Original AdLib ISA Sound Card (1987)

Yay.. another overpriced Adlib card.

And yes, I do collect sound cards... but the prices the original Adlib cards go for are insane.
 
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Yay.. another overpriced Adlib card.

And yes, I do collect sound cards... but the prices the original Adlib cards go for are insane.
may i ask what all you got in your collection? please
 
may i ask what all you got in your collection? please

Only going to do ISA cards in this list.. and I will most likely miss a bunch.

Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum 8-bit
Media Vision Thunderboard - got a box with contents a while ago but haven't paired it with a card yet
Media Vision Jazz 16 (original and some 3rd party ones)
Media Vision PAS16 (bunch of different models)
Arpa PC Stereo Board
Ati Stereo FX
Prometheus Aria 16 (boxed)
Prometheus Aria 16 SE (boxed)
Prometheus Aria 16 (a couple bare cards - not sure of exact models)
Viva Multimedia Maestro 16 VR (boxed - sealed) (Aria 16)
PC Symphony (Adlib clone - one sealed, and one in a very beat up box plus at least one other bare card)
Sound Midas AB-488P (boxed - ESS ES488F)
Turtle Beach Multisound Fiji (with digital I/O board but not the breakout card)
Turtle Beach Multisound Pinnacle (have a few different versions)
Turtle Beack Maui
Turtle Beach Tropez Classic
Turtle Beach Tropez Plus (boxed)
Turtle Beach TBS-2000
Microsoft Windows Sound System
Orchid Soundwave 32 - have multiple cards - both wavetable options
Cardinal DSP-16 with wavetable ROM
Roland LAPC-I with breakout box
Roland SCC-1
MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro (had the chance to get one with all the add-on cards but instead chose to get just the base card :-( )
Yamaha SW60XG
Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 (both 1MB and 2MB cards)
Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS
Ensoniq Soundscape VIVO 90
Guillemot Maxi Sound 64
Logitech Soundman Wave
Terretec EWS64 XL
Gravis Ultrasound 2.4 (boxed)
STB Soundrage 32 Pro (Ultrasound PnP clone with only one RAM slot)
MED3201 - Ultrasound PnP clone with cut-down? Interwave chip
A couple other Ultrasound PnP clones with no RAM or upgrade option short of soldering


Creative -
Sound Blaster 1.0 - nope, don't have one .. same as SB 1.5 but with CM/S chips from the factory
Sound Blaster 1.5 - (multiple)
Sound Blaster 2.0 (multiple - one boxed - had a complete matching serial numbers boxed one but sold it)
Sound Blaster Pro 1.0
Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 - pretty sure I have all the different revisions
Sound Blaster 16 - should have almost all the different models
Sound Blaster AWE 32 - all but the CT3780 and CT4330 (no RAM and no memory upgrade option ????)
Sound Blaster AWE 64 - All ISA models
SB32 - I think all models
AWE 32 upgrade board (CT1920 - new OEM)

Sound Galaxy -
BXII
NX Pro 16 with Turtle Beach Rio - bought it like this (boxed)
Have a ton of other models including the PB ones that are sound/modem and a few with onboard wavetable

Other -
Opti - ton of different cards including all I could find with onboard wavetable
ESS - lot of different ones - some have onboard wavetable
Crystal - lot of different ones including some with wavetable
Gallant / Zoltrix - have multiple cards - model numbers are confusing between brands- I should really make a visual guide for these.

Pretty sure I have more but I would have to actually go through everything and make a list.

Cards I forgot about before:
Mozart - no onboard wavetable
Mozart - onboard wavetable
IBM Mwave - multiple. I even have a boxed one.... Sold by Best Data, model is "ACE" (Advanced Communications Enhancement)
Everex 3D Sound Express+ (boxed - Crystal with Crystal onboard wavetable)
Sound Easy Pro 16 Plus (boxed - just an Opti 929 based card)
Media Concept 16 (boxed)

Edit 1: make a couple corrections in Creative list...
Edit 2: added more cards
 
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@cyclone3d

But why? Are you building a cabin out of old sound cards?

PS - I have had at least 15 on that list over the years
 
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@cyclone3d

But why? Are you building a cabin out of old sound cards?

PS - I have had at least 15 on that list over the years

Because I like retro/vintage hardware. Have a few systems built and have some more I am going to build.

And no, DOSBOX doesn't cut it.

https://www.vogons.org/viewforum.php?f=60

And here are a few youtube channels:
https://www.youtube.com/user/adric22
https://www.youtube.com/user/philscomputerlab
https://www.youtube.com/user/Perifractic
https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroManCave
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ErgHYY0_Yjhjz2MN1E1lg
 
Only going to do ISA cards in this list.. and I will most likely miss a bunch.

Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum 8-bit
Media Vision Thunderboard - got a box with contents a while ago but haven't paired it with a card yet
Media Vision Jazz 16 (original and some 3rd party ones)
Media Vision PAS16 (bunch of different models)
Arpa PC Stereo Board
Ati Stereo FX
Prometheus Aria 16 (boxed)
Prometheus Aria 16 SE (boxed)
Prometheus Aria 16 (a couple bare cards - not sure of exact models)
Viva Multimedia Maestro 16 VR (boxed - sealed) (Aria 16)
PC Symphony (Adlib clone - one sealed, and one in a very beat up box plus at least one other bare card)
Sound Midas AB-488P (boxed - ESS ES488F)
Turtle Beach Multisound Fiji (with digital I/O board but not the breakout card)
Turtle Beach Multisound Pinnacle (have a few different versions)
Turtle Beack Maui
Turtle Beach Tropez Classic
Turtle Beach Tropez Plus (boxed)
Turtle Beach TBS-2000
Microsoft Windows Sound System
Orchid Soundwave 32 - have multiple cards - both wavetable options
Cardinal DSP-16 with wavetable ROM
Roland LAPC-I with breakout box
Roland SCC-1
MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro (had the chance to get one with all the add-on cards but instead chose to get just the base card :-( )
Yamaha SW60XG
Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 (both 1MB and 2MB cards)
Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS
Ensoniq Soundscape VIVO 90
Guillemot Maxi Sound 64
Logitech Soundman Wave
Terretec EWS64 XL
Gravis Ultrasound 2.4 (boxed)
STB Soundrage 32 Pro (Ultrasound PnP clone with only one RAM slot)
MED3201 - Ultrasound PnP clone with cut-down? Interwave chip
A couple other Ultrasound PnP clones with no RAM or upgrade option short of soldering


Creative -
Sound Blaster 1.0
Sound Blaster 1.5 (multiple - one boxed - had a complete matching serial numbers boxed one but sold it)
Sound Blaster Pro 1.0
Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 - pretty sure I have all the different revisions
Sound Blaster 16 - should have almost all the different models
Sound Blaster AWE 32 - all but the CT3780 and CT4330 (no RAM and no memory upgrade option ????)
Sound Blaster AWE 64 - All ISA models
SB32 - I think all models
AWE 32 upgrade board (CT1920 - new OEM)

Sound Galaxy -
BXII
NX Pro 16 with Turtle Beach Rio - bought it like this (boxed)
Have a ton of other models including the PB ones that are sound/modem and a few with onboard wavetable

Other -
Opti - ton of different cards including all I could find with onboard wavetable
ESS - lot of different ones - some have onboard wavetable
Crystal - lot of different ones including some with wavetable
Gallant / Zoltrix - have multiple cards - model numbers are confusing between brands- I should really make a visual guide for these.

Ptretty sure I have more but I would have to actually go through everything and make a list.


Interested in any of these? cyclone3d

MicroProse The Entertainer
Innovation SSI 2001
AWE64 Gold II
Aureal Vortex 3
(AdLib Gold?)
 
I have a ton of old sound cards myself, including a Game Blaster in the box.
 
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Interested in any of these? cyclone3d

MicroProse The Entertainer
Innovation SSI 2001
AWE64 Gold II
Aureal Vortex 3
(AdLib Gold?)
SSI 2001.. probably want to build a replica at some point.

AWE64 Gold II... Is that the one that the Chinese person has for sale ? Multiples from the pictures? Insane price.

Vortex 3 ?!?!?!? Where?

Adlib Gold.. I would like to have one.
 
SSI 2001.. probably want to build a replica at some point.

AWE64 Gold II... Is that the one that the Chinese person has for sale ? Multiples from the pictures? Insane price.

Vortex 3 ?!?!?!? Where?

Adlib Gold.. I would like to have one.

no interest in a MicroProse The Entertainer? :(
 
no interest in a MicroProse The Entertainer? :(
Oh... I was on my phone and was dealing with kiddos so I kinda skimmed the video.. I'll have to actually watch it but yeah, I would like to have one.

So... The Micropose Entertainer looks like it was never released... and you can use a SSI 2001 because it is essentially the same thing but just uses different addresses?

Just have to do a bit of game file editing to make it work.

Still haven't watched the video though.

What about the SQ3500 - SQ2500 Vortex II add-on card that there may have been only 10 ever made?
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=41928
SQ3500.jpg

SQ3500-back.jpg
 
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Unfortunately I never quite finished it due to being tired of my house being a disaster and also I have added other new stuff to it since not on the current list.
 
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I remember having several of those Turtle Beach Sound cards. To me they sounded a hellluva lot better than Creative's Sound Blasters.
 
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I remember having several of those Turtle Beach Sound cards. To me they sounded a hellluva lot better than Creative's Sound Blasters.

I remember back a million years ago, I worked at a huge computer retailer. We saw massive return rates on the Turtle Beach stuff, Pro Audio Spectrum, etc basically all the non-Creative sound cards. Because people didn't realize they weren't sound blasters and didn't work with every game. I'm sure a huge amount of it was user error, not knowing how to load the sound drivers or set the IRQs properly. This was DOS days and way before Win95/98 when it became a non issue. But over and over again we would see people buying the huge Turtle Beach Multimedia retail boxes with the cd-rom drive and sound card setup, stuff was not cheap either. Leave the store with huge smiles on their face.. and they would always be back a few days later all butthurt and pissed off that game XYZ wouldn't work and "that is what they bought it for". I have a very clear memory of one guy screaming at us, had to call the GM, because he couldn't get Rebel Assault to work. He just threw all the stuff back in the box without any of the packing materials and demanded a refund. I refused, but the GM would give refunds to anyone who yelled loud enough.

On the plus side, open box returns went to the clearance section, where clever employees would snap up the stuff at massive discounts. Like me!
 
I remember having several of those Turtle Beach Sound cards. To me they sounded a hellluva lot better than Creative's Sound Blasters.
I still have my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (PCI). In it's day (circa 2001), it was a very competent and all around good alternative to Creative's. It could do both EAX and A3D, 6 channels, 48khz, SPDIF, gameport/midi... pretty much checked all the boxes at the time. The drivers were half decent, but TB were known to have buggy drivers. However, I rarely ran into any problems with this particular model.

The Santa Cruz could technically load soundfonts, but not the Creative format (due to licensing I'm sure). By then I had built a sizable soundfont library, but the conversion process to the TB format didn't work 100% of the time. Soundfonts were on their way out, so it wasn't a big loss to me. But it was a nice feature to fool around with at the time.

Sadly, the Santa Cruz was my only TB experience. I was pretty much a Creative whore up until that point. All in all, the Santa Cruz was a nice bridge between the old and new. Nforce2 ended up replacing it a little over a year later.
 
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Personally, I prefer the MIDI modules over sound cards. Roland MT-32 on a Windows 10 machine FTW. :)
 
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Using DOSBOX and SoftMPU?

DOSBox. Unless I’m using SofMPU and didn’t realize it? For a little while I ran DOS 6.22 on an old Pentium 4 1.7 GHz. Lol. I had to use a TSR to use the MT-32 properly but it worked just fine.
 
Good lord, I remember the PAS16 (Pro Audio Spectrum 16). As I recall it was a pretty decent card with Sound Blaster Pro compatability - so basic 8-bit stereo for most games unless they directly supported the PAS16.

Those truly were the golden years for us old fart PC enthusiasts.

I'd love to be able to go back in time to 1990 and show myself what PC Gaming would be like in thirty years!
 
DOSBox. Unless I’m using SofMPU and didn’t realize it? For a little while I ran DOS 6.22 on an old Pentium 4 1.7 GHz. Lol. I had to use a TSR to use the MT-32 properly but it worked just fine.

Ahhh... looking at the DOSBox configuration documentation and it looks like it includes an intelligent mode setting so no need for SoftMPU.
 
Good lord, I remember the PAS16 (Pro Audio Spectrum 16). As I recall it was a pretty decent card with Sound Blaster Pro compatability - so basic 8-bit stereo for most games unless they directly supported the PAS16.

Those truly were the golden years for us old fart PC enthusiasts.

I'd love to be able to go back in time to 1990 and show myself what PC Gaming would be like in thirty years!
timeone.jpg
 
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