VDMSound has been around for a while. It's main function is to create a virtual Sound Blaster card (SB 16, Pro, or original SB) for use with DOS games.
My first impression was that this was just to make DOS games think the system had a SB sound card making it less fuss to run those old games. No longer would one have to struggle with legacy sound card configurations. That alone would have been a good enough reason to use VDMSound.
Originally, VDMSound only supported Windows NT/2000 and later XP. Being a Windows 98SE user I didn't look further into the utilities capabilities.
Lately (Late 2002) someone did some work that made it possible to run in Windows 9x. So I have been looking at VDMSound again.
What I have learned is VDMSound virtualizes every aspect of the SB sound card, game port, midi port, midi synthesizer, etc. With VDMSound you can even use USB mice and joysticks with those old DOS games. Don't need to fish around for ancient 16-bit drivers.
Don't have legacy SB support on your sound card. No problem, VDMSound works with just about any Windows sound device, even USB sound and midi devices. (Try that in an pure DOS environment).
CDROMs work too. basically any Windows device works.
Haven't read of anyone playing games off of those key chain drives but it's possible (in theory).
Got a laptop? Want to play those old DOS games? Don't have the CD/DVD drive installed. No problem, virtual CDROMs work too.
To be honest, I have no idea how easy/hard it is to run DOS games on a Win NT/2K/XP system. With a Windows 98 system it isn't very difficult at all. You do need to have a Sound Blaster compatible sound card (generally anyway). You also need to have all the 16-bit drivers (DOS), CDROM, mouse, sound card. Plus, you need to configure the sound card, IRQs and DMA channels, port addresses. Some games expect IRQ 7 others expect IRQ 5. If you take care of all these things then playing DOS games was "easy".
With VDMSound you don't need any of that. Install it and run your game. VDMSound doesn't even care how the game is configured. IRQs or DMA channels don't matter. VDMSound adjusts.
Is it perfect. NO.
Some games don't see the virtualized sound card (not many) or some see it but do strange things (like produce ugly sounds). Some games crash.
The Win9x version is even worse. This version is in the alpha stage and according to the version developer probably won't go any further, out of the alpha stage that is. Work does continue, though.
Anyway, VDMSound is worth trying. (I've been playing Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, circa 1992. I'm using my USB mouse and USB joystick. Game has SB sound and midi music).
For news on the project and the NT/2K/XP files
<A HREF="http://www.sourceforge.net" target="_new">http://www.sourceforge.net</A>
<A HREF="http://ntvdm.cjb.net/index.html" target="_new">http://ntvdm.cjb.net/index.html</A>
For information and support (and files) for the Win9x version read this thread.
<A HREF="http://vogons.zetafleet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=900" target="_new">http://vogons.zetafleet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=900</A>
<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>
My first impression was that this was just to make DOS games think the system had a SB sound card making it less fuss to run those old games. No longer would one have to struggle with legacy sound card configurations. That alone would have been a good enough reason to use VDMSound.
Originally, VDMSound only supported Windows NT/2000 and later XP. Being a Windows 98SE user I didn't look further into the utilities capabilities.
Lately (Late 2002) someone did some work that made it possible to run in Windows 9x. So I have been looking at VDMSound again.
What I have learned is VDMSound virtualizes every aspect of the SB sound card, game port, midi port, midi synthesizer, etc. With VDMSound you can even use USB mice and joysticks with those old DOS games. Don't need to fish around for ancient 16-bit drivers.
Don't have legacy SB support on your sound card. No problem, VDMSound works with just about any Windows sound device, even USB sound and midi devices. (Try that in an pure DOS environment).
CDROMs work too. basically any Windows device works.
Haven't read of anyone playing games off of those key chain drives but it's possible (in theory).
Got a laptop? Want to play those old DOS games? Don't have the CD/DVD drive installed. No problem, virtual CDROMs work too.
To be honest, I have no idea how easy/hard it is to run DOS games on a Win NT/2K/XP system. With a Windows 98 system it isn't very difficult at all. You do need to have a Sound Blaster compatible sound card (generally anyway). You also need to have all the 16-bit drivers (DOS), CDROM, mouse, sound card. Plus, you need to configure the sound card, IRQs and DMA channels, port addresses. Some games expect IRQ 7 others expect IRQ 5. If you take care of all these things then playing DOS games was "easy".
With VDMSound you don't need any of that. Install it and run your game. VDMSound doesn't even care how the game is configured. IRQs or DMA channels don't matter. VDMSound adjusts.
Is it perfect. NO.
Some games don't see the virtualized sound card (not many) or some see it but do strange things (like produce ugly sounds). Some games crash.
The Win9x version is even worse. This version is in the alpha stage and according to the version developer probably won't go any further, out of the alpha stage that is. Work does continue, though.
Anyway, VDMSound is worth trying. (I've been playing Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, circa 1992. I'm using my USB mouse and USB joystick. Game has SB sound and midi music).
For news on the project and the NT/2K/XP files
<A HREF="http://www.sourceforge.net" target="_new">http://www.sourceforge.net</A>
<A HREF="http://ntvdm.cjb.net/index.html" target="_new">http://ntvdm.cjb.net/index.html</A>
For information and support (and files) for the Win9x version read this thread.
<A HREF="http://vogons.zetafleet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=900" target="_new">http://vogons.zetafleet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=900</A>
<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>
.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram