Re: Graphics card choice for 386DX-33 system

Posted on 2017-05-08, 19:38

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The Diamond Stealth VRAM ISA uses the S3 911 chipset and is from 1991. It's almost twice as fast as the Tseng ET3000AX (a card from 1987). S3 also known for compatibility over Tseng, so I'd go with the Diamond card. But on a 386 you won't see such a big difference between the two cards because of …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2017-05-08, 00:50

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

Checking out Gothic on GOG. Have you played the others in the series? Is it imperative to start with Gothic 1? After finishing Baldur's Gate, I'm wanting something a little lighter and shorter. I started playing Eric the Unready on my 486. Playing in 800x600 16 colors. The music is really nice and …

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Re: List the PC games that you have beaten

Posted on 2017-05-07, 21:33

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

Just finished Baldur's Gate I (including Tales of the Sword Coast expansion). Roughly 2 months and I'm guessing maybe 70 hrs of gameplay? So I probably averaged a little more than 1 hr per day of gameplay. One of the best games I've had the pleasure of playing! wouldn't You sometimes like this to …

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Re: List the PC games that you have beaten

Posted on 2017-05-07, 18:56

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

Just finished Baldur's Gate I (including Tales of the Sword Coast expansion). Roughly 2 months and I'm guessing maybe 70 hrs of gameplay? So I probably averaged a little more than 1 hr per day of gameplay. One of the best games I've had the pleasure of playing! Here's a couple of ending credit …

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Re: Using an SD Card for C: Drive

Posted on 2017-05-07, 13:54

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by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

speedsys does have some storage benchmarks built in. (for DOS)

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Re: Phil's YouTube and Website updates (philscomputerlab)

Posted on 2017-05-07, 11:17

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by clueless1

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Surprised at the low cost on that phone. Seems like a great phone to pick up if your phone breaks mid-contract. I'm surprised you're still on the Windows phone platform, Phil. :) Super awesome, but lack of apps makes it so challenging to use as anything other than a phone! I bought my son a Lumia …

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Re: Best dos GPU for Pentium era MS-DOS games

Posted on 2017-05-06, 22:26

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by clueless1

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I really like my 5446, but Virge edges it out due to certain models supporting VESA 2.0 with the onboard ROM. Great point. Also, even if you get a model that doesn't support VBE2.0, it's less costly to enable via software. S3VBE uses less memory than UniVBE or SDD. And there are measurable …

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Re: Best dos GPU for Pentium era MS-DOS games

Posted on 2017-05-06, 21:20

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by clueless1

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

That compatibility table made me wonder. Is it only pci and agp cards that have compatibility problems? Can you assume that there would be no such compatibility problems if you would put ISA graphics card on your pentium system? IMO, the compatibility chart is a little overblown. Look at the games …

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Re: Best dos GPU for Pentium era MS-DOS games

Posted on 2017-05-06, 20:50

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I tested and reviewed a bunch of PCI graphics cards in DOS. My favorite period-correct cards are: 1. ARK2000PV 2. S3 Virge GX 3. CL-GD5446 If you don't care about being period correct, then the TNT2 M64 beats all of the above. See the link in my signature for more details. Ark2000PV what the F....C …

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Re: Best dos GPU for Pentium era MS-DOS games

Posted on 2017-05-06, 19:46

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Baoran wrote: Is TNT2 M64 really better than GeForce 2 MX PCI? They are probably the same, I think their DOS core is identical.

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Re: How do you feel about old hardware in modern cases?

Posted on 2017-05-06, 17:20

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Love that black CRT, goes really well. That photo was taken about a year ago. The CRT since died, but lives on in this photo. Did you get rid of it? Could well just be the LOPT gone, could be quite fixable. Yeah, dumpster. LOL. I have quite a few CRTs and this one wasn't one I used regularly anyway …

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Re: Bored of vintage computing?

Posted on 2017-05-06, 15:38

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

I have no desire to assemble an 486, for instance, because low res, 320x200 DOS games could be nicely played in DOSBOX. My retro computing stuff was focused on 440BX era. Ha! I came to the opposite conclusion. All the Win9x games I want to play are available on GOG, so I easily play those on XP ( …

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Re: Is win2000 as great, as every claims it to be?

Posted on 2017-05-06, 15:09

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by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

I have fond memories of Win2k, but I have not run it at all since 2007. I upgraded from 98SE to Win2k in 2000, and it was my primary OS until 2007. I don't remember having any compatibility issues with it until 2007 when browsers, drivers, and games started to phase out support. When the hardware …

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Re: Best dos GPU for Pentium era MS-DOS games

Posted on 2017-05-06, 13:37

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I tested and reviewed a bunch of PCI graphics cards in DOS. My favorite period-correct cards are: 1. ARK2000PV 2. S3 Virge GX 3. CL-GD5446 If you don't care about being period correct, then the TNT2 M64 beats all of the above. See the link in my signature for more details.

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Re: Bored of vintage computing?

Posted on 2017-05-06, 13:33

by

by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yes, I'm right there with you, King_Corduroy. For me, the driving force was the games, so once I got enough systems to play all the games I want to, I had less motivation to spend $$ on hardware that in my mind I'd never use. I'm sure if one of my systems goes kaput, I'll get really excited about …

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Re: How do you feel about old hardware in modern cases?

Posted on 2017-05-06, 12:30

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

PhilsComputerLab wrote: Love that black CRT, goes really well. That photo was taken about a year ago. The CRT since died, but lives on in this photo.

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2017-05-06, 12:00

by

by clueless1

in Milliways

in Milliways

Finished the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion last night in Baldur's Gate. Man, Durlag's Tower side quest is massive, and super difficult! By itself, it seemed to be about 15 hrs of gameplay. The other three side quests combined for probably 5 hrs. 20 hrs for an expansion pack? That's awesome. And …

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Re: How do you feel about old hardware in modern cases?

Posted on 2017-05-06, 00:18

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by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice! Way cleaner than my black 486. 🤣. Filename black.jpg File size 214.62 KiB Views 1476 views

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Re: Build for 80's through early 90's

Posted on 2017-05-05, 19:13

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have done similar things with my DX2/66 system. Disabling caches and turbo gets it to about a slow 286. My tests for proper speed include Ultimas I-V and LodeRunner. All these run great at cacheless/deturboed speeds. 😀

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Re: Diamond Stealth 24 VLB drivers

Posted on 2017-05-05, 16:15

by

by clueless1

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

So can anyone confirm it's faster than a mach32 and soothe my worries? I'm afraid it's not so clear cut. According to vgamuseum.info, the Mach32 is faster in PC Player and Quake, but the S3 805 is faster in 3dbench. you'll just have to benchmark both cards in your own machine and decide which one …

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