X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Sound Blaster


Sound Blaster

This actually stood for Digital Sound Processor, rather than the more common digital signal processor, and was really a simple micro-controller from the Intel MCS-51 family (supplied by Intel and Matra MHS, among others).

Most Sound Blaster Pro cards featured a proprietary interface for a Panasonic (Matsushita MKE) drive.

Creative did not change any of the labeling or program names on the disks that came with the Game Blaster, but also included a later revision of the game Silpheed that added C/MS support.

Streaming audio in video games

It wasn't until Creative Labs's Sound Blaster series, introduced in 1989, that PCs became capable of playing back pre-recorded audio.


Music tracker

Although the IBM and compatibles initially lacked the hardware sound processing capabilities of the Amiga, with the advent of the Sound Blaster line from Creative, PC audio slowly began to approach CD Quality (44.1 kHz/16 bit/Stereo) with the release of the SoundBlaster 16.

Tandy 1000

While the Tandy DAC's features were comparable to those offered by Creative's 8-bit Sound Blaster audio cards, unlike the Sound Blaster or the Tandy's PCjr-compatible audio the DAC never saw widespread adoption by software developers.


see also

Creative Technology

The following year, 1989, the Sound Blaster 1.0 was released, helped by the perfect compatibility with then market leader Ad Lib, Inc.'s sound card.

Wave Blaster

Creative Wave Blaster, a companion MIDI-daughterboard for the Sound Blaster family of PC soundcards