When Sound Came on a Card: 7 Classic PC Sound Upgrades

At a time when many home computers included sophisticated hardware used to generate music and sound effects, IBM's first PC - designed primarily for small business use - only came equipped with a simple buzzer. That 1981 machine's sound output, commonly referred to as "PC speaker," could only output square wave audio at two voltage levels (on and off), which meant that it usually emitted beeps or buzzes.

While ingenious software techniques later let developers output more complex audio from a PC speaker, the result remained tinny and low fidelity, creating a need for a more complex audio output method for PC compatibles, especially when it came to games. The answer came in the form of plug-in sound cards, which contained their own increasingly complex sound-producing circuitry and audio output jacks.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most PC users still had to purchase a separate sound card to get decent quality sound output. During this era, manufacturers such as AdLib, Creative Labs, Roland, Gravis, and others competed to become the de-facto standard for PC audio. Ultimately, Sound Blaster derivatives won out, but for that frenzied decade and a half, many different types of sound cards hit the market.

In the slides ahead, you'll see a sampling of some of the most notable and memorable examples of this now (largely) obsolete form of add-on hardware. When you're done reading, I'd love to hear from you about what model of sound card you first used back in the day.

1. AdLib PCMS (1987)

The AdLib Music Synthesizer Card was the first sound card for IBM PCs to gain widespread software support. It utilized a single Yamaha YM3812 FM synthesis chip to generate music and sound effects. It did not support digitized audio. King's Quest IV by Sierra was the first game to support the AdLib card, and its decision to do so with a major title release spurred other developers to utilize the AdLib card in their games as well.

(Photo: Dean Tersigni)

2. Creative Labs Game Blaster (1988)

The Game Blaster started its life as the "Creative Music System," the inaugural product of Creative Labs. Unlike AdLib card's FM synthesis chip, the CMS used two Philips SAA1099 chips that provided 12 voices of square wave synthesis (which could be panned to either channel in stereo). It produced an inferior sound to the AdLib card, and game support remained slim -- even after Radio Shack marketed the CMS as the "Game Blaster" in 1988.

(Photos: Bratgoul, Creative Labs)

3. Roland LAPC-I (1988)

The LAPC-I was an internal version of the earlier Roland MT-32 MIDI synthesizer module reduced onto a single ISA card that fit into a PC. It played up to 32 voices simultaneously in stereo using linear arithmetic synthesis, a method that utilized instrument samples modified electronically to produce a very realistic result. For a time, Sierra On-Line distributed the LAPC-I for use with its games, but its high price (around $425) limited its adoption.

(Photos: Atarian, Roland)

4. Covox Speech Thing (1989)

While every other sound device on this list plugged into PCs as internal sound cards, it's worth noting an external alternative, the Covox Speech Thing. Its relatively simple circuitry existed solely in a small dongle that would plug into a user's parallel port (a port commonly used for printers). From that dongle ran a cable which plugged into a small amplified speaker. For under $79, one could add this 8-bit, 7KHz digitized output to a PC. While it wasn't anywhere near CD-quality audio, it represented a significant improvement over the primitive bleeps of a PC speaker. A similar dongle-and-speaker technique was later used with the Disney Sound Source, an inexpensive gadget which shipped with many Disney software titles.

(Photos: Clint Basinger, Covox)

5. Creative Labs Sound Blaster (1989)

With the Sound Blaster, Creative Labs hit upon the perfect storm of capability and price for a sound card. It included all of the earlier Game Blaster's features, perfect AdLib card compatibility, the ability to play mono 8-bit digitized sound at up to 23KHz, and a built-in game port for joysticks and control pads. Its features proved so attractive that many games supported it, and it became the new reigning de-facto sound card standard in the PC compatibles industry -- knocking AdLib off its perch. A few years later, Creative Labs improved upon this card (and continued its industry lead) with the Sound Blaster Pro, which included dual FM synthesis chips and the ability to play back mono 8-bit sound at 44.1KHz.

(Photo: Creative Labs)

6. Gravis Ultrasound (1992)

The Gravis Ultrasound pushed PC audio into a new era with the inclusion of wavetable synthesis, which used pure recorded samples of instruments to generate music. It was also one of the first sound cards to output 16-bit, 44.1KHz CD-quality audio (although it could not record audio at that rate). It also included AdLib, Sound Blaster, and Roland MT-32 compatibility, making it a superior sound card for its time. Ultimately, lack of game support for the card and intense competition from Creative Labs kept it from dominating the market.

(Photos: B Buxton, Gravis)

7. Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 (1992)

The Sound Blaster 16 offered a significant upgrade over its predecessor, the Sound Blaster Pro: CD quality 16-bit, 44.1KHz digital audio recording and playback. Aside from that, it kept all of the Sound Blaster Pro's features, and added the ability to accept daughter cards that would plug into the main SB16 board to provide features such as full MIDI support and wavetable synthesis. After the SB16 and the introduction of pre-recorded, CD-quality audio tracks in games, future PC sound upgrades did not nearly have the same dramatic jumps in quality. And once motherboards began to integrate advanced sound hardware into PCs in the late 1990s, sound cards themselves became an endangered species.

(Photos: Konstantin Lanzet, Creative Labs)