ESS Allegro-1 ES1988 PCI Sound Card with EXCELLENT DOS compatibility
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- Опубліковано 14 лис 2022
- I bought a few of these cheap PCI Sound Cards online with ESS Allegro-1 chip for $9 per card and wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out these are EXCELLENT for DOS compatibility and if you come across one, do not hesitate!
Resources: www.philscomputerlab.com/ess-...
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Phil's retro soundcard review is far more interesting than those overpriced 4080's reviews. :D
😅
Same
Every tech channel: RTX 4080
Phil: PCI Sound Card. Nice!
all ESS PCI sound controllers have TDMA (Transperant DMA) feature, which means they have their own Intel i8237-style DMA controller build-in the chip, i.e. they are like PCI-to-ISA bridge, hence the excellent DOS compatibility.
Does that solve the crash in duke3d when there're reverb effects that plague a lot of PCI sound cards?
That's why I use this VIA chipset board, it is very friendly with PCI sound cards 🙂
FINALLY no more looking for semi modern boards with ISA. Unicorns they are!
Generally, I already had good luck with ESS Solo1-based PCI cards. It works really well and such cards are good keeping around.
I do own one despite that tho. Pentium III w/VIA ApolloPro 133 because OG SB16.
OK so it's CT2940 BUT mine does come with the OPL3
I have taken a liking to the SB Live and the Audigy2 Zs just for the spdif. They reproduce Ultima game sounds like they are supposed to be. Others make doors opening sound like a ding, or walking sounds like stepping on an organ with every step. I do hear you about the ISA though. I am smart enough to keep all my classic pc's. Some have real authentic ISA slots, while others have a bridge that have given me a lot of grief to play nice.
I would suggest adding Tyrian or Tyrian 2000 to your list of games used for testing sound cards. It has a great setup program, and features an excellent MIDI soundtrack that sounds good in GM and FM. It's also super picky about it's Sound Blaster compatibility, and will produce distorted sound effects on many SB clones.
Yep, the Tyrian soundtrack is great. Rock Garden and the Tyrian theme are very useful when comparing OPL/FM implementation as well. I bet the Allegro emulation sounds horrible compared to real FM with Solo-1. ;)
Tyrian is such a great game. The only bad thing about it, is that after while you went trough it LOL
Or Ripley's believe it Or not the riddle of master lu
That PCB was made at the end of 2015, incredible!
I love ESS. My first was an ES1688 - even impressed a friend of mine that had a GUS.
My Compaq Presario 1685 laptop has one of these ESS chips on the motherboard. It's great for DOS gaming compatibility.
Not gonna miss out on stuff like this anymore. I don't have a use for it now but I'm gonna buy a few to toss in the parts bin. When I started watching your videos I didn't think I needed a win 98 machine for old games and missed on all the cheap compatible mobos and GPUs. Had to over pay to catch up. Not anymore!
Did anyone else notice how the FM music is higher pitched?
I have noticed with ESS cards that if the sample rate of the audio being played is 32Khz 8bit sampling, the audio seems to go up by a semi tone.
Years ago I had an ESS Audio drive with my Windows 95 PC and whilst messing around in Sound Recorder, I discovered that setting the sample rate to 32Khz 8bit twisted the pitch upwards.
There was also another odd setting I think using MS ADPCM 4bit sampling where the pitch went down a whole semi tone.
I never had the FM/Adlib audio go up in pitch during my 5 years of having that ESS card. My guess is that the Allegro card must be re-sampling the output at that funny frequency and sampling rate which bends the pitch upwards.
I don't think this is unique to just this card as there are other videos with classic laptops (i.e. Compaq EVO N600c) that have this same ESS chip and they exhibit the same scratchy FM Synth a whole semi tone higher.
Nice find! It might be nice to take time in future videos to cover the history behind some of these companies. This one is particularly notable in my mind, because it's one of the only sound card makers in the 90s that weren't eventually acquired by Creative Labs. :)
I hear you, but, but it's not the type of video I make. LGR and others do this much much better. I just love playing with the hardware and putting together systems :)
As you have a few of the cards it might be worth soldering on some pins or leads to the CD audio header and see if the internal header is actually programmed into the chip.
the best sound card for DOS is Sound Blaster and compatibles , I have one little 8 bit ISA Sound Blaster clone and it works in DOS without any additional drivers, the games just works with it :)
Yeah, ESS Allegro-1 is a good, basic card for DOS compatibility if you haven't got an ISA slot. I wouldn't pay much more than the asking price for one because they are SO barebones … but they work better than many things you might've tried to use instead, and that's worth a lot.
What i find amazing on those cards, is that they "compressed" several dozen components into that one chip plus a few more simple components to make it work. A pure example of miniaturization.
Btw, noticed another simmilar card on sale, with the yamaha XG chip also very cheap. Would be interesting to test if yamaha audio tools work on it.
Where did you see this Yamaha card? I looked just before making this video and most are Cmedia chips.
Nice to see a video about a pci soundcard :)
Your channel is quickly becoming my favourite tech channel. So many good tutorials on legacy systems.
Yea i looked at mine.
Much older and I thought they were the same but I have an allegro with ess1988s and 2 with maestro-3 chips. Definitely going to be testing them out at sound point now lol
Great presentation and well edited
I changed all my Creative cards for ESS ones in all my retro PC built just recently. Compatibility just better and ESS cards are bug free with very low noise. I actually own the very exact same card and yeah Its just perfect for dos gaming and ESFM is slightly better (improved) then OPL in my point of view. Great video as always 👍.
I could never get any of the ESS cards that I tried to play nice with Tyrian or Tyrian 2000. It would produce distorted sound effects. That game is known to be super picky about Sound Blaster compatibility. It's also known to be awesome!
I also use an ISA ESS1868 which has onboard midi chip aswel. Very quiet card, works flawlessly without any hassle. Very easy to setup, very easy to change any parameter on the fly. Fantastic card. (and I have all sorts of SoundBlaster cards but rather use this)
This card doesn't have ESFM though, the last chip to feature ESFM was the ES1938 a.k.a. ESS Solo-1.
Ess solo-1 have compatibility issues with some games, and the Allegro, while it is more compatible, has awful opl3 emulation. I don't see any benefit anywhere in replacing your Creative cards with ESS cards, except if you are talking about PCI Creative cards 😅
I absolutely love this. Thank you for sharing.
“IT IS SIMPLE TO USB”
Did they mean **use** ?
😅
There's also a USB logo on the box, so I rather think they've reused some generic PCI USB card boxes for these sound cards to save money.
Simple to USB adapter
Nice find. I didn't know it even worked in DOS. Unfortunately the Allegro chip lacks ESFM and there's no wavetable header.
I never liked the Allegro because FM synthesis is noticeably pitched up. Wavetable synthesis on the one Allegro I have is also slightly pitched up, but it doesn't bother me as much; what _does_ bother me is that it has a hanging note bug (and no, I'm not using an external sound device).
*EDIT:* Okay, I think mine actually might be a Maestro, not an Allegro, but my point still stands.
A very interesting find Phil!
The Allegro is an early AC’97 solution often bundled with a modem and this looks like chip stock from older laptop parts.
It would be interesting to learn more about the OPL emulation. It’s not ESFM but I wonder what it uses instead.
The PDF datasheet doesn't mention anything specific and I do wonder, why didn't they go with ESSFM that's already their technology. I can only assume it had to do with cost cutting, maybe ESSFM took to many resources or something like that. The datasheet simply states: Supports PC games and applications for SoundBlaster and SoundBlaster Pro.
@@philscomputerlab hmm might need some more test-investigation 🤔
Nice, I enjoy cheap solutions like this, good thinking with the audio-in jack and CD audio.
Manually setting up IRQs, MAN that takes me back! :)
ESS... I remember that AudioDrive startup sound on my cousin's old PC.
Been absolutely loving the ESS Solo-1 based off your recommendation precisely because of its equally good dos compatibility, but it also has the ESFM that sounds very much like the OPL but better when games have been specifically programmed for it.
I use it in parralel with an Audigy 1 to get the best out of both worlds with my PC that has no ISA slots.
Based on my findings I got a few things to report back that viewers may find useful. The Solo-1 (And probably allegro) does not need interrupt 5 and 7 as long as these are not occupied by anything else. The driver is able to use plug and play to route IRQ5 or 7 to its real IRQ. It is an IRQ sensitive card however. I had games fail on one IRQ, the other half on another IRQ and then eventually I found an IRQ working for all of them. And this is despite of the driver using a consistent IRQ for the emulation. So you will keep having to bump up the IRQ by one until it works.
Why not just have the IRQ on 5 or 7 like in this video you ask? Because in a dual soundcard system with plug and play this gives you the ability to have either card automatically assigned to IRQ5. So in Windows I have the Audigy 1 installed including DOS support. That gives me soundblaster 16 compatibility with midi soundfonts. In DOS i then use the ESS Solo-1 instead without them conflicting on IRQ5 since I only use one at a time. I do use a tool that initializes the audigy's mixer so that I can hook up the CD-Rom and ESS Solo-1 to this card resulting in a very seamless experience. Note, this can only be done with the Audigy 1, not the 2.
I hope that dual soundcard setup helps others achieve this fantastic balance between DOS compatibility and EAX on their PCI systems to.
Yep, the real IRQ and DMA won't matter (as long as they are not in use) since the card uses TDMA (works really well with Via chipsets). Solo-1 is one of the best PCI soundcards for older DOS games. It even sounds good in Adlib Tracker 1 and 2 (almost as good as a real OPL3).
For later DOS games, Audigy 1 (or 2, with the Audigy12 patch from Vogons) is a better choice because of the SB16 support (16-bit, 44.1kHz, huge difference in Epic Pinball, Jazz Jackrabbit, Pinball Fantasies, Pinball Illusions and other games that support 16-bit mixing). The wavetable is quite good as well. You just have to avoid the crappy OPL-emulation.
@@agevenisse3252 Sums up perfectly why I have an ESS Solo-1 paired with an Audigy 1 in a VIA Motherboard :D
For Socket 939 only VIA seemed to have the proper legacy features required. And by then VIA boards were very stable.
I'm in the same camp. I have Slot 1 mATX board with onboard ess solo-1 sound card. Absolutely love this beast.
"ESFM that sounds very much like the OPL but better when games have been specifically programmed"
Is there a list of games that actually use ESFM
@@Lvlaukwitz I don't know a list, but if you look up ESFM vs OPL3 samples on youtube there is a really good comparison with the settlers.
That’s a very cool looking PCB, bright colours, cool shape. I mean that’s a piece of art.
Amazing work as always! Thanks for producing. What’s in your opinion the best PCI sound card with joystick and waveblaster header?
At the end of the video are two really good options!
For 9$ that's not bad at all, very usable
Yeah, but better to look Yamaha 724
@@apostolcv6796 Sometimes it's what you can get!
I think I had one of these in an old packard bell back in the day... Wasn't red but definitely an ess sound chip. Same shape too. I remember not having drivers so I just forced it to install as a sound blaster compatible or something similar in windows 98 lol
The music being played with that sound card is one melody off (+1 specifically), though it sounds OK at best.
This is the cheapest Soundcard-PCB I've ever seen, and the Box doesn't look promising to be honest - "IT IS SIMPLE TO USB" what the heck.. Anyway, it's a legit ESS IC so it delivers great DOS compatibility! Thanks for this, I'll buy one if I can find one. 9$ is a fair deal.
I had that cpu! Back around 2004/2005 I built a socket 754 based system using the Athlon 64 3400+. The Radeon x700 Pro, and I forget the Soundblaster model. It supported 5.1 though.
I remember having trouble with Oblivion. This morphed into a socket 939 based 4400+, and later 6000+.
good vid
however i notice tha music is pitched up 1+ higher than its original pitch but for it being cheap, not much to complain about
It is simple to USB?
Finally. All other sound cards I tried were really hard to USB.
interesting to compare it with ESS Maestro-1 and ESS Maestro-2
Maestro don't have dos driver.
Wow 😳, I didn't expect to see so good compatibility and performance from such a cheap sound card 👍. It really looks "barebone" without those CD audio pins, but heck it works fine. I guess that's what you call budget cuts 😁😂🤣.
Thanks for the video, Phil 😉👍! Sorry I missed the premiere of the video because of air alert ☹️.
Interesting video, I had dismissed these for gaming use in DOS. Is the Sound Blaster functionality on the Allegro still usable if you slow down your PC to say 386 or 486 speeds?
Yes it is!
Oh hey! I have similar cards i bought years ago for ...some reason and never used them. Lol
I came across one of these a year ago in a box of junk, and hadn’t looked at it twice. Assuming I can find it in the absolute disaster that I call my shop, I’m definitely going to give it a try.
Huh. I have a couple old cards with that chip, must try them with this. DOOM with a PCI sound card would make me very happy. (PS. there are DOOM maps that make a 3GHz CPU struggle.)
Managed to find both this card and a Maestro version myself and bought it immediately (Solo-1 was bought from a low reputation seller and still hasn't been posted) - figured that it'll do better than my Awe64 Value in my Duron PC (intended for mainly DOS) as all of my ISA sound cards have different problems on it when running 98SE (ME is fine bizarrely, even with the same VXD drivers). Plus, it should do a better job than the Live Value! (CT4780) I have in my ME/XP machine as I kept on having problems with conventional memory and BSAOG under DOS.
I have one of those and got it years ago, I use it for retro needs when the built-in motherboard sound card is not detected.
I agree, the FM synth on this card isn't great, but it's not as bad as the Vortex 2 PCI card that I currently have in my Windows 98 retro PC or some of the most abysmal clone sound cards of the mid-to-late 90s. And, for the price it's hard to beat this if you're just looking for digital sound for games from the era where we largely abandoned MIDI, but want a better quality output than some of the other PCI audio cards of the time!
Vortex 2 OPL emulation is bad, but not as bad as the Ensoniq Audio PCI aka Soundblaster PCI 64/128/Vibra 128. ;)
FM sounds tinny, but apart from that ESS cards tend to have pretty good DOS compatibility.
I bought 3 of these for my windows 98 machines. Paid 2$ each here in Brazil.
This looks like my wery first sound card i ever bought. It is called AV511/AV511 SX or CMI738/PCI-SX
As I can remember, the ESS was a very good card
I have plenty of sound cards, but nice to know. You should see if AC3filter would work on this. It was used for encoding/decoding and the modifying of digital, and pcm audio signal matrixes, in a time when it cost money for a Dolby Digital, and DTS encoder. Such as playing a DVD with spdif when the software player had no 5.1 decoder. Just plain dolby surround mix or stereo. Unless you paid extra for plugins. I have never tried the option to use it to transmit pcm over the main analog channel. Anyone remember what Cyberlink and Media Player Classic were?
I wonder what they meant in the chip datasheet: Sensaura CRL positional 3D... Another version of the ES1988? I checked the VXD drivers and A3D.DLL and Sensaura library is present CRLDS3D.DLL is present...
I would love to buy one but they don't seem to be available in the UK
I like ESS FM on little better boards with more capacitors. Sound baasy and soft. Especially in Warcraft 2. For Dune 2 good is SB 16 or Yamaha. But the best for DUNE is DOS box and emulator MiDI with 100MB + WAWE samples or software MT32.
Does ESSAUDIO initialisation utility have any switches as to whether it's using TDMA mode or DDMA mode? Third mode is foreseen on the ESS chips, PCPCI, but that's using SBLINK connector or equivalent.
The technique it uses for ISA emulation is interesting, it's implemented without requiring a TSR, in hardware. With DDMA apparently it uses assistance of the PCI host chipset to implement redirecting, and with TDMA it uses port snooping to emulate the behaviour of the ISA DMA controller via PCI Bus Master.
What i'm curious about is to what extent it works with more modern computers, up to contemporary ones, with DOS. To know whether it's potentially worth it exploring these techniques to implement a DOS compatible soundcard or soundcard adapter today, purely via PCI/PCIe without relying on DRQ signal that is basically gone from modern systems.
Looks like it has internal header solder pads.
There is s PCIe version of this card that windows 98 installs drivers for and works. The DOS drivers would install but at IRQ 0A so not compatible
Nice!
What about ESS Maestro-1 ES1948F? I bought it today for 5eu 😂 I’m interested in how it will work with SoftMPU and Voyetra Sequencer. I want to use it to sequence external synths :)
ESS sound card wasn't same as Sound Blaster and AdLib system? I heard these sounds and musics were different.
Maybe it's me, but... The doom midi sounds so much different than the sb16 sounds I grew up with 😳
Depending on which Sound Blaster 16 you had, you had either YAMAHA OPL3 or Creative's CQM. This one has a different flavour altogether so the way DOS games can sound varies greatly.
@@philscomputerlab I had a vibra16xpnp in my last dos-based computer, and a crystal semiconductor 16-bit card that had this godawful ritual where I had to reboot 4 times to get the drivers working in windows 95😂
Where to get these Cards?
Isn't it one of those chips that was put into old laptops? I'm pretty sure Compaq Armada e500 and Dell CPX had some Ess Allegro or Maestro integrated sound cards that worked under dos.
Yeah, I seem to recall seeing a lot of Maestros and Allegros in laptops from about 2000 to 2002.
You can add Gateway and Micron to the list.
I have exactly same sound cards as you shown on the video. The only difference is box that they came in (green with saxophone) and on mine ones ES1989S chipset can be found. Anyway, did you experience any kind of continuous noise even if nothing is playing at the moment?
Try muting inputs like line in, microphone and CD.
Joystick/MIDI port is not working because SMD capacitors and resistors are not soldered on it. There is card from Xwave that might serve as reference and also datasheet that has scheme of what the values should be. Also how does this card work in Duke Nukem 3D?
Yea it's a very basic version... I don't think I've tested Duke Nukem 3D but don't see any issues...
Far better than the Audio PCI (sounds like a kid's toy - but no EMS required). While being just as integrated. Not a surprise though considering said Audio PCI is compact enough to be found on my lone 440ZX board, which only supports Celerons.
Shame I didn't get one when I was browsing Ebay years ago. Managed to track down a Solo however without the game port - which isn't a problem since I still have my 386's old ISA dual game port card.
Yea the Audio PCI doesn't have a FM chip, it maps wavetable instruments and sounds horrible.
All I get is C-Media Soundcards in bulk. :((((( If it looks like an ESS Solo1, i learned now, it works in DOS.
Yea I have a few of those also. If someone hacks a decent DOS driver for C-Media, they have potential...
@@philscomputerlab That would be awesome! You have made a video about the Solo-1 soundcard. I think I've got like 8-10 over time at the dump. I chose it specifically to build Windows 98 AND DOS compatible systems. The Solo-1 was perfect for this. I like this uncovering the secrets of PCI soundcards in DOS. Keep going! (Also, many Super Socket 7 Boards had Solo-1 sound onboard, which was cool)
Be careful with C-Media 8738, the later chip revisions after 037 may have had the FM module removed / disabled in silicon...
@@aussiepunkrocksV20 Awwwwww maaaaan.... :(
Hi Phil. I have a request, could you make a video about the ISA bus and ISA sound cards and the issues that happen in some games with faster Pentium 3 CPU's (for example) and ISA sound cards, and how to possibly resolve these issues. One game that had this issue but has a fix is X-Wing, Tie Fighter can also not work some times. Other ones for example are Prince of Persia that does not even play Adlib/any sound and Space Quest 4. I currently use as my main retro Win98SE PC a Slot1 Soyo SY6BA+III, Slot 1 Pentium 3 933mhz running at 700mhz, 4 sticks of 133mhz 256mb sdram, ATI Radeon 9250 256mb and a Sound blaster 16 CT2910 with the genuine Yamaha chips. Anyway love the content, have been both educational, entertaining and helpful, Keep up the great work and content 👍👍
I've done heap of videos on this topic actually. Basically you're using the wrong computer for those games. You want a Socket 7 machine with a Pentium MMX, there actually will be a video soon about this. A Pentium 3 is for late era DOS 3D games, like system Shock at 640x480 or Tomb Raider at 640x480 without Voodoo. You can disable the CPU Cache on the Pentium III, however it slows it down too much, you'll have something that struggles to run the games you mentioned. In short, the machine is not suitable for early DOS games.
@@philscomputerlab Thanks for the answer to my question 👍. I used to have a Pentium 3 550mhz installed, then i did not have much problems at all hmmm, so perhaps a 550mhz was just at the edge with some games and the ISA bus then?. What fixed X-Wing was that i replaced a small file that calculated the speed, a custom file that someone had made. I have also fiddled with some bios settings for the 8 and 16bit ISA bus, that did help, with for example Alone in the Dark. Also the Soyo mother board (With updated BIOS) does not seem to like Coppermine Pentium 3 CPU's that much either. I do have a A-open Slot 1 as well, It's the same board that you have used in some videos also, and with the latest BIOS as well, but the power LED is not working on it and it did not accept a PCI USB 2.0 card that i had at the time, so i swapped it for the slightly newer Soyo one. I wonder where the problem could be with the power LED connection not working??, i don't see any damage to the board.
the mpu 401 and gameport might work in windows dos mode. I have a ess maestro 2E on a gateway laptop that has a software midi synth that can use a 2 mb or 4 mb library.
Hmm I didn't test in Windows, good point. The driver did install joystick driver under Windows, so that could be the case!
I start to wonder if that trick could work with CompaQ EVO N600c, which also is using that ESS Allegro-1 Sound Card...
Oh really! Retro Notebook status just got elevated 😀 Yea it should work just as well.
@@philscomputerlab It did, that's for sure xD
Very simple to USB how it seems!
i have a ESS Allegro 1 ES1989 soundcard, but it don't sound like yours in this video, expecially Doom where it sounds like a SB OPL3, while mine in all games they sounds like a little bit all pitched up :(
I've seen a version of this soundcard that had dummy pins on the game port only, no connections soldered on the board just a connector shell with screws, pcb color is the same,
Yes I can see it has empty spots for components like capacitors or resistors. Who knows what they add and maybe the sound card is universal, able to take another chip?
@@philscomputerlab In that form factor, the chip fits there is likely a crystal one or a via one, that could be ok, the cmi8738 is more rectangular, that is the other most common sound chip, however not great , to say the least.
I have a Compaq Laptop that has this exact sound chip in it, but I've had so much trouble trying to get it to work in DOS. It's been a while, but i think Soundblaster sound effects work but the FM doesn't play. (Mixer issue?) The Compaq BIOS is extremely limited -- I don't know if there's a way to see hidden features.
Does it work from DOS Prompt (From inside Windows)?
I think you're the only guy on YT that pronounces Wolfenstein in proper German. You could go full meme and say "Wolfstone drei D" XD
Mein Leben!
great video is there any mini itx via boards that are good for dos 98?
Yes there are heaps, I did a video actually!
@@philscomputerlab what about a new video i want a super compatible tiny dos 98 build that can play80,90, dos perfectly come on you can doit there must be a tiny cheap machine out there to buy.
All in all: If you have a SB16, SB LIVE. You do NOT need to get one of these, right?
Is there something like this but pci-e?
curious if anyone has soldered a cd audio to the card to see if it works. Did it play tombraider 1
Recently on eBay a good, used Adlib Gold card from Sweden ended bidding on 2200 USD.
Unreal 😵
will the unisound driver work for PCI cards? i've had decent luck with older ISA stuff and unsound but haven't tried it on PCI cards
Nope it only supports ISA PnP cards.
I used to play the Mega Drive version of Gods, back in the day. Man, that game is rock hard!
Yes it is! I made it a few times to the first boss, but never past it.
@@philscomputerlab I think you've got further than me! Well done!👍
Wow, thanks! Will this work with win 3.x too? I can't find this card anywhere for sale?
I haven't tested it with Windows 3 so not sure about that!
Ok, thanks phil!
Where to buy?
I really like the ESFM quality. I am confused about ES Maestro-2EM (ES1978MS), can this chip FM under DOS? According to the data sheet, the chip should support Soundblaster Pro. Various forums say yes, others no. It is specifically about the Guillemot Maxi Studio ISIS. The card is a midi monster, can it also be used for DOS games? Best regards 👍
I am not familiar with that sound card, don't have one, never used one 🙂
@@philscomputerlab Dear Phil, if you want to test the sound card, I would send it to you. I want it back after the test. I pay postage. Only if you're interested 😉The Guillemot Maxi Studio ISIS sound card could be better than the SB live! ? 🤔
@@micv2 Sorry I've had issues in the past working with people sending stuff around.
@@philscomputerlab Ok Phil, i understand, no problem 👍
Anoder great video! I have couple of these cards and yes all you say i true for them. I want to challenge you to make a video for Windows ME, because for me is the best OS for DOS Gaming with exelent comaptibiliti with intedrated sound cards and perfect Software MS emulation for Roland!!! If you want compare ME and 98SE, do you accept the challenge?
Pass 😅
@@philscomputerlab Why 😕?
I'm curious if you've tried it on any other motherboards to confirm if indeed the gameport does not work? I had the same exact problem with a Socket 754 board and an ALS-4000 based card where the gameport simply didn't work on the board, either in DOS or in Windows (but worked fine on other boards).
And it worked for you in another motherboard?
@@philscomputerlab Yeah, the 754 board was the only board it wouldn't work on (specifically it was an MSI MS-7145). Looking back at the forum post I made at Vogons a few years ago regarding this, I see I noted that the gameport was actually detected in the Windows 98 device manager, just that it didn't work. So that's the first thing you could check - if it is even detected or not. If not, it probably doesn't work. If it is, then I'll note the response I got at Vogons - "Gameport works by counting CPU cycles to measure how long a timer circuit takes to change state (proportionally to joystick position) and that method pretty much breaks down on fast hardware. I'm not sure what is considered too fast though. It is the only thing i can think of that can get in the way, I recall having similar problem when I got a Tualatin based machine and my home made gamepad tuned to a Pentium1 no longer got detected until I tuned it to output smaller resistances to the gameport, so that counting would finish sooner."
Where did you bought them? It seems that they have been build recently. 46th week of 2015.
Not sure, I don't remember. It was either eBay or AliExpress.
I can’t find these cards in the US. 😞
can't really find anything on ebay, any heads-up for a source?
I bought maybe last year or the year before, that's all I remember.
how is this any better than the Solo-1? It has the same DOS compatibility for SoundBlaster digital FX, but it also has the ESFM excellent fm implementation and DOS mode drivers
Who said it's better?
@@philscomputerlab I thought that was implied by the title of the video because of the wording, if not, apologies
Busted mixer software, missing internal CDROM audio, moderate FM synth.. even at the price, I'm not sure I'd recommend the headaches to someone just starting out.
"its simple with USB"? wat
😅
Isn't SB Pro only capable of a much worse PCM sound quality than SB 16? If I'm not mistaken only 11025hz vs 22050 (or more). Back then with PCI cards it felt like "well of course the SB Pro mode is going to work, but that's no SB 16 *sigh*".
Much worse? No I wouldn't agree with this. Most games use 10 KHz samples, so not an issue. SB Pro can do 44 KHz Mono, 22 KHz Stereo AFAIK.
@@philscomputerlab With an actual SB16 card I remember hearing a huge difference in various setup programs for DOS games, in "sound tests", between what you hear selecting SB Pro and SB16. Maybe in-game it wouldn't use such high-resolution samples as what the sound test plays, not sure.
Where did you buy these as I can't find them
Neither.
Is it just me, or did Doom sound kinda funny?
Same.
Music sounded higher pitched than usual, like it was playing a couple of semitones high
will it work on freedos 1.3 on lga 775 machine?
It likely works with FreeDOS, but why use it when you can use Windows/DOS. I'm not sure about 775, doubt it.
As of typing this both cards arrived...apparently there was a mistake, and the same manufacturer also makes CMI8738 and Solo-1E based cards. So I now own a new Allegro that I thought was a Solo-1E, a Solo-1E (manufactured 2/01/2022) that was supposed to be an Allegro as well as a CMI card which was supposed to be a Maestro...that'll I'll never use.
Oh dear! At least that Allegro and Solo should be similar to this one.
@@philscomputerlab Considering the Solo-1e still has ESFM, has 2 versions of the CD Audio connector as well as no EMS requirement, and that the CMI8738, ESS Solo and Allegro sound better than my AudioPCI, I'm quite pleased.
I find it funny that these cheap cards are actually better for DOS than an official (albeit rebranded) Soundblaster product.
great video phils, please make a video of AWE64 Legacy, is a ("NEW AWE64GOLD"). 👍
Is that the 500 EUR sound card?
@@philscomputerlab It is yes
Here's my review: It's pretty much exactly the same as a AWE64 Gold, but way more expensive than a real card. Just shove a saved search into eBay and wait for one to come up for cheaper. That's what I did, and I managed to pick up a working AWE64 Gold for less than $200 Aussie Dollary Doos, including delivery from [somewhere in Europe]. The only thing the Legacy is good for is making people with waaaaayyyyy too much money pay waaaaayyyyy too much for one of those, instead of spending that much on a real card. I'm glad it exists, but it's just too expensive.
@@tspawn35 I respect what they're doing but there are so many old cards and for that money you can have Sound Blaster with Midi Interface and wavetable sound.
@@UpLateGeek The AWE64 Legacy is better than a real AWE64 Gold since it has a Yamaha OPL3 chip. However, you could buy a whole box full of interesting cards for the money. Not worth it in my opinion.