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(for those who own any) Creative Sound Blaster cards


dhruba.bandopadhyay

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If I bought a Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 PCI (eg. from ebay):

- will there be MS-DOS drivers available?

- will I be able to install MS-DOS drivers and get it working on a P4

3.0GHz mobo that uses Intel 8xx series chipset?

I really want to play/run DOS games/programs under native DOS. No

emulation whatsoever (I've tried the emulation and they're very buggy

and not 100% reliable).

If anyone has any Creative Labs Sound Blaster card, please can you let

me know what model it is and whether it works on a P4 mainboard under

Windows 98SE native MS-DOS.

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I've been using an SB AWE64 Gold and an SB Live! in native MS-DOS for quite a while.

SB 16 PCI drivers:

http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/w...mp;modelnumber=

SB AWE64 drivers:

http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/w...mp;modelnumber=

SB Live! drivers:

http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/d...p;x=23&y=11

SB Live!, 16 PCI, AWE32, AWE64 DOS drivers + tools:

http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/html/snddosdr.htm

http://www.vpk.psc.ru/sound_drivers.htm

http://www.urr.ca/dosdrivers/drivers.htm

More info on how to use an SB Live! in native DOS:

http://www.mdgx.com/newtip18.htm#DGSBL

Hope this helps

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I've been using an SB AWE64 Gold and an SB Live! in native MS-DOS for quite a while.

Cool. Do you have a multi-boot PC with MS-DOS 6.2 in one partition? Or are you using Windows 98SE MS-DOS 7.0?

Could you see if you can run this:

Ambience: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=2879

Solstice: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=106

Fluid Motion: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=3535

Juice: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=69

Robotnik: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=81

Verses: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=67

in native DOS mode. Is your SB AWE64 Gold & SB Live! backwards compatible with Sound Blaster Pro 100% compatible? (you'll see what I mean when you chose your sound card in those PC coder demos).

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I've been toying with soundcards lately and I found the YAMAHA YMF724 chipset cards work real good and they are dirt cheap.

It's got dos support too.

I couldn't even get 98se to recognise my SB Live5.1

Also some SB cards have a adjustment GUI that you can boot into, but it is quite complicated.

Edited by kartel
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I've been toying with soundcards lately and I found the YAMAHA YMF724 chipset cards work real good and they are dirt cheap.

It's got dos support too.

I couldn't even get 98se to recognise my SB Live5.1

Also some SB cards have a adjustment GUI that you can boot into, but it is quite complicated.

PCI or ISA? And is it 100% Sound Blaster compatible?

Could you test to see if you can run those PC demos above?

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FWIW, I've used SB Live! Value (CT4830) as well as other SB Live! cards: SB0060 and SB0100. I'm not sure what product names corespond to these part names. These are all PCI cards and work natively under DOS, and they all work about the same.

Unfortunately, the drivers require EMM386 which isn't compatible with some games (e.g. Ultima 8).

Furthermore, SB Live! Value works really badly with Tyrian 2000 (no sound effects or crashing) even after applying the SB Live patch to Tyrian 2000. Windows doesn't help solve these problems.

I think SB0200 (Live! 5.1?) and later won't work under DOS.

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SB0200 series like my SB0224 work fine in MS-DOS as long as you install the Dos drivers.

The way I used the card last, I would install the newest cd that does not come with dos drivers. This gives horrible WDM dos implementation within Windows. However, I would install the needed dos driver files to a C:\SBLIVE folder and switch my default.ecw in the Windows folder to the EAPCI8M.ECW file (by renaming default.ecw to EAPCI2M.ECW and EAPCI8M.ECW to default.ecw).

Then I would make the correct references in the ctsyn.ini file that is in the SBLIVE folder instead of the Windows folker (as the newer drivers don't come with it), and make a shortcut to command.com that would activate my cdrom, mouse (using the imouse dos mouse driver), and SBLIVE. I just put the correct lines into the custom autoexec and config files in the pif.

You can also do this with a boot floppy containing its own autoexec and config files, but it's less cumbersome to just use the Windows shortcut.

The files needed are on driverguide.com or a preconfigured set is on the MAME website. If you have an old SBLive cd you can install it to a 98 system and copy the files to a cdr. Make sure you get a copy of the Ensoniq wave sets. They are on older SBLive cd's and also on driverguide. The 8MB EAPCI8M.ECW was the best they made for the old Ensoniq cards and Creative never made any newer ones.

Many newer computers will not allow emm386.exe to manage memory. On these machines the motherboard resources set themselves up to hog the particular resources needed to manage expanded memory. The SBLive is useless in dos on these machines.

All this is really not necessary today with fast processors and the dosbox program. The latest dosbox combined with the updated D-Fend GUI and the latest CVS dosbox update offer a huge level of compatibility with dosgames. You can even add Gravis Ultrasound drivers (a seperate download) if you like that better than the default SB16, SBPro, Adlib, and MPU401 Midi emulation.

dosbox.sourceforge.net

vogons.zetafleet.com

Read the forum threads to increase your knowledge on adjusting Dosbox to work for your game. You can make custom profiles for each game within D-Fend's GUI. No more fussing with dos commands if you don't want to.

Another alternative with a PCI card and dos is the HP Riptide soundcard/modem combo card. This gives lousy sound in Dos Mode, but incredibly good compatibility and quality in Windows dos box's. It also is a fine 2 speaker/headphone soundcard for Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME. It is horrible in XP, as it loses its Midi Synth, all the dos features, and it hesitates and skips when connected to the internet. Its dos emulation uses both its Wavetable 64 Synthesizer and Yamaha OPL2 and OPL3 for FM sound. Within Windows this sounds great. It also does not require any memory management or any settings at all in autoexec or config for Windows dos box sound. In Dos Mode it requires the 220 5 1 blaster reference and a reference to running Riputil from the System folder. It's not worth the bother though since it sounds horrible in dos and freezes and crashes intermittantly when run there. Great for 9x and dos within 9x though!

The SBPCI are varients of the old Ensoniq 1370, 1371, 1373, and CT5880 chipset cards. The 1370 cards nearly always worked in dos mode, but the later varient's many times did not, even with the correct dos drivers. The only SBPCI varient that was the ES1370 was the SB64 card.

So, the SBLive's worked on nearly all older boards in MS-Dos Mode but not on some newer one's. The SBPCI is iffy, even on older motherboards.

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I've been using an SB Live! 5.1 digital without problems. Just use the drivers for an SB PCI-512 or the modded drivers provided by NGO. Works fine in windows without having to leave the GUI and booting into native DOS. Just need to select it as the primary device in your multimedia settings for both sound/midi.

.. Most of the cards I've tried wouldn't intialize properly in DOS due to 'unable to find SBlaster at int 220h' etc. Even other similar SB Live! cards wouldn't give satisfactory results. Even my old yamaha YMF-724 souldn't initialize the Blaster in DOS with it's own dos drivers and the environment variables correctly set. Went through testing about 8-9 different PCI soundcards before I found one that worked right for dos sound/midi playback in windows. It also works fine when installed with another soundcard as well as long as the other soundcard has the legacy drivers disabled (which don't normally workto begin with) and that the SB Live 5.1 digital is set to use IRQ 5.

note: this is a PCI card I speak of - not ISA.

I'll see if I can fetch the actual model number off mine tomorrow as it's a bit late to take down my pc for a bit at the moment.

EDIT: Just tested the Robotnik Demo - It plays and sounds fine (music is pretty good too actually) in Windows through my SB Live 5.1 Digital. Just gives a notice that the display may not be synced right (references windows 95 not 98) before load. However, it appears to sync just perfect to me.

Edited by Chozo4
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dhruba.bandopadhyay:

IMO:

Best full featured sound card for native DOS is SB AWE64. By far.

It is compatible with most DOS games out there [sB, SB16, SBPro or AWE32 emulation for example].

You can actually play DVDs + DivX movies in native DOS by using 3rd party players + codecs.

All you need is MS-DOS 6.22 or 7.10 [from Win98 SE].

You can also play MID, MP3, OGG, WAV, VOC, etc audio from native DOS, you just need a 3rd party tool.

Or you can just listen to your audio CDs in the background while playing an SVGA game by using PLAY.EXE from Creative Labs. ;)

I use an SB AWE64 Gold for all DOS needs.

I use an SB Audigy2 Platinum for all Windows needs [replaced the old SB Live!].

I quad-boot Win98 SE, MS-DOS 6.22, WinME and WinXP Pro SP2 [4 HDs in 6 partitions total].

AWE64 is completely disabled in 98SE, ME + XP [Device Manager X-ed, INFs + drivers deleted].

AWE64 runs in native DOS [either 6.22 or 7.10] enabled by these autoexec.bat lines [no memory used in this setup]:

C:\AWE64\CTCM /B

C:\AWE64\AWEUTIL /S /EM:GM /R:0 /C:0

C:\AWE64\MIXERSET /P /Q

SET CTCM=C:\AWE64

SET SOUND=C:\AWE64

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6

SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0

BTW:

The ftp.hornet.org links are 404. :(

I've tried a couple of those DOS demos, pretty cool stuff.

Thanks a lot.

They work ok in native MS-DOS 7.10 [Win98 SE UI not loaded].

Using only UMBPCI.SYS + HIMEM.SYS in config.sys:

http://www.mdgx.com/mem7.htm#7

AWE64 seems to provide proper SB emulation for sound.

HTH

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1. DOSBox is getting better and got some ok results from it. Though 3D via DOSBox is very very slow. And if the DOS app has fast refreshes or updates then DOSBox can't handle it.

2. VDMSound is okay but doesn't always work very. I ran Blood before and it was jerky. VDMSound is a discontinued project. It will not run under 64-bit Windows unfortunately.

3. VirtualPC has very bad support for DOS sound and joystick. Searching on the web & google groups I find people reporting this as a fact. They all say DOS games run chuggy.

4. I have yet to get DOS sound to work in VMWare. Just installed Windows 98SE. Getting DOS sound to work looks fiddly (from web & google group searching). And performance wise is again chuggy.

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Choso4,

Interesting. I've got several SBLive's. CT4760, SB0060, SB0100, SB0224. They all seem to give identical results when using the latest DOSDRV files I got from the SB0100 cd (the last that came with them). That is an updated version of the files that are offered anywhere on the net or the older CT4760 cd. I found that some games that wouldn't run on the older DOSDRV files would with the later version.

You said you have the SBLive using IRQ5? I would think that would be extremely problematicle, as the dos emulation cannot share IRQ's. It is an ISA emulation that needs to have an IRQ all to itself. If the Windows SBLive driver is using IRQ 5, then the dos emulator, from what I understand, would crash Windows or simply not run correctly if the SBLive was using IRQ 5 at the same time. And it would be, as the Windows dos box audio would be routed to the SBLive. So the sharing of IRQ's would occur. Problem there.

My card was usually using IRQ 10 and, on older machines I could leave the Windows dos emulation on IRQ 5, and on newer machines I needed to check the "allow LPT interrupt sharing" and the dos would use IRQ 7. And I would make sure all the references pointed to IRQ 7 in that case. ctsyn.ini and the dosstart.bat files needed to be changed to IRQ 7. (Autoexec, if using a pif instead.)

Believe it or not, I've never used a real ISA SoundBlaster except for one time with my old Abit KT7A. It was one of those SB16 Wave Effects cards. I was using Windows 98SE at the time, and actually installed the SB16 and the SBLive at the same time, with a cable connecting the SB16 line out to the line in port of the Live card. When installed that way, the SBLive vxd driver setup recognizes the SB16 so does not install the Windows dos emulation, using the real SB16 for that. It was an interesting experience, but as I had gameport/midi problems with that setup it did not stay installed on my box for long.

Unfortunately the LiveWare 3.0 vxd drivers do not get along with something in Windows 98SE files after they are updated these days. I tried on 3 different computers. Although they work at first, as soon as I get started updating Windows I eventually get an Error loading device IOS, Real Mode Memory Allocation Failed. Windows will only boot to Safe Mode once this happens. I tried all the renaming of RMM.PDR, deleting Smartdrv.exe, extracting RMM.PDR from the 98SE cd, etc. Nothing would get Windows back.

This does not happen when using the newer WDM 252 Creative drivers. So I ended up using these, and just installing the DOSDRV drivers manually and booting to Dos for most dos games. The WDM within Windows is okay for the games that use MPU-401 General Midi, although not anywhere near as good as the old vxd emulation. I also went that route for games that needed to access my Sidewinder Gamepad or Precision Pro Joystick.

I just bought myself an brand new retail boxed Intel SE440BX motherboard! I have no idea how the ebay guy had this, but the thing is brand new. I've ordered a Pentium 3 450MHz and downloaded the latest bios that will enable that. I have a 20GB Western Digital hard drive for it. (Hope it takes that without the stupid drive overlay software.)

I expect to have all sorts of fun playing with that thing. I've got my old Crucial SDRAM 2x256MB PC133 memory sticks. My old Voodoo 3 3000 and Voodoo 5 5500 Videocards stand ready. Lots of soundcards. Got no idea what I'm gonna do with it! But I expect the performance to kill my old K6-2 366MHz, SiS5598 board. It might actually play DVD's acceptably. I'll install PowerDVD 3.0 and see what happens.

Sorry for the long post, but this stuff is fun to talk about!

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You said you have the SBLive using IRQ5? I would think that would be extremely problematicle, as the dos emulation cannot share IRQ's. It is an ISA emulation that needs to have an IRQ all to itself. If the Windows SBLive driver is using IRQ 5, then the dos emulator, from what I understand, would crash Windows or simply not run correctly if the SBLive was using IRQ 5 at the same time. And it would be, as the Windows dos box audio would be routed to the SBLive. So the sharing of IRQ's would occur. Problem there.

The SBLive I have does not load any emulation drivers seperately. Only the drivers for the card itself and the gameport.

Edited by Chozo4
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Ah, now I understand. And you've probably got that blue GUI for the Creative software like SurroundMixer, etc. That's what does work now. Your SB dos emulation in Windows dosbox's is the WDM spec emulation.

Just one IRQ needed and it doesn't matter what the actual IRQ the card is using. WDM's use the SET command and set it to 220-5-1, with T3 spec for the SBPro.

One reason I mentioned "horrible" in my description of the dos emulation on those 252 WDM drivers is that it has some hesitation, static problems and no FM midi emulation. Plus, it emulates an SBPro card at 220-5-1 with the only midi available being that of General Midi at port 330.

The older vxd SBLive Windows dos emulation had far superior SB16 emulation with complete FM midi emulation (as well as General Midi).

See, WDM drivers DO natively support FM Midi, but only if your card has a hardware FM chip on it. As far as I know, only ISA soundcards have this.

Some games do not offer the MPU-401 General Midi as an option, so the music won't play in dos box's. You gotta have dos emulation drivers and go into MS-DOS Mode for the game to sound like it's supposed to with these games. Music, sound effects, etc.

Strange that the Riptide's SBPro emulation actually sounds better than the SBLive's SB16 emulation.

Anyway, getting back to the original poster. MDGx's recommendation of actually using an ISA Soundblaster card is the best choice for dos gaming. The SBLive is the best next choice as you may have more than 2 speakers and the old Riptide is only 2 channel (otherwise I'd prefer that. You can get one on ebay, but try to get it with a Riser for the additional ports like Microphone and LineIn, LineOut. They're not on the card itself, only the amplified speaker out and the modem connections are there).

The SoundBlaster PCI varients are risky for dos as they often just won't work properly.

The Audigy 1 was the last card to have dos drivers from Creative. Never had one of these.

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Thanks for your replies:

I have learnt that the last Creative Labs Sound Blaster card that comes with DOS drivers was Audigy 1. I have also tried DOSBox & VirtualPC. VirtualPC has stated that it has very bad DOS support and won't improve. DOSBox is not good at 3D DOS games, has jerky sounds and can't do programs with extremely fast refresh updates.

I have yet to get MS-DOS/Windows98SE working in VMWare.

But am hoping to grab a few Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 PCI/ISA off eBay to stick in my near-future iBASE MB865 or some other Intel 865 chipset motherboard. Intel 865 chipset motherboards were the last to support Windows 98SE. I have a socket 775 P4 3GHz so I don't want that to go to waste.

Windows 98SE CD is indeed bootable with CD-ROM support. (but obviously not made for EMS loading games and sound).

Is it possible to take original 3 MS-DOS 6.2 floppy disks, and burn them onto CD? Has anyone done this before? Install/setup files or already-installed MS-DOS?

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Windows 98 was indeed made for EMS loading games and sound. In fact, it is the best MS-DOS environment for any program designed for MS-DOS and any game designed for MS-DOS.

The problem is not Windows 98, but rather newer motherboards and chipsets that castrate dos memory management. Usually it is not so bad that Windows 98 can't run on them except for the most recent motherboards. However the resouces available for Dos gaming, ISA audio, and memory management are now usurped by motherboard devices or high powered videocards that reserve these resources. This is not the fault of anything Windows 98 does, but rather the price we pay for new hardware technology.

MS-DOS 6.22 was much buggier than the Dos versions in 98 and 98SE. MS-DOS 7.1 in Windows 98SE is generally regarded as the best Microsoft MS-DOS version. If a game or soundcard can't work in that then it won't work on MS-DOS 6.22 either.

That said, have you FULLY explored Dosbox? The newer versions and the latest CVS updates enable the use of dynamic core much more stably than previous versions. And independant users have developed plugins for the later advanced graphics modes that do not by default come with Dosbox but may be installed according to directions.

Just trying a game and being dissapointed by how the default setup and settings run it is not fully exploring the program. Most older games need little to no tinkering but later, more resource intensive games do require some research on those VOGONS forums and installing some other stuff. But they require a LOT less hastle and bother than running games in true dos and configuing all the hardware and software.

Oh! VMWare is easy. Just remember that you are setting up a computer. You've got to set the Bios to the correct settings (not your Bios but rather the VMWare virtual machine's Bios), FDISK and FORMAT, install Windows 98, install VMWare Tools, install the Creative SB16PCI drivers (a seperate download), and update Windows like it's on a computer. Full security like VirusScanners, a Firewall, Spyware detectors are also necessary. The only thing it uses from your real computer is your processor and up to 2 USB 1.1 devices.

I never got the Virtual Machine to play any Dos games though. It couldn't recognize any VESA video support. Non DirectX Windows games work fine though. That's right, there's no Direct X acceleration on a Windows 98 Virtual Machine and only experimental support when adjusting the settings and using a Windows XP Virtual Machine.

Though some games will work fine, neither Microsoft Virtual PC nor VMWare Workstation are designed for gaming.

For dos gaming it's either a really old computer or a super new computer with dosbox. I'm still waiting for my darned Pentium 3 to get here. It's being sent from Canada so I guess that's why it's taking so long. I actually have a Pentium 2 300MHz I could use but would rather just set it up with the new one with 450MHz.

And, I've warned you about those SBPCI's. You could probably get an SBLive 5.1 cheap and have a much better chance of having your Dos sound emulation working.

Edited by Eck
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