Sound Blaster
- Overview
- Games
There are 281 games documented on PixelatedArcade
supporting Sound Blaster for IBM PC/Compatibles.
(View for All Systems)
Sound Blaster is part of the category Sound Hardware Supported.
The Sound Blaster is a sound card first released by Creative Labs in 1989. The card was extremely successful, and due to
its popularity became the de facto standard for sound on IBM PC and compatible computers for many years. It was fully compatible with the
AdLib Music Synthesizer Card (the market leader at the time) and early models were also compatible
with Creative Lab's earlier CMS / Game Blaster card.
The Sound Blaster card is based on the Yamaha YM3812 (OPL2) chip which provided FM synthesis for Adlib compatibility and could produce up to 11 simultaneous sounds (either 9 channels of sound, or 6 channels of sound with 5 percussive instruments). It also included two Philips SAA1099 chips for Game Blaster compatibility (although later editions of the Sound Blaster removed this feature as standard; the board did include two empty sockets allowing users to purchase the chips and restore Game Blaster compatibility). The card could also play back monaural sampled sounds at up to 22 kHz sampling frequency (similar to FM radio quality) and record sounds at up to 12 kHz. It was possible for the Sound Blaster to utilize all of these features at the same time for a total of 24 voices — however, there weren't any games that used this capability since the sounds of the Philips SAA1099 chips were considered to be inferior (and potentially not even available). Lastly, the Sound Blaster included a game port for connecting a joystick to (game ports were not standard on IBM computers at the time making this a big selling point for the Sound Blaster vs. its competitors).
The Sound Blaster card was followed up in 1991 by the Sound Blaster Pro.
The Sound Blaster card is based on the Yamaha YM3812 (OPL2) chip which provided FM synthesis for Adlib compatibility and could produce up to 11 simultaneous sounds (either 9 channels of sound, or 6 channels of sound with 5 percussive instruments). It also included two Philips SAA1099 chips for Game Blaster compatibility (although later editions of the Sound Blaster removed this feature as standard; the board did include two empty sockets allowing users to purchase the chips and restore Game Blaster compatibility). The card could also play back monaural sampled sounds at up to 22 kHz sampling frequency (similar to FM radio quality) and record sounds at up to 12 kHz. It was possible for the Sound Blaster to utilize all of these features at the same time for a total of 24 voices — however, there weren't any games that used this capability since the sounds of the Philips SAA1099 chips were considered to be inferior (and potentially not even available). Lastly, the Sound Blaster included a game port for connecting a joystick to (game ports were not standard on IBM computers at the time making this a big selling point for the Sound Blaster vs. its competitors).
The Sound Blaster card was followed up in 1991 by the Sound Blaster Pro.
Pictures
Click on a picture below to view a larger version.| Sound Blaster v1.0 |
| Model # CT1320A |
| Sound Blaster v2.0 |
| Model # CT1350B card, box, and contents |
| Sound Blaster v1.5 |
| Model # CT1320C |
| Sound Blaster v2.0 Deluxe Edition |
| Model # CT1350B |
Marketing
Product catalogs, magazines, flyers, or other documentation Sound Blaster has appeared in.*Note: If you are unable to see any images in this section, you may have an ad blocker installed that is blocking the thumbnails and/or images.
| Magazine Advertisements |
