Re: i5-3550P / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 650Ti / X-Fi

Posted on 2022-05-23, 14:16

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I'm curious, how frequently did you need to set affinity for pre-2005 WinXP games? I usually look up whatever I'm going to play on the PC gaming wiki to see if I need to make any compatibility adjustments. It surprised me that Max Payne 2 apparently has issues with multi-core CPUs, since I wanted …

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Re: i5-3550P / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 650Ti / X-Fi

Posted on 2022-05-23, 11:40

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Nice rig! CPU This Core i5 3550P CPU is more than enough for most WinXP games that I intend to play on this rig. The only downside is that I have to force CPU affinity to a single core for a few titles which have problems otherwise. I've replaced the stock cooler with an aftermarket one and also …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2022-05-18, 12:33

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by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos I've attempted this several times over the years, but usually end up quitting out of boredom (early on) or frustration (later in the game). The furthest I've gotten is the White Tower, which I remember being extremely tedious and/or frustrating. I'll give you the …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2022-05-17, 05:01

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by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

I just reached the last chapters in the second part of the game and I think I'm starting to see this behavior. For some of the tougher fights, it almost feels like the developers want you to go in, see the enemy placement, get wasted, quick load and then use your knowledge from the last attempt to …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2022-05-16, 16:47

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by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

Continuing my Max Payne playthrough. The music in this game is subtle, but very fitting. The main menu theme is especially memorable, and I do recall it from way back when I first played this. Interestingly, the game appears to use some form of positional audio and has full 5.1 speaker support. For …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-05-14, 05:19

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've been playing a lot of Guild Wars (original) lately. Not exactly retro, but whatever I try to get other people to play with me they always scoff at the game being "too old". I bought the original collector's edition and have several exclusive pre-order items. I've played this game for about 17 …

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Re: Your method for burning PSX backups?

Posted on 2022-05-12, 04:36

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by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

If you can't find a way there's other options too, like softmodding: https://www.retrorgb.com/playstation-1-tonyhax-soft-mod-released.html Not as convenient as just loading from a disc, but no need for modchip. There's also ODE's, I hear XStation is good while PSIO can be a bit finicky and the …

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Re: Your method for burning PSX backups?

Posted on 2022-05-11, 20:28

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by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

I think it was something about the way copy protection was implemented on the PS1, it checked for something else than the data when booting the disk that it then passed or not. No idea how to burn perfect backup copies that don't need any kind of modchip though, I only use original disks in hopes …

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Re: First Retro buid: W98SE P3 build

Posted on 2022-05-09, 10:17

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

What SD card are you using? When I had just put my 650MHz P3 DOS/Win98SE rig together I wanted to try something without messing the Win98SE installation I had and used some crappy SD card that had come along something I had bought and it was awful. The Samsung SD card I had used for the original …

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Re: 1GB vs 2GB for gaming XP build

Posted on 2022-05-08, 14:42

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The first game I remember running into that needed more than the 1GB I had at the time was Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines and that was released 2004. I see no reason not to go 2GB unless the rig is specifically intended for earlier games.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-05-07, 06:59

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Continuing with my P4 WinXP rig (oh god wall of text warning) I had a Sandy Bridge i3 2120 machine for WinXP originally and while it worked great it always somehow felt a little clinical to me, unexciting. I imagine most here know what I mean. I didn't mind as I have pretty functional mindset, as …

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Re: Day of the Tentacle keeps locking up - CPU too fast?

Posted on 2022-05-07, 03:34

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

CuteMouse 1.9.1 works for me, 2.0 and 2.1 lock my computer immediately. Can be found from the link Gmlb256 posted above.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-05-05, 15:45

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Use vinegar to neutralize the acid and clean corrosion. Then go over it with isopropyl alcohol. It's probably fine. It looks to be isolated to the leg there and won't have reached the motherboard, I suspect. As long as it's mechanically sound, it will be fine. I have a soldering iron and would …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-05-05, 15:33

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A bit of corrosion there too that won't scrub off, any idea how long it could take before that can become a problem? I don't own a soldering iron so unless that's going to eat the motherbord, the house and me before the year ends I'd rather not rush off to get one. I can't see the corrosion on the …

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Re: Bought these games today

Posted on 2022-05-05, 12:51

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by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

Today I went to a market. A regular, not a vintage one. I was almost at the end, heavily raining, when a box with a bunch of disks and DVD cases caught my eye. It was mostly trash, but I picked out some stuff for $1.5 each. IMG_20220505_124105.jpg The disks are in flawless condition aside of being …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-05-05, 11:31

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Don't worry about that. Coin cell battery's are usually safe, in fact i cant recall ever seeing one leaking. And to my eyes it doesn't even look like corrosion, more like there was a short somewhere Which perhaps is even more alarming. Encouraging :) The seller sold it as tested and working and …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-05-05, 10:42

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally was able to start putting together a P4 Cedar Mill rig after the guy I bought DDR2 turned out to be an idiot, took forever to send it and when it finally arrived turned out they sent the wrong stick. Return for that is in progress and the new stick I bought from another seller arrived so I …

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Re: Bought these games today

Posted on 2022-05-04, 12:38

by

by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

Indy.JPG Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, CD-ROM talkie version. In great condition, only a bit of depression on the box. The second most I've paid for a game at 100€, most being Fallout at 110€. I normally pay 10-40€ for big box games but can go higher for games that are important to me and …

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Re: Some eBay sellers are assholes

Posted on 2022-04-30, 05:32

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I sold a laptop once that was clearly labeled as having the dead battery removed to save on shipping. Upon receipt, the buyer opened a problem case and said that the laptop doesn't charge. I had to refund the item, shipping, and pay for return shipping. I tried to submit an appeal, but eBay denied …

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Re: Athlon64 3000+ / Asus K8V-MX / GeForce4 / Audigy2 ZS

Posted on 2022-04-28, 19:15

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Phil has a video where he benchmarks the performance impact of various sound cards, albeit on a SS7 platform. You can see similar results in his tests. Oh, nice! Okay, nothing earth breaking but small differences here and there. You should be able to see the "CD Digital" slider even without …

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