Re: Native PC Lightgun Games?
Posted on 2024-05-24, 21:17
Seems like the best way to do light gun games these days is not natively, but via the sinden gun and emulators. I must admit that it does appear very, very tempting
Re: Video stutter and shadow ram (Dos 6.20)
Posted on 2024-05-23, 22:28
My copy is the combined WCP and Strike Commander combo release. Both are on the same cd, along with the Righteous Fire expansion. What equivalent Wing Commander engine does Privateer use? WC2? I don't have any issues in WC1/2/3. What exact point in the intro cinematic is the problem? CF cards don't …
Re: Video stutter and shadow ram (Dos 6.20)
Posted on 2024-05-23, 15:20
WCP definitely seems to be a bit picky. I can't get digital audio to work on it at all, from any of my soundcards (2x ESS1868 + YMF719 + YMF718). The same copy of the game works fine on two other systems with two (different) genuine SB16 cards.
Re: smallest computer that can run windows XP with supported hardware (especially video card?)
Posted on 2024-05-22, 08:07
HP T740 thin client has a 4c/8t Ryzen 1756 with embedded Radeon Vega 8. It also has a PCIe x16 slot which can take graphics cards up to 45-ish watts as long as they fit within the form factor (Nvidia T600 fits in the power and space envelope - approx equivalent to GTX 1050TI / GTX 1650). Not sure …
Re: X68000 midi, bus conflict, Scsi
Posted on 2024-05-21, 19:45
I really can't help any further - my only suggestion would be to try an alternate SCSI device. If you can boot from floppy then you could try a SCSI zip drive if you can get hold of one. Using the 'susie.x' utility you can map zip/mo/CDROM drives as normal drives on the x68000: https://www.target- …
Re: Finalizing my 486 retro computer - advice is welcome
Posted on 2024-05-21, 18:18
The clicking with the Yamaha was most pronounced in streamed digital audio (like .wav files), tracker music and longer sampled sound effects. In very short effects it was not present. Enabling that bios option removed it entirely.
Re: Finalizing my 486 retro computer - advice is welcome
Posted on 2024-05-21, 18:15
I think your decision to focus on SB Pro + wavetable/midi support is entirely sensible and should cover pretty much everything. Yes, you may miss out on some unique sound implementations (GUS, AWE) on a very small number of titles, but almost anything that supports those will also have at the very …
Re: Finalizing my 486 retro computer - advice is welcome
Posted on 2024-05-21, 18:10
Yeah, Privateer is indeed odd. I would suspect that in the case where the same symptoms are observed with both cards there is probably an underlying issue that is not specific with either. I.e. in the WC:P case possibly a motherboard/dma problem. Also the majority of the MIDI playback issues occur …
Re: Finalizing my 486 retro computer - advice is welcome
Posted on 2024-05-21, 16:29
I have done testing with around 250 games so far on both an ESS 1868 and the YMF-719 specifically to see how they worked on my recent 486 single-board-computer build. The verdict is that it's a pretty even set of results, both cards have a very (very) small percentage of games that they don't work …
Re: X68000 midi, bus conflict, Scsi
Posted on 2024-05-20, 18:16
How much ram installed on the base system and how have you configured the add-on memory? The x68000 only has 10mb maximum addressable ram due to the reserved windows for the graphics ram, text ram etc (it's all memory mapped io). Normally you need to configure the ram card to the correct amount: on …
Re: eGPU question
Posted on 2024-05-16, 06:48
I'd be interested as well, since the assisted suicide of VMWare by Broadcom I have a desire to rip out ESXi from my home lab server and replace with something else. Proxmox seems like the best all in one.
Re: Best VGA for the Pentium MMX 200
Posted on 2024-05-16, 06:45
S3 Trio64 / S3 Virge + Voodoo (1 or 2) would be the best all round option for a machine like that. If I had to stick to one for cost reasons it would be the S3 for compatibility with the widest range of (non-3d) games and operating systems (Dos, windows, Linux).
Re: Do you keep a tech-journal?
Posted on 2024-05-15, 18:28
I have a dokuwiki install on my website, so I use it to collect my thoughts, fixes, projects etc, as well more structured work like development work. Its a lower bar to entry than writing html, as I'd rather focus on the content than the layout, but it doesn't wrap your data up in a obnoxious …
Re: Intel 486DX4 vs Cyrix 5x86 showdown (at high FSB frequency)
Posted on 2024-05-15, 16:53
Yes, the Phil benchmark pack timedemo. 54 seems awfully high.
Re: Intel 486DX4 vs Cyrix 5x86 showdown (at high FSB frequency)
Posted on 2024-05-15, 08:48
What’s the point of installing a DX4/586 processor without L2 cache? Since there's no cache upgrading stick available, I just test as is. I just bought a real Cyrix 5x86 120GP today, hopes Doom benchmark will run smoothly without a glitch. 40fps on my 586-120gp without the cyrix optimisations …
Re: Ossc and x68000 xvi fm-towns 2
Posted on 2024-05-15, 08:20
What connection are you using from the x68000 to the ossc? I use a simple VGA connector (via a rgb15-hd15 passive adapter which I sourced from Amazon JP) to the ossc. I used this on two X68000 Pros (both of which were broken in other ways, unfortunately) and on my working Super. The Sharp outputs in …
Re: CpuSpd - A Hardware Based CPU Speed Control Utility for DOS/Win9X Retro Gaming
Posted on 2024-05-14, 18:59
Has anyone got any examples of cpuspd and the available slowdown settings on say a MMX CPU from anywhere in the region of 166 to 233? Current setup is a Cyrix 5x86-120, and with the ability to drop the multiplier to 1x and disable L1 cache, it is broadly equivalent to a 386dx-40. Can cpuspd drop an …
Re: what was it like watching the death of 3dfx post voodoo 3 (late 1999-2000)?
Posted on 2024-05-13, 19:47
I actually think 3dfx were doomed from the outset. Their architecture gave them a massive boost early on and an easy way to scale performance.... to a point . But to make any radical changes and add features to more fully support what were becoming the defacto 3d gaming APIs (OpenGL and direct3d) …
Re: [SOLVED] What does "IOCHREADY" mean and what is its purpose?
Posted on 2024-05-13, 06:54
IOCHRDY means "Input Output Channel Ready" and can be used a short cut to make PIO transfers efficient. The hard drive issues IOCHRDY when it's ready to send or receive data. If the BIOS knows about this, it doesn't have to poll quite as much. Shows up more with VLB controllers. It's on PIN 27, yes …
Re: Tiny 486 build - SBC with ISA backplane
Posted on 2024-05-13, 06:46
I'm wondering if the issue is actually something related to the VIA chipset DMA implementation. Yes sounds like something is messing with it - are there any interesting options in the BIOS to fiddle with around the ISA bus? I can also recommend the Crystal based ISA cards - some of them are super …
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