SSI Gold Box Sound - Music and Sound Effects

[Great Hierophant]

The SSI Gold Box using rules licensed from AD&D is recognized as a classic for its gameplay, but not its sound.  That being said, I would like to share a few interesting observations I have made about the music and sound of these PC versions of these games :

Pool of Radiance - No music, sound effects with PC Speaker or Tandy 3-voice sound.  An opening tune was heard on the C64 version.  

Curse of the Azure Bonds - Music and sound effects with PC Speaker or Tandy 3-voice sound.  The same opening tune is used for both Pool and Curse, but you can finally hear it if you let Curse go through the opening graphics and credits without pressing a button.

Hillsfar - Supports Tandy graphics but not Tandy sound.  (Not a canonical Gold Box title to some people, but...)

Secret of the Silver Blades - Adds Adlib support for music, but sound effects through the PC Speaker if this option is chosen.  Tandy 3-voice will support both music and sound effects.  

Champions of Krynn & Death Knights of Krynn - Support Adlib and C/MS (Game Blaster) for Music in addition to PC Speaker or Tandy.  Champions of Krynn also supports MT-32 music, but its sequel, Death Knights of Krynn, does not.  More weirdly, Champions C/MS support will work with a Sound Blaster with a Game Blaster chip upgrade, whereas Death Knights will only work with a real C/MS board.  In my Tandy 1000SX, selecting C/MS with a Sound Blaster 1.5 with Game Blaster chips will give Adlib music, and if the Adlib chips are removed, then Tandy music will be heard.  Sound effects will be with the PC Speaker for all options except Tandy.  

Pools of Darkness, Gateway to the Savage Frontier & Treasures of the Savage Frontier - Supports Sound Blaster and Tandy DAC for digitized sound effects.  PC sound effects are much improved over the previous games.  

Dark Queen of Krynn - Return of the MT-32 for music, can be paired with PC Speaker or Sound Blaster effects.  

[pianoman72]

GH, thank you for this specific rundown on the SSI sound options.

I have been puzzled for some time myself, about the inconsistencies of the sound methods used in these titles, especially with using the CM/S option in Death Knights of Krynn, versus the one in Champions of Krynn.  Now I know why it reverts to Adlib, since I do not happen to have a real CM/S card.

[BlueMax]

Is there a notable difference in sound effects through Tandy vs. PC squeaker?

[Great Hierophant]

Some, but the difference is not extraordinary. 

[Ari]

I once recorded and converted to GM the theme of Champions of Krynn. It's a really nice and long piece, if anyone's interested...

[Great Hierophant]

The first two games in the Krynn series are the only games that support the Game Blaster.  Although it is said on the box, I have yet to find a version of Secret of the Silver Blades that supports the Game Blaster.  I have tried v1.1 (from floppy) and v1.3 (from Gold Box Collection CD) and neither prompt you to select the GB.

Also, Curse v1.1 (from floppy), will play the C64 musical piece.  Curse v1.3 (from CD) will not, it will just give a sound effect when the Forgotten Realms logo appears on the title screen.  I note that regardless of system speed, the program will proceed to the demo before the musical piece is supposed to end.  Perhaps they removed it to avoid having to fiddle with the timing of the initial screens for the music to finish itself. 

[Great Hierophant]

I have new information, which I received from our very own Cloudschatze.  Pool of Radiance for the IBM PC actually will play the music heard on the Commodore 64 version during the game's short intro.  However, only version 1.0 is known to do this.  I was using version 1.2 when I made my original post, and that version does not play music.  The music also plays when a battle starts.  Interestingly, version 1.0 of PoR & CotAB have a black and dark gray background on the battle screen, respectively.  Version 1.3 of those games and later Gold Box games the color is light gray.