First post, by Shponglefan
- Rank
- l33t
The ESS Solo-1 has a reputation for being a highly compatible PCI sound card for use with DOS games. As it can be useful for systems without ISA slots, I did some testing to see how compatible it is and what sort of issues might arise with different games.
Links to specific systems tested:
486 DX-33 / Beyond 486IP-B-2-A
Pentium 100 / DFI P5BTX/L
Pentium 4 (Northwood) 2.0 GHz / ASUS P4S533-E
The specific card I'm using is a Terratec Promedia branded card. It didn't include a wavetable header when I received it; I soldered one in after the fact.
General MIDI support was tested using a Yucatan FX daughtercard, but any GM compatible card should work. MT-32 support was tested using an MT-32 Rev 0 (old) model.
This card works with ESSVOL. The internal wavetable header volume can be adjusted via the Aux B volume option. This is useful if using this card for digital sound effects alongside an external MIDI module.
Tools used to mitigate some of the noted issues include the following:
CPUSPD - CpuSpd - A Hardware Based CPU Speed Control Utility for DOS/Win9X Retro Gaming
SETMUL - SetMul - Multiplier control for VIA C3 / AMD K6+7+8 Mobile / Cyrix 5x86
SOFTMPU - *START HERE* SoftMPU 1.91 - Software Intelligent MPU-401 Emulator
MIDITO - MIDIto r12 (Midi and FM redirection, Mixer locking, Sound Blaster fixes)
GSPLAY - DOS Days - MIDI Downloads
Chart legend is as follows:
Green - Works without any additional software
Yellow - Requires additional software to mitigate noted issues
Red - Not working or major issues affecting playback