AWE64 Legacy: A Premium New ISA Sound Card in 2022

erek

erek

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"Project team: Alex_NsD, CoolTweak, H_Rush, hard1k
Logo: mrDraud

Our project is inspired by this one made by anthony, but has gone a little further.
So, to sum up, it's a newly designed sound card built up from scratch, based on the original chipset of the 2nd gen Creative SB AWE64 Value (CT4520): Creative CT8920-NBQ chip and Creative CT1972-UAS/EMU8011-01 WaveROM.

New and reworked features include:
1. The onboard 28 MB of RAM - basically, it is an integrated SIMMConn Value (credits: Xu Wang aka SIMMConn) with an integrated 32Mb SIMM72.
2. True Yamaha OPL3 chipset (YMF262+YAC512) - the schematics were borrowed from the Resound OPL3 card (credits: TexElec). OPL3 is hardwired to 0x388h, so if order for it to function along with the integrated CQM, the latter must be moved to some other port (0x398h, for example) using the original drivers or the UNISOUND tool by JazeFox.
3. Intelligent MPU-401 onboard - it is an integrated HardMPU (credits: ab0tj).
4. Waveblaster header.
5. Routable MIDI Outputs between both CT8920 / HardMPU parts and the Waveblaster header / MIDI pins of the gameport.
6. Redesigned analog part.
7. Onboard S/PDIF RCA output.
8. AWE64 Gold-styled 2xRCA analog output.
9. AC97 Front panel header.
10. The board complies with ISA Half-Size measures: 185 х 120 mm.
11. PCB has 6 layers with separate Analog and Digital planes. Power supply has its own layer."

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=68555
 
$500+ a card. Ouch. Cool and all accomplishment wise, at least something the purist can use for those not emulating I guess.
 
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That_Sound_Guy said:
$500+ a card. Ouch. Cool and all accomplishment wise, at least something the purist can use for those not emulating I guess.
Click to expand...
It shows the difference between economies of scale and boutique. I would venture a guess that they're not making a lot of money from this run either.

It also gives me a bit more appreciation for small boutiques making things like analog synths. There is a lot of time/effort put into making all of these circuits and then usually the cost of construction is far more astronomical for small runs than people realize.
 
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My PC back in the day with an AWE64 can't remember if it was the Gold model.

internet_machine.jpg
 
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My first computer contained an AWE64 Gold ISA card. Long gone though, sold it off when I upgraded to whatever I moved to. I think a SoundBlaster Live! PCI card was my next move.

Full system was an AMD 200MHz K6, 64MB of RAM, Matrox Mystique (with 4MB of ram! I know you're jealous!), AWE64 Gold, 2GB HDD, which I think was a Maxtor if memory serves. It also had a cheap 12x? CD-ROM, and the often forgotten 3 1/2" Floppy, but specifically a SuperDisk drive. And a US Robotics V90 modem that later got a firmware update to flash it to 56k.
I kinda remember the shock, because it was basically double the specs of most every other machine I had used before then. It was a different time. PC hardware's refreshes were more fun back in 1997. The AWE64 Gold and US Robotics modem came with me for more than one build, as did the other peripherals. It was mostly just CPU/GPU/MoBo that got updated a lot. The move away from SIMMS to DIMMS was big and then of course DDR.

I moved from that to a K6-III 450MHz, IIRC and bought a friends used Creative Labs VooDoo2 8MB. That changed my life in terms of PC gaming. The VooDoo2 will indelibly always be the card that opened the door. From trying to emulate 3D with a 2D graphics renderer to running Glide was huge. Night and day difference.
 
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I mean... I dunno...

So the AWE64 Gold was for sure an amazing soundcard. I had one and it was the first "good" soundcard I'd ever owned. It's DACs and grounding were good enough that it was perceptually quiet during normal use (you could hear all kinds of shit with an SB16). It had great support for the soundblaster standard, so both digital audio and FM in DOS games worked just as it should, no messing necessary. The EMU 8000 chip finally gave the ability to have real sample-based MIDI playback, something I'd wanted for years. It was a great card...

...BUT I don't see how an ISA version these days is something I'd be interested in, even for playing old games. Particularly for $500. Like, I'd much rather have a good software emulation (or possibly PCIe hardware) for a modern system, rather than something that requires vintage parts anyhow.

Not trying to throw shade on the amount of work they did, but man.
 
Sycraft said:
I mean... I dunno...

So the AWE64 Gold was for sure an amazing soundcard. I had one and it was the first "good" soundcard I'd ever owned. It's DACs and grounding were good enough that it was perceptually quiet during normal use (you could hear all kinds of shit with an SB16). It had great support for the soundblaster standard, so both digital audio and FM in DOS games worked just as it should, no messing necessary. The EMU 8000 chip finally gave the ability to have real sample-based MIDI playback, something I'd wanted for years. It was a great card...

...BUT I don't see how an ISA version these days is something I'd be interested in, even for playing old games. Particularly for $500. Like, I'd much rather have a good software emulation (or possibly PCIe hardware) for a modern system, rather than something that requires vintage parts anyhow.

Not trying to throw shade on the amount of work they did, but man.
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Well it all comes down to the type of retro person you are, some people are die hard only original hardware and others dont care and do emulation. Some stuff is not emulated or done well and for some people that matters, for other people it is good enough for what they want.
 
Starfalcon said:
Well it all comes down to the type of retro person you are, some people are die hard only original hardware and others dont care and do emulation. Some stuff is not emulated or done well and for some people that matters, for other people it is good enough for what they want.
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I guess in that case I'd just get an original AWE64. They are cheaper than thins and still available.
 
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