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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Re: 3DO Star Trek TNG: A World for All Seasons

Posted on 2008-10-27, 20:04

by

by swaaye

in Console & Arcade Emulation

in Console & Arcade Emulation

Hey yeah I stumbled on that too a while back. I contacted the original poster and he sent me the quicktime file that he uploaded. It's slightly better quality than the Youtube processed version. The vid has the most footage I've seen of that 3DO game. And the shots of the other games are different …

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Re: SB Pro 2 Amplifier Disable

Posted on 2008-10-20, 19:11

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You could just get yourself some era-appropriate crap "multimedia" speakers. Labtec or Koss thingers. 😉

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Re: My K7 "Retro Rocket"

Posted on 2008-10-20, 18:59

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

And in my opinion he is right about the VIA KT133A, it wasn't a bad chipset at all, and the Epox KTA3(+(Pro)) was one of the best boards available at the time. KT133A had a bad southbridge (686B). Depending on how well the BIOS was written, it could work ok most of the time. But because of its PCI …

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Re: My K7 "Retro Rocket"

Posted on 2008-10-20, 18:55

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

prophase_j, you should build a proper "retro Athlon". Something with Slot A, AMD 750 Irongate chipset, and a 500 - 650 MHz CPU. 😀

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Re: SB Pro 2 Amplifier Disable

Posted on 2008-10-17, 21:34

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm fairly sure that you are stuck with the amp on a Pro 2.

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Re: 486 Bus Speed

Posted on 2008-10-16, 18:45

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I always was fascinated by the true 486DX/50. 50 MHz bus, 50 MHz CPU. Rare it was. 40 is usually ok, but that's the limit pretty much. On a VLB mobo, you often need wait states added to do even 40 MHz. I've never had a VLB or PCI mobo doing 50 MHz. If you could pull it off, you'd almost certainly …

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Re: Are any of the video cards I already have "good enough"?

Posted on 2008-10-15, 19:19

by

by swaaye

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Any of those cards should work ok for most things. The S3 card will most likely be the most compatible of them, but also the slowest. And by that I don't mean to say that S3 PCI cards are significantly slower than most of their contemporaries, just that GeForce/TNT2 are exceptionally fast for DOS. …

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