soundblaster audigy2 and dos-based programs problems

[jerry111165]

thanks for looking in.
i run windows 98SEand i installed a creative labs soundblaster Audigy2 soundcard.It works great on all audio cd's and also on any newer games,
but with any older games,such as quake,duke nukem,wolfenstien,those games refuse to find my soundcard....
i called creative labs tech support,and i gotta say they were no help whatsoever...they told me the audigy2 card does not support dos,but that cant be true,can it,because isnt win 98,like win95 and 3.1 a dos overlay operating system?
i loaded the drivers which came with the system...but i have heard of some kind of dos emulation,is that anything?
any help at all would be greatly appreciated....

 

[jonhiker]

DOS emulation has more to do with software than hardware. You are also correct that W98 is a GUI on top of DOS. However, this is a driver issue, and the new sound card doesn't provide a legacy driver that would be useable by DOS. You might check with the game people to see if thaey have any options for you.

 

[pmonett]

Indeed, I have to agree with jonhiker. As far back as the original SoundBlaster there were DOS drivers and Windows drivers.
If you check the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files of a Win95/98 system with an SB card, you'll find lines like

DEVICE=\DRV\CTSB16.SYS /UNIT=0 /BLASTER=A:220 I:5 D:1 H:5 /WIN95
DEVICE=\DRV\CTMMSYS.SYS

in the Config.sys, and

BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6

in the Autoexec.bat.
These lines are created automatically by installing the card drivers.
If the Audigy2 does not have DOS sound support, that does not bode well for the future.
On the other hand, I have XP pro at home and an Audigy Player, and I have no problem with playing Quake.
Maybe XP deals with the issue differently ? After all, XP is no longer a DOS overlay, but almost a true OS.