The Game Room Peter M. Kendall Cheap Thrills: PC Sound This column is addressed to those of you who do not yet have a sound card for your PC: I have bad news and good news for you. The bad news is that you have been missing out on a significant portion of the fun in your games; the good news is that the situation can be easily and inexpensively remedied. In this column we'll review some of the basics of sound cards, particularly insofar as they relate to games. This entire discussion is predicated on one simple fact, namely that your PC squeaker--excuse me, that's speaker--is probably the worst sound reproduction device you will ever encounter. It's worse than a bass-blasting car stereo or a shrill ghetto blaster, even worse than those horrible $7 digital clock radios which are already too numerous in our society. It may, of course, be argued that the squeaker was never intended to do anything more complicated than giving you some sort of audible indication of activity in your PC. On the other hand, this opinion was brought to you by the same people who figured that nobody would ever find a use for more than 640K of memory. But we digress; at least we all agree that the squeaker must die. Digital Audio Sound cards for the PC began to appear around 1989. The two best-known ones were the Ad Lib Synthesizer card and the Creative Labs Sound Blaster. Both cards are capable of simultaneously playing at least eight synthesized melodic voices. An important difference, which gives the Sound Blaster a great advantage, is that it also incorporates a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) chip, which gives it the ability to reproduced sampled ("digitized") sounds. Synthesized sounds, as their name implies, are tones which have been electronically produced and modified to resemble "real" musical instruments or sounds. Sampled sounds are recordings of actual audio events stored in a digital form; they are more complex and take up more disk space than synthesized sound, but they deliver more "realistic" sound quality. This distinction has become more significant within the past year or so, inasmuch as game manufacturers are making increasing use of sampled (digitized) sounds, including such things as human speech, for which users, not surprisingly, have a keen ear for quality. The intense competition between game manufacturers virtually ensures that new technology will be readily incorporated into new games. As for the digitized speech already available, take my word for this: to have a face pop up on your super-VGA monitor, look you straight in the eye, and begin speaking to you is an experience not to be missed! Compatibility Any discussion of hardware and software must eventually address the question of compatibility: well, friends, not to worry. The standards set by Ad Lib and Sound Blaster (SB) have been so warmly embraced by game manufacturers that virtually every major game produced since 1990 supports these two cards. Even the better shareware games of the past two years feature Ad Lib/SB support! As for hardware, you might find a "bargain" at a swap meet, but it might or might not have some compatibility problems. However, you can still buy a genuine Sound Blaster, brand new, for less than $100 by mail order, and there are several other good, inexpensive brands available today, all of which are designed to be Ad Lib/SB clones. Multimedia The recent advent of multimedia has provided new opportunities for sound card manufacturers. The "second-generation" cards which are now reaching the marketplace offer such features as real stereo sound, tone controls, more advanced and flexible recording and mixing capabilities, as well as interfaces to external sound equipment. A complete discussion of multimedia and of the new hardware is beyond the scope of a Game Room, in which I might more appropriately comment on things like the sublime pleasure of listening to the sounds of Duke Nuke'm blasting the Energizer Bunny into oblivion. Nevertheless, I must argue that the new cards represent great technological advances, and if your budget can tolerate an additional hundred dollars, a card like Media Vision's Pro Audio Spectrum 16 (my personal favorite) or the new Sound Blaster 16 is a good investment which should take care of all your PC audio needs for the near future. Did You Remember Speakers? Speakers?!? No sound card would be of much value if it were forced to rely on the PC squeaker. Fortunately, this is not the case, which brings me to the Great Secret of Cheap Thrills, namely that every sound card has the capability to drive a small speaker, or even a pair thereof. The venerable Ad Lib had a 2-watt amplifier built in; the Sound Blaster has 4 watts and the newer cards have 8 watts (4 per channel). Granted, this amount of power will not replace your 100-to-150-watt home stereo or fill your computer room with sound, but it will do an adequate job driving a speaker sitting two or three feet from your ears. Go find the old el-cheapo "bookshelf" speakers which are gathering mildew in your basement, drag them upstairs and wire them in: you may be amazed at the result. If your listening preferences run to more exotic options, the vogue "multimedia-compatible" items are amplified speakers. These desktop-sized devices have built-in power amplifiers to augment your sound card's output; they range in price from $20 a pair up to several hundred dollars. Personally, I am not absolutely convinced of the advantages of such designs, especially with the newer, more powerful sound cards, but with sound, all you have left, in the final analysis, is personal taste; try whatever speakers you might have, or buy new ones. Let your ears be the judge. Upgrading your PC's sound can be accomplished in numerous ways, of varying complexity. Having tried a number of combinations myself, I will vouch for the fact that even the simplest upgrade will be at least an order of magnitude beyond the performance of your PC squeaker; it will enhance your enjoyment of the games you already have, and the games of the future will be even better. It's like going from black-and-white TV to color: you cannot go back!