The Thunderboard is a cut-down clone of the Sound Blaster 1.5 with DSP v2.00. It does not have upgrade sockets for Game Blaster chips and cannot communicate with MIDI devices at all through the joystick port. The only advantage it has over the Sound Blaster 1.5 and its successors is that it has support for audio input hardware compression at 8-bit to 4-bit. There are a few DSP commands each card recognizes that the other does not, but this does not affect compatibility unless some sneaky Creative Labs code tries to break by detecting a Thunderboard.

^Thanks for the explanation and the details! ^^

@Ozzuneoj I also really like the ThunderBoard and have got a Protac card here.
It was broken, but the hires graphics at amoretro gave enough hints to fix it:
http://www.amoretro.de/2011/06/protac-thunder … clone-opl2.html

Also, I literally grew up with the Thunderboard, since it was a part of my beloved PAS16. 😁

I recently acquired a thunderboard. It's clearly a genuine Media Vision product, but it appears to be branded "Audio Blaster Rev 1.0". The layout matched the second pic on the above "wiki" link, with two banks of blue colored DIP switches. This card has additional settings to assign a I/O port and IRQ to the MIDI interface, as well as another setting labeled "JSDEC". Anyone have any idea what JSDEC is?

Just found this Protac clone from the storage that also has CD-ROM interfaces. It has a Crystal 121 chip instead, but then again 201 is from MV.

I bought an Activision Thunderboard for my first X86 system in the early '90s, a clone 286/.16. It was glorious hearing sound out of the system instead of jest beeps 😉.

Recently got a Thunderboard myself and have tested it alongside a Sound Blaster 1.5 and an Adlib card.

In comparing noise levels of the respective outputs, the SoundBlaster 1.5 is a noisy card and too noisy to be enjoyable imho. The Adlib has comparatively much cleaner output.

In Adlib mode, the Thunderboard is similar to the real Adlib card in that respect. Relatively little background noise.

With Sound Blaster support enabled, the Thunderboard starts outputting an audible background hiss / noise.

I suppose the advantage of the Thunderboard is it can serve as an Adlib replacement that happens to have a joystick port. And while I don't think I'd want to use it for Sound Blaster duties, at least it does provide that option.

I have found my Thunderboard this year. It was my first soundcard and my first upgrade for my first computer. I did not know that there were more than one pcb layouts. Mine looks like the last picture from Shponglefan.
If I remember correctly there where only two games with the option "Thunderboard" in the setup. I think they were "Galactic Empire" and "A.G.E". But it does not matter if you choose thunderboard or soundblaster as there where no differences.
As for compatiblity the thunderboard works 99,9% whith soundblaster option. I had issues whith it on 1 or 2 games but could not remember which these were.

If anybody is interested in the manual or the disks leave a message. I do not know if the disks are readable anymore but I could try. I have the complete set (manual, all 4 disks, box and maybee there are some registration cards) as I bought it new in like 1992. Intresting side note...I have only bought it because it was way cheaper than the original soundblaster.

Wouldn't this be good for Vogons Wiki or Vogons Drivers?

There's already a diskette set available,
but maybe this one here might be having another version number..

So I think it's worth archiving.
Photos of the box art the manual are fine, too.

I mean, everyone knows Creative. But about its biggest competitior? Not so much.

Let's remember, for a while, Media Vision was something like an arch rival to Creative.
They fought in the same domain for the same customers.

Thunderbord vs SB 1.x, 2.0 (both AdLib compatibles with benefits)
PAS vs SB Pro 1.0 (both Dual OPL2)
PAS Plus vs everyone else (OPL3, Gameblaster, PAS+SB mono PCM DACs)
PAS16 vs SB Pro 2.0 (OPL3, Stereo PCM)
PAS16 vs SB16 or vice versa (later on they were each one's main rival in terms of functionality)

Sure, sure the Gravis Ultrasound was also there. Nice card. Awesome. The kids loved it. Grandma loved it. Amiga people loved it. Everyone loved it. 🙂
But it's on a higher level, I think. Like the SoundScape 2000, Turtle Beach Maui, EWS64XL, AWE32, MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro..

(* The list above is just a quick overview and not set in stone)

Edit: I heard the Thunderboard originally was meant as a companion card for the Pro Audio Spectrum (PAS).
Both cards can be installed in same PC.
The Thunderboard then handles the backwards-compatibility for Sound Blaster titles.

That's a bit like the old Gravis Ultrasound + Sound Blaster Pro 1.0 combo.

I share the opinion of „ worth archiving“. Year after year it‘s getting harder to find informations and drivers for old hardware.
I have already found the driver on vogons driver but did not check if it is the same like my disks.
Did not know anything about vogons wiki so I have to check that.
All I know is that the drivers on the 3.5“ and 5.25“ disks are the same. The other both disks are only demo version of games.

Any advices on archiving the stuff? I have a big Toshiba MFC on work I would use to scan the papers.
Scan black and white or color? Is 200dpi enough? Would a PDF file be fine or should it be better single pictures (JPG or whatever the MFC gives us). Of course the boxart would be scanned in color.

As for the disks I personally would prefer something like an image tool instead of just „zipping“ the content. I know these 4 disk are not bootable nor have they any kind of copy protection.
But in the future I would archive my stuff just in case of dying floppy’s or disk drives. For example my MS-DOS Disks and they should stay bootlable if I ever have to write them back to a floppy. I know „imagedisk“ which could write a bootlable floppy to an „IMG file“ but maybee someone has a better idea?

Hi

I also have the Protac clone board. I got it in a very big lot last summer and only tested it this week.

I noticed a very interesting thing. While the original Mediavision Board is said to not support midi, the clone have markings that suggest it does.

(Edited from http://www.amoretro.de/2011/06/protac-thunder … clone-opl2.html)

My card is identical and i can read :

JP7 : MIDI UART enable / disable
JP3 : MIDI base address 300H / 310H / 320H / 330H

(Also MIDI IRQ 2/3/5/7 in the bottom jumper row, not outlined in red)

I'm really tempted to dig and try to plug my SC-55 on this card...

Edit :
The original board does not includes this chip : Crystal/MV CS4121-CQ but i found no info about it
More visible in sf78's picture above in this thread : Re: MediaVision Thunderboard

Well.. The Protac Thunderboard clone supports MIDI UART mode.

Demo with SC-55

https://youtu.be/7KZV0UkcdEI?si=r68mW4slMo1pmmTw

Hello ACL . I may get the clone card as a gift and I wonder if you can post another video playing music and sound effects without external midi please?
Thanks

MarmotaArmy wrote on 2024-06-12, 15:05:

Hello ACL . I may get the clone card as a gift and I wonder if you can post another video playing music and sound effects without external midi please?
Thanks

Sure, i will post a new video (as soon as i can, the system is not assembled at the moment)
But the card should sound "normal". 8-bit digital sound + OPL2 (copy). The telephone recording will not allow a good sound comparison.

It seems like I have another variant but I do not know anything about this model. Does anyone recognize it?

PandLantis wrote on 2024-07-29, 00:38:

It seems like I have another variant but I do not know anything about this model. Does anyone recognize it?

The attachment 20240728_173735.jpg is no longer available

That looks like an IBM Options sound card AC525. I may have a clone of the AC525 as well, but don't have it to hand. Also, maxtherabbit's post from 2020 above seems to describe the same variant as yours.

If you're looking for config or comparison there's a reasonable amount of information about the AC525 online:

https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/ibm- … udio-card-ac525

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzkZyTKVmOU

JidaiGeki wrote on 2024-07-29, 08:52:

That looks like an IBM Options sound card AC525. I may have a clone of the AC525 as well, but don't have it to hand. Also, maxth […]
Show full quote

PandLantis wrote on 2024-07-29, 00:38:

It seems like I have another variant but I do not know anything about this model. Does anyone recognize it?

The attachment 20240728_173735.jpg is no longer available

That looks like an IBM Options sound card AC525. I may have a clone of the AC525 as well, but don't have it to hand. Also, maxtherabbit's post from 2020 above seems to describe the same variant as yours.

If you're looking for config or comparison there's a reasonable amount of information about the AC525 online:

https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/ibm- … udio-card-ac525

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzkZyTKVmOU

Ah! Good call! I hadn't thought of that, but I have one sealed in box just like the one in the video. That is definitely it.

JidaiGeki wrote on 2024-07-29, 08:52:

That looks like an IBM Options sound card AC525. I may have a clone of the AC525 as well, but don't have it to hand. Also, maxth […]
Show full quote

PandLantis wrote on 2024-07-29, 00:38:

It seems like I have another variant but I do not know anything about this model. Does anyone recognize it?

The attachment 20240728_173735.jpg is no longer available

That looks like an IBM Options sound card AC525. I may have a clone of the AC525 as well, but don't have it to hand. Also, maxtherabbit's post from 2020 above seems to describe the same variant as yours.

If you're looking for config or comparison there's a reasonable amount of information about the AC525 online:

https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/ibm- … udio-card-ac525

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzkZyTKVmOU

Nice!

this sneaky creative labs code was very much in the wild. jill of the jungle is probably the most well known game that was affected by this. do NOT try to tell it to use your sound blaster unless it's a real sound blaster, it WILL crash.

Sierra stuff was in general just fine with the thunderboard, and would either have a specific setup option for the the Thunderboard, or had a "soundblaster or thunderboard" option, which worked fine on thunderboards and sound blaster cards..

zaphod77 wrote on 2024-08-13, 00:18:

this sneaky creative labs code was very much in the wild. jill of the jungle is probably the most well known game that was affected by this. do NOT try to tell it to use your sound blaster unless it's a real sound blaster, it WILL crash.

Sierra stuff was in general just fine with the thunderboard, and would either have a specific setup option for the the Thunderboard, or had a "soundblaster or thunderboard" option, which worked fine on thunderboards and sound blaster cards..

The "problem" is that the Thunderboard does reveal it's true identity if the DSP version command is being issued twice in a row, I believe.
That same feature that allows the Thunderboard to be detected by its own software can be used as a disadvantage.
(WINE has a similar issue, I believe. There's an API call to determine WINE version, which can be used by applications to refuse working on WINE.)