Do You Own the Rarest PC Sound Card in the World?

New Trixter video just dropped! Jim Leonard, better known as Trixter, is is among the most knowledgeable PC game historians out there. He also has quite a talent for putting together well researched videos with extremely high production values; I've linked to a few before including his in-depth look at the IBM PCjr. Trixter is also a collector of games and PC related hardware, and in his collection is the insanely rare Mindscape Music Board. What, exactly, is this historical curiousity? This card is essentially a copy of the Mockingboard for the Apple II and generates sound from two General Instruments AY-3-8913 sound chips to provide you six channels of sound and noise. It was included with the program Bank Street Music Writer, and unfortunately never went further than that. For more details and answers to even more questions, check out the latest YouTube video, Do you own the rarest PC sound card in the world?. You'll learn about the card's history, there are interviews with some of its creators, and perhaps most importantly demonstrations so you can hear the card in action (you won't find any emulators supporting this one, at least not yet).

Here at PixelatedArcade we have a handfull of rare sound cards in our collection; you won't find the Pro Audio Spectrum Plus or the Game Blaster very often. But it probably goes without saying we don't have this one, and with only four cards confirmed to still exist, the Mindscape Music Board is definitely far tougher to come across than any of those and is up there along with the Covox Sound Master on the rarity scale. With cards like this where emulator support and videos are non-existent, I highly recommend checking out Trixter's video to experience this unique piece of sound card history!