Re: FM vs MT-32 vs General MIDI DOS Game Music Comparo

Posted on 2019-03-19, 19:13

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I added the Smith Shop music from Realms of Arkania. As I play through the game, I'll record and add more tracks that I find enjoyable. I couldn't get Dune II to play correctly on the MT-32, so I haven't added this game yet. The notes get stuck and the whole thing sounds horrible. I've listened to …

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Re: Heads Up: Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi Plugin!

Posted on 2019-03-11, 07:53

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So I got a bit tired of trying to figure out the versions thing, and i asked Roland themselves for an explanation. My email, and their response, below: My Email: Currently (09 March 2019), when I go to the downloads section to download my purchased copy of the Sound Canvas VA, I am presented with …

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Transarctica 5.25 Floppy File Structure

Posted on 2019-03-10, 01:35

by

by Staticblast

in DOS

in DOS

Hey guys, need some help. I'm trying to create images of my 5.25 floppy version of Transarctica. Unfortunately, the actual floppies are corrupted. Fortunately, I had it installed, and I was able to use WinImage to compare to the corrupted disks' file structure to rebuild the images manually to a …

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Re: Motherboard Boot Issue - BIOS or CMOS Memory?

Posted on 2018-07-26, 20:16

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since you have access to an external flasher, why not dump the BIOS into a file once it has started behaving badly and compare it to the original file you used to flash with ? If there is any corruption of the BIOS chip's content, it should show up. Good idea! I'll try that. What kind of comparison …

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Re: What games Required a Geforce2 ?

Posted on 2018-07-25, 22:27

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

matze79 wrote: Emperor does not require Tnl. it requires minimum 16Mb Videocard with DirectX 7.0a. ...Dammit. I hate false memories. Makes me feel like I can't trust my own brain. You're right, of course. It didn't require it, only supported it.

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Re: Motherboard Boot Issue - BIOS or CMOS Memory?

Posted on 2018-07-25, 22:22

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Deksor wrote: Are Caps good ? Is the pay working ok ? Caps look OK on a visual inspection, nothing bulging. The PSU is definitely OK.

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Re: What games Required a Geforce2 ?

Posted on 2018-07-24, 12:38

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think you kept the TNT far to long and therefor the Geforce2 was a GIANT step forwards, even from a TNT2 it was a huge step up. And the GTS for example was still a fairly expensive card but it was still a lot cheaper as the ultra and still performed amazingly well. Also compared to the TNT2 ultra …

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Re: Motherboard Boot Issue - BIOS or CMOS Memory?

Posted on 2018-07-24, 12:36

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The second time that you flashed the BIOS it seemed to run longer before freezing. But I'm wondering if that's just because the board had time to cool down and has nothing to with the BIOS anymore. I would double check any jumper settings, try reseating/swapping DIMMs, and verify the CPU cooler is …

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Motherboard Boot Issue - BIOS or CMOS Memory?

Posted on 2018-07-14, 20:00

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've recently acquired a free Pentium 3 motherboard (a Fastfame 3VBAE2) from my brother-in-law, but it fails to boot. Symptoms: Initially - A long, continuous beep with no screen response. Even clearing CMOS didn't do anything, nor did replacing battery. Then, I did some research, and apparently …

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2017-10-12, 23:15

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Ooooh, shiny! Looking good, I'm going to have to make sure I have the cash for it squirrelled away. 😀

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2017-09-27, 19:07

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

keropi wrote: only complete/tested cards will be sold atm , sorry No problem! I just figured it would be a fun little project. I'd rather have the card and find something else to solder, than not have the card at all. Thanks so much for your hard work!

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Re: Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?

Posted on 2017-09-25, 16:41

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Added myself to the waiting list. I see some people noted themselves as preferring a kit for self-assembly. Can we request it that way? I'd quite like that.

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Clone PCBs?

Posted on 2017-09-18, 00:32

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently started hunting for an MPU-401 card for my (finally finished!) DOS retro build, and found that they were so difficult to obtain that some people have started making new clones available. The one that really caught my attention, though, was the one done by lo-tech (unfortunately currently …

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Re: Old Motherboard BIOS update?

Posted on 2017-08-27, 20:29

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recommend using a dedicated flasher (ie https://www.amazon.com/High-speed-TL866CS-Universal-Programmer-Programming/dp/B00AWJ7SA4 ) to flash a separate chip instead of trying to overwrite your currently working bios in the board. You mean buy a completely separate bios chip, flash that and then …

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Re: Old Motherboard BIOS update?

Posted on 2017-08-27, 19:15

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recommend using a dedicated flasher (ie https://www.amazon.com/High-speed-TL866CS-Universal-Programmer-Programming/dp/B00AWJ7SA4 ) to flash a separate chip instead of trying to overwrite your currently working bios in the board. You mean buy a completely separate bios chip, flash that and then …

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Old Motherboard BIOS update?

Posted on 2017-08-27, 11:29

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got an old Soyo 5EMA+ motherboard, currently flashed to BIOS version 1DA1. I know there's a newer version out, and I have the file, but I can't make head or tail of how to flash it. Do I have to use awdflash.exe, or is there a Windows alternative for this board? If I have to use awdflash, how …

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Re: Starting recommendations

Posted on 2017-06-28, 08:04

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I second the suggestion for a P2 build, an ATX Slot 1 board with ISA is probably the easiest to find for a beginner who wants to do both high-performance DOS gaming and reasonable 9x gaming, the best part about ATX boards is that they'll most likely fit in nearly any half-modern full tower case …

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Re: Starting recommendations

Posted on 2017-06-27, 15:51

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

oeuvre wrote: Ensure you have at least one PS/2 mouse and PS/2 keyboard Yeah, no kidding. Old motherboards can be fussy. Mine won't take a USB keyboard during boot. It also refuses to acknowledge any graphics cards at all if I have both an AGP and a PCI card installed.

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Re: Starting recommendations

Posted on 2017-06-27, 13:49

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You don't say, but based on the hardware you listed, I'm guessing retro to you means Windows 9x? That's roughly the era of V3 and SB16. The answer to your question depends on what era you focus. If you are focusing on 386/486, for example, then AT-compatible hardware would be more important. For …

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Starting recommendations

Posted on 2017-06-27, 11:52

by

by Staticblast

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

SO I've got my first retro PC (mostly) set, aside from needing to wait for the HxC emulator. But that got me to thinking about what else might be a good idea for it. Which brought me to this question: what, in your opinions, is the basic stuff (w.r.t. peripherals) someone who's looking to build …

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