sound card, install the respective drivers and the audio applications, will the programs work?

Richy1985 wrote on 2025-07-31, 13:58:

If I install an ESS688 sound card, install the respective drivers and the audio applications, will the programs work?

They should work - they were designed for ES488, ES1488, and ES688.
They may also work with later ESS chips - though later cards were shipped with AudioRack software instead.

ESS chips support ESPCM - a proprietary sound compression format - and that's probably why you can't use that software/files with other cards.

ESS chips support ESPCM - a proprietary sound compression format - and that's probably why you can't use that software/files with other cards.

Thank you for the above piece of information and confirmation!

Just to be on the safe side, I will purchase an ESS688, apparently this model is 'top of the range' out of the three models you mentioned.

I thought I would never get these audio programs working and that there was some kind of compatibility fault between these programs and Windows 3.x & Windows 9.x that was not addressed by ESS Audiodrive when they made the programs (in other words, poor program testing prior to release to the general public).

The reason why I am looking into an ESS Audiodrive sound card is because there is a lack of CD-ROM support on my 486 mainboard and there is only one IDE connector. I have three CD-ROMs and only one of them is recognized by the Viglen 486 PCI model DT-PCI, with the correct drivers installed, of course. I cannot connect an IDE cable to my Sound Blaster 16 as this card requires a propriety IDE cable with the correct pinout.

I plan to attach a standard IDE cable from the CD-ROM connector to the 'IDE CD-ROM' connector on the ESS sound card - not to the connectors marked Sony, Mitsumi or Panasonic.

Can you confirm that the ESS688 uses a standard (not proprietary) 40-pin IDE cable when connecting to the 'IDE CD-ROM' connector on the ESS688 sound card?

Also, can anyone confirm if these audio applications work with the ESS1868?

I think we're finally getting somewhere and my curiosity as to what 'Cuckoo.aud' and 'Big Ben.aud' sounds like will eventually be satisfied!

Richy1985 wrote on 2025-07-31, 14:58:

Can you confirm that the ESS688 uses a standard (not proprietary) 40-pin IDE cable when connecting to the 'IDE CD-ROM' connector on the ESS688 sound card?

Yes.
If it's IDE, then it's IDE - nothing proprietary about it.

I think we're finally getting somewhere and my curiosity as to what 'Cuckoo.aud' and 'Big Ben.aud' sounds like will eventually be satisfied!

I had a look at those .AUD files - it's the same container as .WAV, only with 0xE688 format code - which obviously stands for ESPCM.

I have the disks for this somewhere. The card came with Voyetra software for Windows and various sound samples. The Compaq drivers above seem like the same thing, just a newer version.