VOGONS


First post, by idan182

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IHi all and greetings from Israel!
This was my 486 machine which I got new in 1996:

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All I remember that the machine was 486, and had 4MB VGA card.
I do remember the turbo button worked, and when it was depressed, games were run slower.
I used it during 1996-7,
I think the most heavy game I ever played on my 486 machine before it failed was Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance and it didn't work pretty well.

In 1998 I remember it was upgraded to Pentium either 100 or 133MHZ due a failure.
I remember it played games like Rayman 1, Duke 3D, Rise of Triad etc.

I recently bought this Pentium 233MMX built machine:

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Because I do not remember which parts I had back then, and all I care is the beautiful Baby AT case memories, I bought it with these specs:

CPU: Intel Pentium 233MHZ MMX
Motherboard: Totem TM-586-TX4
RAM: 256MB
Hard Disk: CF + WD 13GB
VGA Card: Voodoo Rush from 1997
Sound Card: ESS 1853 ISA
It has a DVD drive and not CD ROM.

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It has "System Commander 2000" by VCOM
so I can boot either straight to DOS 6.22, WIN 3.11, WIN95 and WIN98.

NOW for the questions,
My MAIN use for games is either on DOS or WIN95.
Games like: all sort of KEEN, Doom 1+2, Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of Triad, Rayman 1, Hexen, Hertic, Jazz rabbit etc.
More 80 DOS games are Dave, Crystal Caves, Duke Nukem 1, Home Alone, Alley Cat, Wolfenstein and those stuff.

All I could find is that hardware I mentioned.
I am thinking of downgrade the 233MHZ MMX to Pentium 133MHZ, although I have WIN98 on my system. because I do remember I had either Pentium 100 or 133, and I set the case speed to "133" because it doesn't have "233"

How are those VGA and Sound Card for the games I play? Isn't it too overkill or if it plays, I shouldn't touch it?

Everything work good and fast. the seller told me none of these games are in the XT area so it doesn't matter either if I'm on 133MHZ or 233MHZ CPU.
I would like to be able to use the turbo button but I know it's only for 486 DX 33 option?

Reply 1 of 3, by badmojo

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Nice PC! Yes those graphic and audio cards are great I'd leave them as-is, and the seller is right RE the speed, even a 133Mhz CPU is way off XT speeds. Generally a socket 7 motherboard won't have a turbo function but even if it did, it wouldn't slow it down nearly enough either. There are things you can do though - have a look at Setmul for disable a cache and then use something like AT-SLOW to bring the speed down further. It can be hard to get a smooth slowdown but it's a fun project and it's a great machine for later DOS stuff so it's worth the effort.

Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Reply 2 of 3, by pancakepuppy

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Lovely case, I've never had the pleasure of owning a nice AT case in that style (maybe someday!) Always appreciate an ESS card as well, and I'd probably also have put the Rush in there if I had one on hand.

Regarding swapping to a 133MHz CPU, have you tried changing the CPU multiplier jumpers to the 2x setting to see if you can run your current CPU at 133MHz? I did a little searching and was seeing mixed information about which MMX chips will support running at 2x, might not know until you try.

Reply 3 of 3, by chinny22

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Turbo switch +LED, Mhz display what everyone want in a AT case you have done well!
With the currant hardware You have a real nice DOS, early Win9x build. The Voodoo Rush makes it a bit uncommon as well.
I agree and would leave it as is. The seller seems to know what he was doing and put together a really nice build.

Most of those games you listed should be fine with a 233. I think Jazz needs the Turbo Pascal patch, as will some others.
https://github-wiki-see.page/m/Defacto2/defac … z%20or%20faster.
If you wan't to run at 133 for nostalgic reasons that's fine although some of your windows games may appreciate the extra 100Mhz

For the really early games you really want a 386 or slower, This era I don't mind "cheating" and using dosbox.