Joakim wrote on 2022-04-20, 05:14:
bstar wrote on 2022-04-20, 01:37:
I was never satisfied with a Pentium for DOS era titles with the exception of later software rendered 3D titles. Old games (< 1991) were often too wonky feeling, something that bios tweaks and tools like Moslo never fully resolved for me.
I brute forced the situation by configuring a 386 33DX, 486 50DX and an AMD 586 system for all of my needs. I definitely think the P1 can be corralled to work, but there are going to be compromises.
Is it really that bad? Should be possible change the multiplier to run DOS games.. I have to do some experiments on my pentium 1 non MMX socket 5 system. Maybe I need to replace the CPU with a Cyrix..
For me it has been the case. I also have a few games that just segfault right away on Pentiums. Changing the multiplier is not practical and I don't believe any Pentiums ever supported Turbo functionality, so you'll have to rely on something like MoSlo. Also, things like cache and other CPU features affect performance that are not tied to frequency.
Test Drive II and III are examples of games that are hard to get the right feel if you are on a pentium. It can be achieved in DosBox (DOSBox is a good way to test how titles will perform on various hardware), but the Pentium hardware is just too fast for these games, even with slowdown tools. TD III plays like a dream on a 386 16Mhz sx, and that's the experience I'm ultimately looking for. I'm not advocating that you need the older hardware, but definitely snag it if you have the opportunity and it's a good deal. There's value there if you like < 1991 era games.