ok -- so this has come up many times ever since the adlib format was first introduced like 15 years ago... the only adlib that had opl3 was the adlib gold which isn't what old nerds think of when they think adlib -- NAY! -- opl3 is the SoundBlaster wow get with it!

I'd like to propose a new solution!

Change all old AdLib format entries to a DOS FM format (another new format). This would clear the slate for AdLib. Going forward AdLib will only be OPL2. For the rest of it we can either create an OPL3 or` Sound Blaster 16` format. All past battles with the `adlib` format would also be updated.

This is the most elegant solution I can come up with in my own mind so I hope its good enough. Unless someone comes with a good reason not to do this I will go ahead with it somewhen in the near future.

so, will vgm format be accepted, as openmpt can export it?

Depends on what you are exporting, as openmpt has both opl2 and opl3 capability. If you're going via the mptm route originally then that would be opl3, if your target module was s3m then it'll be opl2

Imagine visiting the page for "Adlib Techno" and not seeing any adlib entries :O

im in favour of splitting adlib into an opl2 centric format and an opl3 centric format, although perhaps the better move is to introduce an adlib classic format or something that only allows opl2, and repurpose the current adlib format into something that allows for opl3 too, just so that old entries are still legal (unsure if that really matters though)

Might have a few growing pains for some (I think one of the things that really didn't help this situation was that as far as I can tell, "Adlib Tracker 2" is very decidedly not for a plain Adlib card, it's OPL3 through and through), but having a dedicated Adlib format and then an OPL3-compatible format makes the most sense.

"Adlib Tracker 2" is also my first thought when hearing "adlib" these days so I like Melonade's suggestion to leave the adlib format as is (both OPL3&OPL2 accepted) and make a new "adlib classic" format for just OPL2 tracks.

Is there really a market (so to speak) for OPL2 that would justify it being its own format? I understand it's historically significant, but are people really choosing to use just OPL2 features in current year?

I would rename the current format to AdLib Gold and, if needed, add a format called OPL2 for just that. In any case I wouldn't call either format DOS FM because some later AdLib s had OPL clones with more features and the name would make those sound like a gray area.

I could be wrong, but I believe Creative SoundBlaster came out with the OPL3 first and then AdLib released their Gold version trying to keep up. I was told at least 17 years ago that I got this format wrong, but I didn't really understand at the time.

Creating a new OPL2 format would create its own "market" of users trying to get that badge or simply a recognition of its uniqueness. It doesn't make sense to me to make new formats named after the boards because they had a few variations including PCM channel(s). I don't have much Furnace experience, but my guess is it doesn't have a AdLib or Sound Blaster Pro, CT1330 option? You just stack the chips that it supports, right?

So it's my thought to archive the AdLib format, possibly rename it, and move on to focus on the two individual chips with two new formats.

I like MelonadeM's suggestion, but in that case I would much rather go through all the existing entries and figure out which they belong to. Then again, I'd have to alter all the battles that they took place in.

I feel like we're getting closer to a solution.

The Sound Blaster Pro 2 came out with the OPL3. The original Pro came with 2 OPL2s, one panned left and one panned right. The original Sound Blaster had the OPL2.

@puke you're not wrong, there's a story about how Creative bribed Yamaha to send defective OPL3 chips to AdLib corporation so that they could bring out the SoundBlaster16 first which I think is a very interesting story that is worth reading up on.

I'm not a big fan of closing/archiving formats personally, which is why I proposed the idea of current AdLib becoming OPL3 - you can still play OPL2 (and dual-OPL2 options early SoundBlaster cards offered) perfectly fine with one OPL3, but not vice versa, so I don't think you'd need to reassign any entries or battles - I'm fairly sure there's probably early NSF entries that used expansions before NSF+ was introduced, which would be a precedent set? I could be wrong on that.

I think these formats should ONLY be for OPL2/3 though, I understand some cards support extra PCM or whatever, but these are not features the OPL chipset itself supports (apart from OPL4, which I think had pretty little support in the PCDOS scene anyway, and has very few tools for it atm). Otherwise an upgraded SoundBlaster would have an OPL2 and 2 SAA chips I think, which is definitely out of scope!

Just my 2 cents regarding some of the suggestions here really :)

i like melondale's suggestion too

present Adlib format --> OPL3
new format --> OPL2

other than the name, this doesn't functionally change the old format, preserving the integrity of all the old entries and keeping it alive. the new one allows OPL2 its own space to shine. i guess i'm not opposed to archiving the old format either and going with 2 new formats, but i think either way someone's gonna wind up asking if they can do OPL2 in OPL3 😅 so why not stick with what we've got

there's also precedent for different-but-related chips at different power levels within one format -- pc-x801 offers ym2203 in addition to ym2608, but the latter is clearly substantially beefier

+1 to making the existing adlib format opl3 and making a new opl2 format

As another data point, sap/sapx2 had a similar deal where dual POKEY got split into its own format once it was agreed upon that the normal Atari configuration only calls for a single POKEY chip.

And as others have mentioned, I don't see any problem in having the existing adlib entries be listed as opl3 format regardless of whether they use OPL3 features or not, since OPL3 is backwards compatible with OPL2. I'm sure there are plenty of nsfplus entries that don't use expansion audio, and/or nsf entries that don't use DPCM. (In other words, opl3 would be a superset of opl2, just as nsfplus is a superset of nsf which is a superset of nsf_classic, which should be perfectly fine.)

I agree with the thought that current format should be the OPL3 and a new one made for OPL2 specifically.

But I also think that there could be Sound Blaster format, where you can leverage both PCM and OPL3 that pretty much every SB compatible card has. Tool support is quite limited though, very few things from back in the day even combined FM with PCM (like many MD games) as far as music goes, I can only think of one game named Earth Siege that did it.

A new OPL2-only format could be "Adlib Classic" to mirror "NSF Classic", perhaps?

@Tiido I think I found a Jim Power game on VGMRips that was like... OPL2 and PCM if you want another example. It was rare, but it definitely did happen. I do enjoy using PCM with OPL3 sometimes, but I've also got drums down pretty well in (4-op) FM

Very cool, and this game has quite a few nice tracks too ~
Perfect example of what would be "SB format"