Appendix E — Program Disks (as shipped)

The Ad Lib Gold Program Disks, version 1.00 (1992) are the end-user software that shipped with the card. This appendix preserves them exactly as distributed: the authentic 720 KB floppy images, every file byte-for-byte in its original DOS (CP437 / CRLF) form, and a UTF-8 rendering of each text file.

The expanded result of running the installer is documented separately in Appendix F — Software (as installed); the compression format of the GOLD*.CMP archive is reverse-engineered in Appendix H — the "Ad Lib Comp." format.

Release timeline

The Ad Lib Gold software was released across 1992–93 — all preserved in this archive. The dates below are the newest confirmed file timestamp in each release's own files (FAT directory entries, or archive metadata for the Windows drivers) — the most reliable evidence of when each master was cut. Because the lineages are versioned independently (the SDK Developer Toolkit, the retail Program Disks, and the Windows driver package), the version numbers do not track the dates:

^{Dating basis — the newest genuine file in each set, excluding two 1994-03-30 archival re-master stamps and disk-ripper tags. Evidence: Beta SETUP.EXE 2 Apr, payload GOLD.CMP 9 Apr 1992 (its README is dated 31 Mar 1992); Developer Toolkit files 30 Mar – 2 Apr 1992 — the SDTK.DOC "Thu, Jul 8 1993" page footer is a Microsoft Word auto-date field, not the authoring date; Program Disks core install GOLD1/2/3.CMP 30 Sep – 1 Oct 1992, but this archived master is a later composite re-cut that also bundles the 1993 GSS Windows drivers (GSS.DRV 10 Mar 1993, byte-identical to v1.2) and a 14 Nov 1993 G2S.EXE; Windows v0.9 to 27 Oct 1992, v0.9b to 4 Dec 1992, v1.2 binaries Mar 1993 / README 13 Jul 1993. The "Ad Lib Comp." container stores only a name and compressed size per file — no timestamps — so the compressed payloads add no further dates.}

Provenance & integrity

The three images are the authentic v1.00 release preserved by the Internet Archive (adlib-gold-bundle), cross-checked against the VGMPF copy. Each is a genuine 720 KB double-density floppy. Before inclusion every image was:

• boot-sector verified — a benign, stock loader; the OEM signature is ALF 3.0 ("Copyright 1987 ALF Products Inc."), the disk-duplication hardware Ad Lib used to master retail floppies. No boot-sector virus code is present (the legitimate "Non-System disk" loader occupies the standard offset, and no known signature — Stoned/Form/Michelangelo/… — appears).
• malware-scanned — Microsoft Defender reported no threats.

Disk images (mountable in DOSBox / any emulator):

Disk 1 — installer & control driver

Disk 2 — archive part 2, Sound Blaster emulator, Windows MIDI

Disk 3 — archive part 3, Windows 3.1 drivers

GOLD1.CMP + GOLD2.CMP + GOLD3.CMP together form one spanned "Ad Lib Comp." archive — a proprietary LZ+Huffman container expanded by SETUPGLD. Its format and the recovery of its 133-file payload are documented in Appendix H; the payload itself is browsable in Appendix F.

Windows 3.1 Mixer & Drivers

The Windows drivers shipped separately from the DOS software (via the Ad Lib BBS) and went through three revisions — the newest of which, v1.2 (July 1993), is the last dated Ad Lib Gold artifact of any kind. The early releases used a single combined driver (SFGOLD.DRV + VGOLD.386); by v1.2 this had been split and renamed into two GSS drivers. The Windows mixer applet MIXERGLD.EXE is unchanged across all three. All are preserved here and malware-scanned clean.

v1.2 (July 1993) — the latest

Two Windows drivers (the Yamaha GSS MIDI Synth and the GSS Wave/MIDI/Aux driver), the mixer applet, and a MIDI-mapper configuration. These driver binaries are byte-identical to the WINDRV set on Program Disk 3, so v1.2 is essentially a re-release with updated documentation.

Earlier releases (pre-GSS architecture)

Two pre-release Windows driver disks survive, using the older combined SFGOLD.DRV + VGOLD.386 design:

Browse the raw files: v0.9 · v0.9b · v1.2.