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AdLib, Covox, Sound Blaster and other old sound gizmos explained

Тема в разделе "International Zone", создана пользователем Neville, 14 июн 2023.

  1. Neville

    Neville

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    Just like it happened with video modes, PCs have come a long way since the 1980s. Originally designed for business environments, the first PCs offered very limited sound capabilities. It came to different manufacturers and devices to advance sound in the PC to its current standards. These days most PC computers come with their own sound chips on the motherboard, which adhere to industry standards such as AC97 or Intel High Definition Audio.

    Here follows a list of the most popular devices gamers used in other times.

    1) The internal PC Speaker (1981).

    ai.imgur.com_OYhFVyt.jpg_c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg

    There aren't much positive things you can say about the PC Speaker. It can beep and pretty much that's it, even 8-bit computers could much better. However, every PC had one, so many DOS games support it.

    There were also some developers who learnt to do miracles with it. Games such as Mach 3 or Best of the Best: Championship Karate use it to play downgraded music, FX and even voices.

    The IBM PC jr. and the Tandy 1000 computers have similar audio capabilities, but at least they offer three sound channels instead of one, and in the case of later Tandy 1000, a DAC (Digital to audio converter).


    2) The Covox Speech Thing (1986) / Disney Sound Source (1990):

    ai.imgur.com_2FxAIoN.png

    The Covox Speech Thing was an inexpensive DAC that was plugged on the printer ports of early PCs. It offers decent sound capabilities for little money, but since it's not DMA controlled it could cause slowdowns. Its main advantage was its low cost, and that its schematics were so simple that users could build it themselves. The Intersound MDO was a newer variant distributed by Coktel Vision, and there are others.

    In 1990 Disney tried to resurrect the Covox Speech Thing. They also made some changes to it, making it DMA controlled (yes!) and lowering its sampling rate (what?!). Disney titles from the era, such as Arachnophobia, The Rocketeer or Dick Tracy: The Crime-Solving Adventure support it.


    3) AdLib (1988):

    ai.imgur.com_qSZNiqM.jpg_c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg

    The AdLib was the first sound device to see widespread use (and support) on the PC. It was based on the Yamaha YM3812 (or OPL2 ) sound chip and can play music quite well. Most DOS game support it.

    The AdLib Gold , released in 1992, is a different card that offers limited Sound Blaster (see next entry) compatibility, but ultimately failed.


    4) Creative Sound Blaster series (1989):

    ai.imgur.com_V1rIR3G.jpg

    The definitive standard for DOS games. From its first generation it offered full AdLib compatibility, voice generation and a MIDI port that could also be used as a joystick port.

    Future models offered stereo sound (SB Pro), CD quality audio (SB16), General MIDI support (SB AWE32) and even 5.1 support (Sound Blaster Live! 5.1).

    Many third party sound cards of the time are also SB compatible, such as the Ensoniq Soundscape, the Pro Audio Spectrum or the MediaVision ThunderBoard. Some PC users bought these instead because they were cheaper.

    The Sound Blasters are easily the most widely supported sound devices in DOS gaming.


    5) the Gravis UltraSound series (1992):

    ai.imgur.com_48ywdB9.jpg_c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg

    If there was a soundcard that could have dethroned the Sound Blaster, it was this one. It was developed by peripheral manufacturer Gravis and its MIDI samples were created from original instruments, offering a never-seen-before music quality.

    It was enthusiastically embraced by the demo and the shareware scenes, but ultimately failed because of its higher price, its limited game support and weak Sound Blaster compatibility. Having no parts in common with the Sound Blaster, it depended on software emulation to work with earlier games.


    6) Roland MT-32 (1987) / Roland LAPC-l (1989):

    ai.imgur.com_KrI4zeW.jpg_c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg

    This device is not exactly a sound card, but a professional (if low end) music synthetizer. However, around 1988 Sierra On-Line was looking to expand the sound capabilities of its games and started promoting it as the next-best-thing in computer music. Other developers picked the glove, such as Lucasarts and Origin, and for a while the MT-32 became the gold standard for PC music.

    Ultimately, however, its high selling prize (around $600) and the coming of new, cheaper standards such as General MIDI and Audio CD put an end to the MT-32 craze.

    The Roland LAPC-l is an internal version of the MT-32 music synth, blended with a MPU-401 interface. Again, its high cost ($425) prevented it from achieving mass success.

    ai.imgur.com_wo1FVog.jpg_c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg

    The emulation of the MT-32 has been for years one of the holy grials of DOS emulation. Thanks to the task of the MUNT project, a series of alternatives are now available:

    - Regular DOSBox + MUNT .

    - Unofficial DOSBox builds, such as DOSBox ECE, DOSBox-X or DOSBox Staging.

    - ScummVM .

    All of them, AFAIK, require the MT-32 BIOS, which is not openly available on the Internet.

    If you want the real thing, vintage Roland MT-32s are still available from eBay and similar websites, but plugging one to your PC will also require a Roland MPU-401 interface. If you only plan to use it with DOSBox, a regular MIDI-to-USB cable should suffice.

    Here is a list of games that support the MT-32 / LAPC-l.


    7) Roland Sound Canvas (1991):

    ai.imgur.com_Tc2nP9E.jpg

    The MT-32 is not the only Roland device which saw use in computer games. In 1991 Roland released the SCC-55, the first in their Sound Canvas series. This synthetizer served both as a successor to the MT-32 and the first device to support the new General MIDI standard (128 instruments, 24 simultaneous notes).

    Even more, since the SCC-55 was the first device to support General MIDI, many game soundtracks were written using this device and *may* sound better on it than on other General MIDI cards.

    This product was intended to be fully compatible with the Roland MT-32, but there are some limitations. It doesn't include programmable memory nor actual sound synthesis, and games that used these features, such as Space Quest III, won't sound right.

    As with the MT-32, ISA soundcard versions of the synth were also released, such as the Roland SCC-1 and the Roland RAP-10. Also available were daughterboards meant for any soundcard with a Waveblaster expansion port, such as the Roland SCB-7 and Roland SCB-55.

    The Sound Canvas is not emulated directly by neither DOSBox nor PCem. However, Roland itself sells a software version of the synthetizer called the Roland Canvas VA Software Synthetizer . At 115E it's a buy you will want to consider carefully, but they also offer a limited demo to try the product.

    Said synthetizer can then be configured to play MIDI music under DOSBox and ScummVM, although the task may be too complex for newbies. However, there are Youtube videos describing the entire process:

     
    Последнее редактирование: 16 июн 2023
    thinbody, AndyFox, Das_Monster и ещё 1-му нравится это.
  2.  
  3. Neville

    Neville

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    As an addendum, here's a shorter list of much less common sound devices that saw some use during the DOS era.

    1) The IBM Music Feature Card (1987):

    ai.imgur.com_jTzPj0D.jpg_c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg

    Before Sierra On-Line settled for the Roland MT-32, they briefly considered supporting this other device instead. It's another expensive music synth for professional use (worth around $600 at the time), but game support is scarce and reportedly not very good.


    2) The Innovation SSI 2001 (1989):

    ai.imgur.com_oULFSJf.jpg_c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg

    This is very rare card... some sources even doubted of its existence, because it was sold directly from the manufacturer. It's main interest is that rather than aiming at AdLib or Sound Blaster compatibility it's instead based on the sound chips from the Commodore 64, a very popular computer in the USA and some European countries.

    Only a dozen games offer support for this card, F-19 Stealth Fighter and Ultima VI: The False Prophet among them.


    3) The Creative Music System / Game Blaster:

    ai.imgur.com_6EtIhYh.jpg

    This is an early AdLib competitor by Creative, from before they launched their succesful Sound Blaster cards. It's a rather primitive device that uses the same approach as the PCjr. / Tandy computers, with internal speaker-like sound quality, but using 12 sound channels and stereo instead of 3 sound channels and mono.

    The game support is not bad either, with almost 100 titles supporting it.


    3) IBM PS/1 Sound (1990):

    ai.imgur.com_WBZg6gK.jpg_c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg

    Not exactly a sound card... the IBM PS/1 were a series of computers with 286 and 386 CPUs released around 1990. Some models didn't have ISA expansion slots and IBM released this sound add-on for them. In the picture you can also see a special edition of the game Silpheed that supports it.

    The board contains a Texas Instruments SN 76496 CPU capable of 3 simultaneous voices. It's very similar to the sound systems in the IBM PCjr. / Tandy 1000 computers, but not compatible with them.

    All in all, around 60 games offer support for this device.


    If you want to know which games support which device, the website MobyGames is the place to visit.
     
    Последнее редактирование: 16 июн 2023
    thinbody, AndyFox, Das_Monster и ещё 1-му нравится это.
  4. Neville

    Neville

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    You may ask yourself how many of these devices are emulated, and which program to use.

    PCem can emulate the PC Speaker, Covox Speech Thing, Disney Sound Source, PCjr. / Tandy 1000 sound, AdLib, the AdLib Gold, CMS / Game Blaster, every Sound Blaster from the 1.0 to the 128 PCI, the Gravis UltraSound and the Innovation SSI-2001.

    ai.imgur.com_1nvrUew.png

    Note that most of these systems will need their drivers to work.

    Official builds of DOSBox can emulate the PC Speaker, Covox Speech Thing (and variants), Disney Sound Source, PCjr. / Tandy 1000 sound (with or without DAC), AdLib (but not the AdLib Gold), CMS / Game Blaster, every Sound Blaster from the 1.0 to the 16 plus the Gravis UltraSound.

    In this case, only the Gravis UltraSound requires drivers, which can be downloaded from here.

    DOSBox ECE will emulate every sound device supported by DOSBox, but adds improved OPL3 emulation, SoundFont support and yes, Roland MT-32 emulation.

    DOSBox-X also emulates every sound device supported by DOSBox, plus the SB16 Vibra, which is just a simplified SB16 and not too interesting. However, it also emulates the Roland MT-32, the Innovation SSI-2001 and IBM PS/1 sound.

    And finally, DOSBox Staging emulates everything official builds of DOSBox do plus the Roland MT-32 and, in recent betas, the IBM Music Feature Card.

    Here's also a great video by LGR with several audio devices playing the title melody from Secret of Monkey Island, from the PC Speaker to CD-quality Audio:

     
    Последнее редактирование: 5 июл 2023
    AndyFox и Das_Monster нравится это.
  5. Neville

    Neville

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    Want to try the IBM Music Feature Card? It's one of the lesser known gizmos I mentioned on the guide. At that time it was still unemulated, but lately DOSBox Staging has added support for it. Note that at this moment (December 2023) you may need to use beta versions to use this feature.

    The DBGL frontend (from v0.98 beta 1) also has options to enable it.

    ai.imgur.com_xvzYqAP.png

    Then you need to run the SETUP of any of the games that support the device, such as King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella, Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places), Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals, Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon and Silpheed:

    ai.imgur.com_TZToOdO.png

    And that's it.
     
    Последнее редактирование: 10 дек 2023
    AndyFox и Das_Monster нравится это.
  6. Neville

    Neville

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    I recently learned that DOSBox Staging has just added Roland SC-55 (aka Sound Canvas) emulation!

    ai.imgur.com_VBoMO1K.png

    To get it working you need a few things, though:

    1) A Git version of DOSBox Staging. It has to be dated 21-12-2024 or newer. If you're in doubt of a certain build, check out its dosbox-staging.conf . It should have a [soundcanvas] section and allow the option mididevice to be set to soundcanvas .

    2) Then you need the Sound Canvas plugin and the necessary ROMs. I've uploaded a copy here .

    This uses a copy of the Nuked-SC55-CLAP plugin.

    3) Now, unzip the above file into your DOSBox Staging folder. Then edit your dosbox-staging.conf file (if there's none, you can create one by typing config -wc from within the emulator) and change the option mididevice=auto to mididevice=soundcanvas .

    4) If you're using the DBGL interface (and you should, it's very convenient), there's one more thing to do. Go to File --> Preferences --> Dynamic options and add the value soundcanvas to the option mididevice_stagingXXX , XXX being the version number.

    Don't forget to modify your game profiles as well!

    ai.imgur.com_QAlMHbr.png

    5) Now you can select the options Sound Canvas or General MIDI for your favorite games!

    ai.imgur.com_EHf2zHy.png

    THX to Ignatus for all the info.
     
    Последнее редактирование: 3 янв 2025
    Колючий и Das_Monster нравится это.
  7. Neville

    Neville

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    I've set up a portable package with DBGL, DOSBox Staging, the Roland Sound Canvas plugin and a few shareware games from the 1990s. I've used the free game packages from the DBGL homepage, and not being full versions you shouldn't get in trouble if you want to post / share this elsewhere.

    This is the gamelist:

    ai.imgur.com_KPEbLwe.png

    Код:
    https://1fichier.com/?n3nmi486nr31zpf7nbcv
    V2 uploaded. Set DBGL to English, added Blood shareware version.
     
    Последнее редактирование: 21 янв 2025
    Das_Monster нравится это.
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