Playing games on periodcorrect retro computer versus playing on newer/modern machine

Posted on Yesterday, 12:22

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by vetz

in Milliways

in Milliways

I recently built a new periodcorrect build for 1997, with only parts that were available in that year. That includes a Pentium II 300mhz running on a 440FX motherboard, Nvidia Riva 128, PowerVR PCX2, and a Canopus Pure3D with 6MB memory. Even the SCSI harddrive is from 1997. What I realized after …

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Re: How do I *install* SoftMPU on my retro DOS machine?

Posted on 2020-10-28, 22:50

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by vetz

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

What kind of display adapter do you got in the system? I know this might sound strange, but PCI bios settings can cause ISA cards to lockup the system or not be detected.

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Re: Glint 300SX 3D accelerator, interchangable between platforms?

Posted on 2020-10-28, 21:58

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by vetz

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Did some more testing: - Unplug daugtherboard and PC doesn't boot at all. - Unplug EEPROM and PC boots as normal I got into Windows 98 and both 0.95 and the 1997 driver installs normally. Unfortunately when using the 1997 drivers the card isn't detected as a display adapter but as a "3D accelerator …

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Re: Glint 300SX 3D accelerator, interchangable between platforms?

Posted on 2020-10-28, 20:18

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by vetz

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Try with the EPROM removed. It might actually be an option ROM and it might have MIPS code that locks up when run as x86. I'll try it out. Could also be the daughterboard. Looking more closely at the board I see the whole board is socketed into where the chip named G288A32 should be. The cables on …

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Re: Glint 300SX 3D accelerator, interchangable between platforms?

Posted on 2020-10-28, 18:16

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by vetz

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Doesn't look good getting the card to work. It makes the computer lockup after detecting the IDE drive. I've tested in two different systems now, one 440FX and one 430VX, both with AWARD bios. I've tried to disable every kind of VGA/video setting in the bios with no luck. Might get lucky with …

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Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Posted on 2020-10-28, 14:53

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by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The proper way to put it is that 3Dlabs GLiNT chip was supported by RenderMorphics! So, from what it sounds like it was for the original GLiNT - the 300SX, with the right driver. Page 16 of this magazine has a great article about the GLiNT 300SX, and mentions RenderMorphics support and shows …

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Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Posted on 2020-10-28, 12:10

by

by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'll fire up my 300SX later tonight and see what happens with that 0.95 BETA driver. If Cyberspeed isn't working then atleast can test if it works on Intel platforms (since my card is for MIPS) and the DirectDraw/Direct3D demos on the SDK.

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Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Posted on 2020-10-28, 11:38

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by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Found this within the 3D Labs 0.95 driver (from DirectX 2.0 SDK): Direct3D, Reality Lab support. The driver contains a Direct3D HAL driver in BETA form. This enables hardware acceleration of Direct3D and Reality Lab. Additionally, version 4.0 of the DirectX PDK will be required. As this is an early …

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Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Posted on 2020-10-28, 11:29

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by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I managed to dig up stuff on Archive.org https://archive.org/details/directx2sdk - Contains 3D Labs 300SX v0.95 driver https://archive.org/details/gamesdk - Game SDK - with many more drivers (unknown if 3D Labs/3D Blaster is included as they are all placed in one giant folder)

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Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Posted on 2020-10-28, 11:06

by

by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Cyberspeed being released this early I guess it must use DirectX 1.0 since 2.0 wasn't out untill June 5, 1996 and Direct X 3 on September 15h 1996 Source: (http://craig.theeislers.com/2006/02/20/directx-then-and-now-part-1/) I came across a post on Google Groups from jan 96 with a user asking for …

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Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Posted on 2020-10-28, 10:15

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by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice work furan! I looked through the timestamps in the Cyberspeed demo, they are from 26th of October 1995. That is roughly when the 3D Blaster VLB was released to the public. Did you check the original 1.0 driver shipped with the card? http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=824&menustate=0 …

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Re: Rendition Verite Thread

Posted on 2020-10-27, 15:40

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by vetz

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I kind of like that the vQuake stays faithful to the original look of the game. GLQuake is quite different, and its visuals may not be to everyone's liking. On that note, I recently found this Tomb Raider: Verite vs. Voodoo comparison video. The lighting and colors look much more vibrant on the …

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Re: Open-air testbench that fits AT motherboards

Posted on 2020-10-27, 11:30

by

by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

so you probably won't accept metal monitor stand with self-drilled holes and spacers either I assume? ^^ If its doable to drill them yourself that could work, but best would be a flexible platform that can accept different sizes of motherboards. Been looking at https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ …

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Re: Open-air testbench that fits AT motherboards

Posted on 2020-10-27, 11:19

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by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Doornkaat wrote on 2020-10-27, 11:18: You won't accept 'pizzabox' as an answer I assume? 😉 Hehe, nope, something more professional please

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Open-air testbench that fits AT motherboards

Posted on 2020-10-27, 10:45

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by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I've been looking into buying a proper openair testbench. Do anyone know if any model will fit AT motherboards as well as ATX?

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Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Posted on 2020-10-27, 09:30

by

by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Furan, any good tips to make sure that Cyberspeed is actually getting accelerated? Many games default to softwarerender if the acceleration is not working/detected and it can be very hard or almost impossible to visually tell software render apart from any acceleration on the 3D Blaster. You also …

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Re: Glint 300SX 3D accelerator, interchangable between platforms?

Posted on 2020-10-26, 10:41

by

by vetz

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Edit: I missed that you had seen the generic ones. It's likely that these will work with your card. Still curious about those PCI IDs and what's in the option ROM. Yes, those were the ones I found, but thanks for linking them in this thread :) I'll see if I can dump the rom when I get around to …

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Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Posted on 2020-10-26, 10:33

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by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I looked back into my notes and I thought I had tested Cyberspeed on 3D Blaster VLB, but I think it didnt happen. Its a Windows 95 game and I had trouble getting my 3D Blaster working in Win95. This has to be the only Win95 game that have 3D Blaster VLB support. Also support seems to only be …

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Re: Fun with CGL (Creative Graphics Library) on 3D Blaster

Posted on 2020-10-25, 18:34

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by vetz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I nearly forgot about this: I found a "GIGI" reference in a demo for the game CyberSpeed. It might be nothing... we never proved one way or another what it was. ... but it was for Rendermorphics Reality Lab (game engine) and NOT Creative CGL. We've come across VERY little Reality Lab content so far …

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Re: Glint 300SX 3D accelerator, interchangable between platforms?

Posted on 2020-10-25, 18:30

by

by vetz

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Furan, I agree, it will probably not work as a bootable card, but according to the Nec manual it does not state where to connect the VGA cable. If its supposed to connect to the PCI-300SX/N, then it must either be bootable or support some kind of internal passthrough (as with the PowerVR cards) from …

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