First post, by Scythifuge
- Rank
- Oldbie
Greetings,
A year ago, another baby boy was born, and thus some of my hobbies and projects were set aside. I have been getting back into it since I had built this K6-III+ 600Mhz system as it was recommended as a system that can be slowed down to play old MS-DOS games while being able to enjoy many Windows 9x games. However, as expected, it is not going perfectly smooth.
The current game I am struggling with is Cryo's Dune (CD version.) I am using an MP32L, connected to my Roland MPU-IPC-T. I have to slow down the system to even get into the game. I have been experimenting with setmul, cpuspd, and moslo deluxe. Some settings allow me to get into the game, but I get no music until I can access the options in game and turn music off, and then back on, meaning the intros are silent (save for speech.) Turning off both L1 and L2 caches (I am unsure as to ho many of the other options pertain to my CPU,) I can get the game to start, and I get music. However, the MP32L gives messages before music plays that I think read something like "unexp. MIDI Status." It is hard to read and comes and goes quickly, but once gone, the music plays. Unfortunately, the music sounds off in places. The Virgin logo sounds alright, but during the Cryo logo-intro, I hear just "dings." I compared the music to youtube MT-32 opening/gameplay vids, and I also tested with my physical MT-32. Sometimes the music sounds good, but like the Cryo-intro, and some other parts, and some instruments sound off.
I am assuming that it is timing related. I am wondering if anyone else is using a K6-2+ or 3+ at 500-600Mhz and with an MT-32/MP32L, and plays Dune with the music playing and sounding correctly. I am having issues in other games too, such as Ultima VII running fast despite turning the caches off, though this post is about Dune. I am going to have to, when I have time (my son gives me only short periods of time for my hobbies) to go down through my list of games for MS-DOS (of which there are many) and test each one with cache settings.
I am also interested in any information in general for using a K6-III+ for an all-in-one solution for the late-80s-to-2000 eras of PC gaming. I would set up a Pentium 166MMX and a 486DX2, but I lack the space and I have only the one MPU-IPC-T for handling Intelligent MPU. I do know that there are other solutions and cards, but they require EMM386 (so no Ultima VII) or money.
Scythifuge
