The Secrets of Sound Blaster 2.0: CMS or OPL2? Here you get both!
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
- The Sound Blaster 2.0 was a sound card I always wanted to have. Unfortunately, I never got one of those iconic cards. In today's video, we are going to look at TWO of those cards which I pulled from a pile of scrap PCBs! They are safe now! This sound card requires -5V to operate properly. Unfortunately, most ATX power supplies do no longer provide this voltage. Luckily, there are multiple solutions - and a new one, which will be introduced in this video. Finally, we will restore the C/MS (Creative Music System) of this sound card by programming a GAL16V8 chip.
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Suntac's reverse-engineering:
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@necro_ware's reverse-engineering:
• Creative Music System ...
▬▬▬▬ Timestamps ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Intro
01:37 First test
02:42 Voltage consideration
03:25 Voltage Blaster
05:03 An alternative
06:34 Second test
10:07 The Secrets of Monkey Island
12:05 What could it wrong?
13:19 Creative Music System
15:28 Programming GAL16V8
17:29 Testing C/MS
18:45 I have some chips left!
19:27 Conclusion - Розваги
BOTH SOUND CARDS WORK! Here is what was the issue!
Thank you so much everyone for your suggestions what could be the reason those Sound Blaster 2.0 cards sound weird in "The Secrets of Monkey Island". Here are a few things that was suggested (sorry, from the top of my head - I may have missed something):
- EMM386 memory manager
- Disable Cache / relax timings
- Use slower CPU
- Check ISA clock speed / reduce ISA clock
- Defective / misbehaving motherboard
- Crystal oscillator defective
- IRQ and address settings
If I missed something, you can add to this comment. The issue on my board was L2 cache! There were two settings in the BIOS that I had to change to fix the distorted sound.
1) "L2 Cache Policy" set to "Write Thru"
The CPU is a write-through model. I don't know yet if this setting makes a difference when I replace the CPU with a write-back CPU
2) "L2 Cache/DRAM cycle WS" set to "3 CCLK"
Another L2 setting that probably defines wait states for cache content to be synchronized with system memory (don't quote me on that).
With those two settings set, the theme of "The Secrets of Monkey Island" plays now correctly on BOTH Sound Blaster 2.0! Thanks everyone for your help! You guys are AWESOME!
Woah, looks like your machine was slightly, only slightly unstable on L2 cache part. You may want to search for different, faster cache chips. ;)
NB! The CPU has L1 cache. It is separate from motherboard's L2.
Your cache was going out of sync with your hardware.
This caused the in hardware data (accessed by the card's DMA) to be bad.
The ESS sound chips likely didn't use DMA, or because that card was newer, would send the signal to flush the cache to the main memory before reading.
My guess on the issue why this only happened on Monkey Island, is Monkey Island streamed the midi from disk via the CPU with a relatively small buffer. This would create the updated data to occasionally be in the CPU write cache when the sound card was accessing it from the system memory (and thus reading the old data.)
Do you happen to know a way to solve this sound problem on a laptop as well? I have two 486 66MHz laptops, each with an ESS AudioDrive ES488-F and OPL2 chip. Both laptops (one Highscreen BlueNote II and one ESCOM Paradigma) have exactly the same sound problem in Monkey Island. I was very happy, when I saw your video, but unfortunately, there is no option in the BIOS to configure the L2 cache (I suspect there isn't one).
Unfortunately, I have no experience with laptops. Maybe they have similar cache chips as desktop 486 boards. Maybe you could remove those chips from the board. You would essentially not have any level 2 cache. I don't know if one could disable the level 2 cache using software. But maybe that would be another option worth exploring.
@bitsundbolts Thank you very much for your response! At least with my ESCOM Paradigma laptop (with a Phoenix Biso Version 1.00), I've made significant progress. I found a "Cache Control" option in the BIOS and was able to disable the L1 and L2 CPU cache through it. And lo and behold, the melody of Monkey Island 1 plays exactly as it should, without any strange sounds. So, many heartfelt thanks for this video you uploaded, because without it, I wouldn't have found the solution. I have, of course, subscribed to your channel and look forward to new content from you. I will also check out your existing videos.
Edit: For my HighScreen BlueNote II, which has an AMIBIOS from 1992 and no "CacheControl" option, the solution was the "Cache Enable/Disable Utility for DOS" from Vogons: vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=74. When I disabled the cache using that utility, the music from Monkey Island played perfectly clean on the BlueNote II as well. 😀
Monkey Island is very speed sensitive. Usually disabling CPU and motherboard cache does the trick. A 286 or 386 is a good fit 😊
I was getting strange OPL3 behaviour with a 440BX system until I found a post on Vogons titled "How-to: Resolving ISA sound and OPL2/3 issues". Using the suggested BIOS settings (enable "Passive Release" and "Delayed Transaction", set 8-bit I/O recovery to 8 BUSCLK) fixed the problem immediately for me- seems to be a common issue when using genuine OPL devices on motherboards with both ISA and PCI slots.
Nice suggestion, I think there are some settings in the BIOS that may affect the Sound Blasters. I will play around a bit and see if the sound improves! Since you have many likes on your comment, you may be on to something! Thanks!
@@bitsundbolts With a 486 you might see different options - but ISA clock (in some form) is certainly among them. Try to change that too!
Edit. Ah. Your CMS sounds perfect after the garbled OPL2 output. What. I had _much_ trouble with CMS sounds, even when OPL was working, I'm not even sure that my set of chips works as intended. Though I can't program a GAL to test if it causes the problem. But - it definitely worked differently in various motherboards....
Have to test this asap, have the same problem with Monkey Island and Dune2 and if I remember correctly also Commander Keen 4. Thnx for the info
The OPL2 is a quite slow chip. It requires a certain amount of time between selecting the register and after sending the data to the register. Usually programs will do 6 I/O cycles after writing to the offset register of the chip, and 35 I/O cycles after writing the data to the data register. If the ISA bus speed is in some way enhanced, this will not be enough for the OPL2 to have settled and you will get very weird results. See also my last video on the Adlib Drum Machine for some more in depth info about programming the OPL2... I briefly mention this waiting period.
@@bitsundboltsProbably most of us don't know for sure but are used to seeing helpful UA-cam comments and are hoping that one is true, too.
The way I was able to convince my parents to get a SoundBlaster was because they wanted to upgrade the family computer to have a CD drive and I had noticed there was a kit with a CD-ROM + SB16 at a store we used to go to. After about half a year of nagging, and it going on discount, I finally broke them down. It worked out so that everyone was happy. My mother got to use her clip-art programs for stationary and greeting cards, my father got to finally use the copy of Encarta he had bought for no reason a year earlier, and I got to play X-Wing with amazing (to my ears, anyway) digital sound. A year or so after that I started earning my own money and I was able to buy a WaveBlaster II, which was my first ever computer purchase (and I didn't regret it a single bit. I wish I still had that thing).
As for the erroneous/hanging notes, I think it is still worth playing with the address and IRQ settings. I think some mobos are just weird with that.
Haha, my parents used a type writer at that time - an electronic type writer 😂. I guess it was still a thing back then. Good that your parents had some interest to get the CD-Drive - which coincidentally came with a sound card :)
I will try different address and IRQ settings. I tested the card in another board with the same CPU and settings. So, you could be correct.
IRQ settings came to mind for me as well. If the game relies on interrupts to stop notes, it randomly missing some would explain the stuck notes.
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Thank you
Agreed, I've been thinking about getting some boards made and I was kinda meh about JCLPCBs rough capabilities (I need a few fine pitched tightly spaced parts) and was thinking I might have to look for another PCB fab place. I forgot all about PCBWay.
Nice! I have two remarks to the voltage blaster, first of all, you can find gerber files in the release area of the github project, just as I do for all of my projects. Second, since we removed all contacts from one side of the PCB, you will not damage anything by puting it the wrong way around. Such things can become dangerous only if you send 12V to data lines and this is not possible with the voltage blaster, there are simply no contacts for that.
As for the funny issues with Adlib, which machine did you ues to test? Monkey Island is speed sensitive when using Adlib. It starts to make problems already with faster Pentium machines, starting from Pentium II it even doesn't start throwing devision by zero error when using Adlib. Funny enough with CMS it works even on faster machines.
Thank you for clarifying! I must admit that it didn't cross my mind to check if those connectors cause an issue if inserted the other way around. I absolutely love my voltage blaster and will use it if I quickly need the -5volt rail!
Turns out that my level 2 cache settings in the BIOS were responsible for the game not playing the sound properly. The 486 DX2-66 works fine after loosening the L2/DRAM timings and setting the L2 cache policy to write through.
My first sound card was an Adlib. So gutted I threw it out with a bunch of other stuff. Back then we cared for the latest and newest. Luckily i found one the same way you found your SBs. It is so shocking how your brain rushes back hidden memories and feelings when you hear beloved melodies.
I never had an Adlib, but I was always curious what it was. There were games that didn't work properly when Adlib was selected - no wonder because I didn't have one installed. I bet it was a good feeling to find such a card again among scrapped electronics!
@bitsundbolts indeed I heard the Indiana Jones theme in my head when I saw it among the junk of discarded tech lol.
Hahaha GREAT! That made me laugh :) But I can totally relate!
Soundblaster 2.0 was my first sound card ever. I saved a year of allowances in order to be able to buy it at junior high school. Brings back great memories.
5:37 I must say that Your board is really neat solution for a missing -5V
Thank you very much!
You had me lol-ing at the "drunk orchestra comment" =D Amazing to see these both saved! I don't suppose you fancy selling or trading one of them, perhaps for a borked Voodoo 3 (like in your last video I think it has a bad BGA point, and prior to that I am told it just gave a black screen after bad alignment in a slot) - so technically it has two issues - but physically it looks much better than the one in your last video - appears just a bad BGA point under one corner.
I had this exact model as my first sound card! Back then I didn't know about the CMS upgrade - mine were not fitted. I loved this sound card! I followed on a few years later with the Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 (one of which I now own), and then 12 months later the AWE32 - which I still don't own. These cards really made the multimedia PC become a thing, and helped bring so many amazing games to the PC.
Here is what I am planning on doing in the future: At the moment, I am collecting a lot more hardware than I can make videos about. At some point, I have to sell or trade old hardware because I do not have enough space for it. I don't want to start with the Sound Blasters though :) I just got them (lol). Who knows, maybe I get lucky and find more!
@@bitsundbolts =D It's no problem - I can understand wanting to keep spares and duplicates, I do that too with lots of stuff! If you do decide to part with a Soundblaster 2.0 at some point, please let me know! I've just sourced a faulty AWE32 - so hoping I can fix that soon!
Definitely! Good luck with fixing the AWE32!
@@GadgetUK164 just build one.... there's an open source project called 'snark barker' using all off-the-shelf parts.
Wow that CMS sounds amazing with headphones on, gave me goosebumps listening to it!! Thanks for the great video
Thank you! And glad you enjoyed it! I am happy that I was able to leave the song at a length to give you goosebumps. This was my first video where I was copyright flagged after uploading. I had to cut the theme song of Monkey Island multiple times until the upload succeeded.
@@bitsundbolts dumb system where a game theme song from over 30y ago is flagged. As if they are losing money if someone plays that song. That CMS version is amazing.
We had a Game Blaster on our old XT clone back in the day. At the time I didn’t appreciate it much because almost nothing but a number of Sierra games supported it. Our 386 had an SB (1.5 or 2.0, don’t remember which) but no CMS chips. No loss at the time, to be honest.
SoundBlaster open the world of audio to me. I have started with SBPro 8Bit and life was never the same again.
Awesome that you found two cards in that pile
I know!!
I bought a Soundblaster 16 back in 1994 only to find out our crappy Cyrix 486DX40 FasCache had a design error in its FPU that caused most games to crash if sound was enabled. Subsequently bought an ST DX/2 66 but my dad wouldn't let me install it in the family computer because he was scared it would break something.
I wasted countless hours with Creative Labs support on the phone trying to figure out what the problem was. So i had to play Terminal Velocity without sound :(
Oh man, I feel your anguish! I hope you can laugh about it now?
@@cherrymountains72 i guess it did give me a very accurate perspective of how dealing with IT stuff can be utterly disappointing and frustrating. but i honestly think the problem ultimately was with my dad not having the trust and confidence in me to handle this rather simple matter.
so yeah, i can laugh about the technical side but everything besides that haunts me to this day
Ah, that is very unfortunate! Sorry that your dad kept you from installing that CPU upgrade! You were so close to fix such a bad IT issue....
@@bitsundbolts Well, i went on to understand more about x86 machines than he ever would, but the disappointing matter was that while he was an absolute ace administrating IBM mainframe systems, he couldn't acknowledge that he himself sparked my interest in computers and thus a substantial part of my life and career and also never really told me how it makes him proud, if at all. I hope you guys have better dads.
Something similar happened to me, we had an Amiga 1200 with a 030 accelerator, but it didn't have an FPU *at all*. However there was a socket for a 68882 FPU, and I ordered one by mail. But when it came in, my dad was very concerned I would break something.
So I waited until he was asleep, crept downstairs at 4 AM, opened the trapdoor on the 1200, and socketed the FPU, worked great.
He found out a couple years later, and just kind of shook his head and said "... I guess you know what you're doing."
Minor thing: It's just one Secret of Monkey Island, not multiple SecretS. :)
Aside from that, great video, love the cards.
I used an ESS Soundcard too back in our 386 PC. The card had a Triangular PCB which made it HORRIBLE to slot into the ISA Slot, specially when they were still virginly tight. You had to push so much but pushed on an angled side .... but when it worked it worked.
Also yes, PC Speaker goodness, I say it is underrated, yes it couldn't compete wwith the Amiga's incredible sound, but for what it was, it worked really good! Monkey Island, or the Music in Lotus for example. It is loud and harsh, but also a style of it's own and I wonder when Retro made games pick that up, because i've yet to see a modern game trying to emulate PC Speaker sounds.
Any retro comp video with monkey island music is instant thums up
the 5V injector is super cool and the issue with the SB 2.0 is so weird! I can't wait to see what the issue is! Thanks for the video!
I also could not afford a Sound Blaster so ended up with some nameless ones. Eventually I landed on an Acer S30 (I think) which had a Creative IC on it! I could even install the official Creative drivers in windows and it would work! It was great!
Thank you Tony! I looked up the ACER Magic S30 - there is a Creative chip on it indeed! A Vibra16. I am debugging the cards now - I got a lot of good suggestions. Hopefully one will solve the issue!
Top Arbeit. Weiter so. Ist jedes Mal wieder eine Freude sich deine Videos anzusehen!
Vielen Dank!
The SB was the first soundcard my parents ever bought me for my Commodore PC10-III. I still remember my excitement when I heard the Tetra demo through the crappy speakers :) It later went to my 386DX-33.
Today I have quite a few in my machines,but only 1 with the CMS chips.
I recall playing Dune2 with no sound card. I felt that my friends had an nfair advantage. One christmas I got the Creative Edutainment pack - a sound blaster, CD-rom drive and lots of software - and now I got the "Worm Sign" audio queues! Definitely a gamechanger
I was missing 1 game without sound blaster just now i hear this game when you fix the card xD
Thanks for the view.
This was my first sound card, bought with my own money in 1994 as a teen. It transformed the computer experience!
Ah, and then the powered stereo speakers next to the CRT monitor ;)
Finally someone else pronouncing Wolfenstein correctly! So far only CPU Galaxy and Philscomputerlab pronounced it correctly!
Definitely ordering one of those -5v ATX adapters once you can sell them fully assembled! I'm still hoping to get an SB 2.0 myself, always wanted to play games with CMS.
I am working on a solution! Thank you for letting me know that the adapter would be interesting for you!
I've been really considering for over a decade now making a "Jukebox" (a preferably small desktop one) with the old chips from the classic systems. Like a SID Chip from the Commodore 64, The Yamaha OPL chips (mainly OPL2 but maybe 3 as well), The Audio processor from the SNES, Finding broken old consoles and pulling their chips for things like the RICOH 6502 out of an NES. Basically having the actual hardware for each of them to have all the quirks from the original hardware. Then have them on daughterboards and make a central board that feeds them all the proper voltages and write the program to feed them the sounds from the original files. I don't know if I'll ever get around to it, but I absolutely LOVE the nostalgia of the music from games I grew up with.
5:25 Oooh I loved that part of the video so much! haha! Also, thank you for all your videos. So meditative!
And of course, hat off to the idea with the adaptor! Voltage blaster is honestly not a very well-designed product. Not from an electrical standpoint, but from the usability one. 99% percent of 440BX motherboards have 1 ISA slot. And even if they have two (I have P3B-F one with such a configuration), it's definitely not the part I would put in my precious second slot!
I had a SB16 PnP Value Edition back in the day and a SB Pro 2.0 before that.
My very first sound card by the way, was a Covox Soundmaster II, which, while not a SB, was good enough for my purposes at the time. Eventually I got a second one and was able to do stereo play (I played a lot of MOD files and the like).
The holy grail in that era was of course to own a Gravis Ultrasound, but they were pretty much unaffordable for me. However, I recently obtained a GUS clone which I will be building it into my 486DX4-100 retro-PC (which currently hosts the SB16).
Hey that ESS while not entirely without issues isn't bad, at least it's several generations newer and more capable than 8-bit sound blasters :D
Oh absolutely! Looking back, I really liked the ESS stuff. I want to say it was a 688 ESS Audio Drive because I also had it throughout my Windows 3.1 time. I don't think I missed much, but I would like to get this sound card again.
on the first test i loved just leaving my computer on the "hear" it doing its own thing and make those sounds
My first soundcard ever. I was so proud as I took the package from the shelf. Good old DOS days. The first memory coming to my mind is creating an 8bit/22khz recording with the included wavestudio under win 3.1. It was such a crazy feeling hearing my pc playing what I gave him to record,
Nice memory! I vaguely remember my first recording too! I had one of those white microphones with a base to put your desk. It sounded bad - well, probably like your 8bit/22KHz recording :)
Glad you knew what the problem was and found the voltage blaster. I had similar issues with my Pro Audio Spectrum 16. Also nice solution with your own pcb!
The weird notes are probably related to timing, you might have to double check your ISA timing in the BIOS, or downclock your CPU (some games also act up above ~200 Mhz).
If I want to test OPL chips I typically use AdPlay (for Dos) to playback different formats without having to start/configure the game.
People who made music with the pc beeper were the wizards of their time.
I'm happy you saved those cards!
I am happy too! Especially since I could figure out what the issue was! They both work great now.
Ah, I had the SB2.0 before Creative changed the box format and the branding to the one you showed, that would become the most recognizable. Also added the CMS. Tough choice between stereo and better sounds mono… brimgs back memories, thanks
My 1350b ( which I wrote music with on my channel) has an even weirder issue, hissing before music is played ( not during) and I get a Low DMA error. I'm really hoping to sort it out. Love the SAA1099 chips, can't live without them now. Awesome that you found 2 of these cards.
Very nice board for the power
Whenever I see earlier ATX PSUs, I check if they have negative 5v supply. If they do, I save that PSU and clean & maintain it to the top notch condition.
The earlier revisions of ATX still had negative 5v supply.
NB! I have considered creating my own voltage blaster that would be soldered on the back side of the motherboard on top of motherboard's atx connector pins. Very similar idea with yours!
Yes, those ATX power supplies are indeed great for retro PCs. If you maintain them - maybe even recap what is necessary, then you have great power supplies for anything retro! And yes, your idea is indeed very similar. I have my adapter connected and I forget it is there. It just works and I don't need to worry later when I use a card that requires -5V. Plus, the EVGA power supply is new and has all the modern features including short circuit protection etc.
I built a PSU replacement for my Compaq portable yesterday, and used the Voltage Blaster's schematic as a starting point to get the necessary -5V! I did exactly what you did in this video! Funny coincidence
Haha, great! That is really a coincidence!
Haha, Admiral Ackbar's voice is great.
What surprised me the most about these earlier sound cards, is how they used a small MCU (8051 or Z80 usually) to act as a "DSP".
To do very basic mixing and volume control, and to handle a few register writes, etc.
On cards with PCM (sample-based), they have registers for controlling things like the sample rate, stereo or mono flag, 8-bit or 16-bit playback. And registers for the DMA counters, to tell it where to read the samples from in RAM.
FM sound like CMS and OPL2/OPL3 are usually just directly mapped to an IO range, so a lot simpler to handle than sample playback.
Oh, and yeah, some ISA cards can be fussy about the bus timings.
I've been working on an FPGA-based ISA sound card, and it took me about a week to get stable OPL and PCM sound out of it. lol
The ISA bus is essentially "asynchronous", even though there is a clock.
So some things need to be latched into registers on the rising or falling edges of the ISA signals, some things required a slight delay, etc.
PCI isn't too far-removed from ISA in many ways.
PCI mainly differs in the way most PCI cards allow auto-configuration of things like IO and mem-mapping, selection of which IRQ line to use, and which DMA channels, etc.
(PCI was also designed to take more advantage of burst transfers than ISA was.)
Other than that, it didn't take much logic to translate between ISA and PCI, even back in the day.
15:37 Oh no, not OpalJr. lol
So many times, I had to run a VM or DOSbox, just to run OpalJr, to convert some old JED and EQN files.
I saved my paper route money to buy an original SB shortly after it first came out. (The first version included the CMS chips.) I left it in my family's computer when I left to college. It was destroyed by a failing power supply. A few years later I was able to find a SB1.5 for a decent price on online auction to replace it. As luck would have it, my employer at the time used the SAA1099 in its test equipment, so I didn't have any problem finding new ones, and the SB1.5 already included the decoding logic for the CMS chips.
What a coincidence! Your CMS upgrade was meant to be!
@bitsundbolts
Thank you for creating great content and showing your adventures in repairing and/or upgrading computer hardware.
I especially enjoyed the stereo CMS through my sound bar. :)
Wow! Lucky dog! I wish I could dig through a pile like that!
😅
This was quite the adventure you had and thankfully both cards work now. I unfortunately do not have a SB 1.0/1.5/2.0 but I have a SAAYM card and many SB clones so I have the possibility to listen to all these music modes. I think you are correct about The Secret of Monkey Island: It is definitely one of the best scored games regardless of which sound card you are using be it PC speaker, Tandy 3-voice, AdLib, CMS, or MT-32. Oh, and btw., yes, my first sound card was also an ESS Audiodrive. I have just never been able to figure out which exact model it was. I have 2 1869s now and it is not that one, as the PCB was yellow. I think it was a 1688 but I have a floppy disk with drivers for the 488 and 688, so who knows which I had? I certainly don't know and I know that the card is somewhere in the house but I can't for the life of me find it. I removed it because I upgraded to an AWE64 Gold, which is probably still my favourite ISA sound card.
My first soundcard was a Soundblaster Pro, I think version 2. I still have it in my retro build along with a GUS Ace.
I've had ESS688 sound card back then and it was much better than Sound Blaster 16 or newer Creative cards. Why? It was fully compatible with SB Pro + OPL3, which meant great compatibility with games. SB16 had limited compatibility and older games seen it as SB 2.0 without stereo.
1994 and newer games had SB16 support for 16-bit audio, but they usually used 3rd party drivers for sound and they also had native ESS688 support too!
ESS688 was of course 16-bit 44kHz sound card in Windows 3.x and 9x.
I believe that I had the exact same model - I am just not 100% sure. That sound card was great! I loved it, but I no longer have it. I hope to find one some day. Unfortunately, I did not understand all those features back then: OPL3, wave tables, etc.
@@bitsundbolts There were many cards from different companies that had ESS688 chip. They came with similar set of drivers and software, but they weren't 100% compatible with each other, especially their bundled software for Windows 3.x.
They were rather low-end cards back then, but I like ESS688 these days for really good SB Pro compatibility, with the exception of Duke Nukem 2 and ability to use 16-bit 44 kHz in Windows and later DOS games.
My ESS688 had also IDE controller for CD-ROM and software MIDI port. It works with SoftMPU. Few years ago I've connected my old 2000's MIDI keyboard to it while connecting keyboard audio out to sound card line it and I've got really good General Midi support for games.
Overall ESS688 was a really well designed solution for its time. One of rare products that had all needed and useful features and nothing more.
To fix the music, disable the cache on your MB and/or CPU, and try again
But it's an 486DX2? Maybe it's enough, in Bios decrase ISA BUS cycle
@@ssalbachNot 100% guaranteed of course, but it can never hurt to try and it only costs seconds.
Thanks for the hint! That is what I am going to try next and let you know if this fixed anything. I have high hopes trying your suggestion! Thank you!
Slowing down the PC and/or forcing a delay between bursts of information sent via the ISA Bus seems to be the way to go on my end as well. Sometimes I disable the cache to obtain the same performance decrease of the CPU, but I prefer to stick with the Delayed Transaction and I/O Recovery since it allows to keep the processor performance.
The FM chip is sensitive to information received too quickly and will not be able to process it all, hence the errors. It wasn't known in 1987 in AdLib's documentation, but it was added to their developer kit documentation later when the computers moved on from the 286 era, into the 386 and 486 era. They suggested a number of milliseconds (I think 40ms) between requests.
This is why recent games will sound correctly : the games themselves implement a timer to delaythe requests to the sound chip. Older games were shipped when computers were much slower so it wasn't a problem then. And more recent clone cards like the ESS probably implemented a buffer and circuitry to tolerate faster processors sending information quicker than anticipated.
Back in the days, I wouldn't even dream about having such a card in my 486. I had to be happy with good old PC Speaker (or sometimes annoyed by the limited capacity 🤔). One idea that really amazed me recently was one necroware talked a while ago about using the parallel port and a bunch of resistors, however its support in applications is quite limited.
Regarding the issue you couldn't find a solution, I believe it should be somewhere in the digital side. My guess would be some memory corruption, but once both cards show the same problem, i would say it is some sort of incompatibility between the cards and the motherboard you are using. Have you tried the cards in another system? It could be as well some voltage out of spec, but I don't think so.
I did try both cards in a different 486 motherboard: ab ASUS 486SP3. I'll try the cards in my 386 system and see if it may be related somehow to socket 3.
I used to have the SB 2.0 in my (AMD) 286 and 386 in the 90s. Without the CMS - don't know anyone with that. MI worked perfect on the OPL2 of the SB2.0. So, as you already figured, it boiled down to issues with the not quite period correct PC or its compatibility settings.
It's crazy that the floppy disk version of X-Wing includes the voices.
Only the intro has voices and certain areas in the game (e.g. during registration: "You must register!").
The mission briefings are silent - you have to read.
I chose to BUY those extra
CMS
chips, back in 1990. 👍👍
Wow! Very nice! You must have been one of very few, but I'm sure, you used CMS if you were after those chips.
Great video. I also have a soundblaster 2.0 but only use it in a 486 and slower therefore never encountered the playback issue you experienced.
Please film your scrap mountain PCB searching trough adventures! That would be much fun.
I'll do that when I get the chance to find such a pile again. Unfortunately, it isn't as common to find mountains with interesting hardware in it. Sometimes it's just LCD panel PCBs or power supplies. Or loads of office PCs from Dell and HP
Masterpiece
I also asked my parents for a Creative Multimedia kit for our 486. But they did not buy it. So, I bought my own ESS AudioDrive 1688 - and it was awesome! The ESFM sounded better than OPL2.
I totally agree with you! The ESS cards were great! I don't think we missed anything. It was just that urge to own the original because many people and magazines were talking about it.
I've owned SB cards from the SB 1.5 and 2.0 to the AWE64 and pretty much ever model in between. Honestly I never really loved any of them. Each had its own little problems. Once motherboards started to have integrated audio it wasn't long before I just gave up on the SB cards. I still have some floating around. I was more of a Turtle Beach fan. Aureal Vortex 2 for the win.
My first hi end SB was the Audigy 11 ZS. I still have it and the CD-Rom it came with. Pretty sure it came with a Midi interface too.
The Terratec EWS 64 XL also needs the -5V line. my suggestion is: On old Hardware with ISA > -5V is a must. Most of the times the problems are not right in your face, but subtile. On my EWS, the Digital Port is always marked as disfuntional in the device manager without 5V, and the card behaves a bit erratic. With -5V, the Terratec EWS 64 XL is a blast and works like a charm, especially in WSS Mode.
Some of these old sound blaster cards are speed sensitive. Try disabling caches to slow your system down to 386 speed.
That is a great suggestion! I will try that! Thank you
This sound bug, combined with random stuff going wrong while playing (like landmarks/people missing or out of place, getting the wrong items and therefore not being able to progress beyond a certain "demo" portion) would have been a fun copy protection. Like Indy mistranslating the text in the Last Crusade game and subsequently getting thrown out or the blacksmiths producing pigs in The Settlers. 😄 No idea as to the reason, possibly an incompatibility with your chosen hardware or a BIOS setting, as someone already suggested. I'm quite curious what it will turn out to be, keep us posted!
Funny you mentioned The Settlers III - I already have some footage of that game - not with the pigs, but that the trees do not grow to the point the wood cutter can take them. I want to make a series looking at different types of copy protection from that time. CloneCD, ClonyX(X)L, etc... I will debug the system now and see what is at fault! I will report back once I find out what it is!
I have very bad personal experience with this card. Co-worker asked me for composing a game computer. A bit on a lower budget. So, I, leaded by game magazine reviews, without practical experience, offered Kyro2 as price/value bomb.
I finished computer, installed Windows and delivered a machine. Guy installed his dream game, The driver. Training mission in garages - and there were missing textures.
I admit, I was leaving a bit quickly...
I have about 30 ISA sound cards from the old days, but don't have SB 2.0. I only have an AWE64 and SB16 clones in the Creative section. I have encountered the -5V issue with many sound devices, but never the kind of thing you're getting in Monkey Island. Most of my boards still run, surprisingly, without recapping. I have another collection of PCI cards with a wider selection of SB products, but I rarely use them. PCI motherboards tend to have sound. I have 8 Sound Blaster Live cards and I joke that I need to find just one more, so I could have 9 Lives (like a cat). I have one weird PCI soundcard that's Yamaha XG compatible and made by Trident. I had no idea they made sound chips.
That ewaste place sure is nice, thought it’s sad to think if you didn’t save these they probably would have been destroyed.
I bet these are the kind of cards that sell for a premium on eBay too…
That CMS thing sounds pretty nice and the game sure made use of the fact it is stereo.
Yes, those cards would have been gone forever if I wouldn't have gone through that pile. There is probably so much nice hardware that is going to be destroyed, but it is impossible to save it all. For every interesting piece of hardware, there are thousands of Dell and HP office systems. It is crazy what amount of computer systems are turned over at this place!
I have the last made, latest greatest pci Aureal card... Bought it new, it was a thing of sound- beauty when paired with a set of Sony Mdr headphones. Its still somewhere in a box comfy and aging to obsolescence next to a 4 liquid cooled gtx 480's, a Gtx 470 for Physix(lol). Powered by a 1200 watt Psu, and a supplemental 450 watt Vga only PSU. Quad Sli w phsix was a home heating system. Rofl! And of course I just needed that extra 2% performance from a dedicated card...shakes head. .
Love the video! Man but I hate how UA-cam moved the comments to the right side!
There is another tiny version of the -5v thing specifically designed to be soldered to the bottom of the motherboard where the slot is soldered in. This means no module hanging off some kind of adapter or taking up a slot.
Awesome! I am struggling to get one of these 8bit ISA SoundBlaster. I am happy to have at least SB PRo2. My first sound card ever was SB Pro (not 2). But so fsr no luck
I went from PC Speaker to Gravis Ultrasound PnP in 1997. Last year got an SB Pro and AWE32 to try. No changes, I am still closing my ears listening to those unCreative noisy cards 😊😂😂😂 Should also mention that Creative literally and deliberately destroyed all better competitors (A3D lawsuite for example) to totally dominate with their mediocre standards.
11:03: If you think this is great PC speaker performance, try Crimewave. That game pulled awesome sound out of the PC speaker. Back in the day, I was amazed that something like that was even possible without a sound card.
I have several CT1350B soundcards and one or two CT1350A soundcards. I purchased all of them cheaply (one of them was $7.00 USD free shipping) off of ebay before 2012, before the bullshit "Vintage Computing" category was introduced on ebay and before the prices of old hardware started climbing. The very first Soudblaster soundcard which we got on the family computer in 1993 was a SB16 CT2230 which I still have and to me is the best sounding SB16 soundcard and it came with a CD-ROM drive kit from Sam's Club retail store. I remember being so disgusted with our second SB16 which was a CT2290 which does not play some of the music of DOOM 2 correctly. I still have that soundcard also somewhere in my mountain of computer shit.
And yes, I was able to persuade my parents to let me buy (with my own saved money) a creative bundle that contained a 4xcd rom, sb16, 10+ games, grolier multimedia encyclopedia, speakers... It was one of the most exciting times in my computer history. Installing it into the 386dx40 and hearing for the first time music out of the speakers instead of that terrible noise of pcspeakerr 🤣
Great memories!
The family computer we had in the early 90s was a 486DX-33 and never got that noise.
Well, recently a SOUND BLASTER CT-1320B with 1989 DSP-1321 (C) 1989 CREATIVE LABS, INC. 1990 & FM 1312 MADE IN SINGAPORE had been flown to me, missing the two Phillips Chips.
Not tested yet, because I want to refurbish the AT Power Supply first. I got this in a mini case with the GA-586HX running an IBM Cyrix 133 MHz aka 166 MHz.
I plan to use the SB on an Intel 386DX 20 MHz with CoPro board I was given from an Civil Engineering office I worked for at the time when 486 computers became available.
BuB - install a Cyrix CPU and then run "setmul 1". It will bring the speed down to a 486DX/33. Then test again with the slower speed.
I will try different speeds. I think I even have an Intel DX-25 - that is hopefully slow enough! Just in case speed is really the issue. And I can also disable the caches on the motherboard and the CPU.
@@bitsundbolts Avoid using disabling L1/L2 as a means of slowdown... It does slow down the system, but not the way you expect it. Lowering clocks combined with disabling auxiliary features (preemption, i-cache, d-cache) is a much better means of achieving your goal.
Awesome video as usual. I have three (3) of these sound cards. What do I need to do to get these chips from you? Thank you.
I'll try to set up a partnership. It will be expensive to ship those chips from Dubai. I hope that within a couple of weeks, there will be an update! Stay tuned!
OPL2 requires 3.3 microsecond addressing delay and 23 microsecond data delay. Some games don't implement these delays in their code properly as old PCs were often slow enough or game developers simply developed for OPL3 which didn't require such long delays. With more modern PCs one can fix this issue usually by setting higher 8 bit I/O recovery time BIOS.
OPL2 is very speed sensitive. CPUs up to 25 MHz should be always fine but for games that do not apply recommended delays between port writes you are going to face issues with faster CPUs. One of the options is to use MIDIto to add delays between OPL2 port writes if any other delay method is not available (and MIDIto has other nice features as well). OPL3 also is speed sensitive on much faster CPUs and MIDIto helps there too.
My first sound card! After using all my savings to get the PC itself, i nagged my parents until they bought me the SB 2.0
I bet you had a lot of fun with that card and you were very happy that your parents got it for you!
My first sound card bought around 1992/93. I got a second had Pro 2 from an upgrade i did for family it was basically the same but stereo.
I hope to find a Sound Blaster Pro 2 some day! That would be nice
@@bitsundbolts yup was an interesting card
I have a Soundblaster 2.0 CT1350B ! I knew it could be upgraded to CMS, but I didn’t know modern parts could be substituted. I’d love to have a set of chip and would happily pay you for them. I don’t have a programmer at this time. Let me know if you have any left. Enjoyed the video, and glad you found out what was going on with your cards!
I am working on it.
I'm lucky to have SB 2.0 with CMS upgrade and I personally like it more than OPL2/OPL3
Very interesting Video as always, thanks✌️I would check the following:
opl2 ym3812 ic: pins have continuity to PCB / cleaning contact & pins
ISA bus speed
I haven't done anything with CPU speed / disable cache! So, this is what I am betting on at the moment! I tested on a different 486 motherboard (ASUS 486-SP3), but I got the same issue. I did use the same CPU and cache was enabled as well. So, I think something could be there.
Whaaat? You have a Tseng ET6000 with extended memory? I have two ET6100, one is with empty banks to be able to use the other one with its memory chips. One of the best card ever from that era before the 3D cards!
Yeah, I got some ram chips and soldered sockets to all my tseng ET6000. I have two of those. And a third one without any memory 😂.
I need to make that video too 😅
Hi. First, excellent video.
Second, how did you get a stereo output with the CMS sound? Did you use the soundblaster's speaker output 3.5mm?
Also, do you have any chips left? I Have a Quickshot Sound Machine. Ever heard of those?
Thank you.
Yes, I did use the speaker output. CMS produces a stereo signal on the Soundblaster 2.0. Everything else is mono.
Yes, I do have chips left - programmed and ready to go. I just have issues with logistics which adds high cost to 10 dollar chips. But I managed in the past to get electronics shipped if time wasn't an issue. If you want, contact me through email (bitsundbolts at gmail dot com). We can continue there. Thanks for watching!
I tried this on my custom build 486 PC (PVI-486SP3, i486DX4-100, 16MB RAM, CL-GD5428, Sound Blaster 2.0 CT1350B + CMS) and Monkey Island sounds just fine.
Interesting. I tested the cards in the same board as well! But even in the PVI-486SP3, both Sound Blasters still don't get Monkey Island correct. CMS does work without issues - just the OPL2 is off.
Yea those bottom single ISA slots you aren't meant to use along with a PCI card, they use the same bracket, since PCI "flipped" the orientation of where the components were on the board.
Have PCBWay confirmed they can do the 90 degree ATX adapter as part of the assembly? Would love to order a couple of these.
Not yet, but I am working on a solution. It just takes a bit of time
The origins of the Titanic theme song meme can be found here.
Haha :)
Awe32 had a variant with all those and midi. I got two of them
ESS vs SB2.0 is a difficult choice. As far as clones go the ESS is quite good. You get SBPro2 and OPL3 support so stereo sound in many games but no CMS which you'd want for games like Monkey island Which card you'd actually want depends on the games you are playing. Earlier games i'd go for SB2.0 while later games the ESS. Doom doesn't appear to support OPL3 but you can enable it with an environment variable set in dos before you start the game.
I wouldn't use a Sound Blaster 2.0 with CMS on anything more powerful than a 286 or 386 due to the issues you ran into, along with having MUCH better options with better compatibility and less noisy sound, and don't have issues with single-cycle DMA/normal DMA mode (you might recognize this as popping or static when voice lines or ADPCM samples play on games)
I'd recommend the ESS Audiodrive with an ES1868F chip (supports ADPCM), or a Yamaha ISA card like the YMF-7xx series (supports OPL3) with those faster 486/pentium 1 based systems.
Interesting that the cms is stereo, while the opl and sound blaster stuff is not. That means that there are stereo hardware, it's just that the opl and pcm can't be controlled in that way 🤔
Great idea and PCB, but tantalum capacitors could be critical, they could create a short and explode, using ceramic capacitors should be better, it could create audible noise, but shouldn’t in this case
I picked tantalum capacitors based on the recommendation in the data sheet.
I would need to pull my original SB 2.0 out of my Toshiba T5200/100 Luggable 386SX, but I'll have to check if it had the CMS chips or not.
My soundblaster 2.0 is missing the cms chips. I'd love to have a set for my card.
i get same "drunk orchestra" effect with snarkbarker card on my 486 board. From my understanding it happens because of incorrect bus signal timings for OPL2. Need to slow down isa clock somehow.
Interesting! Well, good to hear that I am not the only one having such an issue in a game. Still weird that it didn't happen in all games. I will try to slow down the system somehow or use the cards on a 386 system. The sound cards did behave exactly the same in a different 486 board from ASUS.
Such audio problems often are results of bad timings of something. I.e. slow hdd, device on usb, overclocked or underclocked some components. Changing slot or irq could also help. Sometimes could be driver (mouse, emm386).
The EMM386 also crossed my mind! I had to enable it for X-Wing because it requires EMS memory. You're the first one suggestion that, but that could be what causes the music distortion. The motherboard/CPU cache might be another one to check!
Lol drunkenblaster :D
Have you replaced the small yellow tantalum caps? They go bad after 20-30 years usually. I'd recommend swapping them with ceramics.
I only replaced the electrolytic caps so far. First, I want to try and disable the caches of motherboard and CPU as someone suggested. Then I have to check for other possible causes.