Re: Abandonware - Make it legal.

Posted on 2008-11-19, 21:56

by

by swaaye

in Milliways

in Milliways

With the "abandoned" games starting to show up for sale on legitimate sites, I think we can see why copyrights exist. I wonder if any of that new profit goes to the original developers though. It's probably just a little extra on the side for the publishers, which is less warm and fuzzy, but it's …

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PCMag 1995 video reviews

Posted on 2008-11-19, 06:08

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have this ancient PC Magazine CD edition from 1995. The one and only issue I bought. It was an interesting idea for them to try. Basically it has articles on it and "multimedia" like some video reviews. Video reviews of archaic DOS machines. Excited now? lol Well I put them on Youtube. One is …

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Re: How important are early Pentiums?

Posted on 2008-11-18, 21:19

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yup and that's why DOSBOX is so much easier. You really need a rig designed for each game for the best experience.

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Re: My K7 "Retro Rocket"

Posted on 2008-11-18, 20:11

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Yeah it's very annoying that all those boards used lowest-bidder incomplete-formula caps that are all defective now. I wouldn't be surprised if even the ones that look ok are bad. If you send it in he'll set you up with high quality caps. Kinda expensive for retroness though....

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Re: Which Vesa Local Bus graphics card?

Posted on 2008-11-18, 20:04

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had a Diamond Stealth S3 Trio64 VLB once. That would probably be quite excellent for DOS. Somewhat better than ET4000 W32/p for Windows too. ET4000 can be annoying with resolutions and refresh rates. My Diamond Stealth 32 required TSRs to set that stuff, even in Windows 95. I also had a #9 Motion …

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Re: Low power video card

Posted on 2008-11-18, 19:58

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

They get hot but they're within specs I'm sure. After all, the cards are still working 9 years later!! People just got scared because TNT and V3 were the first chips to get really hot. They're certainly nothing special these days! 😀

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Re: How important are early Pentiums?

Posted on 2008-11-18, 19:53

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those DOS SVGA games can sometimes need around a P3-600 to run really smooth. I saw that with Cybermage. It's not just about SVGA framebuffer speed.

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Re: Howto: ST TNG Interactive Tech Manual + Captain's Chair with MS VirtualPC

Posted on 2008-11-18, 19:48

by

by swaaye

in Windows

in Windows

you need to use the hide87 TSR because you have a AMD CPU. For some reason the AMD FPU isn't quite compatible with this old software. The TSR hides the hardware FPU from the Windows within the Virtual PC and forces the programs to use FPU emulation. It doesn't really affect speed, but it sure does …

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Re: Low power video card

Posted on 2008-11-14, 21:26

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Get yourself a TNT/TNT2 or a Voodoo3. Both are available for PCI and give fairly compatible (very, very fast) DOS VESA compatibility and excellent 3D speed if you need it. And they don't have fans.

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Re: Why do modern video games suck so badly

Posted on 2008-11-12, 22:08

by

by swaaye

in Milliways

in Milliways

Honestly, I don't really agree with your stance. It's akin to saying that automobiles haven't advanced since they are obviously still 4 wheels, a chassis with an engine, and a pretty body. Evolution is what has happened. Shooters were born from technological evolution. Tech is still evolving and so …

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Re: SoundBlaster Pro 2 - any good?

Posted on 2008-11-12, 18:15

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yup, thumps up to the 'ol SBPro2. I ran one of those for years. It's about as compatible as you can get with everything. The onboard amp kinda stinks though cuz it adds noise. But even "line level"-equipped SB16s are noisy as hell so who can tell? heh

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Re: Fastest Socket A / 462 mainboard with ISA slot?

Posted on 2008-11-11, 20:15

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, look up the site. http://www.badcaps.net/ I'd definitely recommend sending it in if you are uncomfortable soldering. This is about as tricky as it can get because you have to desolder the old caps and then get the new caps through solder-plugged holes. It's tricky work.

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Re: PowerVR PCX2

Posted on 2008-11-10, 21:24

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

UT should work too.

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Re: Fastest Socket A / 462 mainboard with ISA slot?

Posted on 2008-11-10, 21:20

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I still have working everyday a Shuttle mobo with KT266A / Athlon 1.8MP ... still no porbs with caps... I had a Shuttle AK31A KT266A mobo with several bad caps (bursting/oozing), but it still worked until recently. All of the Abit boards from 1999-2001 (or so) that I've seen have had a few bad caps …

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Re: Fastest Socket A / 462 mainboard with ISA slot?

Posted on 2008-11-08, 22:32

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, Athlon is certainly a bit faster per-clock. Probably 10% or so. It's not a big difference and you probably wouldn't notice it, frankly. Athlon XP bumps the performance up a good bit per clock compared to Tbird though, so at that point you are certainly ahead of P3. The problem is that, again, …

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Re: Fastest Socket A / 462 mainboard with ISA slot?

Posted on 2008-11-08, 22:21

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You'll probably run into bad capacitors though.... The only way to really avoid that is by going with an Intel OEM board, probably from either Dell or Gateway. Those mobos are of superior quality compared to the usual Abit/ASUS/Epox/etc stuff IMO, but don't have the overclocking options. My Abit BF6 …

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Re: Why do modern video games suck so badly

Posted on 2008-11-07, 22:13

by

by swaaye

in Milliways

in Milliways

...Story in games hasn't really evolved. It's been fairly static.... Yeah true. But I'm not sure what to expect here. You have adventure games (they are definitely still out there) which are like interactive novels. And then you have shooters/sims in which the story just enables the action. I think …

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Re: Why do modern video games suck so badly

Posted on 2008-11-07, 20:35

by

by swaaye

in Milliways

in Milliways

I have to say that I find the extreme, blind fanaticism that some people have for oldies a bit perplexing. It's almost always pure nostalgia. The NMA Fallout freaks come to mind. I think almost everyone here has been around for most of the evolution of the games industry. I have fond memories of ' …

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Re: My K7 "Retro Rocket"

Posted on 2008-10-27, 20:14

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

This is how I used to figure out my socket mods. I ran a Barton on a KT266A with a x15.5 multiplier (or some such) back in the day. http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?http://www.o … amd_pinmod.html

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Re: This may be the last year I ever buy an EA game.....

Posted on 2008-10-27, 20:07

by

by swaaye

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I bought Dead Space. ;) The game has activation which I didn't even notice. It just asks for the key and then transparently activates. Surprisingly, the game doesn't require you have the DVD in to play. That's the first time I've seen that in perhaps forever. Game is pretty good stuff too. It's …

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