What retro things have you done today?

Guest2 said:
Cheers. Though a 486 DX2 66 may be slightly underpowered to fully test 16 bit soundcards and could render poor results with stuttering due to CPU speed
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They were released the same year :), but your on about the sound difference between the OPL implementations right? The Digitized sound effect's won't have any bearing on how the OPL sounds.

edit, its interesting to see you say about the DX2 66 as i think of the SB16 as the card for a DX2 66 machine. As you moved up the line for the AWE's then you were kind of moving into Pentium territory.
 
cee-S-dee said:
They were released the same year :), but your on about the sound difference between the OPL implementations right? The Digitized sound effect's won't have any bearing on how the OPL sounds.

edit, its interesting to see you say about the DX2 66 as i think of the SB16 as the card for a DX2 66 machine. As you moved up the line for the AWE's then you were kind of moving into Pentium territory.
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Good point about digitized not affecting OPL3.
A guy im chatting too on youtube is restoring some Vibrants tracks from an old Adlib HDD he has. These should be perfect for testing your cards

 
I thought i would post my Purple Nova paint job here too as it almost looks retro, and the front had gone that off white/yellow colour

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LewisRaz said:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LABWAY-A...443309&hash=item56f6a47f92:g:LM0AAOSwTXlgVJqF

Just saw this - that has real opl3 built in and really compatible too. I used one for a while. Well documented cards
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So quick question around this. Is the what looks like 13x2 pin connector at of the top of the card a wavetable connection where you could plug in a dreamblaster or the like? And is it fully functional on that card?

I know that some of these cards have the long IDE style connection at the rear of the rear but it's not populated on this one - won't lie I am not sure what is what.

Cheers

Ben
 
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phatboy said:
So quick question around this. Is the what looks like 13x2 pin connector all of the top of the card where you could plug in a dreamblaster or the like?

I know that some of these cards have the long IDE style connection at the rear of the rear but it's not populated on this one - won't lie I am not sure what is what.

Cheers

Ben
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Yes that is the wavetable header that you can plug a dreamblaster into :)
 
Hoooooly cow. Ok I didn't realise how much difference the wavetable makes. Just been on YouTube watching game theme comparisons using the S2. Duke 3D and Monkey Island have just completely sold me!

Ok off to find the cheapest purchase route :)
 
phatboy said:
Hoooooly cow. Ok I didn't realise how much difference the wavetable makes. Just been on YouTube watching game theme comparisons using the S2. Duke 3D and Monkey Island have just completely sold me!

Ok off to find the cheapest purchase route :)
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Unless you get lucky with a 2nd hand one then I think buying direct from serdashop is the best place. I was toying with the idea of one until I got a steal on my SW60XG.

Dos and midi sound is addictive!
 
The DB50XG does sound very nice. Also quite expensive at around £100 2nd hand

The downside is that some games will sounds too 'nice' and compatibility may be an issue
 
Guest2 said:
The DB50XG does sound very nice. Also quite expensive at around £100 2nd hand

The downside is that some games will sounds too 'nice' and compatibility may be an issue
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Is the DB50XG just a daughterboard version of the SW60XG?

I get what you are saying about some of the sounds. Theme hospital has this problem with a couple of instruments standing out and making it sound a bit odd.
 
LewisRaz said:
Is the DB50XG just a daughterboard version of the SW60XG?

I get what you are saying about some of the sounds. Theme hospital has this problem with a couple of instruments standing out and making it sound a bit odd.
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Yep, looks to be the same board, though not Soundblaster compatible

https://soundprogramming.net/soundcards/yamaha-sw60xg/

It is not SoundBlaster-compatible, so it was common to install both, using the SW60XG for digital music and the SoundBlaster for gaming.

The same XG engine was available in daughterboard form as the DB50XG card.
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so the RAM was faulty, and booted up fine with new ram. I have hit another wall on the install. im using an IDE to SATA on a 128gb SSD...

*UPDATE* i put a another SSD in a windows 10 PC and created 3x 30gb FAT32 partitions. Scandisk kept finding errors on drives D and E, so i deleted all the partitions except the primary boot partition , and its currently at 80% on the installation

slEy2y7.jpg
 
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sound card is now installed but it is is hissing quite loudly in the background, any clues on what this could be do i need to change jumpers or anything.

EDIT: did some digging on vogons and found someone who only as a reply on how much he liked the card made the suggestion of switching the amp jumpers to 2-3 as a must when you get the card as it was overpowering in factory on mode......just like that, issue solved :)

Lovely sound quality and Windows 98SE just installed the drivers itself from the included driver bank too
 
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phatboy said:
sound card is now installed but it is is hissing quite loudly in the background, any clues on what this could be do i need to change jumpers or anything.

EDIT: did some digging on vogons and found someone who only as a reply on how much he liked the card made the suggestion of switching the amp jumpers to 2-3 as a must when you get the card as it was overpowering in factory on mode......just like that, issue solved :)

Lovely sound quality and Windows 98SE just installed the drivers itself from the included driver bank too
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What card did you get again, the Labway card? How is compatibility with games and what is the main driver?
 
Kurgen said:
so the RAM was faulty, and booted up fine with new ram. I have hit another wall on the install. im using an IDE to SATA on a 128gb SSD...

*UPDATE* i put a another SSD in a windows 10 PC and created 3x 30gb FAT32 partitions. Scandisk kept finding errors on drives D and E, so i deleted all the partitions except the primary boot partition , and its currently at 80% on the installation

slEy2y7.jpg
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So is the SSD configuration worth it then, I was assuming massive issues with the OS getting it to work and would burn the drive fast it out pretty fast because of the lack of TRIM? I have a spare SSD knocking about so is tempting
 
Guest2 said:
What card did you get again, the Labway card? How is compatibility with games and what is the main driver?
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Yeah the Labway card, its installed as a Yamaha OPL3-SAx device. Haven't had much time to play around yet as just got it in the machine over my lunch break, would have played around some more but back to back video meetings :(
 
phatboy said:
Yeah the Labway card, its installed as a Yamaha OPL3-SAx device. Haven't had much time to play around yet as just got it in the machine over my lunch break, would have played around some more but back to back video meetings :(
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I know the feeling! Can't a man just play some games already :D
 
phatboy said:
So is the SSD configuration worth it then, I was assuming massive issues with the OS getting it to work and would burn the drive fast it out pretty fast because of the lack of TRIM? I have a spare SSD knocking about so is tempting
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It appears from the reading I have done that SSDs were never designed to run on other hardware and OS of the 90s.
If you want a machine to work as it did in the 90s, use authentic hardware! The downside of course is reduced disk speed

I do have a USB 2 hub card, even that conflicts sometimes in DOS causing Soundcard DMA conflicts and DOS apps to not launch at all sometimes. I disable it in device manager and all works perfectly. Its tempting to try another USB 2 hub as they are only a tenner but I think its will be exactly the same as the one I currently have
 
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