ESS AudioDrive Games: do they run with ES1938S sound chip? \ VOGONS

ESS AudioDrive Games: do they run with ES1938S sound chip?

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First post, by eliot_new

Posted on 2026-03-25, 21:31

eliot_new Offline

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Hello everybody

I have read, that there were a lot of games supporting the ESS sound API:

"ESS AudioDrive Games"
https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/ess_games.php

Can a ES1938S SOLO-1 Sound Chip play ESFM sound API?

I am asking this, because my Asus P5A has an onboard ES1938S sound.

Thx a lot in advance!

Kind regards
Eliot

DOS:K6-3/400,192MB,P5A,Rendition v2200 AGP,Trio64 PCI,3dfx V1,AWE64,ESS1938,PicoGUS,32GB
w98SE:P3/450,768MB,QDI440BX,V3AGP,AWE64,PicoGUS,80GB
wXP:P3/1G,512MB,CUSL2-C,MSIFX5600,Audigy1,80GB

Reply 1 of 4, by Matth79

Posted on 2026-03-25, 22:18

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According to DOSdays, it does have ESFM, and it seems the ALI Aladdin V chipset has decent DDMA and/or PC/PCI (sb-link) support to run the PCI based integrated sound in DOS

Reply 2 of 4, by NeoG_

Posted on 2026-03-25, 23:11

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Seems like the best option is to try it out, the datasheet for the ES1938 only mentions SB compatibility mode. Assuming it has a similar audio core to the 1868/1869 it should support those modes natively as long as there is legacy DMA support.

98/DOS Rig: BabyAT AladdinV, K6-2+/550, V3 2000, 128MB PC100, 20GB HDD, 128GB SD2IDE, SB Live!, SB16-SCSI, PicoGUS, WP32 McCake, iNFRA CD, ZIP100
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Reply 3 of 4, by Grzyb

Posted on 2026-03-26, 00:45

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I don't know about the games from the 90s, but Koolness definitely does support ESFM on Solo-1.

Edit:
DMA is only important for PCM, the (ES)FM part doesn't use DMA.

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Reply 4 of 4, by NeoG_

Posted on 2026-03-26, 01:31

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Grzyb wrote on 2026-03-26, 00:45:

I don't know about the games from the 90s, but Koolness definitely does support ESFM on Solo-1.

Edit:
DMA is only important for PCM, the (ES)FM part doesn't use DMA.

In that case there may be a bit of confusion for the OP as the page they linked to lists games that mostly use the ESS PCM audio driver, very few of them have ESFM specific audio tracks

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