First post, by Odiseo
Hi all. It's been a very long time since I last posted here.
I recently finished configuring my multi-booting classic gaming machine, which I bought from some guy for 20€ half a year ago. I had to go to the other end of my country to do so (this kind of systems is doubtlessly getting rare). On second thought, I live in Belgium, so I didn't have to go that far either 😜.
It has a Pentium 3 (996MHz), a 57GB hard drive, 512MB of SDRAM PC133, a Voodoo Banshee and an ALS4000 sound card. I installed Windows 98SE on the first primary partition (10GB in size), and I updated, enhanced and modified the OS using several tools and update packs like 98SE2ME, Revolutions Pack 9, 98lite, Auto-Patcher and Unofficial Windows 98SE SP 3.x.
What surprises me is that the PC is a bit slow in Abe's Exoddus, a game released in 1998. I figured with such system specifications the machine would have no trouble with a game like this, which in theory requires no more than a Pentium 1 and 16MB of RAM. And still sometimes screens load slowly, the game experiences general lag and even the sound stutters. What can be the cause? (I play the game under Windows 98)
Should I get a Voodoo 5? They sell for a ton on ebay 🙁, but I was planning on getting one anyway so as to smoothly play Diablo 2 in full HD. The Banshee can get up to only 1280x1024 before the game starts lagging. If I get a Voodoo 5, I might even try WarCraft 3.
As I said, I had a hard time finding a Pentium 3 system. My goal back half a year ago was to find one that had (or at least supported) 1.5GB of RAM (more or less the limit on Pentium 3 systems, right?), but after a while I decided to settle with 512MB. I can replace the CPU (996MHz) with a Tualatin 1.4GHz, but the RAM I have now (which is PC133) is the maximum the motherboard accepts.
I am thinking of selling off the four or five Voodoo cards I have (three V2's, one V3 and one Banshee... Might keep one of them if I do get a V5). Is it allowed to use these forums to look for potential buyers? Can I make a topic "Things I'm selling"?
Here is the full list of partitions 😁 (setting this up was no easy feat. Hellishly complicated)
--Primary partition 1: Windows 98SE, 10GB
--Primary Partition 2: Windows 2000, 8GB
--Primary Partition 3: Windows XP SP3, 25GB
--Extended Partition, 14GB
-Logical Partition 1: Data drive, for storing files, 5GB
-Logical Partition 2: Linux /root, 5GB
-Logical Partition 3: Linux /home, 3GB
-Logical partition 4: Linux Swap area, 1GB