a blog by Peter Leonard
Prices for the late-1980s/early-1990s 8-bit ISA AdLib sound cards have risen steadily in recent years, thanks to nostalgia about this era of 8-bit computer audio. Adventure games from companies such as Sierra On-Line, and Lucasarts (below) used the new capabilities of these cards to transform the limited beeps of the IBM PC speaker into multi-channel audio soundtracks:
Thankfully, the relatively simple design of these original cards (and low-cost off-shore manufacturing) make these cards easy to ‘clone’ and produce anew. Below, a bare card soon to be adorned with passive components and logic chips that will turn it into a near-perfect replica of the original 1987 card:
You can hear more samples from this type of device on websites dedicated to the history of PC soundcards.