VOGONS


First post, by Geon106

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Hey all,

Recently I decided to build two machines for retro gaming. I have a ThinkPad T500 with a 2.4Ghz CPU, 4GB RAM and ATi 3650 running Windows XP for games from Aug 01 to 2006. But I wanted to build systems for DOS/Win9x gaming

First machine for games from around 1991/92 to end of 96:

- Intel Pentium 2 MMX 266Mhz underclocked to 133Mhz
- 64MB RAM
- 10GB hard drive
- Floppy drive and Cdrom
- ATi Rage Pro 128 AGP
- Soundblaster AWE32 with 8MB RAM (CT2760)
- Win98SE

My other build is for games from 1997 to Aug 2001:

- AMD 1GHz CPU, I think it's a K6-2?
- 512MB RAM
- 16MB Voodoo3 3000 AGP (not sure if should use a Geforce 5200 just for extra power?)
- Aureal Vortex 2 Soundcard
- 40GB hard drive
- Floppy and CD Tom
- Win98SE

I'll post pictures if anyone's interested. Happy for any feedback or suggestions on improvements etc 😀

1993:A500
1997:Apricot MS540|P/166|16M|Rage3D 2M
2000:PB 9533|P3/533|128M|Voodoo3 2000 16M
'04:P4/3G|1GB|NVIDIA 5700 256M
'07:AMDX2/3.2Ghz|4GB|8800 GTX
'11:i5 2500k|16G|AMD 7950
'16:i5 6600k|16G|NVIDIA 1080|SB AE-5
'21:5900X|32GB|6800XT|SB AE-5

Reply 2 of 10, by Error 0x7CF

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Geon106 wrote:

My other build is for games from 1997 to Aug 2001:

- AMD 1GHz CPU, I think it's a K6-2?

If it's really 1GHz it's probably an Athlon. If it's socketed, it's a Thunderbird.

If that's the case you could probably take it past 2001 if you'd like. It was released either mid 2000 or late 2000 (depending on specific model) after all. There are some reasonably cheap faster CPUs out there too, in case you hunger for more power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Ath … microprocessors (scroll down to "Model 4, Thunderbird")

Old precedes antique.

Reply 3 of 10, by chinny22

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Both really nice systems, think you have late dos and Win9x era pretty well covered.
Depends on what games you play, Glide or D3D if you go with the voodoo or GF5, the Voodoo is a better matched IMHO

Reply 5 of 10, by Geon106

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TheDosPlace wrote:

Very interested!

Hi all,

Quick update, I've made a video of the build of the early/mid 90s machine:

https://youtu.be/AzKaB86zXwY

I've decided I will put the Voodoo card in the newer machine.

1993:A500
1997:Apricot MS540|P/166|16M|Rage3D 2M
2000:PB 9533|P3/533|128M|Voodoo3 2000 16M
'04:P4/3G|1GB|NVIDIA 5700 256M
'07:AMDX2/3.2Ghz|4GB|8800 GTX
'11:i5 2500k|16G|AMD 7950
'16:i5 6600k|16G|NVIDIA 1080|SB AE-5
'21:5900X|32GB|6800XT|SB AE-5

Reply 6 of 10, by retrofanatic

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I like the desktop case in your video...it seems to have ample room between the back of the drives and the P/S. Time to add a nice beige 5.25" floppy drive to it too and maybe a zip drive or card reader to the empty external 3.5" bay. Very nice build though!

Reply 7 of 10, by Geon106

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retrofanatic wrote:

I like the desktop case in your video...it seems to have ample room between the back of the drives and the P/S. Time to add a nice beige 5.25" floppy drive to it too and maybe a zip drive or card reader to the empty external 3.5" bay. Very nice build though!

Thank you 😀 I'll post an update in a few days where I upgraded it to a SB AWE32.

I like the idea of a card reader

1993:A500
1997:Apricot MS540|P/166|16M|Rage3D 2M
2000:PB 9533|P3/533|128M|Voodoo3 2000 16M
'04:P4/3G|1GB|NVIDIA 5700 256M
'07:AMDX2/3.2Ghz|4GB|8800 GTX
'11:i5 2500k|16G|AMD 7950
'16:i5 6600k|16G|NVIDIA 1080|SB AE-5
'21:5900X|32GB|6800XT|SB AE-5

Reply 8 of 10, by Baoran

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How many games can you think of that wouldn't work well on 266Mhz P2 but would work well on 133Mhz P2?
I have a 300Mhz klamath that I could take down to 133Mhz if needed, but I can't think of many games that would help with.

Reply 9 of 10, by Geon106

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Baoran wrote:

How many games can you think of that wouldn't work well on 266Mhz P2 but would work well on 133Mhz P2?
I have a 300Mhz klamath that I could take down to 133Mhz if needed, but I can't think of many games that would help with.

The two games I have had issues with at 266Mhz is Day of the Tentacle and Tyrian. DOTT has audio problems and Tyrian runs super fast.

Unless you run into problems I'd leave it be though

1993:A500
1997:Apricot MS540|P/166|16M|Rage3D 2M
2000:PB 9533|P3/533|128M|Voodoo3 2000 16M
'04:P4/3G|1GB|NVIDIA 5700 256M
'07:AMDX2/3.2Ghz|4GB|8800 GTX
'11:i5 2500k|16G|AMD 7950
'16:i5 6600k|16G|NVIDIA 1080|SB AE-5
'21:5900X|32GB|6800XT|SB AE-5

Reply 10 of 10, by Baoran

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Geon106 wrote:
Baoran wrote:

How many games can you think of that wouldn't work well on 266Mhz P2 but would work well on 133Mhz P2?
I have a 300Mhz klamath that I could take down to 133Mhz if needed, but I can't think of many games that would help with.

The two games I have had issues with at 266Mhz is Day of the Tentacle and Tyrian. DOTT has audio problems and Tyrian runs super fast.

Unless you run into problems I'd leave it be though

2 Games that I can think of are warcraft 2 and syndicate. It might help with warcraft 2 fast scrolling issue and syndicate might crash if you don't slow it down.