jheronimus wrote:I know there are people on Reddit who consider even 486/Pentium machines "too modern", but I still wonder — why does anyone need a dedicated machine for late 90s-early 00s games? None of you here mention any games that can't run properly on Socket 7 (or on modern hardware, for that matter) and A3D seems to be the only standard that probably needs dedicated hardware. Am I missing something here?
There are certain games like Terracide and anything based on the MechWarrior 2 engine (which also powers Interstate '76, Heavy Gear 1 and Battlezone) that just do NOT like NT-derived versions of Windows, for starters. Instability in the best cases (and that's AFTER XP compatibility hacks), outright refusing to start in the worst cases.
I need a native Win98SE machine for those, especially if they support A3D (Heavy Gear II via that Interactive Around-Sound middleware, for instance) and I want them to sound right.
I don't know which games won't run properly on Socket 7 or newer, but if they run properly under DOSBox, then I don't need to build a computer for them. DOSBox has come a remarkably long way with modern forks even boasting MT-32 emulation built in, no need for redirecting external MIDI to Munt.
ibm5155 wrote:Today, I really wanted if existed something like the Cyrix MediaGXM all in one (CPU + GPU + SOUND CARD) ina single chip, but som […]
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Today, I really wanted if existed something like the Cyrix MediaGXM all in one (CPU + GPU + SOUND CARD) ina single chip, but something like a K6-III+ That could change the multiplier by software (2x - 6x) and also the FSB (15 - 100MHz), + Yamaha opl3 (like The libreto 110 áudio), and also a voodoo 3 inside of it.
and also, some sdram.
with that you may play games just fine from 198x till 2000 *__*
and also, ofc, the screen, a 7" crt display heh
I normally don't like such all-in-one designs since it ensures that you're just going to have a bunch of subpar components on one chip that you can't upgrade without replacing the entire thing, but it's understandably the prevailing mobile implementation today, hence why we say "SoC" instead of just "CPU" or "GPU" for a modern smartphone/tablet processor.
There's also the problem of some games inherently looking best on one GPU, like Splinter Cell on GeForce 4 (dynamic shadow buffers) or anything that supports TRUFORM/N-Patches on Radeon 8500, and since you mentioned sound cards, the whole A3D/EAX thing all over again...