Yes, the gameport on the Aztech card would be for joysticks only.

Typically any game that has Adlib support will have it for both sound effects and music. I'm not aware of any games with Adlib that would exclude one or the other.

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2026-01-22, 21:12:

So I've got my first 486 in the house. It is a complete and running system, ex educational with a very limited W95 install. It's […]
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So I've got my first 486 in the house. It is a complete and running system, ex educational with a very limited W95 install. It's not just a profile with restricted policies but apparently a truly limited W95 install. I can't even go into safe mode, change the resolution... Also, it's German and me nor my keyboard are. So I would like to reinstall W95 or, likely, 3.11/6.22.

But before doing that, how do I make a backup of the HD? The only connection to the outside world is 1.44mb diskette. It also has a CD rom drive.

I would like to have a HD backup to retrieve drivers for all the hardware in this pc, look at the current autoexec etc. Can I use the current drivers for a W3.11/6.22 install or would these all be unsuitable 32 bit drivers? The hardware is a cirrus logic gpu, SB16, logi isa/vlb motherboard, 8x cd-rom, no brand genlock card.

Also, there is some rare W95 software on this pc. But can I reinstall it just by having a backup of the HD or is it too complex (registry keys, spread files...)? Asduming I'd go for W95 of course.

I'd use a cheap IDE to USB adapter, plug the drive into a modern PC and image it with modern tools - eg DD with linux or something like Macrium Reflect for Windows.
It will be very fast to do, with macrium you can browse the image on a modern machine later if you need to and it is easy to restore it to another drive or CF card if that original drive dies

Very handy suggestion!

Does that work with a drive that has ontrack on it (because at 1223mb it was a bit large for the bios)? I wasw thinking about using rescuezilla/clonezilla, but also make a "Windows Explorer copy" of most files on the original hard drive, as it's only a few hundred MB and offers a very direct way of browsing/copying individual files later.

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2026-01-24, 14:45:

Also, oops, it's not a soundblaster. It's an Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16-Bit ISA Sound Card - I38-MMSD802.
They are not mpu-401 compatible! So I don't know if/how they can talk to an MT32 or similar?

Mystery solved as to why Duke3D did not detect the MPU-401 interface, it doesn't exist. For DOS games, MPU-401 is the standard used for MT-32 and General MIDI so it is required if you want to go down that path.

You have a couple of options, both of which require the ability to change/add drivers.

- Replace the Aztech card with one that supports MPU-401 (There are lots of options from Creative, ESS, CMI etc)
- Add MPU-401 capability as an additional card (PicoGUS, PCMIDI, HardMPU etc)

I was looking into going way overboard with a Terratec top model sound card, but it won't fit in this PC. In the top ISA slot, it is so long that the HDD is in the way. In the lower ISA slots, the CPU's cooler is in the way. So I'll stay with this Aztech and happy Adlib sounds. Maybe I'll stumble across a SB/16 on a flee market or something, no priority there. Awe32 is too long and awe64 not the most compatible W3.11 choice. The Terratec was cool though, but not cheap and I would really need to hack up the PC to make it fit. Or melt the CPU. I understand they also can be a pain to get running. That front bay unit though...

ESS 1868/1869 cards are quite compact, will do pretty much everything you want and have wide OS support. They are also abundant and cheap.

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2026-01-24, 20:11:

Very handy suggestion!

Does that work with a drive that has ontrack on it (because at 1223mb it was a bit large for the bios)? I wasw thinking about using rescuezilla/clonezilla, but also make a "Windows Explorer copy" of most files on the original hard drive, as it's only a few hundred MB and offers a very direct way of browsing/copying individual files later.

Never used ontrack as I use xtide bios extension to solve the drive issue but it should be fine - I can't see why it wouldnt work.
Very little to lose trying it.
Just make sure the IDE adapter allows you to power from eg a 12v wall wart - a few only allow power from 5v usb which wont be enough to spin up an old 3.5"

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-01-25, 00:26:

ESS 1868/1869 cards are quite compact, will do pretty much everything you want and have wide OS support. They are also abundant and cheap.

Seconded - got an ess1869 on my 486 - is great and has ide too.
A PicoGUS might be tempting if you dont mind new hardware and want the extra cool features

OK I'll keep that in mind when I'm ever tired of adlib.

In this PC I have what appears to be a Philips JM2LV-001. This is a genlock/capture card. I'm wondering if it needs any drivers or if it just does its thing without them/to what extent. It has external VGA in, composite video in, and VGA out. But it also has an internal 26 pin flatcable connecting to the Cirrus VGA card, so likely a VFC VESA Feature Connector.

Google remains quite silent on this card (one link calling it a dual VGA card and this is copied in other results, but that is to my understanding not what this is. Also the "Philips" branding is determined by the brand of most IC's, I guess. It could be C&T as well.). If it needs any drivers, they are likely currently on the PC but no idea what to look for. It would already be nice to have it doing "dumb" genlocking where everything of a certain colour presented on the VGA IN is replaced by whatever is on the composite video IN. Fancier stuff is welcome as well, of course.

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2026-01-29, 14:02:

In this PC I have what appears to be a Philips JM2LV-001. This is a genlock/capture card. I'm wondering if it needs any drivers or if it just does its thing without them/to what extent. It has external VGA in, composite video in, and VGA out. But it also has an internal 26 pin flatcable connecting to the Cirrus VGA card, so likely a VFC VESA Feature Connector.

Google remains quite silent on this card (one link calling it a dual VGA card and this is copied in other results, but that is to my understanding not what this is. Also the "Philips" branding is determined by the brand of most IC's, I guess.). If it needs any drivers, they are likely currently on the PC but no idea what to look for. It would already be nice to have it doing "dumb" genlocking where everything of a certain colour presented on the VGA IN is replaced by whatever is on the composite video IN. Fancier stuff is welcome as well, of course.

My own dive down this hole suggests the following:

OEM is 'Animation-Technologies' from Taiwan.
product identification: LifeView / LifeTV, LV-001

As evidenced by the FCC-ID entry.
https://fccid.io/JM2LV-001

Archive.org page from 1999 suggests 'partnership with ATI'

https://web.archive.org/web/19970201205012/ht … tech/lifetv.htm

The site suggests drivers were obtainable here:
https://web.archive.org/web/19970201205134/ht … other/other.htm

Thanks! It is made in taiwan. The logo on the back looks like "CI"...It is from late 1992 for 1993 market so that fits the fcc entry.

Now to find manual and drivers. Your archive page is for newer versions with RF receiver, pci with remote. Mine is an old, brutal ISA card with only vga and composite.

This pc used Mediamate with it. I'll have to connect all cables and a source before I can really test it.

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2026-01-29, 14:59:

Thanks! It is made in taiwan. The logo on the back looks like "CI"...It is from late 1992 for 1993 market so that fits the fcc entry.

Now to find manual and drivers. Your archive page is for newer versions with RF receiver, pci with remote. Mine is an old, brutal ISA card with only vga and composite.

This pc used Mediamate with it. I'll have to connect all cables and a source before I can really test it.

See the 'old products' driver link.

Those all seem to be newer products, 1995 and onwards, and they seem to have TV decoders.

The ATI mentioned here is Animation Technologies Inc from Taiwan, not the big ATi (Array Technology Industry) from Canada. But that's not very relevant now.

Anyway, I see hints that these cards might not initialize if they do not see an external source, I don't know how true that is. I'll make my wife happy by stealing our DVD player and I'll try if that kicks things to life.

I'm doing archaeology on the PC's hard drive. So far I haven't found explicit required drivers except for one, but I've noticed the following:

-MediaMate seems to be the user program, made for Animation Technologies (the capture card manufacturer)
-It uses PC-Video. PC-Video is a driver installed optionally for iPhoto. I think that PC-Video is what enables the PC to capture the video signal on the capture card.
-There is also LVD, LV-Demo. This is a program made by Chips & Technologies, the manufacturer of 1 of the big IC's on the capture card and it seems to be the software that makes the Mediamate scripts (set colorkey etc) run on the card.
-There is also a program Encoder that appears to transform your VGA signal into something TV compatible (you see the Windows resolution changing after running it), but I don't know if it was relevant for the capture card and if I'd need it.

All the above are on my hard drive. The thing I'm running into now -I do not yet have the cables for the card hooked up- is that I can't run MediaMate's port.exe which allows me to set the port address. Possibly because the card can't initialize when it doesn't find the required sync, this is just a guess.

I'm ordering a IDE-USB interface to backup this drive as none of this software seems to be online.

Now I hope that none of this W95 software nests itself too spread out into the PC when installing, as all I can do is copy the entire folders if I ever want to run this on a fresh install. This software is not exactly available online, for the most part. I have already listed a handful of clearly related files in C:\Windows and C:\Windows\System

Alright, I've got a parallel ZIP drive and I've backuped all files that I think belong to the capture card. Next step is trying to make an entire HDD image using the IDE to USB adapter which has also arrived.

Once I'm sure I have backup of the PC, I can start playing around with it trying to get everything to work, then likely putting a new HDD in it with either 3.1 or 95.

As it would turn out, I have one of these cards as well. I have quickly made-up a VGA pass-through cable and a Feature Connector, in use with my Video 7 VRAM II card on a 486 PC. I have managed to make the card work - precisely once (and "work" loosely - the display was a bit corrupted) - in DOS using the "Video II" driver/software.

For the Feature Connector, it's just a 26-pin ribbon cable, but the Feature Connector is fiddly at best. I chose the VRAM II card because it was similar enough in age (1991) to likely be compatible. I made a pin-to-card-edge cable with some IDC crimps.

For the VGA passthrough, the card needs a dongle (loops back to VGA card output, goes into the card with tee-off for one or more RCA jacks as "inputs"). I simply used a VGA cable and broke-off pins 4 and 5, as they were grounding the RCA composite video signal (they re-used grounds as signals). VGA cables are a dime a dozen; cards like this are not. Then, the composite jack on the card (supposed to be "output"/passthru) serves as an input.

I'd absolutely love to help figure out that hard drive dump if you have any issues, and replicate the software setup on my PC and card! If you have any trouble, maybe we can meet up on Discord etc.

Hopefully we can get a working "software bundle" put together from what's on your drive, and get it over to The Retro Web to archive it!

Frame grabbed from a DVD player hooked to the card 😀

I've managed to do the hd image, so we can now safely experiment. Well, after I strip the pc to install a cmos battery holder.

I have the internal ribbon cable.

I thanks for the part about modifying the vga cable to have the composite working as input! I'd never have found that. On my pc the composite already was labeled as video input with a sticker by the way.

I'll try to get the card running in its current win95 install first. And then indeed work on getting a software package together. I do not have any installers, but i have the installed programs and files.

All kinds of new stuff learned tonight. I figured out why I was getting terrible/corrupted video: I was trying to run a NES into it. The NES outputs "weird" NTSC. This card HATES anything that is not "good" NTSC. In the NES, it only runs one of two interlaced fields over and over. The card is expecting 2 interlaced fields. It gives different (interlaced!) memory patterns to the different fields. If one field is just missing (i.e. it syncs at the end of the frame/last field, not halfway through the last one), it never gets a clock signal to say "now update the other field memory". As a result, the on-screen image is weirdly distorted, half the alternating lines "persisting" what was last written to them.

Plug a VCR or a DVD player in, and it coasts right through, no problem, clean and pure.

The Video2 software is painfully primative though - you get the option to freeze or capture/grab. That, and various settings (mostly related to tuner/TV/audio, which this card doesn't have). But no "video" (or even an approximation of video at low res), no rapid capture. I know this card is capable of _more_ than that - the software is a big limitation.

Wild to be digging into vintage PC video capture. This is fun! 😀