30 Year old Sound Blaster Sound Cards from Creative Labs

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[@mattscomp]

30 years wow. I remember getting the 1.5 version for my 286 and trying out all my DOS games. It was mind blowing going from PC Speaker to SB sound.. Incredible upgrade.

[@philscomputerlab]

When I got the 1.5, I played all my games again! The sound was just amazing, and hearing speech in Wing Commander 2 for the first time...

[@mattscomp]

@@philscomputerlab the best thing ever replaying those games with upgraded sound! :-) my 286 wasn't going to cut it for WC2 but WC was awesome indeed :-D very special memories listening to it!

[@mattscomp]

@@AndrasMihalyi wish I had a GUS! It was just one of those cards I had to dream about.

[@jeff15]

@@philscomputerlab brings tears to my eyes. kids today would never understand. awesome video. Thanks.

[@lucasrem]

30 years was a Pentium, PCI SoundBlastera, 286, that was 1988??? mind blowing? You never did own a nintendo system?

[@WR3ND]

I think for this era I just had the PC speaker. LOL These have the classic sound I've heard elsewhere though. Today I have a decent SB16 CT2230 for a 486 build. I never had a 486 PC back then, just older used PCs until I built a new Pentium II PC later. Cheers.

[@PiraNov]

I used to work at a PC shop back then, and we sold these cards like hot cakes. Also, just the name "Sound Blaster" is one of those nostalgic words from those exicting times. Good times!

[@lucasrem]

we needed so many Soundblasters cards in the 1995 days, ISA PCI, needed to upgrade with any windows version too, just to get audio... mad times! bad drivers, bad codecs, weirdo suit of tools!

[@nickwallette6201]

My family’s first PC was a 386 - no audio card. Kind of a gift, really, since I had an opportunity to see what was missing without a Sound Blaster. We upgraded to the SB Pro 2.0. It was magical. I got so much mileage out of the CMF demos, Dr. Sbaitso, the demo MIDI files (ballad, minuet, reggae..), and the Voyetra MIDI kit. That lit a passion for PC audio that I’ve never gotten over. I have a small collection of MIDI synths, a DAW and plugins, I’ve written a bit of C code to learn how various sound file formats work, and started a bare-bones media player project just for the exercise. I’ve gotten into hardware hacking.. some reverse engineering and building my own analog and digital circuits. I think it’s fair to say, I owe a lot of this to the simple experience of running a pirated Sierra game and wondering what all those sound options were in install.exe. Around that time, all roads led to Sound Blaster, so here I am. I will always have fond memories of walking down the isle of a 90s computer megastore and seeing those beautiful orange and blue boxes. (And the black and gold ones before, of course!)

[@lucasrem]

Music on PC was a big fail, only Yamaha kept making products for PC You still need apple for that! Why you still use it, kept the conversions? C ?

[@bcal5962]

This video is so awesome. I remember my first PC from 2001 with a pentium III and a sound blaster card but for the life of me I cant recall which model. It was the mid range card around 2000 - 2001

[@drivingmemad7127]

Port 220, IRQ 5/7, DMA 1 burnt into my brain

[@philscomputerlab]

Haha, same!

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6 Though that's for the 16-bit models, not the 8 featured here.

[@georgemaragos2378]

HAHA - HI , yes just like the dos set command and later configuring himem.sys etc Then you had to re-learn them for 16 bit and cdrom options Then you had to use dos 4-5-6 for memory exclusions to run some cards as they ran in specific memory address - especially VGA and networking cards My original XT Clone ( Commodore PC 10 ) i later added a adlib card and a real time clock card ( @$ 150 + $ 60 ) Later i sold that machine and bought a clone / beige box XT turbo machine , i initially added a adlib card, and later on a 8 bit sound blaster. I then saved and purchased a used EGA monitor Next i purchased a 386sx with no sound card because i wanted to save for upgrade - plus it had "to be for work" for the wife to allow buying it - i was studying cobal and pascal at the time - work paid for the tafe fees. The 386 had a EGA but later a VGA monitor ( no secret it is all because of this new games called Wolf3D - this game would be one of the most significant reasons of system spec upgrades to modern harware at the time ) Anyway so eventually our local Bing Lee store had a full newspage page advert SB + 2 speed cdrom cheap $ 799 ( at the time single speed caddy style cdreader was over $1000 ) I had saved to buy a nice new $400 ide 40meg hard drive, but borrowed the gap from friends at work and bought the sound card with cdrom - the games i gave away as art payment and ended up basically doing 3 months overtime to pay back the gap The 386SX remained and was replaced buy a 486DX266 , that machine was a slim line / pizza box style, i think it was the first non-SB card, it had only 2 slots on a vertical riser card, so VGA and sound card - that machine did not last long because i needed networking and had to go back to a normal case for more slots - it was sold and i bought a ex demo Pentium 100 - which i still have and runs - the Dallas RTC has been changed twice As of today i still have a Gateway Pentium 2 - 200 , and it has Compact flash card for hard drive ( thanks to phils video about 5 years ago ) and it still runs the original $800 2speed SB cdrom and sound card

[@forkless]

The good old pre-PCI days.

[@bramvandenbroeck5060]

Where have i seen that before? :p

[@CoolDudeClem]

I feel so OLD. I remember hearing about theese in the early 90's and wishing I had a PC with one in it!

[@lucasrem]

1994 any PC owner bought the CD ROM, and got the blaster for the CD ROM controller, the SoundBlaster set or cheaper versions. 'mum i need this' did worked, we need the CD Rom drive, within a week! You still need it now? why you say that? never bought it?

[@TrueThanny]

_The Secret of Monkey Island_ was my absolute favorite game music at the time. It even sounded good on a PC speaker. For anyone who hasn't played the game, I highly recommend the special edition on Steam. It has updated graphics and voice acting, and - the best part - you can switch between the updated version and the original VGA version by pressing F10 at any point during the game.

[@Vanessaira-Retro]

Nice Phil! Wow, 30 years. Where does the time go...

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea, that is THE question :)

[@brodriguez11000]

GPU history. Now, where did the time go?

[@K0nt4kt]

I JUST sold my Sound Blaster 2 a couple weeks ago! It was awesome. Got some nice $$ too :) The sounds it made with Sim City 2000 will forever live in my mind. Loved that MIDI chip!

[@philscomputerlab]

Very nice! May I ask how much you sold it for?

[@K0nt4kt]

@@philscomputerlab $177 USD on ebay - My dad had it in his 486DX33 when I was a kid. I *LOVE* your videos

[@philscomputerlab]

Wow, they increased in value quite a bit!

[@ScanlineCity]

Nothing makes me happier than seeing a Phils retro video!

[@craigkarsten6719]

When WC2 came out, I upgraded my 286, put in a 386 DX33 board with 4mb ram and bought the soundblaster pro. It cost me well over $1000 at the time but god it was worth it.

[@T3hBeowulf]

Phil, I am so happy you took a trip down Retro Lane again. I had the great fortune of receiving computer lessons as a kid and the computers in that shop were all 386/486 era machines with these sound cards in them. Your passion for retro things inspired me to get my old 486 PC back up and running and many of the things you've talked about in your videos helped guide direction and set expectations for this passion project. If you get the opportunity to explore the new Orpheus sound card at some point in the future, I'd really curious to see how it stacks up given your extensive ISA Sound Card collection.

[@thabophadi]

Uncle Phil, with another heart warming down the memory lane video, this was before the revolution of Windows 95, when 500mb harddrive was heavier than a 500 pounds sledgehammer

[@anomaly95]

Somewhere around 1994, I remember the newest and largest harddrive you could get was 1GB. And it cost $1000! And it was only available in SCSI...

[@angieandretti]

Yeah, I LOVE the retro videos, Phil. You and your videos were insturmental in piquing my interest into this hobby! Today I've built three retro PC's from scratch and I LOVE every one of them so much!! Ahh, the nostalgia - back to the days when computers were still magical!

[@h0laPlaneta]

Love the retro videos!

[@AaronHendu]

I love learning about this era of computers...I am old enough to have used these computers as a child, but too young to have pulled them apart. I really didn't start building and modifying PC until socket 370 when I was about 13.

[@Agenttaco-s17]

What a nice surprise! Retro video from Phil on a Friday morning, good stuff.

[@taskanawa9604]

soundblaster is love sondblaster is life

[@andyjibb]

I own a Sound Blaster 2 and a Sound Blaster 16. Definatley two cherished pieces of hardware in my vintage collection. The 2 was the first sound card I owned when I was a young teen.

[@madzen112]

That sound when you open the doors in Wolfenstein 3D is amazing!

[@Reziac]

If you actually need an AT power supply. TOPower still makes them (or at least has good NOS). I've had two of theirs, 300W and 400W, both excellent. They also repair them. I have a whole boxful of these ISA SoundBlasters. Quite a range of sound quality among 'em, but they all work. :) I still have one in daily use that I bought in 1994, in my P4 with the ISA slots.

[@lemontangs]

Love these old true vintage sounds cards. Got a few of the old sound blaster cards sitting around still. Even have an old Mwave MC2780. Great card back in it's day.

[@JohnSmith-iu8cj]

Phil, you’re a legend, thank you so much for your videos! Keep up the great work! My first sound card was AWE32 on a new P166, before that only year‘s of pc speaker sound on 386s. Recently bought a SB 2.0 but couldn’t test it yet. Love the CMS sound and will try the modding! Ordered yesterday a K6-2/450 from electromyne and can’t wait to try it on my Asus SP97-V!

[@NumptyMcNumptyface]

I used to have a SoundBlaster 2.0 many moons ago, but sold it to a friend when I upgraded to the SoundBlaster 16 Value Edition. Loved the 2.0, and still have the 16VE in my retro Pentium MMX system.

[@JE-wd4lu]

The first sound card we bought back in the day was a Sound Blaster 2.0 clone (Sound Galaxy BXII) and these earlier cards definitely have a place in sound card history. Over the years I've now managed to obtain a boxed Sound Blaster 1.5 and a Sound Blaster 2.0, both in mint condition. I don't think my Sound Blaster 1.5 has ever been used. Interesting to note is that the Sound Blaster 1.5's did not come standard with CMS chips installed and also still had the original DSP v1.0x. My card actually came with two CMS chips, separately packaged, in the box and with instructions on how to install the two chips on the sound card. I imagine this is how Creative would have shipped it to people who wanted to upgrade their Sound Blaster 1.5 sound cards. My card also has the version 2.0 DSP onboard and not the older DSP version.

[@2007tantrum]

My computer story started later than this sound cards were popular, as I remember first I heard pc speaker, and then family moved to pc with digital card, don’t know which one. But such videos bring some warm feelings, thank you Fillip !

[@GiSWiG]

When I was in my early teens, I had a Soundblaster in a Tandy 1000 RLX with a 286. I'm just realizing how good I had everything back then. Ad-lib compatible, CMS, OPL, Tandy 3-voice, etc. If I had only knew what MIDI really was back then.

[@GuybrushThriftweed]

No retro soundcardtest without the Monkey Island theme! My first soundcard was the SB (don't know which CT though). My main 386 build has the SB Pro 2 but last week I got my hands on a loose CT1350B and that will go in one of my 286.

[@bunter6]

Yup that was the game that made me go out and buy a soundblaster for my 1st pc, a 386sx16.

[@klenchr3621]

Phil, thank you for giving a nice explanation of the PSU adapter. You've talked about this stuff before but I feel this video really helped out the most. Also, agree on being wary with fuzzy motherboard pics. I bought a 486 mobo a few years ago with bad traces from battery leakage. Took me a year of off and on work trying to fix it and I had to run trace wires. Even local electronic shops would not or could not help me....advising me to trash vs repair. Could not let that happen :)

[@philscomputerlab]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@philscomputerlab]

I'm thinking of doing a 386 build guide video, going into a bit more detail...

[@arcee420]

Glad to see another retro video! Love these types of videos!

[@SuperSPaquet]

My favorite card is the SB PRO 2.0 CT1600, only because it's what I had way back then. Playing my old games on the actual hardware I used to play it on really gives me a warm feeling. It's such a great hobby!

[@RetroSpector78]

a) Love that little compact 386 setup b) Great to see these old sound blasters c) hearing the monkey island theme song does it for me every time ! If I could I would give this 3 thumbs up !

[@mbe102]

The sound of what life was like when I was 3 years old. Good stuff.

[@NightSprinter]

I think it's the filter caps on older ISA Sound Blasters that help with that warmer sound you cherished so much back in the day. I remember a few VOGONS posts and some YT vids of folks who own ISA SB cards even state the filter caps helped the sound signature a lot (hence why certain PCI and PCIe sound cards for enthusiasts allowed them to change out opamps to their specification). Now for the CT1350B, I do recall certain versions still would not have CMS compatibility, even if the chips were installed. I used to own one of said later revisions.

[@philscomputerlab]

I know of a few games that use specific routines to detect a CMS card. AFAIK there might be patch workarounds for those games. But the "big" games, should all work.

[@NightSprinter]

@@philscomputerlab True enough, I can ask a few friends on Telegram and Discord who may own one, how compatible the Taito arcade ports are. I know even in 86box and PCem, those games seem to struggle big-time even when setting the card to dedicated SB or CMS.

[@philscomputerlab]

Ah yes, Taito games don't work on the Sound Blaster with CMS upgrade... I today tried a few games, Loom, Eco Quest, Test Drive 3, Times of Lore, Monkey Island, Last Crusade... They all work fine.

[@morthaine7389]

My first PC was a 25MHz 486 that had a Soundblaster Pro. Nothing has ever been quite 'right' since that one when it comes to the games I played growing up with it. Good feels watching this, another great video.

[@SiD3WiNDR]

I could listen to the Lemmings sound track all day.

[@Michael-79]

I like alot of your videos Phil, especially your sound card themed topics. PC sound and music generation from the late 80'ens to mid 90'ens have always fascinated me. Going back in time with you is nearly always something that make me smile. Finally subbed :D last time I miss a good video from you!

[@gavinburns6994]

LOL. Original SoundBlaster from Creative Labs. First PC my Dad bought me had one of these in it. It was amazing, compared to BBC micro which is what I upgraded from. True sound, true voices, true music from your computer. Nowadays ppl dont realise what an amazing thing that was.

[@GameplayandTalk]

Nice to see some more retro content!

[@tiemanowo]

9:50 I like GOTEK drives a lot, but I prefer those with an oled display, where I can see image name etc.

[@Stewcumber]

I picked up a Soundblaster 2.0, boxed with floppy disk software, for £10 on a local advert this year from an old gent who was just glad to be clearing out his attic. Yeah, that was a good day! I put the CMS chips in it as I love that sound; I strongly suggest checking out the Time of Lore theme (all 7 minutes of it) as CMS music really shines at those lower notes!

[@philscomputerlab]

WOW! Amazing, lucky you :D

[@philscomputerlab]

Make sure you tune in coming Tuesday :)

[@jimechols4347]

I can't believe the 30-year-old capacitors on these cards are still working good! I thought they may be dried out or shorted out by now.

[@H-77]

They are likely of decent quality and most see an easy life. A lot of them are probably coupling caps in the analog stages, which puts nearly zero stress on the caps. Temperature is probably the biggest determining factor for capacitor life. I would bet every working Neve VR console has been recapped by this point for that reason (they run hot).

[@BitsAndTips]

Ahhh, I remenber my very first SoundBlaster 1.5 with CMS chips connected to an HI-FI with big 3-Way speakers... The change from the PC speaker to this was incredible, loud and powerful sound, Monkey Island's bass line sounded great!!! Thank you very much Phil, nice video as always! 👍👍👍

[@mark_delight]

I miss your retro videos! I would love to see your revisit midi emulation like you were doing occasionally back in 2017ish, with the soundfont midi player, and do a step by step guide to get everything connected up and working. I played around with it a couple of years ago with my DOS computer, and never got it completely working the way I wanted, and I think it was because I didn't have the midi player configured right. That was the one part that you skipped over in all of the videos that I saw from back then. I'd really love to see you revisit that at some point.

[@arthurmann578]

I actually have a complete and original Sound Blaster 2.0 card with the original box and all of the floppies, manuals and accessories, including the Indianapolis 500 and Lemmings games in excellent shape. My wife bought it for me back in 1988-1990 when we first met. Now if I could just remember what old PC I left it in in my house? I think it may be in my old XT compatible. 🤔👍👍 I remember the absolute thrill that I got when I finally got to hear it play instead of having to hear "bleeps" through the old PC speaker! I really LOVE my wife!! ❤❤😊😊

[@philscomputerlab]

Yess! That was exactly what I had as well, Lemmings and Indi 500 :) You have a great wife, tell her that :D

[@arthurmann578]

@@philscomputerlab Thank you greatly, Phil!! I will give her the message! 😁😁

[@Grus0]

Not only stoked to see some retro content, as usual I learned some great stuff. I hadn't heard a comparison of FM and Gameblaster/CMS before. Now I realise I need a Gameblaster in my arsenal. Dammit Phil!

[@philscomputerlab]

More to come

[@Grus0]

@@philscomputerlab

[@Grus0]

@@philscomputerlab I went and did it! www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=963359#p963359

[@philscomputerlab]

@@Grus0 Awesome and thanks for sharing! It's always special when I hear back from how people succeeded with their projects...

[@StefanDieWaldfee]

Very good job on that video! I grew up with PC speaker and just a little bit later, Sound Blaster. Always good to hear one :) Please add the Gotek Floppy link to the description. Cheers ♥

[@philscomputerlab]

Yup, I've added a few more links!

[@StefanDieWaldfee]

Great! Much easier to look up stuff this way :)

[@VascoLopes79]

Already deserve the LIKE, starting the video with the Prince Of Persia.

[@antdude]

I got the original SB ISA card from my local Egghead store for my IBM PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC. Wolf3D, Commander Keen, Golden Axe, etc. were amazing!

[@H-77]

It's interesting because the main limitation on those sound cards would have been on the digital side, due to the space and processing required for high-definition playback. Now, the limitation is mostly in the converters themselves. Still though, flagship DACs and ADCs are so good that the differences are only relevant to those who want to use them as a measurement tool.

[@evers6214]

Another nostalgic video making me wish I had kept my 8-bit soundblaster.

[@retropcscotland4645]

Nothing like the originals man. Those are and were the best. I've still got my old p3 secc rocking one of those in an ISA slot to this day.

[@duduloi]

I used to work in a company who made pc from parts. I remember, i had autoexec.bat and config.sys with menu in order to optimize the memory I used VC instead NC (volkov / Norton). Nostalgia . You made my day thanks

[@nikmilosevic1696]

Ahhhh brought back memories building my first 386PC to replace (augment perhaps) my Amiga1000, for work/study and new gaming experiences. I may still have my first old Sound Blaster stored somewhere I think.

[@SUCRA]

Awesome vintage hardware! I haven't gotten to the 486 and back era. Earliest PC I have is a p-mmx with an sb 64. Can't wait to make a video on that, it's in the backlog. Thanks again Phil, great video!

[@BocaRetroGames]

What a great video, mister! Now I feel like rebuilding my first ever computer, which was pretty close to this one. A 386 33mhz , 4mb of ram , 120mb hdd, and a sound blaster pro, which is the only part I still have ! . But the prices are way high nowadays and I just can't find a motherboard !

[@anomaly95]

Another source for older parts are from old industrial machines. Deals can be had on ebay for the "PC on a card" boards that plug into a passive ISA backplane. A bonus is industrial boards are quite a bit more reliable than consumer stuff.

[@xKynOx]

My cat really liked the FM sound his ears perked right up.

[@ChrisR3tro]

Finally another retro video. My thoughts on these cards: While they are pretty nice to have if you're a collector, the signal quality probably is not that great. A Yamaha YMF-based clone would have the same compatibility, real OPL, and even an MPU interface and waveblaster, plus also being WSS compatible. A far better option for gaming, but a period correct setup with a 'real' Sound Blaster is always nice to look at.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yup, lots of other options :)

[@G3DTrance]

I'm a simple man. I see Phil's Computer Lab and Sound Cards, and I like it instantly! I love sound cards, specially Creative ones, great relationship between price and specs. I always buy one when I upgrade my PC, I hope they still exist in the future! My first one was an ISA Sound Blaster 16 stereo "3D Sound" bundle if I recall correctly. Later I had a "Live! MP3+ Studio". After that one an "Audigy 2 ZS", and now I'm a proud owner of a Sound Blaster Zx. All came with goodies, games, software or other things in the packs. Sadly, the only one that I still have around is the Audigy (apart from the Zx). The others I donated them with all my retro hardware because of the lack of space at home. But I kept the software. I had horrible experiences with on-board sound (awful output quality, noises, no full-duplex, unbalanced stereo, low quality connections, and so on...), so a sound card is a must for me in any PC I own, and never regretted it or had issues with it. Except from an isolated error here and there, I never experimented some of the issues others report with Sound Blaster cards about drivers or configurations. They never failed me, never stopped working and always brought me joy. Thank you for this great video!

[@H-77]

Just as a suggestion, USB audio interfaces typically offer much better performance (for a similar price) than a sound card from Creative. All of them offer differential line outputs and inputs. The analog performance of the Creative cards in recent years has not impressed me. The advantage a lot of the interfaces have going for them is that the companies behind them have a background in analog circuit design.

[@UncommonKnowledge587]

I used to use a PCI SoundBlaster back in the day. IIRC it was a very simple card and did a great job. It was cheap too.

[@dabombinablemi6188]

It's amazing seeing a PC Chips board that is still in working order.

[@philscomputerlab]

I tell you what, 386 parts are super reliable. In fact, the chips were more reliable for NASA, something to do with not being subjectable to space radiation. Hahah, if that doesn't mean something :D

[@dabombinablemi6188]

@@philscomputerlab Oh I know that 386 are reliable. It's just that PC Chips were one of if not the sleaziest and worst motherboard manufacturers of the time. They built boards as cheaply as possible, going as far to have fake L2 cache on some. And their defect rates were up to 15%...

[@dabombinablemi6188]

@@philscomputerlab This is the 386 board from what was my first PC, that was being used daily up until 2006 (RIP PSU): imgur.com/a/mmatGhQ

[@philscomputerlab]

I have that board! It can be upgraded to 486 actually :)

[@dabombinablemi6188]

@@philscomputerlab Unfortunately I only have a Ti 486 DX-4 100, not a 66. TBH though, the games that I played on it really wouldn't benefit from more than the DX-40 anyway. The newest game I ever played was my SW copy of BlakeStone.

[@RETROCENGO]

Phill!!!! Dos hardware, ohhh yeaa, gonna enjoy this video right away🤗

[@CPUGalaxy]

Finally a video abt some retro stuff. 😉. Thx and greetings from CPU GALAXY

[@xmaniac99]

I still wake up in the middle of the night having nightmares about Interrupt and Memory address conflicts. Then my brain goes ABEND

[@bbuggediffy]

Abend, good word. Thats something I'd read in a text based Infocom adventure.

[@Reziac]

...and SB cards insisting on being in the top slot!

[@gigaslave]

>Not keeping a cheatsheet for allocating IRQ and serial ports WEAK

[@tj71520]

But... the sense of victory when a setup works, after spending a week moving jumpers... that can not be had with the modern stuff. Ofc I had much more time for such things as a kid LOL

[@troymeredith521]

My nightmare was always finding ways to get enough base memory to run games like Red Baron. One of my DOS games requires 610KB or 620 available to run. Highmem and emm386 all saved the day in some form or another; just took a lot of work to make it happen.

[@ksp1278]

My first sound card was a Soundblaster 16 installed in a Pentium 120Mhz machine. It came in a kit with CDRom and some games/software. I got rid of it years ago. For my retro gaming needs I now have a SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 installed in a Pentium III 550zmhz PC, and a Pentium MMX 166mhz Laptop with OPL3 sound (Soundblaster pro compatible) My first PC as a teenager was a 286 that my dad bought for £2. No soundcard in it and maybe only 20mb HDD, but I loved that machine.

[@dizzym9554]

I really love how the CMS sounds, and I wish more games used that functionality. Then again, the card I had back in the day didn't do CMS

[@Ralph-yn3gr]

Too young to remember them from when they were relevant. First PC I can really remember was a Dell running Windows XP. I do have a sound blaster 2.0 in a 386 now, though. Got it about 5 years ago inside a 486 that unfortunately had a leaky battery on the motherboard (it was my first time getting a pc on ebay. still, it was very cheap, so I didn't mind too much. salvaged what I could except the case for some unthinkable reason. still kicking myself for tossing it along with the motherboard). Found the 386 at a thrift store a while later and stuck in the sound blaster since it didn't have any sound card at all and have loved it ever since. Upgraded it further with a CD-ROM drive, swapped the hard drive with the one from the 486 when it died, and installed Windows 3.1 plus Simple Simon Says Christmas for Windows for some nice twangy carols. Just ordered those CMS upgrade chips also.

[@bad.sector]

Nice roundup! Things that should be mentioned: Many modern PSUs are no good fit since they are missing -5V, but older ATX ones have it. Rolands LAPC-I, but also certain older Sound Blasters need them. One advantage of the SB 2.0 is that it doesn't click as much as the SB 16 with older games (DOTT, I think you tested this as well in the past). Edit 2022.... seems I revisited this video, and can add another thing about the SB 2.0 vs. 1.5. The 2.0 brought auto-init DMA! This means it can stream audio, while the older SBs were designed to play single samples. They could *somehow* play an audio stream, but this requires tight syncing with the playback and usually resulted in clicks and pops. Fun fact: Windows 3.x/Microsoft actually name these issues as a limitation of the card that cannot be worked around. Likely this is bc Windows is not laid out to handle real-time requirements.

[@MikesRigs]

The nostalgia! I saved for months to get a sound blaster 2.0 in 1993 to add sound to my olivetti 486 sx33. I still remember catching bus to the dick smiths store in st marys and the anticipation on the way there. I still have it with original box software/manuals, costed Aud $69, it came with lemmings and indianapolis 500. Recently got a cms upgrade chip set for it for future use (after only a year ago finding out what the unused sockets were for!) in a monotech nuxt build. Used for about 2 years until it was swapped out for a SB16 and 2x cdrom combo. Good card.

[@jikissgamer]

I put a Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 in my 386 at last year, it's the same 386 I had when I was a kid and it's a nice upgrade because it didn't have any sound back in the day

[@KARAOTI23]

I recently built a similar system with an AT case (with LED display also!)! Found a Quickshot Sound Machine (Sound Blaster 2.0 made in China under license by Creative),an OAK OTI077 1MB VGA card and an I/O Goldstar Prime 2c controller for free (payed only shipping) and also found locally for cheap (30€) that same motherboard you use only it is Version 2.6! The sound card sounds more warm but also more raw and noisy compairing it to more modern cards (I have a Vibra 16S and an ESS 1868F in other systems) but I get what you describe in the video. It feels more original and retro; a pure time machine!

[@herbertwongsanimations6266]

My first soundcard was a Sound Blaster CT1350B (which I still have but not using) for my 286, and the first game I tested it on was Prince Of Persia which suddenly sounded like an orchestra compared to the PC speaker. It came with Lemmings and Indianapolis 500, and the classic black "Sound Blaster" speakers.

[@philscomputerlab]

Hehe, such good memories :)

[@c90s_tech]

Amazing timing Phil, just my hands on a CT1350B and a baby AT 386 DX-40 with I think 8MB of RAM! It;s a teeny itty bitty mobo. Pretty similar in size to the one you used in this video. Should be a blast for some late 80's and early 90's pure DOS fun. Cheers!

[@davem2904]

always went with Sound blaster since the mid 90s, cause Sound blaster 16 was our very first, they always made a difference in quality. I'm now running a Sound Blaster Z PCI- E Gaming, so much better than ONBOARD sound.

[@arranmc182]

I just upgraded my PC and finally had to say goodbye to my Sound Blaster Live as AM4 has no native PCI support, Creative Labs use to make the best sound cards on the market at one point, cheers for the video keep up the work :)

[@Kedvespatikus]

I was longing for an SB soooo long back then. I heard the 1.0 at the official distributor's site first (in my home country), and it was stunningly better than the AdLib. By the time I could afford a sound card it was the SB16 era, so I bought and happily used an SB16 Vibra for some 7 or 8 years. I cannot recall any DOS game that could not work with it somehow.

[@philscomputerlab]

Wow, you were one of the first people in your country to hear a sound blaster! I miss that time, no Internet, and desperate for knowledge and information. I remember seeing all these other sound options, and always wondered what they sound like. Roland...

[@sprcorreia]

Love the CMS sound. I have an ATI Stereo F/X with the Philips chips and I love it!

[@philscomputerlab]

Nice card, very rare and sought after :D

[@surject]

Hey Phil, here's ..Phil :) Funny these things go up in price, guess I've to keep my original early 90s hardware for some more time :) Sound Blaster 2.0 is my oldest. SB16, AWE32, AWE64, SoundWave32, Live!, Audigy's ...also a few boards laying around, a DX4 by AMD, some old MPEG-1 video decoding card (ulltra long), Adaptec SCSI-2 cards ...hmm, dunno about some ET4000, S3 Trident or Cirus Logic VLB ;) Btw. don't forget to use EMM386 for Wing2 ..else no speech by the Kilrathi, no matter if you paid more for your SB than your pal who got an Adlib only!!

[@lucasrem]

I needed Optical output back then, still own them, never used again 16 ISA, or PCI, the 486 Pentium days. Why should you need them in 20201, waveboard connector? Dolby DTX over HDMi?

[@rtmclean484]

Keep up the great work Phil, your's is one channel that deserves so many more subscribers than it has. The content, information and the quality of the production are all fantastic. Most importantly just how much your passion and enthusiasm for old hardware of all specs comes through in your videos has me coming back everytime. Also on the off chance you see this, maybe you could answer a question that's been bugging me for ages, but where is your accent from? Like at the start I was like "oh hes deffinitly German", but then I started hearing some dutch sounding English and now I'm thinking your from Dortmund or somewhere in the west of German where the accent gets a bit closer to the dutch? You don't have to reveal this personal info if you don't want to obviously just been something I'm always trying to guess when I watch your videos XD. Anyways keep these awesome vids coming man, Much love from Ireland!

[@johnathanpearson3203]

Wow I got a couple didn't realize they were expensive.

[@MrAlan1828]

I have all those ISA sound cards, sold my Adlib in original box with receipt, Still have the cards Phil is featuring and the rare Adlib Gold, SB up to SB Swe64 Gold etc. SO much fun with these cards, especially the GUS sound cards made right here in Canada "Gravid Ultra Sound" hahahaha. A few hundred bucks, Og I cleaning them up to sell right now hahahaha

[@brostenen]

I really like OPL. It is just a part of my childhood, just as the SID chip is. Just a shame SID was not more supported on Dos.

[@KuronoNeko]

Yes, this was the sound card in my 286/386 of my youth. Everyone clones OPL3 or plays the classics with Roland midi, but my memories with the great games are with OPL2.

[@DonPedro6901]

Again back to my youth. How cool! Waiting for AWE64 and Gravis UltraSound! Btw. still using DosBox, cause I need my old program for learning launguages. Now I can use it even on smartphone! If sb would told me that those days I would definitely call him insane.

[@73rmin8r]

Feeding a big stack of floppies in and out trying to install stuff is half the fun of a retro computer. Those goteks look like a nice thing to have if you don't like doing that though.

[@batforjustice]

Seeing your video's took me down a path of times past. I spent recent days tinkering with my neglected collection of socket 7(intel 200mhz on a G586IPV rev C+ System Board, k6-2 400 on a FIC Va-503+, k6-2 500 on a Jetway J-542C), slot 1 PIII 800Mhz on a Asus P3V4X, AthlonXP 2600+ on a Aopen ak77pro a133 to name some of the 13 computers I have. I also have newer 754, 775, 478, Am2, Odroid C2 XU4, Pi 1 B+ 3B+, and an Atomic Pi. I am the original owner of most of them. I upgraded from slower cpu's as time went on to what it is now. Back in the day simm's could be very expensive. My first cpu was a Pentium 90 that only needed passive cooling. My first video card I bought is a generic Cirrus Logic ISA. Then I used various Tsegn, S3irge, and Cirrus Logic chips on branded cards like a Diamond Speedstar64 ISA, and Diamond Stealth64 PCI. I have a Ati rage pro with tv out. I thought playing diablo2 on a big screen tv was cool. The oldest video cards that came my way are a Trident "93" era ISA with VLB(looks like pci on end), the other is a Diamond VGA88 ver 1.02 1989(eprom label) that has one vga and one cga connector. I later gave in to buying 2 pci Geforce 2 mx200 32MB to play Warcraft 3 on the AthlonXP(painfully slow on the socket 7). One was Evga the other was PNY that had green passive heatsinks that got 160F, but it was made that way. When I obtained my other socket 7's I used whatever video card I had on hand for the purpose of Starcraft ipx/spx lan parties. I was given a Diamond Riva 128 PCI with tv out that was ok except for the tv out was grainy. When AGP 2x/4x cards went down in price. I Found myself buying cards like a Geforce2 mx400 32B w/tv out, Msi 8088, His Vanta agp, Riva Tnt2 16MB, and Ati Radeon 9600se 128MB w/tv out. The Ati rage pro pci was better at it. All was fine until Diablo3. That is where the Am2 came in and I then bought a Geforce 78000gt. I haven't had a desire to play anything newer when I have a xbox 360. Some time after Mozilla and Micromanagement soft killed of pre sse2 support. Damn them for doing that!! The sound cards were not as various. I started with a Awe 64 value still in use. Then came a Cobra awe850( I wanted spdif, It lied), Aureal Vortex Ba88st20a-01, Sblive 5.1 Value flashed to act like sb0060, ct-4810 Oem Vibra 128, Sound Blaster ct-4180 Vibra16, ct-2230 with only creative IDE populated, Yamaha A151-A00. My main drive for sound cards was if it could play Ultima 7. Then I got interested in surround sound. When I got my first 5.1 spdif receiver the Sblive5.1 was only for spdif out with the help of AC3filter to make dvd AC3 playback easier to output. Since then all newer pc's with on board spdif was all I needed for muti-media and non Dos era gaming. I didn't think I would be that much in depth, but seeing my old Debian Lenny install still alive on the va503+ and seeing xine and Totem player that I played dvd's on. If you ever want to see interesting try using a 2MB video card to watch dvd's on a socket 7. The k6-2 500 can do a decent DVD job along with a PIII 800 being slightly better with an adequate video card. For the life of me though, I still can't get Ultima Underworld2 to detect a digital affects card with the Soundblaster, or Pro option when the sound effects work fine. I even have the CD versions with tweeks. Dos box isn't the same. Maybe one day. A note to everyone, just because it is old does not mean it isn't useful even in 2020. Although your experience may be a little slower, and may have to learn what downloading and buffering was before watching streamed online videos was the norm.

[@evilpablo84]

Wonderful video, as always.

[@tj71520]

Ahh the old days of dos gaming. I still have quite the collection of old ISA cards

[@pc-sound-legacy]

What i really like is the stereo ability of the cms, this gives a great experience on headphones. I also like you still have this little PC chips 386 board in use! I have bought the exactly same board for a 20€ plus shipping, remembering myself - "this is the board Phil has shown us in one of his old videos, isn't it?" Live would be much more for my without all this retro stuff I think :-)

[@appwraith]

I hear the Prince of Persia theme, I click Like - it is the law :D I have a Sound Blaster 16 in my 386, but it would be cool to try out an older one like these.

[@euclideszoto997]

I remember in the salvage yards they had isa cards for 1 dollar in a milk crate bin. Those were the days!

[@Dylan-kb9eb]

Loving these videos, Phil!

[@cfbmoo1]

The more I watch videos like this the more I regret getting rid of old computers in life. Ah well, at least I got a CoCo3 from a refurb business so I'm not totally out of old computer goodies.

[@ctecrwp]

Oh my... FLASH BACK...what were the days and those were the days.... Getting larger hard drives, configuring cards and yes inserting the co-processors....wow

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

Chiptune composers haven't yet discovered CMS / Game Blaster / 2x SAA-1099. Even if the chip is just 6 plain square waves, it would still sound good combining 12 total channels with modern chiptune composition techniques. Plus the chip has two volume envelopes, which yields the throaty bass effect characteristic of ZX Spectrum and Atari ST tunes.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea it sounds very unique! Most games just got the FM conversion, rather than uniquely composed music for it.

[@RetroPCUser]

Getting a CT1350B with the CMS upgrade installed for my Compaq Portable 1 (still doing work on the system at the moment before I install the card).

[@francoisfritz198]

When prince of Persia and lemmings music arrive, it give me chills, even if my 286 run them frequently. In more later, with opl2 or 3, doom's ost is just amazing. Take care. Opl rules!

[@fabiangirsch2391]

Finally retro-stuff!