Windows 98 Machine - Sound Setup for Games

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hamisht

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#240450 8-Sep-2018 14:09

Hi all,

Yep, blast from the past here.. I have a Windows 98 machine, picked it up recently as I felt like playing some old games I still had... Duke3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood.. the usual awesome games some of us might remember ;)

Of course, with those games, you had to go into their setup and choose the soundcard.

The technical stuff:

Device Manager - Sound, Video & Games

- Gameport Joystick

- Sound Blaster Pro or compatiabe

- VIA PCI Audio Controller (WMD)

Now, when going into the setup for the game (Duke3D being used, but all three have identical setups), I am choosing Sound Blaster, but no sound is actually working.

I've been chatting to the guy I bought the computer off, and he's trying to help but it's not working. The IRQ and Port is set to the right options, but yeah nothing seems to be working.. i've booted into MS-DOS mode to try the setup that way, and would like some additional help if anyone has a similar setup ;)

Would be great to hear from others with suggestions (aside from using Dosbox) ;)

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gzt

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#2086112 8-Sep-2018 14:16

Are you getting normal windows 98 sounds?

hamisht

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#2086113 8-Sep-2018 14:18

Yeah they all work fine..

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hamisht

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#2086114 8-Sep-2018 14:24

Well actually, now that you mentioned that. I installed another game (Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror), and no audio on that one either.

UPDATE;

I fixed that issue for that particular game. Under the Adjust Sound Properties in the taskbar, I changed it from Soundblaster to VIA Audio (WAVE), then restarted the game. So it's obvisouly some kind of soundblaster driver issue I think?

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hamisht

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#2086415 9-Sep-2018 13:30

Oh man, no one here still has a Windows 98 setup? ;P

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MurrayM

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#2086670 10-Sep-2018 08:04

Just the mention of IRQs, ports and I/O addresses brings back bad memories...

Rikkitic

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#2086678 10-Sep-2018 08:43

Hated 98, loved 98SE. Just like every other Windows version, the first was a disaster and the second fixed everything that was wrong with the first. I clung to 98SE long after everyone else had switched to XP, but I finally had to make the move as things just weren't working anymore. I may still have a machine with 98SE on it somewhere, but I haven't looked at it for years. Sorry, I can't help with the audio issue but from what I remember, it is almost certainly a driver problem. With 98, everything was a driver problem.

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1101

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#2086744 10-Sep-2018 11:04

hamisht:

Duke3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood.. the usual awesome games some of us might remember

Those are DOS games.
You might need entries in the autoexec.bat & config.sys to suit/setup your sound card ?
Perhaps your onboard sound isnt compatible ?

Its been a long time since Ive tried those games in Win.

This may help?
http://www.softsystem.co.uk/products/soundfx.htm

hamisht

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#2087152 10-Sep-2018 20:13

1101:

hamisht:

Duke3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood.. the usual awesome games some of us might remember

Those are DOS games.
You might need entries in the autoexec.bat & config.sys to suit/setup your sound card ?
Perhaps your onboard sound isnt compatible ?

Its been a long time since Ive tried those games in Win.

This may help?
http://www.softsystem.co.uk/products/soundfx.htm

Haha yeah, i've edited that autotexec file several times with different numbers, but yeah it's clearly just a compatibility issue with the onboard sound. I remember with our original computer, we never had such an issue, so we must have got lucky and had a soundcard that was perfect for DOS.

Unfortunately that SoundFX program is only for operating systems after 98.

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Oblivian

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#2087193 10-Sep-2018 22:34

Ahh Via. Good old via

AC'97 no doubt.

This may help you along.

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=56543&p=621184

hamisht

389 posts

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#2087774 11-Sep-2018 19:38

Oblivian:

Ahh Via. Good old via

AC'97 no doubt.

This may help you along.

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=56543&p=621184

Almost killed my machine with that link lol. Couldn't find the Zip file mentioned, so found another Vogon thread with it hosted direct. Installed the wrong driver and crashed the system. Thankfully I was able to uninstall the driver in Safe Mode..

Update Tonight! I have Sound Effects now! I went back to scratch and removed any lines in my Autoexec file.. re-installed the old driver that came with the machine.. and decided to play around in the BIOS (not very familiar with it) after noticing the VIA AC'97 Audio Controller properties had an IRQ of 12 instead of the usual 5 that it was previously... I went into BIOS and disabled port 12 as it was only set for the parallel printer port..

Went back into Duke3D setup and tested the Sound Effects and I get sound! Nothing yet for Music though... fingers crossed im almost there!

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