5 ms·

Sim Wong Hoo has died

64 points by DrNosferatu 4y ago

DrNosferatu 4y ago
After Sim established Creative Technology as a computer repair shop back in 1981, the company has then developed a series of PCs called Cubic between 1984 to 1986. However, things only picked up a few years later with the introduction of the Sound Blaster sound card in 1989.
zzz345345 4y ago
Sound Blaster, such a legendary group of products that he created.
LinuxBender 4y ago
I had a Sound Blaster in my 386/40. No issues whatsoever, it worked great. Too many good people passing these days at what I perceive to be too young.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
christkv 4y ago
I had the Sound Blaster 1.0 that included the Game Blaster sound chips aswell. Such a great first card even with the hiss and crackle from buggy digital audio channel.
sbarre 4y ago
Previous thread here from earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34254766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34254766
kevinventullo 4y ago
Dr. Sbaitso was the original ChatGPT. Does anyone know whether Sim Wong Hoo was directly involved with that particular software?
- chime 4y ago
  Oh the nostalgia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV3pYZZ2jEw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV3pYZZ2jEw
- DrNosferatu 4y ago
  When I first tried ChatGPT, I immediately thought of having the answers voiced by Dr. Sbaitso - anyone made a mod for that yet?
amalgamated_inc 4y ago
Ah, I fondly remember the days where you could have your games run with SoundBlaster if you were one of the chosen ones, or the meek PC speaker.
gdubs 4y ago
I remember the early days of having a PC when something like a Sound Blaster card was such a massive upgrade. I want to say it was Civilization that I played after getting a proper sound card and it was such an exciting and entirely different experience. Though, to be honest – that may have actually been an Altec card. Sound Blaster was the gold standard at the time.
TheOtherHobbes 4y ago
One of his products stars in this immortal demo video. RIP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73kd6wsBq0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73kd6wsBq0
800xl 4y ago
Godspeed. I remember putting a $50 8 bit Sound Blaster in my 386 when I was 12. Suddenly games had music and I could even play and record wav files. It connected to my CD-ROM so I could pipe CDs to the speakers. Easily my favorite computer upgrade of all time.
SeanLuke 4y ago
Already posted and discussed heavily here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34254766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34254766
noipv4 4y ago
Unfortunately the company helped kill Aureal 3D tech and hence their 3d sound positioning competitor.
- rasz 4y ago
  Lets not forget threatening Carmack over bullshit stencil shadows patent and forcing EAX into Doom3.
- D13Fd 4y ago
  Came here to say this. I’m sorry to see that he passed away, for sure. But it’s weird to see people treat Creative as if it were a good company.
andrewstuart 4y ago
67 is very young. That older I get the more I am aware of what constitutes a young age to die versus an old age. Anything below 75 I wonder what the cause of death is, if they were a smoker, did they have cancer or take their own life.
- yieldcrv 4y ago
  Tech savants die pretty young We should look further into that and be aware of our lifestyle choices in between time
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
zactato 4y ago
I hope his eulogy is read by Dr Sbaitso
Octokiddie 4y ago
> There was a time when you have to install a dedicated sound card in order to have audio coming out from your PC. You have a number of options but there was one particular name that dominated the scene for so many years and that name is Sound Blaster, for which you have Sim Wong Hoo to thank. Not only that, but doing so put you on an upgrade path. There were so many models released over the years. Just a tad like graphics cards today. And it was an ordeal to get Linux working with them. Every. Single. Time. Hearing that test sound: "Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux as Linux" was grounds for a major celebration. Kind of shocking to recall that there was a time when you had to plunk one of these cards into a computer before you could hear much of anything useful.
- lmm 4y ago
  > Not only that, but doing so put you on an upgrade path. There were so many models released over the years. Just a tad like graphics cards today. It was rather frustrating when I bought a new Sound Blaster only to discover it was not Sound Blaster compatible, and therefore I couldn't use it with (the original DOS) Civilization.
cyberferret 4y ago
SET BLASTER=RIP SIM WONG 1955 2023
thedougd 4y ago
I had a PS/2 Model 80 and I was desperate to have a sound card. Somehow, through a work bulletin board, my father scored me a very rare Sound Blaster Microchannel Architecture (MCA) card. If I recall, I paid $150 for it. My friends and I would gather around to play with the text to speech utility that came with it. I can still imagine, "Dr. Sbaitso by Creative Labs" in the robo voice. They dominated until the DSP based combined sound card / soft modems took over, and then of course sound cards were eventually integrated in motherboard chipsets.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

64 points by DrNosferatu 4y ago

After Sim established Creative Technology as a computer repair shop back in 1981, the company has then developed a series of PCs called Cubic between 1984 to 1986. However, things only picked up a few years later with the introduction of the Sound Blaster sound card in 1989.

zzz345345 4y ago

Sound Blaster, such a legendary group of products that he created.

LinuxBender 4y ago

I had a Sound Blaster in my 386/40. No issues whatsoever, it worked great. Too many good people passing these days at what I perceive to be too young.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

christkv 4y ago

I had the Sound Blaster 1.0 that included the Game Blaster sound chips aswell. Such a great first card even with the hiss and crackle from buggy digital audio channel.

sbarre 4y ago

Previous thread here from earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34254766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34254766

kevinventullo 4y ago

Dr. Sbaitso was the original ChatGPT. Does anyone know whether Sim Wong Hoo was directly involved with that particular software?

chime 4y ago
Oh the nostalgia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV3pYZZ2jEw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV3pYZZ2jEw
DrNosferatu 4y ago
When I first tried ChatGPT, I immediately thought of having the answers voiced by Dr. Sbaitso - anyone made a mod for that yet?

amalgamated_inc 4y ago

Ah, I fondly remember the days where you could have your games run with SoundBlaster if you were one of the chosen ones, or the meek PC speaker.

gdubs 4y ago

I remember the early days of having a PC when something like a Sound Blaster card was such a massive upgrade. I want to say it was Civilization that I played after getting a proper sound card and it was such an exciting and entirely different experience. Though, to be honest – that may have actually been an Altec card. Sound Blaster was the gold standard at the time.

TheOtherHobbes 4y ago

One of his products stars in this immortal demo video. RIP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73kd6wsBq0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73kd6wsBq0

800xl 4y ago

Godspeed. I remember putting a $50 8 bit Sound Blaster in my 386 when I was 12. Suddenly games had music and I could even play and record wav files. It connected to my CD-ROM so I could pipe CDs to the speakers. Easily my favorite computer upgrade of all time.

SeanLuke 4y ago

Already posted and discussed heavily here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34254766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34254766

noipv4 4y ago

Unfortunately the company helped kill Aureal 3D tech and hence their 3d sound positioning competitor.

rasz 4y ago
Lets not forget threatening Carmack over bullshit stencil shadows patent and forcing EAX into Doom3.
D13Fd 4y ago
Came here to say this. I’m sorry to see that he passed away, for sure. But it’s weird to see people treat Creative as if it were a good company.

andrewstuart 4y ago

67 is very young. That older I get the more I am aware of what constitutes a young age to die versus an old age. Anything below 75 I wonder what the cause of death is, if they were a smoker, did they have cancer or take their own life.

yieldcrv 4y ago
Tech savants die pretty young We should look further into that and be aware of our lifestyle choices in between time
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

zactato 4y ago

I hope his eulogy is read by Dr Sbaitso

Octokiddie 4y ago

> There was a time when you have to install a dedicated sound card in order to have audio coming out from your PC. You have a number of options but there was one particular name that dominated the scene for so many years and that name is Sound Blaster, for which you have Sim Wong Hoo to thank. Not only that, but doing so put you on an upgrade path. There were so many models released over the years. Just a tad like graphics cards today. And it was an ordeal to get Linux working with them. Every. Single. Time. Hearing that test sound: "Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux as Linux" was grounds for a major celebration. Kind of shocking to recall that there was a time when you had to plunk one of these cards into a computer before you could hear much of anything useful.

lmm 4y ago
> Not only that, but doing so put you on an upgrade path. There were so many models released over the years. Just a tad like graphics cards today. It was rather frustrating when I bought a new Sound Blaster only to discover it was not Sound Blaster compatible, and therefore I couldn't use it with (the original DOS) Civilization.

cyberferret 4y ago

SET BLASTER=RIP SIM WONG 1955 2023

thedougd 4y ago

I had a PS/2 Model 80 and I was desperate to have a sound card. Somehow, through a work bulletin board, my father scored me a very rare Sound Blaster Microchannel Architecture (MCA) card. If I recall, I paid $150 for it. My friends and I would gather around to play with the text to speech utility that came with it. I can still imagine, "Dr. Sbaitso by Creative Labs" in the robo voice. They dominated until the DSP based combined sound card / soft modems took over, and then of course sound cards were eventually integrated in motherboard chipsets.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]