Re: YT Video: Building a retro gaming PC for Splinter Cell!
Posted on 2014-04-14, 00:25
As far as this game goes, I won't play it on PC, its far too picky with hardware. Even a Geforce 6 card won't do the dynamic shadows.
Re: Changing configurations
Posted on 2014-04-07, 10:08
I just switched a Win98 HDD to a whole new system, at first it complained as it found all the motherboard hardware, but that's to be expected. After that I just installed the new drivers. Works as well as it ever did.
Re: Low performance on my 486's HDD?
Posted on 2014-04-03, 03:11
I don't know why, but today it shaped up. It ran Memmaker like 3 times without complaining. I did reseat the IDE cables, so maybe that had something to do with it. Memmaker was the only thing last night that caused it to flip out, it did everything else just fine, games, windows, etc. I do run a VLB …
Re: Low performance on my 486's HDD?
Posted on 2014-04-02, 18:25
Another spinrite scan done, still no bad sectors, no little errors either. I wonder if its an IRQ conflict or something, I did swap out the soundcard yesterday, but it retains the same IRQ, DMA and I/O as the last one, so its probably not that.
Re: Low performance on my 486's HDD?
Posted on 2014-04-02, 17:40
I did do a surface scan and ran it with spinrite, and everything is fine according to that. I'm in the process of reinstalling dos to make sure I didn't mess anything up in the autoexec and config files, and wow, this thing wants to put up a fight today. Memmaker is just not having it today. When it …
Low performance on my 486's HDD?
Posted on 2014-04-02, 05:59
For some reason, my 240MB Conner hard drive is slow. Its in one 240mb partition. When I DIR, it takes almost 3 or 4 seconds to complete, it seems most of the time is spent reading how much data the files are. It seems to be very much faster with smartdrv.exe running. Also games seem to load a lot …
Re: Your Mothership PC Components
Posted on 2014-03-27, 10:09
Here we go I guess. I'm too lazy to figue out the very specific stuff, like motherboards and all, but I'll post what I remember off the top of my head. Mothership 1: Pentium MMX 200MHz 64MB EDO 60ns 3GB Maxtor C: 1.2GB WDC 21200 D: Teac CD-ROM S3 ViRGE 2MB Yamaha xWave soundcard with the ESS Allegro …
Re: Return of the Wavy Lines - this time, it's Matrox
Posted on 2014-03-18, 01:38
Does it happen in all resolutions/refresh rates? I wonder if that's a factor. Its probably just RFI from your computer interfering with something on the card.
Re: Possible DS12887 drop-in replacement
Posted on 2014-03-09, 01:50
I think this whole idea is great, having an easily replaceable battery instead of the Dallas module. I'll probably end up buying a few if they work out, my first computer has one and my Cousin's 486 has had the mod done to it. I stuck it in the wrong way the first time I inserted it so it semi broke …
Re: POLL: What is your favorite vintage processor?
Posted on 2014-03-07, 22:15
I have often wondered what part naming has to do with a company's success. "Intel" certainly sounds a lot cooler to me than "AMD". If two companies had similar performance and reviews, I might be more inclined to buy the one with the better name. This is especially true for me concerning restaurant …
Re: POLL: What is your favorite vintage processor?
Posted on 2014-03-07, 20:12
I think the only reason AMD was able to one up Intel was because Intel was too busy picking its butt trying to figure out ways to scam people with the Pee4, Rambust and Itanic. Intel probably didn't deserve to survive a mistake like that, but somehow they did. It's funny how they're in almost the …
Re: MMX/3DNow!/SSE usage
Posted on 2014-02-26, 22:26
Frogger has a mode where you can use MMX in combination with sofware rendering. I don't think it's used when you use 3d acceleration from a video card though.
Re: POLL: What is your favorite vintage processor?
Posted on 2014-02-12, 19:27
My favorite is probably the Pentium MMX 200-233MHz. They seem to be a very good sweet spot for early windows gaming and runs pretty much all dos games except for the few that are speed dependent.
Re: Post pics of your CRT monitors
Posted on 2014-02-07, 00:35
I got a couple CRTS. The first is a 16" Dell "Trinitron" CRT. I'm guessing they licensed the Trinitron name from Sony. It does 1200x1600 @60hz http://i.imgur.com/cYdy94Dl.jpg?1 This one is my main monitor for DOS/Win9x games. I think it would be considered SVGA, only topping out at 600x800, I don't …
Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread
Posted on 2014-02-06, 20:18
Gotta love them old hard drives 😁 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBNi8VpuIq4 My 486 had a WDC 21200 1.2gb drive in it. Could only access 502mb of the thing so I went and bought a Conner 240mb drive to replace it. 😜
Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread
Posted on 2014-02-06, 04:15
Thanks :P I just keep going to that thrift store every day on the lookout for old PC stuff. I only find something worthwhile every once a year or so. I got the 486 2 years ago, the P75 sometime august last year and the 386sx last December.Its always good to have a store around that is completely …
Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread
Posted on 2014-02-05, 20:50
Here are my old computers :P http://i.imgur.com/ZEe4s6al.jpg http://i.imgur.com/P9pcl6el.jpg This is my first computer. Its specs: Pentium MMX 200mhz S3 ViRGE 96MB of ram AWE 64 value http://i.imgur.com/PrZVQ70l.jpg http://i.imgur.com/0m8RHI0l.jpg This is a computer I picked up at a thrift store for …
Re: Need help with VLB/486 Motherboard
Posted on 2014-01-30, 04:15
On award BIOSes 1 long and 3 short beeps means there is a video card issue. What is the bus speed at? I've heard of issues with more than one VESA card on higher bus speeds, like 40 and 50mhz.
Re: post up pics of your "computing area"
Posted on 2014-01-14, 21:13
Here's some of my computer setup. Its a little messier right now, but the messier the better :P This one is my modern computer. i5-2400 and a Radeon HD 7970 http://i.imgur.com/3lF9TV0l.jpg These are my older computers. The one on the desk is my 486DX2, the one on the left below is my Pentium MMX …
Re: Building a Pentium Pro system from scratch
Posted on 2014-01-14, 06:32
You should tear apart that old AT PSU and see if there is a blown cap. I trust my old AT PSUs, I tear them apart every couple of months to keep them clean and look for bulging caps so that nothing is about to go boom. I think that those old PSUs are part of the experience of using old computers, so …
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