Sound Processing Units
Hardware concept
Alternate names: Sound Cards, Sound Chips, Sound Hardware
This is a container group; its children are:
| Mockingboard soundcard | Game is compatible with Mockingboard soundcards (too short) | 1981 / 2022 | 27 games |
| POKEY chip | Cartridge contains a multi use chip that handles I/O for potentiometers & keyboards. But can also be used for 4 channel sound FX & music generation. | 1983 / 2007 | 9 games |
| AdLib SPU | (too short) | 1987 / 2020 | 402 games |
| Adlib Gold SPU | Supports or requires Adlib Gold sound processing unit. (too short) | 1990 / 2017 | 46 games |
| Aria Chipset SPU | Supports or requires an Aria Chipset compatible sound card. (too short) | 1993 / 1996 | 9 games |
| Sound Blaster AWE32 SPU | Supports or requires an SB AWE32 sound processing unit. (too short) | 1994 / 2004 | 58 games |
| Covox Sound Master II SPU | Supports or requires the CSM2 sound card. (too short) | 1991 / 1996 | 6 games |
| Covox Sound Master | (too short) | 1989 / 1996 | 44 games |
| Covox Speech Thing SPU | An extremely primitive & cheap dongle that plugged into a parallel port to provide 8-bit DAC digital sound output that was superior to the PC speaker. | 1988 / 1996 | 20 games |
| Covox Voice Master SPU | This is an ISA version of the Speech Thing that has similar ability but also DMA. Play back of sound stored on the card did not waste CPU bandwidth. | 1989 / 1996 | 3 games |
| Disney Sound Source | An improved and not exactly compatible clone of the Covox Speech Thing packaged with an external speaker. | 1990 / 1996 | 53 games |
| Ensoniq Soundscape SPU | Supports or requires an Ensoniq Soundscape sound processing unit. (too short) | 1994 / 1998 | 20 games |
| ESS AudioDrive SPU | Supports or requires an ESS AudioDrive sound processing unit. (too short) | 2 games | |
| General MIDI | MIDI is a hardware specification for communicating music between electronic instruments while GM specifics data standards used by the hardware. | 1989 / 2003 | 67 games |
| Gravis Ultrasound SPU | (too short) | 1993 / 2017 | 52 games |
| Intersound MDO SPU | An improved and non-compatible clone of the Covox Speech Thing. (too short) | 1989 / 1991 | 3 games |
| IBM Music Feature Card SPU | Requires or supports the IBM Music Feature Card. (too short) | 1988 / 1994 | 15 games |
| I/O Magic Tempo SPU | Supports or requires an I/O Magic Tempo PCMCIA SPU. (too short) | 1 game | |
| Roland LAPC-I | (too short) | 1989 / 1998 | 30 games |
| Generic LTP DAC SPU | Supports generic parallel port resistor ladder hardware. Any Covox Speech Thing, clone or like hardware (Disney Sound Source) will work to some degree | 1991 / 1992 | 5 games |
| Gravis UltraSound MAX | Supports or requires the Gravis UltraSound MAX sound card. (too short) | 1996 / 2004 | 5 games |
| MPU-401 adapter | Supports MPU-401 MIDI interface directly. An MPU-401 translate signals to and from MIDI ports for legacy computer systems. | 1989 / 1998 | 28 games |
| Roland MT-32 SPU | (too short) | 1988 / 2011 | 305 games |
| Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum | A terrific sound card with many IBM/PC games supporting it. Disappeared due to a securities fraud investigation | 1989 / 1998 | 91 games |
| Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 | A 16-bit version of the Pro Audio Spectrum. Disappeared due to a securities fraud investigation (too short) | 1991 / 1996 | 20 games |
| Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum Plus SPU | Supports of requires this improved version of the Pro Audio Spectrum. Disappeared due to a securities fraud investigation | 1992 / 1996 | 10 games |
| PC speaker SPU | Supports PC speaker as sound processing unit. (too short) | 1979 / 2021 | 699 games |
| PS/1 Audio | IBM's answer to Tandy's sound hardware. Designed to only work on the PS/1 PC (which seems to have been designed to compete with low-cost Tandys) | 1989 / 1993 | 44 games |
| Roland RAP-10 SPU | Supports or requires an Roland RAP-10 sound card. (too short) | 1993 / 1997 | 16 games |
| Roland Sound Canvas SPU | A high-end sound module available in many models. Most are General Midi and MT-32 backwards compatible. | 1992 / 1996 | 18 games |
| Sound Blaster SPU | Supports or requires Sound Blaster (the original) or compatible sound processing unit. (too short) | 1988 / 2019 | 373 games |
| Sound Blaster 16 SPU | Supports or requires SB16 or compatible sound processing unit. (too short) | 1991 / 2017 | 108 games |
| Sound Blaster Pro SPU | Supports or requires an SB Pro sound processing unit. (too short) | 1990 / 2017 | 118 games |
| Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16 SPU | Supports or requires an I38-MMSN803 SPU. (too short) | 1993 / 1996 | 4 games |
| Tandy SPU | Uses one of on board sound systems unique to the Tandy 1000 series (IBM-PCjr compatible). Or PCjr sound. | 1982 / 2018 | 398 games |
| Tandy DAC | Late model Tandy MS-DOS compatible PCs added 8-bit Digital-to-Analog Converter hardware & protocols for HQ music & sound at 48kHz & emulation of other SPUs | 1989 / 1997 | 91 games |
| Media Vision Thunderboard | Meant to be Sound Blaster compatible it was not fully but had addition modes. (too short) | 1990 / 1996 | 29 games |
| Toptek Golden 16 SPU | Supports or requires Toptek Golden 16 SPU (too short) | 1 game | |
| WaveJammer SPU | Specifically supports the WaveJammer PCMCIA SoundBlaser clone. (too short) | 1995 / 1997 | 11 games |
| Windows Sound System SPU | Supports or requires the Windows Sound System. Notable for DOS games running under Windows that can be configured to use Windows the Sound System. | 1992 / 2017 | 26 games |