enaiel wrote on 2020-10-07, 00:27:
cyclone3d wrote on 2020-10-06, 19:01:
Where are you located? If in the USA, there is a seller on eBay that has Opti 930 based cards with onboard wavetable for 19.99.
If you want an AWE64 with more than just the mediocre stock sample set, and don't want to dish out the money for a SIMMCON, then keep an eye out for a good priced CT3670. It is in essence an AWE64 with SIMM slots. You can even flash it with the AWE64 firmware to disable the onboard IDE (non-reversible).
Located in the USA, but that Opti 930 has $6.99 shipping, making it really $26.99. The only reason I would go for the Opti 930 was if it was more compatible than the AWE64, since the price is so similar. I'm looking at maximum compatibility for the price.
It is more compatbile than AWE64, due to 'proper' general MIDI (with no hanging note bugs/slowdowns) and complete SBPro2 compatibility.
I'm leaning towards the AWE64 because it should give me good SBPro and SB16 compatibility,
No, SB16 in all its forms is not completely SBPro2 compatible - stereo is mixed up. IMHO you should look to your integrated sound for SBPro2, but you seem to be ignoring that option. Why?
plus AWE32 compatibility for the games that use it, for $30 shipped.
Far fewer than support General MIDI.
And I still have the YMF744 for genuine OPL3, so I'm hoping that should cover all DOS games from 1987-1997.
OPL3 on the YMF744 is great, but otherwise this doesn't add anything to the integrated sound under DOS. Test whether DDMA mode (driver option) works before settling on this, as otherwise you will need a TSR for DSDMA. That eats memory and neither is great for compatibility, particularly with the picky older games (1987 is pretty old... IMHO the ultimate test is Ultima 7, if you can get that working, compatibility is excellent)
Besides, just like the charm of cheesy FM music, I feel the stock sample set has a retro charm of it's own, and is in fact the best balanced of all the official sample sets.
The AWE? Well, then that is a positive reason to choose that. Personally I'm not particularly impressed, even when compared to many other 'cheap' onboard wavetable options - but there are no absolutes in this hobby, and personal nostalgia is a strong motivator.