First post, by CkRtech
- Rank
- Oldbie
My current retro system that I use for gaming is a Pentium 100 MHz. I restored it in 2010 with the intent of having a retro machine that can cover as much of 90s DOS games as possible - mostly favoring older games rather than maximizing later (1997+) games or general framerates (DOOM, Quake, Descent, etc).
I recently acquired a few motherboards with processors for a few bucks each. One processor socketed in one of those boards is a Pentium 200 MMX.
I put the mobo on the bench, added some RAM, video card, power supply, etc., and loaded some games on a spare hard drive to start testing out the speed while leaving my Pentium 100 system intact to just continue gaming for the moment. The 200 MMX system has a few issues I am ironing out, but seems to do quite better - like "wow" better - on things like Duke Nukem 3D and Descent. Doom is quite comfortable as well.
I am still somewhat on the fence regarding the upgrade, and I am wondering if any of you have faced the same choice before. The first question to any question like this is - what do you want to play on it? I will list a few games here - mostly picking out some usual suspects of speed and see what you guys think.
Favoring Pentium 100 MHz, perhaps -
Syndicate, Sierra adventure games, LucasArts adventure games (Monkey Island (CD), Loom (CD), Indiana Jones LC/FoA, Wing Commander, Jazz Jackrabbit and other Epic Megagames games, Duke Nukem I/II, etc. Numerous titles featured here and more, honestly - http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_C … sensitive_games
Favoring Pentium 200 MHz MMX, perhaps -
Doom, Quake, Tomb Raider, Duke Nukem 3D, Descent, Forsaken, Need for Speed II SE (?), Mechwarrior 2 (?)
I didn't list all of the games, obviously - and it is possible that some of the slow down utilities like moslo and patches like TPPatch can even the odds a bit. I honestly can't get Wing Commander to cooperate with the Pentium 100 alone (I think that guy wants a 386-25)
Another kink to throw into the mix is that I still have access to some of my other systems - including a 486SX-33. Obviously that would help split the difference if (more likely "when") I restore it and shift certain games to other machines, however I would like to have this one single system cover as wide a gamut as possible - including not rebooting for cache or config.sys reasons. The 100 MHz seems like quite a sweet spot at the moment - thus causing me to post this thread while I try stuff on the bench system.
