Re: 4 Sound Card DOS System

Posted on 2020-07-08, 07:33

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Duke Nukem 3D is the one game where I have to change my GUS MAX environment variable from IRQ11 to IRQ5 and reinitialize. The high IRQ is good for most stuff. You will usually want to initialize any GUS cards in the system, as they can otherwise trap joystick ports as well as AdLib ports. You might …

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Re: 4 Sound Card DOS System

Posted on 2020-07-05, 17:04

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The CT2760 is fine, but the CT3900 is mostly the same and may be cleaner. Four ISA cards is a high number for the limited resources available. The DB50XG is a nice option to have. Given a choice I wouldn't trust any of the Creative cards for an MPU host. Seems like the only alternative is the Turtle …

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Re: Advantages of Dual Pentium3 or dual Pentium motherboards for retro PC?

Posted on 2020-07-01, 12:05

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There's no sensible reason for dual CPU's unless you're actually running the applications they were made for - 90's desktop productivity. It's not about performance, it's about having two CPU's! It's just... neato. Well, if you run an OS that supports more than one CPU core, then you do gain some …

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Re: Mouse polling rate/smoothness in DOS

Posted on 2020-06-30, 12:29

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It should be very possible, but haven't come across much for DOS. For Microsoft MOUSE.COM v8.20, there's the following command-line switch parameter: /R1 – specifies interrupt rate 30 Hz (the default). Alternatives are: /R2 – interrupt rate 50 Hz, /R3 – interrupt rate 100 Hz, /R4 – interrupt rate …

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Re: Aladdin (DOS) music - SB16 vs. SBPro vs. WSS

Posted on 2020-06-24, 12:48

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by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Good job documenting the bug. Good information to add to SB16/AWE's practical deficencies.

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Re: Floppy disks: emulator or not?

Posted on 2020-05-31, 14:40

by

by firage

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I use real drives and floppies. I don't write many floppies and they're only for temporary use. Wouldn't trust them for storage. Just have to be able to read any physical floppies I come across.

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Re: What was the first fan-made level/map/mod for a commercial game?

Posted on 2020-04-26, 10:17

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by firage

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

People for sure were hacking commercial games before the end of the 70's on TRS-80's. As long as there's been games there's been user mods. Check out the story behind Colossal Cave Adventure.

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Re: Most compatible music card with DOS games? - noisy and quiet sound

Posted on 2020-04-21, 16:24

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I have AWE64 CT4520, also "not gold" but already with colorful sockets: https://images92.fotosik.pl/352/8bdb7e24d65e8494med.jpg To compare the sound from the game "DOOM" I would need to have files for this game. However, as for the noise, the sound is noisy not during silence but during music / …

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Re: Most compatible music card with DOS games? - noisy and quiet sound

Posted on 2020-04-21, 11:42

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Regarding X-Wing, the CD-ROM version should have stereo on SB16. The floppy version is SB/SB Pro only, but is it actually stereo? According to my test it's mono and in fact has no special support for SB Pro. It'll be interesting to see more of these stereo titles listed, as people don't tend to have …

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Re: Most compatible music card with DOS games? - noisy and quiet sound

Posted on 2020-04-21, 02:36

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

16-bit mixing is better than 8-bit mixing, 16-bit samples or no. The lack of SB Pro stereo in a SB16 isn't much of an issue, as stereo in SB Pro-only games is extremely rare. Certainly a rarer occurence than DOS games with 16-bit samples, for example. :) SB16's have other minor faults, though. The …

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Re: Which old games would you like to see remastered version of it?

Posted on 2020-04-11, 15:02

by

by firage

in Milliways

in Milliways

My top three are TIE Fighter, Red Baron, Sword of the Samurai.

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Re: Fix Display Problems in Crystal Caves and Secret Agent

Posted on 2020-04-09, 05:56

by

by firage

in Deep Thought

in Deep Thought

This patch has fixed the games for the ET4000/W32p. Crystal Caves and Secret Agent compatibility was really the only issue that bothered me personally about these video cards previously. Very happy now - thanks again K1n9_Duk3! (The first Apogee title screen will look more like a black screen with …

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Re: My Big Red Switch 486

Posted on 2020-04-05, 15:11

by

by firage

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

According to K1n9_Duk3 the part in the games' code that sets the "virtual screen width" has to be patched. Here's his post: Fix Display Problems in Crystal Caves and Secret Agent

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Re: My Big Red Switch 486

Posted on 2020-04-04, 16:09

by

by firage

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Great news on this front - K1n9_Duk3 has successfully developed a fix that works for Crystal Caves and Secret Agent! I've been playing all three episodes of both games using the ET4000/W32p today and it all looks fantastic. 😀

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Re: Gravis Ultrasound wall art project

Posted on 2020-04-01, 15:50

by

by firage

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Nice taste in wall art, man! 😀 Thumbs up for mounting the MAX 1.8. It's an impressive beast.

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Re: My Big Red Switch 486

Posted on 2020-03-31, 21:46

by

by firage

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I tried it just now and it has no effect, unfortunately. :( Thanks for the effort to fix these games, it's appreciated. It's the same whether the game's just loaded or jumping around in the game itself, flipping the alternate video mode on and off. Just a black screen and some vertical lines and …

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Re: My Big Red Switch 486

Posted on 2020-03-31, 19:33

by

by firage

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

So regarding the performance of LGR's build (I'm a big fan, btw) - you really shouldn't look at it as reference level. The Doom demo on the video runs at 28.0 fps (2664 realtics) after the Pentium upgrade. People have actually posted faster results than that with 486DX2-66's. There are DOS games …

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Re: My Big Red Switch 486

Posted on 2020-03-31, 18:29

by

by firage

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

It is working with write-back L1 enabled. Issues with WB L1 are specifically to do with bus-mastering controllers, I believe. Such VLB controllers are more likely to be SCSI.

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Re: My Big Red Switch 486

Posted on 2020-03-30, 18:39

by

by firage

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Cool. I've only seen the case once aside from mine. It was listed on a local auction site here. It's a very fast VLB card, so perfect for the CPU. Haven't had many compatibility issues... The first issue I've ran into is with Crystal Caves - just no luck whatsoever getting a picture. Keen games work …

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Re: My Big Red Switch 486

Posted on 2020-03-30, 13:14

by

by firage

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

One of the best things about a real steel DOS machine is that you get to experience different sound cards. Each of the three sound cards and the external module is quite clearly preferable to an AWE64 Gold for their own set of games/demos/tracks. My choice here is to leave the cleanest SB16/AWE …

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