x86 Bridgeboard PC Speaker/SoundBlaster support?

[superfrog]

As for programs to test SoundBlaster functionality on the A2088, I would think the very earliest games that supported SB from Sierra and Lucasfilm like King's Quest 4, Space Quest 3, Secret of Monkey Island, etc. would serve as decent test programs. Those games would run very (painfully) slowly on an 8088, but they were technically supported on 8088 as I recall. And I have definitely successfully run those games in PC/XT emulation mode in PCem with working SB emulation. But it is VERY slow and almost unplayable for practical purposes.

[superfrog]

Adding to my above reply, we would also need to implement genuine Hercules, CGA, and EGA graphics cards to get those games to run on an A2088.

[superfrog]

I am not aware of any program that will use the SoundBlaster without also requiring access to a real PC video card. Those games will definitely not run on the built-in BridgeBoard CGA emulation even if you try to force the game to use a 2- or 4-color CGA driver, which the A2088 is supposed to be able to support in theory. I've tried that and it failed.

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by superfrog

As for programs to test SoundBlaster functionality on the A2088, I would think the very earliest games that supported SB from Sierra and Lucasfilm like King's Quest 4, Space Quest 3, Secret of Monkey Island, etc. would serve as decent test programs.

No they wouldn't. Those games only used the Adlib emulation of the Sound Blaster. They did not output any digital samples.

Originally Posted by superfrog

I am not aware of any program that will use the SoundBlaster without also requiring access to a real PC video card.

Should be able to find a simple text-only mod player that will work.

[Toni Wilen]

Yeah, they need to be very simple text based test programs: one that uses synthesis, another that plays samples. Not games. Something that can be run very quickly.

[superfrog]

There's a huge archive of old SoundBlaster install disks and drivers here that should include some basic test and sound player programs:

http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/files/S...ER_DRIVERS.RAR

The SB 1.0 CT-1350B Install Disks include the Talking Parrot and MIDI file players, sample sounds and demo songs

[Toni Wilen]

I know but I am NOT going to use something that may or may not work in bridgeboard environment. It must be confirmed working.

[superfrog]

Oh so are you saying that there were only a very small number of ISA cards that actually worked properly in a real BridgeBoard environment?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by superfrog

Oh so are you saying that there were only a very small number of ISA cards that actually worked properly in a real BridgeBoard environment?

I don't know but I suspect there will be at least some compatibility problems and I don't want to debug any unknowns.

btw, does anyone have direct contact to pcem author? (reply privately!) I'd like to ask some questions. (I know, there is a forum but I am not going to register in some forum if my use case is simply too weird and totally unsupported..)

[Toni Wilen]

Done. http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=93726

[grelbfarlk]

Something like setmuse from Tie Fighter DOS might be helpful. It's text based like most DOS configuration tools, but it'll let you test Digital Sound, and the various synthesizers.