Bank Street Music Writer Card

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Bank Street Music Writer card
NoPhoto.png
Developer: Mindscape
Released: 1985-??-?? c.
Type: Sound Card
Slot: Unknown
Platforms: Platform - DOS.png

The Bank Street Music Writer Card is a sound card developed for IBM PCs, and bundled with Bank Street Music Writer (DOS) for $150. Advertisers referred to it as a PC Mockingboard, although it didn't appear to be related to the device from Sweet Micro Systems. It is one of the rarest sound cards from this era with only one known working device in existence. Some info about this card from the owner, Jim Leonard:

If you actually own one of these you can consider yourself one of the luckiest people alive. There is only one of these left in the world documented by the vintage soundcard hobbyist community to still exist (owned by me) - if you have one, drop me a line! The Bank Street Music Writer card for PCs was bundled with Bank Street Music Writer for DOS; if you never bought that program, you probably don't own one. If you do, however, you'll find it is essentially a "PC Mockingboard" built around a GI AY-3-8913, which itself is a smaller pincount version of the AY-3-8910. It also supported Tandy chip in a limited capacity.

Games

Since the card failed to enter the market, there don't appear to be any games with support for it, and the only software to support it is the software it was bundled with Bank Street Music Writer (DOS). A later tracker written decades, Monotone (DOS), later was about to include the support it, but as of now it doesn't have such an option.

Emulation Status

Although no software emulates the Bank Street Music Writer, the sound chip it uses, the AY-3-8913, has been fully emulated in numerous open source software programs. You can also have limited success in DOSBox by configuring it to use Tandy 3 Voice audio.

Links