DOS sound drivers

Although this is not about Windows per se, I suppose it belongs here because DOS is from Microsoft too after all.

I was wondering if there are any drivers that enables generic sound cards to be emulated as a SB16 compatible card under DOS. Seeing how there is a universal DOS VGA emulator that uses just about any video cards out there (like univesa) the possibility just seems promising.

Anyone?

 

I don't believe so... I'm with you though, I wish there was.. I have a lot of DOS games that could use that sort of thing. In the mid term, I use VDMsound. It's pretty seamless once you get it all set up, though it requires a bit of trail and error, just like DOS did (usually), to get audio coming out your speakers.

Make sure you set windows to windows 95 compatibility mode (right click on the .exe, go to properties, go to the 'compatibility' tab, select windows 95 from the drop down menu), and it will get most DOS games running fine.

Some of my favourite DOS games were Jazz jackrabbit, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Duke Nukem, OMF 2097, and Hexen. Doom, Duke Nukem, Hexen, and I think also Wolfenstein have been redone with a new 3d engine that you can download. If old school gaming was your thing, VDM sound will definitely be helpful.

 

You may also want to try DOSBox, which is able to emulate old sound devices, and a frontend like D-Fend or D.O.G. if you're planning to play games. You can also download D-Fend profiles for almost every old game imaginable here.

 

I already do use DOSBox, but I can never get over the teeny tiny sound delays...picky, I know...VDMS failed to run some of the games I tried...so that's out of question.

Besides, the point was to have a rig running a genuine DOS rather than an emulated one, which would handle those old games much better than the emulators do. It's just unfortunate that there is no such thing as a universal sound driver. Oh well