Subject: RE: Sound for DOS games on modern hardware?

From: "Dr. Ido" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat Jun 21 03:36:00 2003

At 12:17 PM 6/20/03 -0600, you wrote:
>AARGGH!
>
>Read Ethan's posts. He can NOT use ANY ISA sound cards, because the
computer does not have any ISA slots. Period.
>
>So, can anyone answer Ethan's question about how to get a PCI sound card
to work with a ca. 1994 MS-DOS game?

What about using a PC emulator?  I run DOS inside Windows using Virtual PC
and sound works, though it does skip in some games.  
There are other PC emulators that I haven't tried yet.  Bochs and DOSbox
comes to mind.  DOSbox may be the better one to try as it's freeware (as
far as I know) and is designed specifically to run DOS games on Windows
PCs.  A known limitation is that it currently does not support 32 bit
protected mode, but for wolf 3d and other pre DOS4GW games this shouldn't
be a problem.  I'll get around to trying it one of these days.  

If the 2 cards will coexist or he's willing to replace his current card it
may be worth looking for a SB PCI64.  I use one and compatibility with
older software is usually pretty good.

---

From: "TeoZ" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat Jun 21 04:02:00 2003

Emulators usually choke on games because of shortcuts in programming and the
demands of graphics and sound. If you just want to play a game or 2 its not
bad IF the emulator works with that game, but for anybody who wants to play
alot of dos games you have to use a vintage computer with vintage sound and
video cards. Some people have enough problems WITH vintage equipment because
of irq conflicts, wrong sound card, cpu is too fast, using old cyrix chips,
memory configuration or amount etc.

I went to the extreme and made 2 DOS machines, one for later games and one
for the real early games. I still dont have the ancient 80's CGA games
covered but I dont care about that period that much since my C64/C128 and
Amiga 500 had better games in that time period.

Considering what 386/486 systems cost these days (pretty much free on the
curb, or VERY cheap on ebay if you dont have to ship), I say if your into it
go get the equipment to do the job.

You would be surprised how nice the games look, sound, and play on a newer
19" or above monitor and some good speakers. I use a KVM with sound
switching on my 4 game rigs so I dont have to mess with switching cables and
wires, or having multiple monitors, keayboards, and mice. Classic games are
still alot of fun to play.

TZ

---

From: "Dr. Ido" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat Jun 21 04:22:01 2003

>still alot of fun to play.

I take the original machine approach myself.  I only usually use the
emulators to take screenshots, or to quickly check if something runs before
going to the trouble copying to the older machines (my oldest DOS boxes
aren't on my network yet).  I've still got a P166 and a 486-66 set up here
and many others stacked in the spare room.  I still haven't worked out a
way to integrate my Tandy 1000RL into the rack yet, though.  I think it's
the best system for early 80s PC games as a lot of them supported it's 16
color graphics and 3 voice sound.  I think it's the nicest of the Tandy
1000s as it has PS/2 keyboard/mouse connectors, IDE and it's a tiny little
box.  Still haven't worked out how to convert it's RGBI output into
something my 21" monitor will display though.  

I only mentioned the emulators as the original poster asking the question
said finding space for a pure DOS machine was out of the question.

If he's case is big enough maybe he could install it in the same case as
the current system? :)  
I've got some tiny 486-100 all in one mobos from POS systems that still
have 2 ISA slots.. enough for the all important SB16 and a NIC.

---

From: "TeoZ" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat Jun 21 04:50:01 2003

I also make sure that for later dos games my video card does all the
necessary video modes (VESA) without having to use drivers. I use a Riva 128
4mb card (PCI) and it does all the VESA modes without a driver. My 386 has a
Tseng (diamond speedstar 1mb ISA) ET 3000ax or 4000 cant remember, works
fine with the older games.