Unboxing a brand new IBM PC made in 1988

[Big Boss Man]

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Can it run Crysis?

The keyboard looks nice.

[Big Boss Man]

It couldn't run Commander Keen he tried on it but CD Man worked. The PC speaker and drives make so much noise compared to today's. I was suspectiable at first if it was legit sealed or an old one resealed. But he had to do something to the HDD, unlock it with the key, plug the CMOS battery etc in. It's only a 286 so idk if you could put Windows 3.1 or something on it. Probably if he updated the RAM and graphics card I guess.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Yeah I watched the vid, saw him playing CD Man.

[Stormwatch]

>PC speaker

It's baffling how early IBM PCs had such limited audio capabilities. Pretty much any other 1980s computer line did better.

[Big Boss Man]

Wasn't Commodore leading the way with computer audio with their SID chip back then?. PC audio only really became a thing when Soundblaster cards etc came out. The Atari ST was solid for computer audio it was often a midi setup with one at School(s).

[Stormwatch]

Wasn't Commodore leading the way with computer audio with their SID chip back then?

There's a lot of nostalgia for the SID because it had a very distinctive sound and it was used in a very popular machine... but it's still 1982 tech. More advanced chips soon surpassed it. For example, it could do 3 voices, but the Ensoniq 5503 (by the same designer) used in the Apple IIGS did 15.

PC audio only really became a thing when Soundblaster cards etc came out.

I was reading about the history of PC sound cards, and it's interesting. Among the early ones, AdLib was dominant, and Creative's Game Blaster was kind of crap. Things turned around with the Sound Blaster because it was pretty much an AdLib clone plus a PCM channel and a game port.

The Atari ST was solid for computer audio it was often a midi setup with one at School(s).

This also amuses me: MIDI was such an advanced thing, you'd choose the ST just for that. But now? You can get a MIDI to USB adapter for five bucks. I got one. Never used it but got one anyway.

[Big Boss Man]

I was talking about in the early 90s for the ST. Think they had an early version of Cubase too. For a schools budget they were probably ideal back in the day. Most PCs here with a Midi setup would be in the thousands in the 90s. I have a MIDI to USB cable you can if I'm correct use them on any old device that has Midi output. Now you'd probably have an Apple with Logic Pro and make professional sounding records. But back then playing back any synthesised sound through a computer was like "wow" and being able to do basic multi tracking. Plus record audio samples. Speaking of which the Fairlight was real impressive tech back in the day

[Big Boss Man]

Found this about the history of computer music

https://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/a- ... sic-177299

Mentions the SID chip and Atari ST

A bit more detailed

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/audio.his ... eline.html