Table of contents

• Dual OPL2 games
• OPL3 games

Dual OPL2 games

Certain games can play stereo AdLib sound utilising the two OPL2 chips found on the Sound Blaster Pro 1.0 card. This is referred to as "dual OPL2 mode" where one chip is responsible for the left audio channel, and the other for the right.

Note that although the Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 and later models have an OPL3 (or compatible) chip onboard supporting stereo operation, games specifically targeting the Pro 1.0 cannot play dual OPL2 music on these later OPL3-equipped cards. Instead, the default OPL2 compatibility mode of the OPL3 is used to play the mono OPL2 soundtrack.

To enable dual OPL2 sound in supporting games, you'll need to set Sound Blaster Pro 1.0 emulation in DOSBox (sbtype = sbpro1 in the [sblaster] section), then select Sound Blaster Pro in the game's sound setup utility (in the majority of cases, these games don't refer to the card as "Pro 1.0" as they were written before "Pro 2.0" was released).

Inclusion criteria

The criteria for inclusion is that the games on the list must utilise dual OPL2 mode and produce an audibly different sound in sbpro1 mode compared to the single OPL2 (mono) operation with sb1 or sb2 modes selected. This might not always be a very noticeable stereo panning of the instruments (e.g. Ultima Underworld, Elvira I); in some case we only get a subtle stereo effect in dual OPL2 mode (e.g. Space Quest 3),

Note that some of these games might also support stereo sound on an OPL3 chip with Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 or Sound Blaster 16 emulation.

Accuracy

The list has been collected from various sources and only a small percentage of entries have been verified. Also, it most likely only lists a small fraction of all games with dual OPL2 support as this is not a well-researched subject (most people go for the General MIDI or MT-32 options these days).

In order to turn this into an accurate list, please add 🟢 after the entries where you have personally verified dual OPL2 support.

Games with dual OPL2 sound support

Game	Verified	Comments
11th Hour, The
1990 Christmas Card
Amberstar
Azrael's Tear
B-17 Flying Fortress
Battle Isle 2200
BattleTech: The Crescent Hawks' Revenge	🟢	Select "Sound Blaster" as Music Device
Blackthorne	🟢	select SBPro for music & digitized sound card
Body Blows
Castle of Dr. Brain
Cobra Mission	🟢
Command Adventures: Starship
Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood
Darklands
David Leadbetter's Greens
Death Gate
Der Clou (The Clue!)
Discworld
Dragonsphere
Dune II
Dungeon Master II: The Legend of Skullkeep	🟢
EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark	🟢
F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0
F-15 Strike Eagle III
Fleet Defender
Formula One Grand Prix
Gobliins 2
Gods
Golden Axe
Gunship 2000
Harrier Jump Jet
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Hi-Octane
Hocus Pocus
Hoyle's Official Book of Games Volume 3
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Inherit The Earth: Quest For The Orb
Jill of the Jungle	🟢	Select "Sound Blaster" as Music Device
Jones in the Fast Lane
King's Quest V
Knights of Xentar (Dragon Knight III)	🟢
Legend of Kyrandia Book 1	🟢
Leisure Suit Larry 1 VGA
Leisure Suit Larry 5
Leisure Suit Larry 6
Lord of the Rings Volume 1
Lord of the Rings Volume 2
Master of Magic
Master of Orion
Mixed-Up Mother Goose
Mixed-up Fairy Tales
Pirates! Gold
Police Quest III
Prince of Persia 2
Quest for Glory II	🟢
Quest for Glory IV
Return of the Phantom
Settlers II
Sid Meier's Civilization
Sid Meier's Colonization
Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon Deluxe	🟢
Silpheed
Space Quest 3	🟢
Space Quest I VGA
Space Quest IV
Special Forces
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Stone Age
Street Fighter II
Strike Commander
Stronghold
Summer Challenge
Supaplex
System Shock
Theme Hospital
Ultima Underworld	🟢
Ultima Underworld II
William Shatner's TekWar
Wing Commander
Winter Challenge
Witchhaven
Witchhaven II
Wolf
X-Com: UFO Defense
Xatax
Z

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OPL3 games

The Sound Blaster Pro 2.0, Sound Blaster 16 and later models have an OPL3 (or compatible) chip onboard supporting stereo operation and more advanced sound FM synthesis. Games rarely utilised these advanced OPL3 features; most simply use the default OPL2 compatibility mode of the OPL3 to play back a mono OPL2 soundtrack. This was presumably done to ensure backwards compatibility with Sound Blaster Pro 1.0 and earlier cards.

To enable OPL3 sound in supporting games, you'll need to set Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 or Sound Blaster 16 emulation in DOSBox Staging (sbtype = sbpro2 or sbtype = sb16 in the [sblaster] section), then select Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 or Sound Blaster 16 in the game's sound setup utility. In rarer cases, you might need to select some "OPL3 music" or similar option.

Note that the Windows 3.11 MIDI synthesiser also uses stereo OPL3 features—we're not listing Windows 3.x games here as all games that use MIDI music would qualify.

Game	Comments
Cybersphere
Dark Forces
Darklands
Descent
Descent 2	if CD Audio is disabled
Doom	needs DMXOPTION=-phase -opl3 env var
Doom 2	needs DMXOPTION=-phase -opl3 env var
Dune	on Adlib Gold
Dungeon Master 2
Fleet Defender
FlixMix
Gabriel Knight 1
Hexen	needs DMXOPTION=-phase -opl3 env var
King's Quest VI
Lost Vikings
Magic Carpet 2
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Settlers 2
Sid Meier's Civilization needs new sound drivers
SimCity 2000
SlipSpeed
Stonekeep
System Shock
Tetris Classic
Theme Hospital
Tie Fighter
WarCraft 2
Xatax

Sources

• VOGONS — List of DOS games with OPL3 stereo music