Orchid GameWave 32 & GameWave 32 Plus
The Orchid GameWave 32 was a 16-bit ISA sound card for the PC, arriving in January 1994, as a cut-down version of the SoundWave 32.
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Released | January 1994 |
| Interface | ISA 16-bit | |
| FM Synthesizer | Analog Devices Echo ESC614 (OPL3 emulation) | |
| DSP | Analog Devices ADSP2115 | |
| Ports | 3.5mm jacks for speaker out and line out Volume thumbwheel Game/MIDI port |
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| CD-ROM | Sony and Mitsumi | |
| Wavetable | Onboard 512 KB or 1 MB | |
| Plug & Play | No | |
| Part # | 835-0138-1/A | |
| FCC ID | DDS7EF0893-93-GMA | |
| Price | At launch: $169 (list price), $110 (street price) Sep 1994: $115 Mar 1995: $99 |
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| See Also | Orchid SoundWave 32 |
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The GameWave 32 supported Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, General MIDI, Roland MPU-401 interface and Roland MT-32 sound standards.
GameWave 32 had either 512 KB or 1 MB ROM for samples onboard. These samples, known as "Prosonus", are compressed, so it is likely with the 512 KB ROM version you get 1 MB of compressed samples, and with the 1MB ROM version you get 2 MB of compressed samples. ROMs could be optionally upgraded to the 2 MB InVision ones (see SoundWave32 with InVision further down for details). These came with over 200 recorded instrument samples.
The card had an onboard DSP (Digital Signal Processor) that was apparently capable of 20 MIPS.
It came with both Sony and Mitsumi CD-ROM drive interfaces.
Compared to its more expensive big brother, SoundWave 32, the GameWave 32 lacked the Analog Devices AD1848KP
Rich Heimlich said this of the GameWave: "A less expensive and less impressive version of the SoundWave 32. In this case, that's not a very good thing.". It scored 2 out of 10 for digital quality and 1 out of 10 for music quality.
The GameWave 32 Plus was identical to GameWave 32, but shipped with the InVision ROMs, which were an optional extra for the original SoundWave 32 card. InVision Interactive were based in Palo Alto, CA., and were well-known in the musical instrument industry for providing the highest quality CD-ROM samples for professional music sampling platforms. Among other things, InVision also designed a library of sounds specifically for the ESS ES689 wavetable.
Board Revisions
I have no information on the various board revisions of the Orchid GameWave 32.
Competition
In the Media
Orchid also skimps on the software, providing only DOS and Windows control panels. The one bright spot: an excellent 4-year warranty. The GameWave has Sony and Mitsumi CD-ROM drive interfaces."
Electronic Entertainment, 1994-1995
Setting it Up
The GameWave 32's settings are configured via jumpers on the centre-bottom of the card. Pin 1 on each jumper is the one closest to the ISA bus edge connector:
| Jumper | Purpose | Available Settings |
| J3 | I/O Base Address | 1-2 = 240h, 2-3 = 220h (default) |
| J4 | DMA Channel | left = 1, middle = 2, right = 3 |
| J12 | ROM size installed | 1-2 (1 MB), 2-3 (512 KB) |
Downloads
Operation Manual The original User Manual for the GameWave 32. |
Operation Manual The original User Manual for the GameWave 32 Plus. |
Original Utility Disk Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
