🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003 23:34:07 -0500, "George Adams"
<g_adams27@hotmail.NOSPAM.com> wrote::

>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
>

Sound Blaster 32/AWE32 and the AWE64 are practically identical in
terms of capabilities.  Basically a SoundBlaster16 PNP with the
addition of hardware wavetable MIDI.   As such, it's probably the best
choice for compatibility and sound quality.  For gaming, it really
doesn't matter which of the AWE family you get.  The WavSynth software
emulated an extra 32 wavetable voices but nobody ever used that for
games.  Without the software, you've basically just got an AWE32 that
takes only proprietary memory.

Don't bother with the SBpro.  it's just basically a stereo version of
the original Soundblaster, and while it's not too bad, the shipping is
likely to be more than the card's worth.  You could probably get an
ISA SB16 for about the same amount.
----------------------------------------
Thanks,
MCheu