Re: Is Vista now Retro

Posted on 2017-05-25, 11:47

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Windows 7 was no better, but nobody complained about that. And even today, as we see in this thread for example, people complain about Vista for being resource-hungry, but Windows 7 gets a free pass Windows 7 did bring some optimizations for increased UI responsiveness. At least Microsoft talked at …

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Re: Windows 98 PCMCIA WPA2 Drivers

Posted on 2017-05-24, 18:31

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

OK, I tried the SMCWCB-G on my A31p running WinME, and so far had no luck enabling WPA2. There are WPA/TKIP options in the software, but no WPA2 or AES. I tried two versions of the software: 2.2.1.6 and 3.1.3.121 and two different drivers - one that appears to be an (older) SMC branded driver, and …

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Re: Anyone find early 2.5 shooters had more charm than early 3D shooters?

Posted on 2017-05-24, 17:12

by

by dr_st

in Milliways

in Milliways

i like that BUILD by Ken Silverman, its allow creation of Levels that would be impossible with a pure 3D geometric system, such as moebius like spiral level, where you seemingly can move spirally downward infinitely but only to realize the place you arrive to is a place you have already visited. A …

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Re: Which XP?

Posted on 2017-05-24, 04:12

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

If you want to install XP I suggest XP vanilla. Later you can add SP1 to defeat 128GB hard drive barrier. SP2 is recommended since most software and hardware require it to install or drivers to function. SP3 is basically a security update which is outdated now. SP4 exists but I haven't tested. So …

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Re: Anyone find early 2.5 shooters had more charm than early 3D shooters?

Posted on 2017-05-23, 05:03

by

by dr_st

in Milliways

in Milliways

I actually find Quake quite nice and atmospheric. Although DOOM still wins. Quake II, on the other hand, I found rather dull and monotonous. The games based on the Build engine (Duke3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood) excelled in making rich, colorful environments that look like real locations. This was very …

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Re: Is Vista now Retro

Posted on 2017-05-22, 13:51

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Well, Firefox/Chrome are not web technology. They are actual software. The reason Chrome stopped supporting Vista is because Google is a huge corporation and does not want to waste resources on validating their software for anything that has a negligible market share. The reason Firefox stopped …

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Re: Is Vista now Retro

Posted on 2017-05-22, 13:14

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Yea, but in the spirit of retrocomputing (seems appropriate for this forum)... try installing Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 10 on the same system (something Core2 Duo or newer would be fine). Then form new opinions. You'll probably find that Vista runs about as well for everyday tasks as the newer …

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Re: Is Vista now Retro

Posted on 2017-05-22, 07:57

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

DosDaddy wrote: Vista was a worthless piece of trash that couldn't die soon enough, and I'm being a 100% nice and unbiased here. Riiiiight. You are also being 100% knowledgeable and have lots of technical data and experience to back it up. 🤣

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Re: Old Windows and modern malware

Posted on 2017-05-21, 11:59

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Oh this brings back memories. I think Windows 2000 had a built-in instant messaging system that was taken out with XP? I remember within minutes of connecting a new W2K installation to the internet I'd begin getting weird messages pop-up on the screen. We used to have fun with that in the computer …

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Re: Logitech F310 on Windows 98?

Posted on 2017-05-21, 07:26

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does the Logitech Dual Action work on 98? Because the F310 in DirectInput mode is basically the Dual Action (even identifies as such). I could try it myself as I have an F310, but unfortunately my Win98 SE machine is not in the same physical location as the gamepad... 🙁

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Re: Is Vista now Retro

Posted on 2017-05-17, 08:22

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

But what about the Linux market share? Not a whole lot of people run Linux for the desktop yet there's Steam and frequent GPU driver updates. Probably more people run some flavor of Linux than Vista at this point. Furthermore, Linux is not just one OS, but a whole family. As such, it is an …

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Re: Expanded memory managers and DOS

Posted on 2017-05-14, 07:36

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

The previous posters explained it quite well. I will add that I never used anything other than EMM386, nor ever needed to. In principle, I could rely on UMBPCI (which I didn't know about it at the time) for 95% of scenarios, but I did have a few games that actually needed EMS. I could consistently …

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Re: 9800 Pro in Win98 is detecting my 1920x1080 monitor as 1920x1200.

Posted on 2017-05-12, 20:23

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Which monitor? How is it connected? Which OS? Which video card driver? Is the monitor "driver" installed?

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Re: Is Vista now Retro

Posted on 2017-05-12, 20:01

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

No Nvidia driver support?! Damn, I guess that's what non-existent market share gets you . Precisely. It's not just nVidia. Basically almost all major vendors dropped support a while ago. For major vendors, every OS SKU to target is extra support overhead, even if the software is 100% identical. …

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Re: Is Vista now Retro

Posted on 2017-05-12, 14:05

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

candle_86 wrote: 7 has home groups, vista does not, so 7 made home networking and file sharing easier 🤣 Until you want to share with older OSes, or do anything non-standard. I found homegroups more trouble than their worth...

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Re: Is Vista now Retro

Posted on 2017-05-12, 08:48

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Like a lot of things. You can find detailed Wikipedia articles on new features in each version of Windows. I'm not interested in getting into this discussion with you. I've seen way too many arguments of the type "I don't need/like/understand any of the new features, thus I conclude that they are …

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Re: Is Vista now Retro

Posted on 2017-05-11, 19:37

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Eh, looking at it the other way around is also possible, i.e. what does Me have that 98 does not, what does XP bring to the table that 2K doesn't have, and what does 10 or 8.1 offer that 7 won't? Except Me does have things that 98 does not have, XP does have things that 2K does not have and 8.1/10 …

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Re: What commercial doom levels really stressed hardware back in the day?

Posted on 2017-05-09, 06:50

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is DOSDOOM really hard to find? It took me like 10 seconds to get to this: https://www.doomworld.com/files/file/14874-do … ies-and-source/

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Re: Using dual-ISA sound cards, an AWE64 Value, Audician 32 Plus and Dreamblaster S2

Posted on 2017-05-07, 19:44

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

If you're refering to my "compatibility" remark, then - no, your experience is not a total opposite of mine - in fact it's very similar (check my link earlier in the thread). It depends on whether you talk about "theoretical compatibility" (i.e., what games support) or "practical compatibility" ( …

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Re: Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold - freezing randomly at startup

Posted on 2017-05-06, 10:53

by

by dr_st

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

No, it's correctly placed in the config.sys. Just like EMM386.EXE, SMARTDRV.EXE, and similar, it behaves different depending on how you load it. It may work when called directly, but that's not how it should be run. (for me, it gives checksum error on Vendor ID when loading outside of config.sys) …

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