Hi GN,

You might be interested in my article here:
https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/my_dos_gaming_pc_1.php
doing the exact same thing (mimicking Phil's 136-in-1). My hardware differs from yours, but you may find some interesting decisions I made along the way. My build was designed as a dedicated DOS build only, so those later Win95 games weren't part of my intended 'coverage'.

Since mine is based on a Pentium 200 MMX, and yours will be a 233 MMx, check my findings on the 'holes' in the DOS era that my machine is unable to be really period-correct. I came to the conclusion that I could drag the system down further if I swapped out my STB Velocity graphics card for something a year or two older.

GooseNipples wrote on 2023-01-29, 19:12:

VGA Options:
*** Is there one single do-it-all from 286 era DOS games to Win95 era games card that would be a good choice? (Will be paired with a Voodoo 1) ***

You can check the DOS compatibility of various graphics cards in Gona's spreadsheet. For your use case, I would recommend an S3 Trio64V+ as it can cover the most ground. Not sure if it ticks absolutely every checkbox, but it's a pretty solid choice. Make sure that the card you get is from a reputable manufacturer (Diamond, Hercules, STB, Elsa...) as generic "no-name" S3 cards can suffer from image quality issues.

Opti 82C930 w/IDE & Yamaha OPL YMF262-M (This is probably going to be what I go with, if I can ever ge the drivers working, but ESS card is also a good choice)

That's a very solid SBPro and WSS compatible card. I use it with the drivers that I've posted in this thread and I find that they work quite well. Note that some Epic Megagames titles have compatibility issues with this card, but a fix can be found in that driver pack.

Be advised that the Win9x drivers for the OPTi 82C930 are quite basic, and a different sound card is recommended for playing games in that environment. You can go with one of your SB16 cards, which would also work great for late-era DOS games like Crusader: No Remorse, in addition to being Win9x friendly. Alternatively, you can use a PCI sound card like the SBLive for Windows gaming.

Sidenote: have been thus far unable to get the PS/2 header to work with a PS/2 mouse.

If the manual for your motherboard has the PS2 header pinout, you can easily rewire an existing bracket to fit there. All you need is a multimeter for continuity testing and some DuPont jumper wires.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-01-29, 19:59:

GooseNipples wrote on 2023-01-29, 19:12:

Opti 82C930 w/IDE & Yamaha OPL YMF262-M (This is probably going to be what I go with, if I can ever ge the drivers working, but ESS card is also a good choice)

That's a very solid SBPro and WSS compatible card. I use it with the drivers that I've posted in this thread and I find that they work quite well. Note that some Epic Megagames titles have compatibility issues with this card, but a fix can be found in that driver pack.

Be advised that the Win9x drivers for the OPTi 82C930 are quite basic, and a different sound card is recommended for playing games in that environment. You can go with one of your SB16 cards, which would also work great for late-era DOS games like Crusader: No Remorse, in addition to being Win9x friendly. Alternatively, you can use a PCI sound card like the SBLive for Windows gaming.

How wonderful that you replied!
I saw that exact post and it ultimately swayed me to purchase the card a few weeks ago.

DOSDays wrote on 2023-01-29, 19:32:

Hi GN, […]
Show full quote

Hi GN,

You might be interested in my article here:
https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/my_dos_gaming_pc_1.php
doing the exact same thing (mimicking Phil's 136-in-1). My hardware differs from yours, but you may find some interesting decisions I made along the way. My build was designed as a dedicated DOS build only, so those later Win95 games weren't part of my intended 'coverage'.

Reading through your guide now with great interest.

Thanks for recommending it

GooseNipples wrote on 2023-01-29, 23:44:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-01-29, 19:59:

GooseNipples wrote on 2023-01-29, 19:12:

That's a very solid SBPro and WSS compatible card. I use it with the drivers that I've posted in this thread and I find that they work quite well. Note that some Epic Megagames titles have compatibility issues with this card, but a fix can be found in that driver pack.

Be advised that the Win9x drivers for the OPTi 82C930 are quite basic, and a different sound card is recommended for playing games in that environment. You can go with one of your SB16 cards, which would also work great for late-era DOS games like Crusader: No Remorse, in addition to being Win9x friendly. Alternatively, you can use a PCI sound card like the SBLive for Windows gaming.

How wonderful that you replied!
I saw that exact post and it ultimately swayed me to purchase the card a few weeks ago.

i have the AcerMagic S20 which has the 929A chip, kind of similar to that.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-01-29, 19:59:

You can check the DOS compatibility of various graphics cards in Gona's spreadsheet. For your use case, I would recommend an S3 […]
Show full quote

GooseNipples wrote on 2023-01-29, 19:12:

VGA Options:
*** Is there one single do-it-all from 286 era DOS games to Win95 era games card that would be a good choice? (Will be paired with a Voodoo 1) ***

You can check the DOS compatibility of various graphics cards in Gona's spreadsheet. For your use case, I would recommend an S3 Trio64V+ as it can cover the most ground. Not sure if it ticks absolutely every checkbox, but it's a pretty solid choice. Make sure that the card you get is from a reputable manufacturer (Diamond, Hercules, STB, Elsa...) as generic "no-name" S3 cards can suffer from image quality issues.

Opti 82C930 w/IDE & Yamaha OPL YMF262-M (This is probably going to be what I go with, if I can ever ge the drivers working, but ESS card is also a good choice)

That's a very solid SBPro and WSS compatible card. I use it with the drivers that I've posted in this thread and I find that they work quite well. Note that some Epic Megagames titles have compatibility issues with this card, but a fix can be found in that driver pack.

Be advised that the Win9x drivers for the OPTi 82C930 are quite basic, and a different sound card is recommended for playing games in that environment. You can go with one of your SB16 cards, which would also work great for late-era DOS games like Crusader: No Remorse, in addition to being Win9x friendly. Alternatively, you can use a PCI sound card like the SBLive for Windows gaming.

Sidenote: have been thus far unable to get the PS/2 header to work with a PS/2 mouse.

If the manual for your motherboard has the PS2 header pinout, you can easily rewire an existing bracket to fit there. All you need is a multimeter for continuity testing and some DuPont jumper wires.

The TnT2 M64 PCI they have listed would also cover as much if not more than the S3 Trio64V+ and it has much better image quality, also under Win95 it'll provide 32bit rendering, D3D and OpenGL support much better than the Voodoo1 can.

Its the card I would actually use here, under DOS it also doesn't require any VBE drivers as it has Vesa 3.0.

-Thinking further on it, I would swap the ET4000 in for the few DOS games that the TnT has issues with, that ET4000 is one of the few super compatible DOS cards around while being fast to boot. I cant remember but in theory you should be able to leave the ISA ET4000 in the PC and just swap the VGA cable to it for when its required so long as you tell the bios to init the PCI display first.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-01-30, 06:58:

The TnT2 M64 PCI they have listed would also cover as much if not more than the S3 Trio64V+ and it has much better image quality, also under Win95 it'll provide 32bit rendering, D3D and OpenGL support much better than the Voodoo1 can.

Its the card I would actually use here, under DOS it also doesn't require any VBE drivers as it has Vesa 3.0.

I would actually use the S3 Trio64V+ instead given the OP's computer, it has much better DOS compatibility than any nVidia card (they never supported 15bpp video modes that some games use).

VBE 3.0 is overrated and the only usefulness it has is setting refresh rates on resolutions lower than 640x480. BTW, there are also S3 video cards with VBE 2.0 onboard and for those that doesn't have it there is S3VBE20 TSR.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-02-02, 16:41:

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-01-30, 06:58:

The TnT2 M64 PCI they have listed would also cover as much if not more than the S3 Trio64V+ and it has much better image quality, also under Win95 it'll provide 32bit rendering, D3D and OpenGL support much better than the Voodoo1 can.

Its the card I would actually use here, under DOS it also doesn't require any VBE drivers as it has Vesa 3.0.

I would actually use the S3 Trio64V+ instead given the OP's computer, it has much better DOS compatibility than any nVidia card (they never supported 15bpp video modes that some games use).

VBE 3.0 is overrated and the only usefulness it has is setting refresh rates on resolutions lower than 640x480. BTW, there are also S3 video cards with VBE 2.0 onboard and for those that doesn't have it there is S3VBE20 TSR.

Yes . .A TSR that takes up memory that may be needed to actually run a game or such, its why I said keep the ISA ET4000 for the few obscure DOS games that need these rarely used modes, the ISA card has even better compatibility than the S3 card and what the ISA card cant do the M64 can and can do it better and faster, its better for Win95 than the S3 with D3D and OpenGL support. The OP is using Win95 and that S3 card is pretty damn woeful for D3d or OpenGL and the Voodoo1 is simply outclassed here by the M64 at either API.

Looking at the list of Win95 games they want to try, that S3 isn't great at all, they will need a card that has decent D3D and OpenGL, the V1 can handle the Glide and OpenGL* games but D3D ...uhh no Voodoo cards have very average D3D support especially early models before the Voodoo2.

Like you said there is no 1 card and if this was a Pure DOS box I would be right there with you in suggesting that S3 Trio as it with the Voodoo1 is pretty much a perfect combination for a pure DOS box.

*Assuming the game has support for the MiniGL driver Voodoo cards use.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-02, 22:40:

Yes . .A TSR that takes up memory that may be needed to actually run a game or such

I don't see the big deal with TSRs that adds or enhances the VBE implementation, at least both UniVBE and S3VBE20 can be uninstalled afterwards, and the latter doesn't even take much memory at all.

The OP is also using Win95 and that S3 card is pretty damn woeful for D3d or OpenGL and the Voodoo1 is simply outclassed here by the M64 at either API.

Looking at the list of Win95 games they want to try, that S3 isn't great at all, they will need a card that has decent D3D and OpenGL, the V1 can handle the Glide and OpenGL* games but D3D ...uhh no Voodoo cards have very average D3D support especially early models before the Voodoo2.

I know that the S3 Trio64V+ doesn't have any D3D or OpenGL capabilities and it was deliberate since 2D Windows games do exist (Age of Empires, StarCraft, Rebel Moon Rising, etc.) and the S3 video card excels in those. The gaming capabilities on the OP's computer would be good up to 1998, it would start struggling with games after that year anyway.

Sure, the TNT2 M64 outclasses the Voodoo Graphics in 3D capabilities overall but on a Pentium MMX CPU, it isn't well optimized and gets bottlenecked.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-02, 22:40:

Yes . .A TSR that takes up memory that may be needed to actually run a game or such

S3VBE20.EXE only takes up 4 KB, and gets auto-loaded into upper memory, if available.

Also, later DOS games that benefit from VBE 2.0 (e.g. Duke3D, Quake, WarCraft 2 etc.) typically don't need a whole lot of conventional memory to run.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-02-02, 16:41:

VBE 3.0 is overrated and the only usefulness it has is setting refresh rates on resolutions lower than 640x480. ..

I do not know if it is overrated or not but VBE 3.0 refresh rate setting is definitely not restricted to resolutions lower than 640x480.
Actually you can set higher than 60Hz (default) refresh rates on any VBE graphics modes up to what your card and monitor support. (Unfortunately in case of Nvidia cards this feature only works up to Geforce 4.)
Of course in case of S3 Trio you can also use S3REFRSH to set refresh rates on SVGA graphics modes.

Falcosoft wrote on 2023-02-03, 09:27:

I do not know if it is overrated or not but VBE 3.0 refresh rate setting is definitely not restricted to resolutions lower than 640x480.
Actually you can set higher than 60Hz (default) refresh rates on any VBE graphics modes up to what your card and monitor support.

Personally, I find this very useful, since I usually run DOS games on a CRT monitor. Playing WarCraft 2 at 120Hz is much more pleasant than at the default, flickery 60Hz.

That said, my VBE 1.2 Hercules Branded S3 Trio64V+ can do that as well. No VBE 3.0 or even VBE 2.0 required, just a simple utility from the official Hercules driver CD.

Well. I'd say - try Rage IIC. It should work just fine with DOS games you listed. It is period correct, has good video quality (better than most non-name S3 cards) an VBE 2.0 in BIOS.
For early 3D you have 3dfx anyway...

This is news to me: so can we have resolutions like 320 x 240 at 85Hz in DOS mode?

In my previous attempts I could only get resolutions higher than 640x480 with increased refresh rates, ie 85 / 100 Hz.

Falcosoft wrote on 2023-02-03, 09:27:

I do not know if it is overrated or not but VBE 3.0 refresh rate setting is definitely not restricted to resolutions lower than […]
Show full quote

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-02-02, 16:41:

VBE 3.0 is overrated and the only usefulness it has is setting refresh rates on resolutions lower than 640x480. ..

I do not know if it is overrated or not but VBE 3.0 refresh rate setting is definitely not restricted to resolutions lower than 640x480.
Actually you can set higher than 60Hz (default) refresh rates on any VBE graphics modes up to what your card and monitor support. (Unfortunately in case of Nvidia cards this feature only works up to Geforce 4.)
Of course in case of S3 Trio you can also use S3REFRSH to set refresh rates on SVGA graphics modes.

Yes, settings refresh rates aren't restricted to lower resolutions with VBE 3.0.

It is just that with resolutions starting from 640x480, this can be done with the UNICENTR utility that comes with UniVBE on supported video cards and most hardware vendors prior VBE 3.0 standard had a utility (S3REFRSH for S3, CLMODE for Cirrus Logic and SMONITOR for Trident).

mihai wrote on 2023-02-03, 10:24:

This is news to me: so can we have resolutions like 320 x 240 at 85Hz in DOS mode?

In my previous attempts I could only get resolutions higher than 640x480 with increased refresh rates, ie 85 / 100 Hz.

It is possible on VESA video modes provided that the video card has VBE 3.0 onboard (if it is nVidia, up to GeForce 4 series like Falcosoft said) or UniVBE "upgraded" the existing one to 3.0. From there, UniRefresh or VBEHz can be used to set the refresh rate.