Original post:
I would really love to have CMS/GB support in the AO486 core.
Admittedly, the Sound Blaster with FM sounds better than CMS/GB in most cases(Mostly because of badly programmed music IMO), but the CMS/GB has an interessting chiptune sound, quite unique to the PC.
In my opinion, games like The Secret of Monkey Island (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF6YpwQ8YEk) and Times of Lore (https://youtu.be/TAAx2jIx_xA) sounds really great with CMS/GB sound.
Other examples: https://youtu.be/ZwgZzuFXzLc
So what was the Creative Music System / Game Blaster?
The Creative Music System was Creatives first sound card released in 1987, and were later rebranded as Game Blaster.
It had a Programmable Sound Generator (PSG) made up by two Philips SAA1099 chips, which provided 12 channels of square-wave and 4 channels of noise for that chiptune sound in stereo (SB1 FM had mono).
The CMS/GB card was later replaced by Sound Blaster 1.0, but the new series of card still had CMS/GB support up til Sound Blaster 2.0 (Even though later relases only had empty sockets for those CMS/GB "upgrade" kits).
The CMS/GB sound were deemed inferior to the FM sound of the Sound Blaster series, and lost developer support. CMS/GB support were therefore discontinued after Sound Blaster 2.0.
For more info, goto:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Bla ... me_Blaster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips_SAA1099
https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/20 ... grade.html
https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/20 ... about.html
There were close to 100 games that supported the CMS/GB, some of the most famous examples being:
*The Secret of Monkey Island
*Prince of Persia
*Ultima VI
*Wing Commander II
*Early Sierra Titles in the Larry, Kings Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest and A Quest for Glory series.
(A list of compatible games can be found at: https://www.mobygames.com/attribute/she ... Id,42/p,2/ )
The CMS/GB is fully emulated in DOSBox (https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbo ... laster.cpp)
Settings:
[sblaster]
sbtype=gb
oplmode=auto
or
[sblaster]
sbtype=sb1 (or) sb2
oplmode=cms
or(!)
[sblaster]
sbtype=none
oplmode=cms
Some games like one or another config better, the first (sbtype=gb) seems to work for most of the games. Other games used CMS as music and SB för digitized effects.
The MiSTer cores ZX Spectrum (https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ZX-Spectrum_MISTer) and the SAM Coupé (https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/SAM-Coupe_MiSTer) cores both has the same Philips SAA1099 chips.
There are also clone cards available for the PC:
https://github.com/gemedetpaps/MUS-1099
https://texelec.com/product/saaym/
Since the Sound Blaster series were CMS/GB compatible, it would make sense to include it (if possible) to be able to hear it in all FPGA glory.
If not together, then atleast as seperate choices (like CMS/OPL2/OPL3). Less preferable though.
Most CMS/GB compatible games hardcode the I/O to 220h, but on physical it was changeable via a jumper on the card, default being 220h.
If it would be implemented in the core, it would be good to be able to change I/O port so the PSG and FM could coexist since some games used a combination of the two.
A problem though is that alot of the CMS/GB compatible games expects 220h, but there is a patching project (https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=58927) to patch games to I/O 210 instead.
I am guessing though that it is too large to include in the core, but I can always suggest
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)