Re: Pentium PRO?

Posted on 2024-04-19, 20:53

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My only reason for building a PPro system was to see how it performed relative to other systems of the era (e.g. 1996-1997). It does occupy a bit of a retro-no-man's-land in my opinion. Not a daily-driver retro rig by any stretch.

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Re: Pentium PRO?

Posted on 2024-04-19, 20:31

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Identical till you try running 16bit DOS applications on that PPro at which point the P166 should be much faster, 32bit stuff though they should be neck and neck. My experience is that traditional DOS games are roughly comparable between a Pentium Pro versus Pentium / Pentium MMX. The big exception …

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Re: Is it my really my nostalgia or are you playing it wrong…

Posted on 2024-04-18, 23:37

by

by Shponglefan

in Milliways

in Milliways

There are some games that I really liked as a kid, but I just can't get into them nowadays. In most cases, it's because the UI feels too archaic to me, and I can't be bothered with the jankiness. Other times, I simply don't enjoy the gameplay as much as I used to. It is blasphemy that I find Duke …

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Re: Pentium PRO?

Posted on 2024-04-18, 22:47

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a Pentium Pro 200 (512kb) build. In comparison to other Pentiums of the era, it's a bit of novelty build in my experience. For DOS gaming, a Pentium Pro will be comparable or even slower (e.g. Build-engine games) than a regular Pentium or Pentium MMX. I've done some bench marks in this thread …

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Re: Is it my really my nostalgia or are you playing it wrong…

Posted on 2024-04-18, 18:47

by

by Shponglefan

in Milliways

in Milliways

What annoys me, is when a game (or a TV Show etc) was the first or among the first to do a certain thing, which contributed hugely to it's popularity, BUT was copied ever after, such that it is a cliche, and now people hate on the original for being .... unoriginal. Also known as the Seinfeld is …

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Re: Is it my really my nostalgia or are you playing it wrong…

Posted on 2024-04-18, 17:16

by

by Shponglefan

in Milliways

in Milliways

As I understand it, none of the reviewers had played the game when it came out, but all played it prior to the modern review. And their evaluation was overall, not very favorable. I was curious about the age of the individuals here. In listening to the introductions, it sounds like EoB came out …

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Re: Online copies of games are not owned

Posted on 2024-04-18, 12:15

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by Shponglefan

in Milliways

in Milliways

Transitioning to digital distribution didn't decrease the price of new releases. They are more expensive then ever. I think this depends on what is being compared. My experience is that adjusting for inflation, game prices have either held or generally decreased over time. For example, a $70 USD …

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Re: Diamond 3DFX Voodoo 1 sudden death

Posted on 2024-04-17, 13:51

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I second the recommendation to use a Pentium instead of a 486. The Voodoo was best for games from 1996 to 1997. You'll want a Pentium or Pentium MMX system to get decent performance.

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Re: Is there any guide for installing Windows 3.11?

Posted on 2024-04-15, 19:13

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

dionb wrote on 2024-04-15, 09:55: - 512MB RAM is too much, you might need to look into memory managers that can lower it to say 64MB AFAIK, too much RAM is only an issue above 2 GB. I've got 2GB installed and both DOS and Windows 3.11 run without issues or any special patches or memory managers.

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Re: Is there any guide for installing Windows 3.11?

Posted on 2024-04-14, 22:32

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also, I got various graphics cards, for example, Gforce 4 MX 440, Voodoo 3 3000, TNT2, Gforce 3 ti 200... all of them AGP How can I install drivers for those graphics cards on MSDOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11? I believe that the TNT2 was the last nVidia card to have official Windows 3.1/3.11 drivers. …

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Re: Is there any guide for installing Windows 3.11?

Posted on 2024-04-14, 21:49

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Windows 3.11 runs on top of DOS, so you'd start by setting up a FAT16 partition, install DOS, then install Windows 3.11. Depending on your video card and sound card, you may also need to install video and sound drivers. To run Windows, you boot into DOS and launch WIN.EXE. That's about it. It's very …

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

Posted on 2024-04-14, 16:03

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Been testing out a pile of Maxis games running Windows 3.11 on a Pentium 4. Trying to determine optimal throttling for these games... Filename Sim Games.jpg File size 816.55 KiB Views 880 views Filename Windows 3.11 Sim Games Installed.png File size 39.09 KiB Views 880 views

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Re: Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build Log (DOS/3.11/95/NT4/98/2k/Me/XP)

Posted on 2024-04-14, 15:57

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Continued testing various Maxis games under Windows 3.11. Speed sensitive is definitely a challenge with these games with the faster speed options enabled. Fortunately, they all contain options to run at slower speeds or even paused. Windows 3.11 Sim Games Installed.png Windows 3.11 SimCity.png I'm …

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Re: Orpheus II soundcard thread *** LT board now available ***

Posted on 2024-04-14, 15:50

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Quick question about Orpheus II / GUS PnP support under Windows 3.11. I installed the GUS PnP and those worked fine. However, I did notice a constant background tone (noise) after doing so. It went away after changing the Crystal Input setting to "Loop". If I set it to anything else, the tone …

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Re: How to create a dual or even triple boot easily? (w95+w98 and maybe msdos6.22)

Posted on 2024-04-12, 12:59

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a multi-boot Pentium 4 system with multiple Windows OS installs. I use BootIt Bare Metal as both a bootloader and partition manager. It makes it trivial to create and manage multiple partitions and assign them to different boot options. It also allows for more than 4 primary partitions for a …

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Re: How hard is it to find retro/vintage computer hardware where you live?

Posted on 2024-04-11, 19:58

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pickings are somewhat slim where I live (also in Canada). Occasionally desirable items show up on local listings, but they tend to go quickly. Missed out on an Amiga 2000 this way. Local thrift stores also rarely have vintage items. Sometimes computer stuff from early 2000s shows up. Games too. Have …

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Re: How to limit DOS 6.22/Win 3.11 ram

Posted on 2024-04-11, 16:05

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi, is networking enabled by any chance? If so, getting the network address via DHCP might keep Windows busy just long enough to display the splash screen. Another cause might be the SB16 MIDI driver looking for a non-existent (disabled) MPU-401. I had this problem once in Virtual PC 2004/2007 (has …

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Re: Pentium 4 (LGA775 / i865) Multi-OS Build Log (DOS/3.11/95/NT/98/2k/Me/XP)

Posted on 2024-04-11, 02:00

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Installed video and audio drivers for Windows NT 4.0. For audio drivers I used the Crystal Audio 4237 NT 4.0 drivers. They seemed to install fine and basic audio playback is working. Haven't tried any games yet, but that will be the next thing to test. Also still need to install an MPU-401 driver to …

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Re: How to limit DOS 6.22/Win 3.11 ram

Posted on 2024-04-10, 23:13

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It’s even so fast that the windows 3.11 start up screen doesn’t even show but just directly goes in That's a bit odd that it's not showing the splash screen. I've been running a Pentium 4 3.4 GHz w/ 2 GB of RAM with Windows for Workgroups 3.11. It always shows the splash screen before loading. The …

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Re: Equipment and tutorial suggestions for recapping cards?

Posted on 2024-04-10, 22:49

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm considering replacing capacitors on old hardware as a side-gig, but I haven't done it before. Aside from my inexpensive multi-meter and adjustable soldering iron, will I need any other equipment? For cap. replacement or other similar level of repairs I'd recommend the following: Component …

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