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This message was posted to comp.sys.laptops recently:

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Subject: Z-player's DOS sound WORKS! REVIEW!
Date: Sat, 06 Apr 1996 02:21:00 GMT
From: jonathan@portal.ca (Jonathan T)
Reply-To: jonathan@pop3.portal.ca
Organization: Client of Intenet Portal Services
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops

The following is a review of the Z-player in Windows 95, Windows 3.1,
and DOS.

Window's 95 review:

With the hype that had begun so many months ago about this so called
*great* operating system, I must admit I am dismayed by the lack of
commitment some companies have for producing *fully working* drivers
and utilities for their products. Zenith Z-player is not an exception
to this. While the player works admirabally well in Windows 95
programs, its' dos support has something to be desired. After trying
over 30 different dos games/programs in Windows I have come to the
conclusion that DOS games will not work with sound, whether it be FM,
Windows Sound System, or even ESS 688 audrive compatible. That's the
bad news. The good news is that there is *potential* for dos games to
work properly with adlib/FM sound as you shall read on about.

Window's 3.x review:

To satisfy my curiousity I decided to re-install Win 3.x on my system
(and the drivers supplied with the unit) and see if I would have any
better luck working with Dos games and sound in a dos prompt. The
result.... IT WORKS! IT ACTUALLY WORKS!!! Well, mind you I couldn't
get SB support working, but as far as ADLIB and FM sound is concerned,
this baby flies. I tried all my old programs including such favorites
as king's quest 3, 4, 5 .. Space Quest 3, 4, Heretic, Doom, and
Descent. All work...

DOS Review:

As far as I can tell if you are in standard DOS (not in a dos prompt
in Windows) sound will not work. The windows drivers MUST be loaded. I
found this slightly disappointing, but I was still very ethusatic
about getting sound out of windows so I didn't mind too much.

The CDROM support in all three operating systems works flawlessly. My
suggestion to those who want DOS games to work, is to have a second
copy of Windows 3.x loaded on their system at all times. If you go to
the trouble of making a multi-boot config on your system this will
make things run even more smootly. Anyways, that's all the review I
can give at the moment. If you have any comments, leave me a message.

Oh yah. A word to the person who sold me this wonderful system. Thanks
Microsmart, or more directly, Kurt. The unit works great, and is a
very nice addition to any notebook, at an even better price. Get one
while you still can everyone.

Siegfried

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