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Mar 16, 2001, 06:34 PM

Anyone planning on picking up this card?
With the FPS2000 speaker system, it totally rocks.

voodoo · Mar 17, 2001, 08:03 AM

I am very excited to get the soundblaster on my Mac. It's a very important step in gaming experience for the Mac. The WinDos users have had a serious advantage, in my opinion, the last 10 years. Of course, in the future this card will have to be in the iMac as well, just like the graphics cards (ATi 128 etc.)

Ah, just imagine Baldurs Gate 2 or Fly2 if you had a Soundblaster + speakers

cschmelz · Mar 17, 2001, 11:54 AM

Originally posted by voodoo:
I am very excited to get the soundblaster on my Mac. It's a very important step in gaming experience for the Mac. The WinDos users have had a serious advantage, in my opinion, the last 10 years. Of course, in the future this card will have to be in the iMac as well, just like the graphics cards (ATi 128 etc.)

Ah, just imagine Baldurs Gate 2 or Fly2 if you had a Soundblaster + speakers

Or unreal tournament or quake3 with the footsteps coming from behind you.... boom, boom, boom

Stinkfist · Mar 18, 2001, 02:03 AM

Until a game is patched for Open AL, the SBL won't do very much. With Open AL, the card will take over sound processing from the CPU and we should see fps increases (along with cool 3D sound!).

Any word on when this card will ship? It seems to be AWOL, after Creative Labs promised that it would ship at MWSF.

G4ME · Mar 18, 2001, 01:33 PM

There was a link a couple of weeks ago here that said that creative would push back the release to the end of 2001. At the time of MWSF it seemed that it would ship within weeks but that fell through, because they want to optimise the driver and the support for OS X. I am a little disapointed with the news but I am still going to get one for about $100.

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I Have a Super Computer

Paulos · Mar 18, 2001, 09:55 PM

"Until a game is patched for Open AL, the SBL won't do very much."

Forget where I read it but a patch to add Open AL to UT already exists. It's supposed to be released as soon as the card ships. That means it's very likely all the Unreal engine based games (Deus Ex, Rune) will be patched too. And you can bet Quake 3 will be quickly. Exciting, no?

Mar 19, 2001, 06:36 PM

The card will come bundled with a modified version of Deus Ex that includes support for the card. Other UT games (such as Rune and Unreal Tournament) will get support for it as well.

Mar 20, 2001, 06:32 PM

That rumor about the Live! shipping late this year is bogus.
It's supposed to ship by the end of March.

:-D

Cake · Mar 21, 2001, 08:29 PM

It's shipping now. Check it out here.

G4ME · Mar 21, 2001, 09:29 PM

Then why the press release saying that it would be released at the end of the year and the have it come out in a month? sounds fishy

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I Have a Super Computer

Mar 22, 2001, 10:41 AM

Whether a game is patched or not it won't take a load off of the CPU for sound. OS 9 has to be changed to do that, OS X is supposed to support it but the fix for nine was nixed for the time being according to a guy from creative who was posting and interviewed at insidemacgames. So this card will not mean any performance increase in frames until OS 9 is changed. Typical Apple, get great new technology to sell but dont make it usable.