This is really neat: a history of PC audio, showing the audio cards and playing the corresponding version of the theme from Monkey Island.

I am somehow nostalgic for the time when you had to compose the music specifically for the hardware. But only a little: can someone suggest a way to compose specifically for contemporary computer audio hardware? There must be some way to get past its “universal” ability to reproduce sound and find its specific weirdnesses. (This might also help augment this history that stops in the mid-90s once “CD quality audio” arrives, as if the history has been nothing but an increase in fidelity and CD quality represents a reasonable endpoint.)

(via Retro Thing)