Digital-to-Analog Converter

A Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) is an electronic device that converts a digital code into an analog signal. While this analog signal can be used for pretty much anything, when talking about videogame music, it refers to analog audio. DACs are used to play digital audio and they appear on all sound hardware that is able to do so. Through the years of audio hardware, many different DACs have been used with increasing levels of fidelity and abilities. The majority of arcade game features a DAC and most sound cards released for the home computer market utilize them as well.

The following hardware contains a DAC:

Release	Company	Device	Notes
1986-??-??	Covox	Voice Master	8-bit mono
198?-??-??	Covox	Voice Master	8-bit mono
1988-??-??	Tandy	Tandy DAC	8-bit mono, up to 48 kHz
1989-??-??	Creative	Sound Blaster	8-bit mono
1989-??-??	Covox	Sound Master	8-bit mono
1990-??-??	Creative	Sound Blaster 1.5	?
1990-??-??	Media Vision	Thunder Board	8-bit mono, 22 kHz
1991-??-??	Disney	The Sound Source	8-bit mono, 7 kHz
1991-10-??	Creative	Sound Blaster 2.0	?
1991-??-??	Covox	Sound Master Plus	8-bit mono
199?-??-??	Creative	Sound Blaster MCV	?
1991-??-??	Creative	Sound Blaster Pro	?
1991-??-??	Media Vision	Pro AudioSpectrum	?
199?-??-??	Covox	Sound Master II	8-bit mono
1992-05-??	Media Vision	Pro AudioSpectrum 16	?
1992-06-??	Creative	Sound Blaster 16	16-bit stereo
1992-10-??	Gravis	UltraSound	?
1992-??-??	Ad Lib	AdLib Gold 1000	12-bit stereo
199?-??-??	Media Vision	Pro AudioSpectrum 16 Basic
199?-??-??	Media Vision	Pro AudioSpectrum 16 Studio	?
199?-??-??	Logitech	SoundMan Games	?
199?-??-??	Ensoniq	Soundscape	?
1994-??-??	Logitech	SoundMan 16	?

This list is meant to be in chronological order, but many release dates are missing.