Creative Sim founder Wong Hooa historic and well-known brand among gamers and long-standing PC users in general, who have owned a system with a dedicated Sound Blaster sound card, is died at the age of 67 last January 4, 2023. The sad news was spread by a company press release. The house deals in audio products such as professional or high-end gaming sound cards, headphones, webcams and PC speakers, including 2.0, 2.1 sound systems and soundbars.
However, 20 years ago, Creative was better known for its products Sound Blasters that equipped the systems of the time, not always equipped with an integrated sound card as is the case today. Featuring great sound and a high sampling rate, along with the ability to connect headphones and more complex audio systems, the Sound Blaster range was very popular with users at the time, managing to achieve a total of 400 million units sold in 2019the year in which it celebrated its 30th anniversary.
The most nostalgic will surely remember the first games to start supporting Sound Blasterswith which it was for example possible to listen to much more detailed audio on titles such as Wolfenstein 3D by id Software or Halloween Harry by 3D Realms, then known as Apogee Software. Creative also made it available Dr. Sbaitso: a nice demo with which it was possible to play with speech synthesis. With the debut of first MP3 players in 2000the company was also renowned for products such as Creative Nomads and Zenalso successfully winning a lawsuit against Apple for its iPods, obtaining the payment of 100 million dollars for the license to use proprietary technologies by Cupertino.
However, Creative did not start its history with audio products, but with its first line of Cubic series computers, including the Cubic99: one of the first computers able to “speak” thanks to the presence of a vocal synthesizer. Sales were anything but good, at least until with Cubic CT, exhibited at an exhibition in the United States, specific multimedia functions were introduced, also designed for music. Since then the company managed to find the its size on the market, enjoying sales success with the first sound cards. The first model was called Creative Music System and was born before interest shifted towards the video game industry, which would later represent the largest audience.
Later Creative made the first one Game Blasters, also advertised by software houses such as Sierra Entertainment, which in 1987 created the first MIDI soundtrack playable in real time on a sound card for its King’s Quest IV. In 1989 the sound cards of the Singaporean company adopted the Sound Blaster designationwhich we all know today. Although in the early 2000s motherboards began to be equipped with integrated audio, the company continued to be renowned for the series Audigy, Audigy 2; in recent years the company is no longer as famous as it used to be, but continues to be present on the market with products such as Sound Blaster XKatana-series soundbars, and devices like webcams and headsets.
