RetroB1977 Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 I've had this soundcard installed in my Gateway 2000 for awhile just for the CD-ROM ports and using an AdLib for sound. I was wondering if any of you know what it is and where I could get drivers for it (DOS/Win3.1). I'm guessing it is a clone of something but I'm not sure what. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 (edited) Reveal SC500 (R3) https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/sound-cards-multimedia/REVEAL-COMPUTER-PRODUCTS-Sound-card-SC500.html digging lands these win95 drivers for the v3 card (which that seems to be) http://files.mpoli.fi/hardware/SOUND/OTHER/SC50R395.ZIP It is based on crystal labs chipset-- (CS4232 = Controller+Codec 16-Bit 48KHz, PnP, SB/SBPro/WSS/MPU-401 compatible, IDE.) Vogons lists this as a suitable driver package for that chipset... http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=925&menustate=46,38 It is essentially an SBPRO/WSS clone with IDE (+sony, Mitsumi, Panasonic) CDROM interfaces. apparently functionally identical to Crystal Acer S23 soundcard, according to the drivers in that package?? Give it a shot, and see how it works. Edited March 29, 2022 by wierd_w 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 Unisound apparently also supports that chipset. https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=72553 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 In our part of town Reveal was a popular and respected addon brand. Sold at the bigbox stores like ComputerCity, BestBuy, CompUSA, CircuitCity, and more. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonGrafx-16 Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 (edited) Looks like it has a Crystal chip for FM. (was already mentioned... oh well) Edited March 29, 2022 by DragonGrafx-16 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 More interesting, the card seems to have the wavetable chip and sample rom. So.. more like a clone of this card? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted March 29, 2022 Author Share Posted March 29, 2022 Just now, wierd_w said: More interesting, the card seems to have the wavetable chip and sample rom. So.. more like a clone of this card? Interesting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 (edited) Since there does not seem to be an OPL synth on your board, yeah. Magic S23A clone, with pirate Roland patches? Deffo more interesting than just your standard issue SBPro + IDE clone. You might get angry at it though, since you have a real soundcanvas. The real deal will surely sound better than a compressed pirate rip. Edited March 29, 2022 by wierd_w 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted March 29, 2022 Author Share Posted March 29, 2022 2 minutes ago, wierd_w said: Since there does not seem to be an OPL synth on your board, yeah. Magic S23A clone, with pirate Roland patches? Ok. I'll try out them drivers when I get a chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 7 hours ago, wierd_w said: Unisound apparently also supports that chipset. https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=72553 I can confirm that. I have a board with the same Crystal chipset. A bit crappy sounding in some games like Wolfenstein 3D and Tyrian, but really good sounding in others like Doom and ROTT. It's a mixed bag with the Crystal chips and DOS compatibility in my personal experience, but it is not a bad card overall. Unisound is such a great tool BTW. Makes it easy to quickly test lots of different sound cards in DOS without installing any drivers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonGrafx-16 Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 3 hours ago, wierd_w said: Since there does not seem to be an OPL synth on your board, yeah. Magic S23A clone, with pirate Roland patches? Deffo more interesting than just your standard issue SBPro + IDE clone. You might get angry at it though, since you have a real soundcanvas. The real deal will surely sound better than a compressed pirate rip. Oh... it's just emulation of the SB Pro digital audio and not the synth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 That particular crystal chipset lacks built-in opl synth. Presumably this could have been desirable, as a yamaha chip could be paired. In this case, a crystal synth was paired. When adlib or OPL is rendered, it is sent to the synthesis chip as general midi. This would be hit and miss, as the actual yamaha chips could do interesting things when given special parameters. This solution would not be fully adlib compatible due to not having an opl synth. Most games did not try to do stuff like that in the SB era though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 10 hours ago, eightbit said: I can confirm that. I have a board with the same Crystal chipset. A bit crappy sounding in some games like Wolfenstein 3D and Tyrian, but really good sounding in others like Doom and ROTT. It's a mixed bag with the Crystal chips and DOS compatibility in my personal experience, but it is not a bad card overall. Unisound is such a great tool BTW. Makes it easy to quickly test lots of different sound cards in DOS without installing any drivers. I guess I'll leave the Adlib in there then, I must have great sound in Wolfenstein 3D! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 (edited) Hmm... I tried Unisound, nothing in doom or Wolf3d... It does recognize the card. Edit: I did edit my Autoexec.bat with this line: SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 J200 P330 then ran the software Edited March 30, 2022 by RetroB1977 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 (edited) Are those the resources unisound gives it? Also, wolf3d uses a nonstandard detection routine that assumes some very specific things about creative's dsp. Edited March 30, 2022 by wierd_w 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 Just now, wierd_w said: Are those the resources unisound gives it? Yeah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 I am reading that wolf3d wont detect soundblaster, if it first fails to detect adlib. (Opl2) So, enable the adlib card, and see? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 Just now, wierd_w said: I am reading that wolf3d wont detect soundblaster, if it first fails to detect adlib. (Opl2) So, enable the adlib card, and see? I had my Adlib in at the time of testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 (edited) Interesting... dont have an answer. Try some other titles? (Well, not really an actual answer but... the original soundblaster had some 'feed it raw data and it does stuff' operation modes that became legacy in later models that included an actual DSP that did actual sound data processing. Crystals chips did not properly respond to being fed raw PCM like that, IIRC, and instead did DSP stuff only. This is one of the ways the clone boards were spotty on dos support.) Edited March 30, 2022 by wierd_w 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 Just now, wierd_w said: Interesting... dont have an answer. Try some other titles? Ok. Not sure why Doom didn't work. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 Here is an old tripod hosted writeup from yesteryear that describes the direct dac mode Soundblasters can use, (and that not all clones support) https://lateblt.tripod.com/directsb.htm Some old dos games use that direct dac mode. They probably wont work on your reveal clone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 1 minute ago, wierd_w said: Here is an old tripod hosted writeup from yesteryear that describes the direct dac mode Soundblasters can use, (and that not all clones support) https://lateblt.tripod.com/directsb.htm Some old dos games use that direct dac mode. They probably wont work on your reveal clone. Ah! Ok, I'll try some more games. It'll probably work with Windows 3.1, right? I guess the Soundblaster 1.5 driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 It might. Worth a shot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted March 30, 2022 Author Share Posted March 30, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, wierd_w said: It might. Worth a shot. Nope... I'll try the other drivers. Edited March 30, 2022 by RetroB1977 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 The readme in the linked crystal isa drivers pack suggests that older drivers work better for that chip, as newer ones dont initialize it right/reliably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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