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For real DIY audio on PC, try the covox. It's a resistor based "dac" for the paralell port that we used to build as kids too before we could afford a proper sound card.

You could also buy a commercial version if you didn't want to solder [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covox_Speech_Thing



Now, where these days would you get a parallel port to plug it into?


$23 on newegg: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681515...


I seem to recall that the USB ones don't work for this kind of thing. From my teenage memories, you could bit-twiddle by writing to a memory address. I presume the USB ones use a UART that doesn't allow direct memory access, or precise timing, or something.

The one linked in the parent is a PCI card, so this might not apply.


I still have a few computers from the 90s.

One of them is running openbsd and I think it might be fun to write a driver for it actually. I see OpenMSX also support covox.


even lots of modern motherboards still have serial and parallel port headers.




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