Nice. I didn't know that Win95 would run on anything slower than a 486 100MHz with 16MB of RAM.

heh. I installed Windows 2000 on a P90 with 32mb of ram back in the day.....

I definetly wouldn't want to use Windows 95 on a 33mhz machine tho. It was painful enough on a DX2/66 with 8mb of ram!

It's pain but thanks to a recent acquisition of HOMM1 for DOS I can revert back to MS-DOS 6.22.

The next improvements concern main system memory (16MB should be sufficent) and maybe a slightly faster processor. 33MHz is optimal for early Wing Commanders and Ultima 7 but then Wing Commander 3 is pain. A dream system would have the 486 instruction set and an user-defined clock setting ranging with common speeds from 4.7MHz to 90MHz implemented in hardware...

On the sound side, the Covox Soundmaster would be nice --> SimCity.

TamaMan wrote:

33MHz is optimal for early Wing Commanders and Ultima 7 but then Wing Commander 3 is pain.

I've found 33MHz to be too fast for Wing Commander I/II in my opinion. Then again, I never bother with the turbo button. For Wing Commander, I'd say a nice 386/25 would be just about plenty... at least in my experience.

* Roland SCC-1 (for GS, GM music and occasionally with MT-32 emulation with non-native MT-32 titles like Ultima 6)
* Roland MT-32 (for MT-32 specific titles)

Why on earth would you use MT-32 emulation for Ultima 6 when you have an MT-32 and Ultima 6 does support it? (Ultima VI came out before Roland GS devices.)

On the sound side, the Covox Soundmaster would be nice --> SimCity.

A card about which few people know anything about or have ever heard. Maxis allowed you to order for it, but talk about backing a dead horse.

First sound card I bought was a Covox SoundMaster+ - It was like and AdLib + DAC (but without DMA). It was also less expensive than a real AdLib. Very good AdLib compatibility but only few games supported it natively (Alone in the Dark, Sim City).

Why on earth would you use MT-32 emulation for Ultima 6 when you have an MT-32 and Ultima 6 does support it? (Ultima VI came out before Roland GS devices.)

I have no other proof than the quote below (http://www.geocities.com/nodling/ultima/ultima.html) and my own suspicions after comparing Ultima 6 music from OPL and MT-32 devices.

"The music in Ultima 6 was composed for the Adlib sound card, and apparently, the MT-32 driver was only added as an afterthought. In technical terms: The music files contain Adlib-specific data and commands. The MT-32 driver actually tries to emulate an Adlib card, without implementing every command required by the U6 sound file format - vibrato and portamento, for example."

Basically it's a taste of favoring SCC-1 w/MT-32 emulation in titles that aren't MT-32 all-the-way (not using own patches, etc.) since SCC-1's general sounds are more high quality.

I've found 33MHz to be too fast for Wing Commander I/II in my opinion. Then again, I never bother with the turbo button. For Wing Commander, I'd say a nice 386/25 would be just about plenty... at least in my experience.

You are right. I had forgot the turbo button that lowers the clock rate from 33 to 16 MHz. 33MHz is too fast for WC1-based titles.