DOS Days

Microsoft Windows Sound System (WSS)

In 1992 Microsoft developed the Windows Sound System, which was a specification for Windows 3.1 audio. It featured support for 16-bit 48 kHz digital sampling, which was better than the Sound Blaster Pro, and also analogue outputs. The first set of drivers were released in February 1993, and supported Ad Lib and Sound Blaster emulation, plus support for DOS-based games. In October of the same year, version 2.0 of the specification extended it to support OEM versions of cards from Media Vision, Creative Labs, and ESS Technology. The new DOS driver extended emulation to Sound Blaster 16, but did not have support for FM synthesis or wavetables.

From Windows 95 onwards, the drivers for WSS were built-in. For DOS there are no drivers needed for games that natively support WSS, but you will need drivers for Sound Blaster emulation in DOS. You can download these here. There are also original copies of the three Windows driver disks for WSS v1.02 here.