Rock'n 98 3D Sound Card: Aureal Vortex in Disguise

[@LGRBlerbs]

Here's an archive of the CD-ROM with all the bundled drivers and software I showed: archive.org/details/samtek-rockn-98-3d-sound-card-cd-rom-v1.91 Haven't got the card installed in a PC at the moment so I can't do any direct recordings of that awful AdLib emulation, but yeah. I've really gotta do so in the future. It's too crap not to preserve 😂

[@alhuno1]

Clint, not only you have a really good Duke voice, but a criminally contagious laugh. I was cracked up a good 15 minutes after this.

[@perpetualcollapse]

Aight

[@djtomoy]

Damn, those alien bastards are gonna pay for s̶h̶o̶o̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶r̶i̶d̶e̶ ruining this game’s music

[@Zabbath2]

At least it still sounds better than Creative Vibra 128 / AudioPCI. lol

[@vol.2158]

A3D was super cool because they were doing HRTF stuff, so it was basically like primitive sound ray tracing. It was fixed position though, so you can't turn your head away, and focus is always at the center of the screen. There are a number of companies today doing some version of this that incorporates positional tracking, but only one of them (visisonics) is actually doing that plus surface coefficients and object obstruction and occlusion (for unique reflections). Of course, the tracking requires something like a VR headset or a sensor.

[@somefreshbread]

The speed at which Clint can find canyon.mid in a win3.1 file manager interface is hilarious.

[@WildApple_OP-Plays]

Win 3.1? Was this meant as sarcasm? 🤨

[@PiddeBas]

@@WildApple_OP-Plays Daniel meant that the file browser itself is from win 3.1, not the OS. Fun fact: that file browser still exists in win 10 if you know where to look

[@sus-mj9xz]

@@PiddeBas Where?

[@tehFoxx0rz]

@@sus-mj9xz Looks like it doesn't "still exist in Windows 10", but rather Microsoft released the source code and a version that was recompiled to work within Windows 10.

[@mattj5155]

My favorite feature listed on the back is "Auto Run Install". That is a hilariously low bar for an advertised feature.

[@LGRBlerbs]

Ha! Didn't even notice, that's fantastic.

[@cromulence]

That reminds me of the episode of the Simpsons where Homer buys a new TV. "If you like to watch your TV, and I mean really watch it, you want the Carnivale. It features two pronged wall plug, pre-molded hand grip wells, durable outer casing to prevent fall-apart."

[@pseudotasuki]

I'm so tired of having to click the mouse button. Other installers expect me to do that *twice*!

[@sesboks]

"Purchasable!"

[@eadweard.]

"Object!"

[@cURLybOi]

you know it's the 90s when the official installation splash uses comic sans

[@dallesamllhals9161]

Hmm, were you even around back then? Me' bOi ;-P I was - still with a Sound Blaster 16(from the family 486) in my '97 socket 7 build.

[@UncleMikeRetro]

Well I was around and fully grown in the 1990s, and I can say that Comic Sans was indeed THE font 😁 Does its job, still makes me smile

[@TheNiteNinja19]

My Sound Blaster Z still had the retro blue installation screen.

[@backslashio]

Duke Nukem "Let's rock!" Sound card: *spouts random sounds instead of the actual music track*

[@Nukle0n]

It turned into an american-made Sega Genesis game.

[@OMorty]

@@Nukle0n Duke 3D confirmed to use the GEMS sound driver.

[@USSMariner]

I actually love it. It's as if D3D had a bonus 2D platformer throwback level and that's what they did to the theme for shits and giggles. @LGR Please rip that and post it I beg you.

[@mccobsta]

@@Nukle0n there was some that had decent sound especially later in the systems life

[@junkelist]

Turned it into Donk Nankum 😂

[@JasonPullara]

These are the blebs I frickin love: the ones with the generic, cheap, undesirable pieces of hardware that I had growing up because we were broke AF. Thanks for the rush of nostalgia Clint.

[@stridermt2k]

This ^

[@startedtech]

bleb

[@KingLich451]

blem

[@YAUUN]

Yup!

[@melskunk]

Yeah, I have serious nostalgia for super generic sans serif fonts on cheap cardboard with no-name pc parts.

[@Reindhardt]

OMG, the sync on those clocks.

[@LGRBlerbs]

I'm genuinely glad someone noticed.

[@sommelierofstench]

damn.

[@eDoc2020]

If two clocks don't show the same time it means at least one of them is wrong. Synchronizing them is just the right thing to do. I just noticed my vintage alarm clocks (which are properly synchronized with each other) are running 20 seconds behind actual time. If I weren't so lazy I would investigate. I've actually been thinking about building an adapter to non-intrusively give these NTP functionality but naturally I haven't started actually doing it.

[@aaronedwards1239]

Your lighting with the incandescent alarm clock during the software demo is spot on. I feel like it's 1998 and I'm just chillin at a friend's house!

[@AceStrife]

On my 34" ultrawide my brain kinda forgot I was watching a youtube video on a monitor for a while, just felt like I was a kid again at my grandparents' house. Really quite a strange/surreal experience.

[@Haama10]

We need a full loop of that duke nukem theme to make derpy Duke memes. Edit: Derp Nerp'em

[@MJasim86]

Love the spam rant man! Been there, blocking them all the time but there’s always more.

[@anew742]

It's like whack-a-mole

[@Gatorade69]

You block one and two more replace it !

[@saxxonpike]

There's a lot of cards that came to be as a result of surplus all-in-one sound chips from Yamaha and Aureal. They were especially popular with OEMs and markets outside of the US. This is one of the better looking ones!

[@MrDuncl]

You used to see cards like these at computer fairs for about £10 at the time Creative were selling cards like the Soundblaster Live for £100. Speaking of Yamaha I have a Toshiba Pentium 3 laptop with a Yamaha XG chip in it which sounds very nice. p.s. Whatever happened to Computer Fairs ? In the U.K. every City used to have one every month or two and in London they were more frequent. I don't think I have seen one locally for at least ten years.

[@AndrewAMartin]

@@MrDuncl Amazon and Internet shopping killed the computer show/fair -- better prices and delivered to your door, no dealing with sketchy vendors, and no admission fee... I used to go to the Peter Trapp show locally (they ran up & down the US East coast), but that was late 90's early 2000's at the latest. I actually found two vendor price lists from one the other day while looking for something else -- the one vendor was selling complete systems: Pentium systems from $1200 (P-100) to $1500 (P-200), Pentium MMX systems from $2400 to $2600, Pentium Pro systems for $2900, and a bargain AMD 586 or K5 system for just under $1000. The other vendor was selling parts -- Pentium motherboard for $110, the largest IDE hard drive is a 3.1GB Western Digital for $349, the best video card is a Diamond Stealth 3-D 3000 XL PCI 4MB VRAM for $320; a SoundBlaster AWE32 is $235, a 17" CTX CRT with .26 dot pitch is $575. Ah, the nostalgia...

[@MrDuncl]

@@AndrewAMartin I recall paying £115 for a P133 CPU on its own at a computer fair which is probably the most I have ever paid for a CPU. I also have fond memories of the "Computer Shopper Show" run by a popular UK magazine at the time. Held in the large Olympia exhibition hall they would drive trucks in there and be selling printers, monitors, etc of the back of the trucks at about a 25% discount to normal retail prices. At one I spotted a bargain and went to find a call box to phone a friend. "Hey Robert - They've got 4MByte SIMMs for only £80. Do you want me to get you one". At such a bargain price of course he did. I got one myself as well to upgrade my Apricot (Mitsubishi) 486 PC to 8MByte. That itself came second hand from the equivalent of a computer fair and ended up with many upgrades like extra RAM,, second 270MByte Hard Drive, Sound Card, CD-ROM, and to top it all a 14K4 Dial up Modem so I could explore the internet. Since then, local retailers, and national retailer PC World have come and gone. Technically PC World still exists but it just a section selling laptops in Curry's (electrical retailer), in-between the Washing Machine and Cellphone sections of the store.

[@AndrewAMartin]

@@MrDuncl I remember the Computer Shopper magazine - larger format than the typical magazine, thick like a phone book. 99% ads, 1% articles... The local shows were held in the Pennsylvania Farm Show & Exposition Center, a complex of halls and arenas used for the annual agricultural show it's named for, plus various livestock & horse shows, rodeos, dog shows, sporting events from arena football to motocross, car and boat shows, and so on. There was always the piquant aroma of manure in the place...

[@YAUUN]

CANYON.MID always sounds like the intro to the news on some small TV station running on a shoestring somewtime in the 90's or early 00's.

[@pigfish99]

6:20 omg the lamp alarm clock from the thrifting!

[@hlauren2001]

Man those low-fi drums in Duke sound like someone was drumming with glass jars using cutlery as sticks. Awesome

[@KyoshoLP]

Got several good laughs from this one. I kept thinking, "Man, I hope he tests the OPL2/3 support and not just the A3D." You did not let me down. :D

[@ValStinks]

I don't usually find the sound card videos super engaging but I'm so extremely glad I stuck this one out for that amazing duke soundtrack

[@breadmoth6443]

I always get the "We are calling about your extended vehicle warrenty"

[@Choralone422]

The fewer of those calls you answer the fewer you will get on the whole. I rarely ever get them anymore cause I never answer them. My father answers every one and he gets a bunch of calls every day!

[@HeadsetGuy]

I keep getting "Marilyn from the underwriting department" lately. Also text messages saying "Netflix is giving everyone a free subscription", "DMV has a message for you"... It's ridiculous.

[@caturdaynite7217]

I get the scam asking me if I still repair computers and if I take credit cards. I do, but I always answer back 'local calls only". That usually gets rid of them until a few months later when I get another one.

[@AdamIsUrqed]

The bastitches are calling with local area codes now. I'm looking for a job locally so I answer at least one a day. The calls coming in from out of state are 95% caught by spam block and reported.

[@uubrmanx]

This is what I call the robocall hall of fame: That car warranty one "Your Windows subscription has expired" "You are being sued by [company that never calls people regarding lawsuits]" "You are behind on your [mortgage/loan/etc. but don't actually owe anything]" "Can you hear me okay?" (To trick you into saying yes so they can "confirm" that you bought hundreds of dollars of scratch tickets, etc., and that the credit card info they stole from you actually works) And any fishy phone call which consists of the other person speaking in text-to-speech.

[@Crixer234]

That sound card box and installation art looks those "creative" corporate art trying to be "artsy" in the late 90's, reminds me of those cafés trying that aesthetic.

[@benanderson89]

It's like a mixture of Frasurebane and Industrial Americana www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/frasurbane www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/csa-90s-industrial-americana

[@rickdeckard7098]

@@benanderson89 I was going to suggest a "global village coffeehouse" aesthetic, but does Frasurbane fit better.

[@FoxerTails]

LGR taking full advantage of that little alarm clock lamp. Looks perfect with that setup.

[@TheNiteNinja19]

Man those tools they bundled in with sound cards back in the day where a lot of fun to tinker with, that brought back memories.

[@Crazy_Borg]

R.I.P. Aureal Interactive. Killed in cold blood by Creative Labs' greed and law shenanigans.

[@EmergencyChannel]

I always wonder how Creative Lab is still around, I don't know anyone who has bought a sound card in the last 15 years.

[@Crazy_Borg]

@@EmergencyChannel Their headphones are pretty good compared to the competion in the same price range. I still have their EP-630 in-ears daily used from 2006 until 2013 and still use them today from time to time. No matter how good or bad their soundcards are, their drivers were always utter garbage. Glad the lack of hardware accelerated 3D Audio and the rise of onboard sound has pushed them into rather obsolete territories.

[@Aggrofool]

Creative went the lawsuit route. What a bunch of scumbags.

[@JohnDoe-ip3oq]

Not like it matters when Microsoft killed everybody. 3d Sound isn't even possible anymore.

[@FireFoxBancroft]

@@EmergencyChannel People still buy sound cards and they sound better than the on-board sound chip by miles. The bass isn't muffled and the treble actually sounds clear.

[@rosskwolfe]

Congratulations to everyone currently selling these on eBay!

I start to understand what "influencer" means. :)

[@sugaryhull9688]

The "Techmoan Effect" 😉

[@enilenis]

LGR reviews have the same effect on ebay sales as Musk's tweets on the stock market. I'm so glad I got myself an MT-32 for $40 weeks before Clint and the 8-Bit Guy first covered it. Sadly, Techmoan beat me to Roland MT-80/MT-300. I had to wait for 3 years before I found one in a good condition.

@@enilenis Duke Nukem > Elon Musk !!!

[@TheInternetHelpdeskPlays]

So many years ago I needed a sound card and I remember getting a cheap card second hand, a turtle beach A3d card. As a 17 year old with the best sound card of all my friends, it was the first time I connected my pc to my stereo for awesome speakers

[@ncot_tech]

The Duke 3D theme sounds like what a KK Slider version from Animal Crossing would be like 😆

[@DM78]

I did hardware QA for Aureal back in 97-99. I have a bunch of 8830 test boards with all features enabled (including the quad-channel 3d daughtercard). Still one of the best sound cards I've ever used.

[@boardernut]

Cool, do you know if the wavetable synth is really implemented on hardware on the chipset or if it just pure software using directsound

[@DM78]

@@boardernut the 8820 and 8830 had hardware wavetable with the 8830 having extra ram set aside for custom wave packs. The 8810 (usually found on the software modem cards) had software wavetable emulation.

[@boardernut]

@@DM78 Great story, I still own a Turtle Beach Montego II, I remember shortly after I bought it, que Quadzilla version appeared, and also the Studio wich added even more features including wavetable addon, that same wavetable is being re-made by SERDA shop called Yucatan FX, nothing to do with Aureal, but back in the day that was a top of the line combo for sound.

[@Crobisaur]

What a neat little card, i love the generic branding, it looks like one of those fun surplus cards you get when a factory has extra parts leftover from a contract order or something.

[@djmiggy1778]

Honestly the Aureal had the best sound to this day in my opinion. I used to use it while playing Everquest with a 4.1 speaker system and it sounded so good!

[@StillTheVoid]

Happy 25th Anniversary, Duke! 🥳

[@bigpalookaalt]

Everytime you see "Aureal", all I can think of is Ah! Real Monsters.

[@DanPellegrino486]

The real monster here was that Adlib emulation. Perhaps it was just misunderstood though?

[@DewtehDew]

I was going to say the same thing haha

[@ejej1187]

aureal monsters

[@bleepintunes]

Oh, seeing this I totally remember those A3D demo programs! I must have had a A3D capable sound card in my PC at the time without even really knowing what it was, because I remember the computer had these demos preinstalled. Good times! :)

[@RomeoG39]

I swear the LGR laugh is just as entertaining as the LGR speaking voice. Whenever you're LoLing at the terrible Adlib emulation, I couldn't help but to laugh along with you.

[@_PGleo86]

I absolutely LOVE that lamp in that setup with the megaluminum monster! It looks SO good!!

[@ThePerradox]

Here on Radio LGR. We're gonna rock it like it's 1998!

[@foxVII]

I love the clock lamp from thrifts keeps showing up in videos. That's such a cool lil lamp!

[@rotordave81]

That's the first time I can remember you having a rant about something on a video. You're human after all! It was rather entertaining.

[@vincentjonesvr]

OH MY GOD. THIS TECH DEMO HAS BEEN HAUNTING MY DREAMS FOR YEARS. I COULD NEVER FIGURE OUT WHERE IT CAME FROM.

[@vincentjonesvr]

One of those must be the chess board with weird shit flying all over the place that introduced me to the fear of the void. EDIT: It's Race Demo.

[@IrishObyrne]

It was enjoyable watching you get so excited about finding old card.

[@badnewsbruner]

First of all! That soft plastic keyboard cover got me ten kinds of moist! Secondly, if there is a heaven, it consists of text to speech but every time feels like your first time.

[@alexkubrat3868]

I never heard Duke being so depressed, poor Duke.

[@RoomerJ]

I laughed so hard when you tested the adlib emulation. You should do "horrible sound card" videos

[@mpf1947]

This is probably the first time I've ever seen a driver CD packed in a standard jewel case.

[@crtified1001]

We know you're there, Veronica. Yes, we're very impressed with your 15-year commitment to this "Clint" routine. But regardless, Veronica - It's subscription time.

[@frozenbean]

4:35 "What is your package?" Oddly personal question for a sound card manual.

[@vibingwithvinyl]

I used to work in a PC shop back in the mid 90's and remember installing these generic sound cards into computers.

[@Carambal81]

I could hear the A3D effects just fine with my headphones! Had a Vortex 2 when it came out, and I could play with those demos forever, almost a little game in itself.

[@cajakit]

Yep, that lamp looks great. Definitely a great find, Clint!

[@erik365365365]

I love the digression about spam messages. You have a way of saying things I think perfectly.

[@phazonclash]

Someone probably purchased that cheap, unassuming card back in the days and thought it was his/her best investment in a while because it was actually good

[@LGRBlerbs]

No doubt, I'd have been REALLY happy with it back then.

[@camotech1314]

Cliff's dying laughter during the FM Synth diarrhea is awesome lol

[@VinnyVidiVintage]

You were bored during quarantine and found a gem... lol I remember that helicopter demo from when I got my first 3d sound card...

[@Blaizen88]

That text reader program crashing had me in stitches!

[@BRUXXUS]

Your love of that little clock lamp is super endearing.

[@cfabz2023]

The box just screams bottom shelf or bargain bin at a mom and pop computer store when they existed back in the day. Love it!

[@Korium84]

Never fails, Clint now has me wanting to get my bin of old parts, and build a win98 system. Complete with my old vortex 2.

[@InvalidVertex]

Glad to see that clock/lamp you found in your latest thrift getting some use.

[@Phobias124]

I would love it if you'd upload a video just playing a few songs from Duke 3D with that sound card. That was amazing! 😄

[@RyanRiopel]

So happy to see the clock lamp is still hanging out

[@SabretoothBarnacle]

Thumbs up before I've watched it - because I know I'll enjoy it 💾🖥

[@Toonrick12]

@Channel Zero But its LGR.

[@loneindiedev8242]

@Channel Zero Maybe, but LGR has never dissapppointed me personally, sooo... I did the same.

[@RabidPeanutButter]

Had a Diamond Monster Sound MX300 Aureal card. I loved it so much, I would even edit registry settings so I could use it in Windows2000 and XP. Good times, I wish I had kept it.

[@nathanmead140]

I have one of their cards in my tower, It's a 7.1 surround sound card, I bought it because my old motherboard didn't have surround sound built in and the internet said the card has studio quality sound when I looked up the specifications, my old motherboard broke so I got a new one and the new board has 7.1 surround sound built in so I don't need the sound card for that anymore but I kept it in my PC.

[@DuckReconMajor]

LGR at 0:49 - looks at back of box titled 'Let Your Computer Do The Reading' LGR at 1:55 - "I've never met this man in my life!"

[@legacyoftheancientsC64c]

I'll never forgive Creative Labs for what they did to Aureal.

[@Voidrunner01]

Dude, same. So much.

[@sinisterthoughts2896]

ah yes, the windows log in sound at accidental max volume. good times...

[@onometre]

at 2am when you were trying to sneak onto the PC without your parents knowing

[@emprsnm9903]

@@onometre Been there! My panicked whisper-cursing, Immediately cut off by shouts of *"Go to BED!"* from down the hall.

[@Feradon]

I never had any aureal card back in the day. But recently i bought loose diamond monster sound mx300 and i fall in love to this. Such crisp and deep sound in compare to sblive i adore it. And i know now why you like it as well :D

[@RidgeRacer]

I hope the little bug at 3:20 is having a good day.

[@fake12396]

Fun fact: Aureal's legendary OPL emulation is done entirely in software, no idea how they got it to sound out of tune though :D

[@datajake1999]

That is not surprising.

[@JonMartinYXD]

Samtek Corporation still exists. They changed their name to SAMT Co. Ltd. in 2006. Their new address is just over a kilometre from the one on the box, still in the Gangnam district of Seoul.

[@rawr51919]

They're at least still in the same district

[@FrontSideBus]

Having opened myself up multiple times on sharp PCB corners I can say that I really dig those rounded off corners!

[@rimmersbryggeri]

A shop I worked in when I was 17 used to buy these cards for aobut 10 dollars a pop in bulk in about 1999. They just came with a cd in a ESD bag but they were branded turtle beach and the board was cut differently. I might still have one somewhere in the basement.

[@malicious217]

Hahaha I love how that clock is making it into like every episode now. It's like the Pixar lamps weird uncle or something.

[@MarcoPon]

"You should hear the Duke Nukem Theme Song" - Nope, that abomination surely isn't the Duke Nukem Theme Song.

[@MidoseitoAkage]

It's Duki Nuki theme

[@oz_jones]

That's the Chinese bootleg version, Jarl Peacem

[@retropuffer2986]

I never tire of the hardware card Blerbs!

[@sirwi11iam]

Hey Clint, was watching some of your old games reviews over on LGR. Would be great to see some more soon. Love all your content though.

[@Dwedit]

During this era, I had the Ensoniq AudioPCI, which came bundled with the PC. But it couldn't play Adlib at all, instead, it played random MIDI instruments, where it would guess what instrument sample to play. This led to me getting a Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold, which was *awesome*. When you add Reverb and Chorus effects to OPL music, it really comes alive.

[@ruxandy]

Quake 3 scrapped the A3D support in newer versions. You need one of the older versions in order to have the A3D toggle (I believe v1.17 still had it).

[@maxtornogood]

When the adlib is so bad it's amusingly good!

[@IRWPD]

Seeing Quake 3 running brings back some good memories.

[@rawr51919]

Quake Live's a damn good update for it btw

[@somberrhombus]

I need the whole Duke3D OST in a rock'n 98 rendition.

[@rawr51919]

yes plz

[@rougenaxela]

That helicopter demo brings back so much nostalgia for me. I remember that being associated with some Turtle Beach sound card the family computer had, which I guess had a Aureal chipset

[@JackBandicootsBunker]

Yes, the Voyetra Turtle Beach Montego series. Some DELL prebuilt a also carried those cards.

[@rougenaxela]

@@JackBandicootsBunker Yup, the family computer in my case was indeed a Dell prebuilt, with such a sound card.

[@DBW913]

OH MY GOD THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING THE SPAM. I changed cell providers just as those messages started rolling out, and I was seriously fearful I got a regifted number from a woman named Veronica. Never let it be said that Blerbs can't provide a service!

[@lydiaostmo7767]

I love how you sort of tried to hold back the windows sound with your hand. Totally what I would find myself doing in the moment.

[@Typo205]

Clint's set dressing is inspirational

[@elgigante2001]

I've been to a CompUSA years ago that had that setup to demo the sound card. I thought it was to coolest thing ever when I was younger.

[@xenaretos]

So, that's what emulating adlib with farts sounds like...

[@StigDesign]

Real DukeNukem3D Theme Song :D Thats really cool i never got to experience that kind of card/ audio prosessor only sound blaster :)

[@SubBrief]

5:30 I've been opening CD packaging wrong my entire life.

[@MontieMongoose]

I get like 5 spam messages a day. I agree Clint. It's really annoying.

[@doorsofperception]

holy crap that A3D demo! Haven't seen that since my '98 Compaq lol

[@Topy44]

Haha, I was just about to mention those rounded PCB corners - neat!

[@Wulfex]

As someone who's never actually played Duke Nukem 3D, I'm glad I can finally say with 100% confidence that that is some terrible adlib! I love how plunky it is!

[@umageddon]

Youre glad you could finally say that? With 100% confidence?

[@Zerbey]

It's high time you did.

[@armorgeddon]

I recently played through the campaign of StarLancer, which supports A3D in Windows 9x, in LAN Co-Op and because of that I used headphones instead of the 5.1 speaker system I usually use for gaming and I was surprised how well A3D HTRF works. The card I used is a Aureal3D Vortex2 SQ2500.

[@fnglert]

That Duke Nukem theme song broke Clint. You can hear the moment his brain goes *snap*.

[@killerbee2562]

Clint I think you just made those sound cards much more valuable. "LGR effect?"

[@AdamIsUrqed]

Blerbs is my go-to channel for all kinds of things and whatnit

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

After hearing that Duke 3D theme strangulation... "Can you believe no one bought this? Can you believe I'm the original owner of this card"

[@matthewcb1970]

I see the clock radio with lamp from earlier Thrifts. Great to see it has a home 😊

[@bloomerb4162]

I had the monster version of vortex 2, loved it. I had quadraphonic speaker setup and I thought it added to the immersion. I was pretty angry when creative bought them out and then decided to use their baked in effects, instead of the ray tracing like tech aureal was using.

[@rpavlik1]

Interesting, the PCB says rock n 98 A3D, and the manual says rock n 98 ES3D... Wonder if they also made an ess-based one. Wonder if they licensed the chip but not the trademark hence the lack of box mention... I remember a similar demo on Walmart, big plastic parabolic reflector with little tan Cambridge Sound Works satellites. Not sure if the one I saw was for Aureal or what, don't remember, but the rest sounds familiar. Reminds me of the good old days of free after rebate sound cards at Office Depot... A bunch of those were allegedly surround capable, so presumably newer generation. Wonder if I have any laying around, and what they are...

[@whoevertf]

I imagine Duke walking with the "chad" walk cycle from the meme to that goofed up Grabbag.

[@blairlohnes8103]

I liked your reaction to the Sound Blaster music, I pretty much had the same when I first got my Vortex. It is so charmingly awful.

[@koolkiop]

This is definitely one of the most enjoyable blerbs.