Editing Ad Lib, Inc. (section)

==History==
After development work on the AdLib Music Synthesizer Card had concluded, the company struggled to engage the [[software development]] community with their new product. As a result, Ad Lib partnered with [[Top Star Computer Services, Inc.]], a New Jersey company that provided quality assurance services to game developers. Top Star's President, Rich Heimlich, was sufficiently impressed by a [[product demonstration]] in Quebec in 1987 to endorse the product to his top customers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Porter |first1=Matt |title=Author of Sound Blaster: The Official Book talks about the early days of PC audio |url=http://www.pcgamer.com/author-of-sound-blaster-the-official-book-talks-about-the-early-days-of-pc-audio/ |website=PC Gamer |date=3 November 2015 |access-date=4 November 2015}}</ref> [[Sierra On-Line]]'s ''[[King's Quest IV]]'' became the first game to support AdLib.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.queststudios.com/quest/midi.html |title=THE HISTORY OF PC GAME MIDI |author=Eric Wing |publisher=Quest Studios |access-date=1 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904211309/http://queststudios.com/quest/midi.html |archive-date=September 4, 2014 }}</ref> The game's subsequent success helped to launch the AdLib card into mainstream media coverage. As sales of the card rose, many developers began including support for the AdLib in their programs.

The success of the AdLib Music Card soon attracted competition. Not long after its introduction, [[Creative Labs]] introduced its competing [[Sound Blaster]] card. The Sound Blaster was fully compatible with AdLib's hardware, and it also implemented two key features absent from the AdLib: a [[Pulse-code modulation|PCM]] audio channel and a [[game port]]. With additional features and better marketing, the Sound Blaster quickly overshadowed AdLib as the [[de facto standard]] in PC gaming audio. AdLib's slow response, the AdLib Gold, did not sell well enough to sustain the company.

In 1992, Ad Lib filed for bankruptcy, while the Sound Blaster family continued to dominate the PC game industry. That same year, Binnenalster GmbH from Germany acquired the assets of the company. Ad Lib was renamed AdLib Multimedia and relaunched the AdLib Gold sound card and many other products. Binnenalster sold AdLib Multimedia to [[Softworld|Softworld Taiwan]] in 1994.