Sound Card

Originally posted by Frosty
The SB16 PCI is the exact worst Sound Blaster available to purchase.

And PCI is just a faster bus. ISA is a stupid piece of legacy tech that should've died 3 years ago.
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What a load of B.S. ,Frosty. I have a 5 year-old ISA SB16, and I`m very satisfied with it. There`s hardly any difference between the digital output of any 16 bit and up soundcard. the difference is only with MIDI output or other stuff like that, and regarding midi, since my SB16 has a wave-blaster connector(something creative has foolishly stopped adding to their sound cards), I can connect a very good midi daughterboard card to the SB16.

The Sound Blaster Live has all kinds of different options that were designed for high-end users, not simple game players. The only problem is that it doesn`t always support older games.
So if it`s just for games and listening to music - a Sound Blaster Live value or Vibra 128 is quite enough.
 
SB Live Card

I have a Sound Blaster Live Value card hooked up to the Cambridge Soundworks 4 speaker set. It works great in Windows 95/98. Prophecy was great also the software lets you configure your 4 speakers for space-sim play and such.

I do have a problem playing WCIV the SoundBlaster is using an interrupt of 10 and an address of E000. When I try the installation of WCIV the whole thing locks up. I even made a boot disk and manually changed the SB settings to A220, I5, D1, H5, etc. and it would install but still no sound.

So yes the SB Live is a good card, under Windows. However it is not so good for DOS games.

If anyone has had same trouble as me with WCIV and has fixed it please, please, please email me with your solution at
mallen@koyote.com or mikea@cityof.sulphurspringstx.com
 
I too have a SB 16 running on one of the machines. It works perfectly for all my games, new and old. My "workhorse" machine sports the SB32 Live card with the I-Drive input/output deck. It does not like old games. To save frustration, you can buy an older machine to run the old games, which those machines are so dirt cheap its rediculous! That way you dont have to butcher your newer machines. Buy a LAN kit, hook them all up and have an in-home LAN party with Armada Proving Grounds! :D

RFB
 
I ran both the KS and WCIV just fine on a p233mmx system with a SB 16 sound card, a Monster Fusion 16mb voodoo 1 vid card with 64Mb total system memory. Both games ran perfectly and still do! I would imagine that both will run just fine on a p166 or slightly lower. I know my old grandpa system (486dx2/66mhz), the one with the Cirrus Logic video thing, ran WCIV perfectly also. In fact, old grandpa is still going strong, running WCI, WCII, WCIII, Armada, Academy just fine!

I can tell you that the P233 runs KS, WCIII, WCIV, and WCP/SO perfectly.

RFB

[Edited by RFBurns on 04-25-2001 at 17:45]
 
All my computers use Sound Blaster cards. I never had any trouble or config problems EVER with those cards. They just seem to be "unbreakable" and extremely user friendly. I highly recommend the SB series of sound cards. But dont expect the latest to run old dos stuff without some sort of headaches. And to keep from pulling hair and throwing things around the room, it might be better to find an older used machine to run the older games. Some of the newer SB cards will run the old games ok, you just have to be carefull and dont go blow a weeks salary on some fancy top of the line card, and then be dissapointed because it wouldnt work on some game. It tends to become "very expensive lessons". :)

RFB
 
so, the SB16 would work on all of my games then? And still be okay for newer ones?

[Edited by Mav23 on 04-25-2001 at 17:57]
 
My SB16 will run the following on a P233mmx system:

WCI-Dos/KS
WCII-Dos/KS
WCPrivateer/RF-Dos mode
WCAcademy-Dos
WCArmada-Dos
WCIII-Dos/KS
WCIV-Dos/win95
Privateer 2-Dos
WCP
WCPSO
Quake
QuakeII
XVT
XWA
JK DF II
MS Flight Sim 2000 Pro
Longbow Gold
ATF Gold
Descent I
Descent II
Descent III
Descent III Mercenary
Freespace
Freespace II

Just a short list of what my SB16 will run, perfectly with no problems at all!

RFB

[Edited by RFBurns on 04-25-2001 at 18:05]
 
Originally posted by Mad Hatter
I have a 5 year-old ISA SB16, and I'm very satisfied with it.
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I have an ancient SB16 on my 386, which I'm assuming is ISA, since it's so old - but it plays all my older WC games beautifully. But you have to admit that ISA is really, really last generation stuff, don't you?
 
"Old" is not a synonyme for "bad". It`s usually the opposite, in fact. Dish-washers, Washing machines, cars, computer hardware, you name it. Ask any electrician and he`ll tell you what I just said. ISA may be old, but the next time I buy a PC, I`m hoping they still have ISA slots.

Where else am I going to put my sound cards?
 
There is an old saying, "Never throw away something just cause its old, especially if it still works". Which works out great for the original WC game releases. I bought spare parts for these older machines, so if something craps out, I can fix it and not be in a position where I cant run the older games. Now the wife will say different, she thinks that these old machines are worthless and useless! But I always remind her about her way outdated, manual typewritter, the thing is about 30 years old! You know, the ones that type the characters all crooked and holes in the "o's". :D

RFB
 
hey, someone is going to give me a really old Sound Blaster Pro 2, will that run stuff okay? WCP included. Will Creative labs have the driver for download?
 
SB-pro is good for old games, but it doesnt handle digital audio too well, since it`s not a 16bit sound card like the SB16(hence "16 bit") and it`s follow-ups.

AFAIK, you won`t be able to play mp3s with it, and I`m quite sure Prophecy won`t work with it(Although I wouldn`t bet my life on it).

My recommendation, if you want a sound card that`ll support both old and new games - get a Sound Blaster 16 ISA or a SB32 AWE, SB64 AWE, or something along that line.
 
SoundBlaster Cards

I to recommend all SoundBlaster Cards. I even fixed my problem with WCIV in Win98 with that WCIV patch. To answer your question about drivers for the SB16, if Creative's website does not have the drivers Download.com might have them. To reinforce What RFBurns wrote the older DOS games will have problems with newer PCI cards since for the most part the drivers are written for Windows.
 
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