VOGONS


First post, by Malik

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Just wondering... how much of speed attenuation (or the respective equavalent) does the Turbo button provide in the AT based systems?

Is it half of the actual speed?

Or does it depend on the mobo and the processor? If so, are there any sort of dependent formulas or theories?

I'm planning to get a 486DX2-66 and probably 486DX4-100. Wonder if I turn off the turbo button in the above setting, will Sierra games finally be able to "identify" my ISA SB cards?

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1 of 6, by 5u3

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Malik wrote:

Or does it depend on the mobo and the processor? If so, are there any sort of dependent formulas or theories?

It depends on the motherboard only. Very few 486 boards (most likely to be found in brand name systems) actually slow down the CPU host clock. Most boards rather use simple tricks like throwing waitstates in somewhere. The latter method is cheaper to implement, but often results in choppy gameplay, similar to software slowdown programs.

Malik wrote:

I'm planning to get a 486DX2-66 and probably 486DX4-100. Wonder if I turn off the turbo button in the above setting, will Sierra games finally be able to "identify" my ISA SB cards?

You can increase your chances by running the CPU at the slowest possible clock (50 MHz is possible with both DX2 and DX4, boards without PCI bus sometimes go even slower). With disabled caches and depressed turbo button it should work.

However, I haven't tried any of those "picky" Sierra games yet, so maybe other 486 owners can report. 😉
BTW, wasn't there some kind of patch to fix the SB detection problem in older Sierra games?

Reply 2 of 6, by Malik

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5u3 wrote:

You can increase your chances by running the CPU at the slowest possible clock (50 MHz is possible with both DX2 and DX4, boards without PCI bus sometimes go even slower). With disabled caches and depressed turbo button it should work.

Yes, I've read about the disabling cache method. Sadly, my current classic system which is a Pentium 133 (P54), with 40MB of EDO RAM, still can't detect my AWE64.

My contemporary Q9300 system can play the games under Dosbox perfectly, but I miss my LAPC-I's wonderful Music in pure DOS. Not only that, but playing the games in DOS really brings back the nostalgic classic gaming years back to life.

5u3 wrote:

BTW, wasn't there some kind of patch to fix the SB detection problem in older Sierra games?

Yep, I've tried the GoSierra, SBSierra, and numerous other specific game patches from Sierra Help Files, but to no avail. And I've also used numerous slowdown utilities - Throttle for Dos, Slowdos, ICD, Moslo, etc... the "sweet spot" is hard to get and still unable to get Sierra use my SB. Perhaps, I should use my original Sound Blaster 1.5 card...hmmm.. I haven't tried that method yet...

Anyway, I saw a good 486 based system with the intel 486DX2-66 processor on ebay.. guess have to continue shopping..... and put maybe a 486SX processor to slow thing further...

Reply 3 of 6, by Zup

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Turbo button, turbo button... fucking marketing department and their silly names... don't they know that it's actually a handbrake button?

[quote=5u3]The latter method is cheaper to implement...[/quote]

Cheaper than a frequency divider?

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 5 of 6, by doomer

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Malik wrote:

BTW, wasn't there some kind of patch to fix the SB detection problem in older Sierra games?

Yep, I've tried the GoSierra, SBSierra, and numerous other specific game patches from Sierra Help Files, but to no avail.

As a matter of fact GoSierra did the job for me. Before switching completely to dosbox, I had a dos-dedicated machine which was an IBM PII-350 Mhz. I had put (rammed actually, because the case was a bit on the tiny side) an AWE64 ISA card in that PC. I remember trying King's Quest VI dos detection without the patch and it failed. After applying GoSierra (v3 most likely), the card was detected. But that was the only Sierra game I tried with that patch so I am not sure which Sierra games you are trying to play. Still, I noticed the patch worked even on that machine. Probably after a bit more experimenting, one of those patches should work for you, considering it managed to work here.

Reply 6 of 6, by Malik

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doomer wrote:

Still, I noticed the patch worked even on that machine. Probably after a bit more experimenting, one of those patches should work for you, considering it managed to work here.

That's great news! I should try the other games then...(I've tried so far the KQ5 CD and Eco Quest CD.)

Time to get back to the basic and see where the problem lies, since your PII can easily load it sans problems with the patch.

Thanks.