🚀 go-pugleaf

MediaVision made a great card called the Pro Audio Spectrum 16,
or PAS16 as it was known.  Fully DOS compatible, OPL3 synthesizer,
great audio quality etc.  There's even an [undocumented] way to get it
working under Win2K and WinXP.

Another alternative is to ditch the separate system idea and use one of
the really wonderful free arcade emulators that are available nowadays.
I run MAME32, CCS64 and a few others.  They handle all the original
game roms from the "good 'ol days" (playing Missile Command, Star
Wars, Tempest, Centipede etc etc under Win2K is a kick and a half)
and are fully DirectSound and input device compatible.  If you're a fan
of the older, simpler and essentially more fun games then definitely give
these emulators a try.

Rick

"George Adams" <g_adams27@hotmail.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message news:bqp1s20210c@enews1.newsguy.com...
> Sorry if this is a FAQ - if there's a document or something addressing this
> issue already, I'll be grateful if someone can point me to it.
>
> There's a lot of great games that I remember from my youth (Rocky's Boots,
> Robot Odyssey, Star Flight I/II, Star Control 2, most Lucas Arts games, etc.
> etc.) that I'd like to be able to play again, and also introduce to my
> children.  (hey, they're low-res but they're still fun!  :-)  )
>
> Rather than tearing my hair out trying to get DOS and DOS sound emulation
> working under WinXP, I think I'll just take my old P-166 and build a legacy
> machine out of it.  It'll probably run DOS 6.22 and maybe Win3.1.  Might
> even put a 5.25" drive in it just for kicks.
>
> So I'm wondering, what soundcard would be the most compatible for old games
> running in a pure DOS environment?  Obviously I could get an old original
> AdLib or Soundblaster for total compatibility, but I'd really like to get
> the last, greatest DOS-based soundcard that was well-supported by games
> before the Windows 95 era.
>
> What would that be?  Looking around on eBay, I see things like :
>
> - SoundBlaster Pro (CT1600)
> - A bunch of SoundBlaster 16 varieties (SB 16 Basic, SB 16 Pro, SB 16 Value,
> SB 16 ASP)
> - SoundBlaster 32 and AWE32
> - SoundBlaster AWE64
>
> etc.  Obviously the quality improves as you go on through the history of
> Creative's cards, but I don't want to get a card that sounds great under
> game X but gives up downward compatibility such that game Y can't work with
> it or can only work unreliably.
>
> I hope that makes sense.  Any help would be appreciated - thanks!
>
>
>
>