Subj : Play audio from a serial port
To   : Bob Worm
From : AKAcastor
Date : Sat May 25 2024 11:07:46

 BW> Yes, the link you sent had a video from (I think) 8 bit 
 BW> guy showing the Covox clone alongside Disney Sound 
 BW> Source - I had forgotten all about that thing! My 
 BW> friend had one and I remember it was better than what I 
 BW> had (nothing) but it barely worked with any software.

Well said, this describes my memories well, too - I remember it was better than what I had (nothing) but it barely worked with any software.

 BW> Then again, I seem to remember my first SoundBlaster 
 BW> clone was about GBP20 so there is that... Orchid Sound 
 BW> Producer, possibly? Got to love the naming of off-brand 
 BW> stuff.

So much time spent trying to figure out the right combination of settings for all sorts of clones and variations back then.  I think my first CD-ROM was Orchid, I think I dealt with some driver nightmares before getting that working.  Later on when all the CD-ROMs were IDE/ATAPI it was so much easier to plug a new drive in and get it working.

 BW> I was going to say I think I remember parallel adaptors 
 BW> with a DAC for the Amiga (not that I had one), but I 
 BW> that's probably all in my head because the Amiga had 
 BW> that capability on-board anyway so why make an external 
 BW> one? Probably I'm just getting confused with the 
 BW> multitude of parallel ADC units for the Amiga used for 
 BW> sampling.

I'm not very familiar with Amiga, but now I have one more thing to be curious about regarding Amigas! :)  I never really got to use Amigas, in the 90s I didn't know anybody who had one except for one guy (another teenager) that called my BBS and always complained I didn't have enough Amiga files, and I should ditch my PC and get an Amiga because it was way better.  We used to chat pretty regularly, it was fun.

 BW> The link Spec posted has ASCII art diagrams* for 
 BW> putting together your own parallel adaptor with a DAC 
 BW> chip (a couple of different DACs, actually) - 
 BW> funtionally the same but probably better quality. I 
 BW> imagine someone must have cranked out a manufactured 
 BW> version of that at some point.

It does seem like it must have been a thing, I can't recall hearing of it specifically though.  Makes me curious!

 BW> * Said ASCII art was in a file with a .DOC extension - 
 BW> I was suddenly reminded that .DOC used to mean plain 
 BW> text before Word hijacked it. It's funny that I'm still 
 BW> finding things like that which give a sudden, 
 BW> unexpected burst of nostalgia.

Files from the late 90s can be so confusing, how to open that .DOC file - it could be either type.  Another extension (a bit less common) that I 're-discovered' recently is .PRN for a printable document (ASCII with form feeds for page breaks).  I remember printing hundreds of pages of BBS documentation on the dot matrix printer (24-pin, so it was mostly readable too).


Chris/akacastor

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 * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

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