Hi to all Tech Previewers, particularly those who are fans of retro computer music and old DOS games!
We've had a number of requests in the past for emulation of the Sound Blaster 16's FM synthesizer chip, the Yamaha OPL3. The OPL3 is the backwards-compatible successor to the OPL2, which was also the heart of the "original" AdLib Music Synthesizer Card. Many games from the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s supported AdLib or Sound Blaster FM music.
This Technology Preview includes an experimental emulation of the OPL3. You can enable it by taking your existing VM with an emulated Sound Blaster 16 and adding a single line to the VM's config file:
sound.opl3.enabled = "TRUE"
It's been tested with AdLib Tracker 2 (check out the bundled demo songs!), DOOM, Day Of The Tentacle, some of the King's Quest games, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, Sanxion AdLib Music Disks 1 and 2, and a few other random titles.
Caveats:
- The emulated OPL3 in the Tech Preview doesn't get along with the wave (a.k.a. "PCM") output of our existing emulated SB16, so enabling the OPL3 will currently disable (silence) the PCM components of the virtual SB16. You'll get music, but no wave output/sound effects.
- There are two OPL3 features that are not yet implemented: the rhythm instruments (which it seems are rarely used) and vibrato.
I'm not sure whether these shortcomings will be remedied for this release... Maybe if enough people get excited by it and provide great feedback...
If you're interested in retro music and gaming, we'd love to hear from you. Please let us know what you tried, what worked, and what didn't work. Thanks!