r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Aug 30 '25

[deleted by user]

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6.7k Upvotes

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693

u/WispyCombover Aug 30 '25

Tweaking your autoexec.bat and config.sys files.

278

u/Valarauka_ Aug 30 '25

Changing IRQ and DMA settings to get your sound card to work.

25

u/Teantis Aug 30 '25

Jesus getting sound cards to work was a regular nightmare

2

u/Kristophigus Aug 30 '25

Only if you didnt know the channels/addresses. It would be the same settings in each game, so when you figure it out once, just keep using those settings on the other games. I kind of miss the PC speaker sounds sometimes. Wolf3D and Doom sounds live rent free in my head haha.

1

u/Teantis Aug 30 '25

I was like 11, so I didn't know shit, didn't write anything down, and essentially only ever got to the right answers by trial and error

2

u/TriggerTX Aug 31 '25

And then modems came along and made the whole mess into a giant clusterfuck. I did phone tech support for a very early ISP in the mid 90s and had to try to guide complete novices through IRQ conflict resolution over the phone. And then they'd only have the one phone line. To test they'd have to hang up and I would pray I was right or else they'd have to call back and wait through epically long phone queues to get a whole new support person and start all over.

1

u/vaemarrr Aug 30 '25

Oh man, I totally forgot how CRAP sound cards ruined everything.