Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?
Posted on 2016-03-19, 19:01
luckybob wrote: I got my IBM model 95 fired up last night. I replaced the slow (4mb/s) spock scsi card with a corvette It may be slow, but it lives long and prospers.
Re: FPS with fun, interesting storyline and good enough gameplay?
Posted on 2016-03-19, 17:51
Re: Extracting MIDI from an old game
Posted on 2016-03-18, 21:01
Great site, zerker. Thanks for the link. I didn't realize there were so many Windows games that supported MIDI. I thought MIDI in games stopped at DOS.
Re: What game are you playing now?
Posted on 2016-03-18, 20:35
Are you using the unofficial patch and hi res textures? Highly recommended. Patch: http://www.oldunreal.com/oldunrealpatches.html Textures: http://www.oldunreal.com/textures.html Unfortunately I believe the unofficial patch won't install on 98. Sticking with the original textures as I'm running on …
Re: Best PCI sound cards for Win9x ?
Posted on 2016-03-18, 14:32
Another one to consider is the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. It supports A3D 1.0, EAX 2.0, Sensaura, and has its own built-in MIDI DLS which IMO sounds better than the SBLive! or even the DreamBlaster S1. Only important if you expect to play any games that support MIDI (such as late DOS games from the …
Re: How to reliably (and cheaply) store data?
Posted on 2016-03-18, 12:08
Another option that I don't think has been mentioned yet is Macrium Reflect . Personal version is free. On my XP time machine I have a 2nd drive that is larger than the 1st and just create images of C: to D: so the backup images are stored on a different physical disk. It's very similar in function …
Re: How to reliably (and cheaply) store data?
Posted on 2016-03-18, 02:26
TELVM, clueless1: I've read the documentation that came with DiskFresh. It recommends doing the read/write refresh 3 or 4 times per year. This seems excessive to me. clueless1 says that he does the refresh once or twice per year which seems like a much better plan to me. Refreshing a slow USB 2.0 …
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Posted on 2016-03-18, 01:41
kanecvr wrote: Now if I find a working 7950GX2 and 8800GTX my retro-modern collection will be complete. There's a few 880GTX on ebay at the moment in the $40-$50 range that appear to be listed as functional.
Re: Teach me some electronics repair skills.
Posted on 2016-03-17, 20:00
Thanks. I have the same iron. 😀 I typically keep it at 380-400C but with some of these lead free joints I mentioned (it was an HP LGA775 board), I cranked it up to 450 just to see if it would helped and it didn't. I'll check out the video you linked. Much appreciated.
Re: Teach me some electronics repair skills.
Posted on 2016-03-17, 16:15
Any tips for hard-to-melt lead-free solder? In my practicing on dead boards, most of the newer boards use lead-free solder that is nearly impossible to melt. I've tried going up to 450 Celsius and it doesn't want to melt. I've tried adding flux first, I've tried adding solder to the joint beforehand …
Re: Building an XP gaming computer
Posted on 2016-03-17, 15:26
I use an 8800GTX on my XP machine. I have had no compatibility issues, though I admit the only "old" game I have on this machine is System Shock 2. The rest of the games are either modern open source games (Battle for Wesnoth, Xonotic) or from GOG.com. There are some on ebay for about $40. edit: …
Re: Building an XP gaming computer
Posted on 2016-03-17, 14:40
I use an 8800GTX on my XP machine. I have had no compatibility issues, though I admit the only "old" game I have on this machine is System Shock 2. The rest of the games are either modern open source games (Battle for Wesnoth, Xonotic) or from GOG.com. There are some on ebay for about $40. edit: …
Re: Wing Commander 3 MIDI slows down with more CPU Cycles
Posted on 2016-03-17, 00:18
Dynamic helped a lot. Music did not slow at all. It took a cycles setting of 175000 to get a solid 24 fps in the hanger, but I still noticed occasional stuttering. I then set cycles=max and that smoothed it out fully. So in the end, core=dynamic and cycles=max gave me the best results. Thanks to …
Re: Wing Commander 3 MIDI slows down with more CPU Cycles
Posted on 2016-03-16, 22:26
The machine uses a Xeon 3010 (Core 2 Duo 2.67Ghz) with 2GB, Geforce 8800GTX and Santa Cruz PCI.
Re: Anybody own a house?
Posted on 2016-03-16, 21:14
replace your furnace/air-conditioner filters routinely, even if they don't look dirty On a related note, for the first few months, check said filters monthly! We live in a dusty area, and when I changed the filter for the first time after the scheduled 3 month interval, I was shocked to see it so …
Re: Wing Commander 3 MIDI slows down with more CPU Cycles
Posted on 2016-03-16, 20:24
Yes, that's nornal behaviour. If you set cycles too high, Soundblaster/Adlib sound will start to skip, while Midi will produce sort of a rubberband effect. Why don't you just set cycles=max? I thought max would just make the problem worse? Going from 5000->100000 slows MIDI music to a crawl, so it …
Re: Anybody own a house?
Posted on 2016-03-16, 18:42
Don't buy more house than you need. Having lots of extra room is nice but it makes it that much more house you have to keep clean and maintained. Same with yard size. In other words, bigger isn't always better. :) edit: having lots of extra room is nice *at first*, but as the years go by, the space …
Wing Commander 3 MIDI slows down with more CPU Cycles
Posted on 2016-03-16, 18:20
I use a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI with General MIDI DLS Synth. I notice on most DOSBox games that support General MIDI (WC3 is just one example) that there is a "sweet spot" for CPU cycles that if I go past, the MIDI music will start slowing down progressively more. For example, on WC3, with CPU …
Re: Suggestions for lightweight and free antivirus?
Posted on 2016-03-16, 16:51
If you want to try to get away from A/V on a Windows PC, here are some layers that will help: -use a limited/standard user account and get used to typing an admin password when needed. Over 90% of infections could be prevented by just doing this. -install CryptoPrevent . At its most basic level it …
Re: Best way to identify a floppy's capacity
Posted on 2016-03-16, 13:34
I generally do the opposite - cover up the hole and convert HD floppies to DD. They're more reliable that way, so I only format as HD if I'm using the disk for something that actually needs that much space. If you run into any HD floppies that crap out on you, try reformatting as DD before you toss …
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