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Sim Wong Hoo has died

theedgesingapore.com

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Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#31

Post by virgulino »

Dalewyn wrote: post #22

Practically every computer geek/nerd of the 80s and 90s has come across and used a Sound Blaster at some point. Part of our childhoods, as the saying goes. RIP, not many get to affect quite as many people as Creative did across entire generations.

It wasn't just sound. The second generation SoundBlasters had a proprietary CD-ROM controller integrated, this was not yet standardized, it was before the IDE CD-ROM. It was the birth of the CD-ROM, and of Multimedia itself, as a product. In the early 90's we used to buy a boxed "Multimedia Kit" from Creative, with SoundBlaster, CD-ROM drive and speakers. Very popular and the best way to "add multimedia" to your computer, and enter the new world of multimedia and massive data, like encyclopedias, and CD-ROM games like Myst. I remember the excitement. https://64.media.tumblr.com/57f25b53fd58e3bad9cf1959f49a82f8...

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#32

Post by swyx »

a full year before the iPod, I remember getting the Creative Nomad Jukebox (https://www.iretron.com/blog/posts/technology-flashback-crea...) with its whopping 6GB of space and showing it off at school. it had a great display and the icons on the physical buttons were worn off from me pressing them.

more importantly as a kid from a tiny country, Mr. Sim and Creative Technologies showed promise that you could make an impact in the global tech scene and become a billionaire without being in real estate or oil or some other calcified industry. thank you and RIP.

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#33

Post by microtonal »

baybal2 wrote: post #9

One of very few Singaporean semi companies which made it. The only one I would list second to it would be Espressif, which makes ESP8266 and ESP32. I lived in Singapore as a student 2007-2009.

I thought Espressif is Chinese? Their company history seems to indicate that they were founded in Shanghai:

https://www.espressif.com/en/company/about-us/milestones

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#35

Post by lokedhs »

hendry wrote: post #28

Funny that my Dad and I bought the Creative Game blaster from a Singapore market (likely Sim Lim) and bought that back to South Africa. It was a revelation to play Sierra games sound through it. Decades later I now live in Singapore. =)

When I was a kid in Sweden back then I didn't know it was a Singapore company. Now that I have also live in Singapore, I learned quickly that it was local, as it's very well regarded here.

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#37

Post by rurban »

I've rather used the Gravis Ultrasound Max, the better variant of the simple soundblasters, which had hardware soundtables then, patchsets, and Doom support.

I've created a lot of Doom VR those times with this card. Good old cheap VR times

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#38

Post by noizejoy »

SeanLuke wrote: post #4

I will remember Creative as the company that purchased two of the greatest music synthesizer companies, E-Mu and Ensoniq, merged them, and then destroyed them.

To be fair, quite a few music synthesizer companies of that era died. Moog, Sequential, Oberheim, PPG, Synclavier, …

Re: Sim Wong Hoo has died

#39

Post by reitzensteinm »

SeanLuke wrote: post #4

I will remember Creative as the company that purchased two of the greatest music synthesizer companies, E-Mu and Ensoniq, merged them, and then destroyed them.

There was also forcing EAX into Doom 3 by threatening a patent lawsuit over Carmack's Reverse, which both Creative and John Carmack independently invented.

https://techreport.com/news/7113/creative-patents-carmacks-r...

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