Re: Modding and enhancing *Some generic brand* MS-420S MUTI-media speakers

Posted on 2024-11-13, 17:30

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Holy crap, I had a set of those back when I was a kid! My parents bought them for me in 1996, and they were miles better than the cheap Labtec speakers that came with an old Sound Blaster multimedia kit my uncle bought; he had given them to us since he had a reasonably nice stereo setup hooked up to …

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Re: what is the greatest old hardware find/deal you have ever come across when looking for retro computer parts?

Posted on 2024-11-11, 01:38

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For me, it would have to be either the time in 2005 when I got a Voodoo 2 8 MB for $5 in a junk bin or two years ago when I got a Rage Fury MAXX and Viper V330 for $20. Those were some amazing deals, and I was very happy both times!

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Re: Question about AWE64 Legacy

Posted on 2024-10-30, 15:30

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

LGR did in his Blerb video about the AWE Legacy. It sounded pretty darned close to me, at least within the limits of YouTube audio compression. I recall his general comments on the sound quality were pretty positive!

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2024-10-24, 16:10

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The problem with cards like the Viper is that they're dog slow on DOS (on VGA mode which most games use at least, not sure about SVGA/high-res) since the OTI chip is used instead of the Weitek for that. Not just slow but like crappy ISA VGA slow. The primary purpose of that card is as a Windows GUI …

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Re: PicoGUS: ISA sound card emulator with Raspberry Pi Pico (Gravis Ultrasound, AdLib, MPU-401, Tandy, CMS)

Posted on 2024-10-21, 18:02

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

What I did initially: - add picoGUS ISA - remove sound blaster awe64 ISA - remove PCI yamaha sound card I did that..then booted up and Windows 98SE boot sequence stops at loading screen without errors, cannot ESC out to see if there are any.. Boots up just fine in safe mode, where I removed the …

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Re: What modern activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2024-09-27, 21:40

by

by MadMac_5

in Milliways

in Milliways

Last night I spent the evening reviving my spouse's HP Probook 850 G8 from the dead. It would power on, the keyboard backlight would engage, and the fan would spin up about 15 seconds later, then just sit there doing nothing with no response to keyboard input and no output on the internal or …

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Re: AI Generated Wallpapers Representing Retro Computing

Posted on 2024-09-27, 21:36

by

by MadMac_5

in Milliways

in Milliways

That computer from 1995 looks eerily like it belongs in 1985 instead. At first glance it looks OK, but as soon as I look deeper it seems like an alien tried to make a room that would make a human like me comfortable but had no context for or appreciation for the details.

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Re: HELP….Can’t install Win-98

Posted on 2024-09-25, 16:32

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Okay guys, I feel really Dumb right now. I know I have seen this error before but I can’t remember what the fix was. Trying to install 98se I have an Asus CUSl2 motherboard with 1ghz Pentium-3 I boot off the Win98 install floppy. Select to boot with CDROM support Completes fine I then switch to …

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Re: If you'd walked into a CompUSA around Christmas 2001 and asked the guy for a GPU...

Posted on 2024-09-23, 21:38

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I don't know how much proof is that. E.g. in the second half of 1998 when I was building my first computer, I was recommended by a CompUSA employee that I buy an ATI Xpert98 card (Rage Pro). I bought it... it worked but wasn't so great. :P (store recommendations sometimes rely heavily on their …

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Re: Windows XP x64 and MIDI games

Posted on 2024-09-23, 15:03

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Hello, I have a number of games that play MIDI games (custom GZDoom build, eduke32, Sonic & Knuckles 3) and I wanted to use a Roland SC-88 Pro with them. Sonic is the first one I tried and I'm not exactly sure if I'm doing everything correctly. - the soundcard, SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS, is equipped …

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Re: Help With Sound Card Choices for 486 and Pentium MMX

Posted on 2024-09-21, 13:46

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I disagree that the AWE32 is wasted on a 486 based on my experience; I used an AWE64 on a 486 DX2-66 back in 1998, and it worked very well in that rig. The Windows 3.1 software it came with seemed to be a natural match for the system, and most games that the 486 ran well had either General MIDI or …

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Re: Dithering jank on a TNT2

Posted on 2024-09-20, 20:38

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't anything wrong. Nvidia dithering pattern was always ugly. Damn that shits crazy blud ngl no cap Would a standard tnt2 be any better? In terms of image quality, the TNT2 and TNT2 M64 are identical; the biggest difference is that the TNT2 is MUCH faster. 16-bit colour pretty much always led …

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Re: Help With Sound Card Choices for 486 and Pentium MMX

Posted on 2024-09-20, 20:34

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I didn't think the PicoGUS had the port to plug the MT-32 in. I thought you needed a MPU-401 device inbetween? Right now I plug my MT-32 into the game port on my AWE32. Can you just plug the MT-32 directly into the PicoGUS with some sort of adapter cable? The PicoGUS 2.0 comes with an adapter to …

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Re: Help With Sound Card Choices for 486 and Pentium MMX

Posted on 2024-09-20, 17:03

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The PicoGUS can interface with a MT-32; it just needs to be set to MPU-401 Intelligent Mode. The setup that I use on my retro PC for DOS sound is: -AWE64 configured via UNISOUND to use Port 220, IRQ 7, DMA 3, HDMA 5, MIDI port 330 line-out goes to speakers/headphones -PicoGUS configured to use Port …

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Re: Help With Sound Card Choices for 486 and Pentium MMX

Posted on 2024-09-20, 14:50

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The PicoGUS can interface with a MT-32; it just needs to be set to MPU-401 Intelligent Mode. The setup that I use on my retro PC for DOS sound is: -AWE64 configured via UNISOUND to use Port 220, IRQ 7, DMA 3, HDMA 5, MIDI port 330 line-out goes to speakers/headphones -PicoGUS configured to use Port …

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Re: Best DOS ISA card to pair with WP32 McCake?

Posted on 2024-09-17, 21:50

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

A YMF718 or 719 is a good option as was mentioned. If your game doesn't need Intelligent Mode MIDI support alongside Sound Blaster digital effects, a PicoGUS may also be a good option; it can emulate a GUS or Sound Blaster and a standard MPU-401 simultaneously, and can also do MPU-401 Intelligent …

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Re: GPU History: did Creative Labs always make use of MSI for the production of the early Riva/Tnt/Geforces?

Posted on 2024-09-08, 02:06

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Creative even released GLIDE compatible graphics cards based on TNT and TNT2 chips, making 3dfx going nuts... Obviously they had to write the GLIDE drivers for it. So they must have put certainly lot of money and research into their products in those times. I had forgotten about that completely, …

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Re: PicoGUS: ISA sound card emulator with Raspberry Pi Pico (Gravis Ultrasound, AdLib, MPU-401, Tandy, CMS)

Posted on 2024-09-06, 15:53

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

keenerb wrote on 2024-09-06, 15:17: Has anyone used a 15-pin to USB adapter? Just in case I feel like using ye olde Gravis Gamepad instead of an xbox one controller... Unless the USB adapter converts the gameport signals to XInput format, then it probably won't work with the current version of the …

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Re: Serdaco's X2GS (or X16GS) vs SC55 (or SC88) vs FluidSynth - What's the difference?

Posted on 2024-09-05, 16:26

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I know that in general, the X2GS that I have sounds very similar to the sound samples from Sound Canvas devices I have heard on various YouTube videos. The bass response is a little bit more pronounced on the X2GS than the SC-55 in my experience, although it looks like one can specify a slightly …

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Re: Sound card dilemma for Win 98 PC, no DOS games.

Posted on 2024-08-30, 18:40

by

by MadMac_5

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

In my experience, a dedicated sound card would sound much better. Better hardware in them, such as DACs. Fortunately, good PCI sound cards can be found for cheap. I recently bought an Audigy for $5 used and typically see them listed locally for around $20. Nice to hear this, I'm a noob when it …

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