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

Posted on 2024-02-03, 16:51

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Trying out a Hercules graphics adapter with this Pentium 4 setup. While I couldn't get it to work in Hercules mode, the BIOS does detect it as a CGA adapter and works in that mode.

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

Posted on 2024-02-03, 04:57

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Been doing a bunch of playing around with this DFI G7S620-N motherboard + Pentium 4 combo. I think it's rapidly becoming my new favorite thing as I explore how throttleable it is. The possibility of having a system that can legitimately cover late 80s to mid-2000s gaming on bare metal hardware is so …

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Re: What is the fastest practical DOS build?

Posted on 2024-02-03, 04:34

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Updated on my continued testing the DFI G7S620-N motherboard + 3.4GHz P4 (HT 650 Prescott). I've tried a few different ISA video cards and sound cards. ISA video cards seem to work fine. Sound cards are a bit more iffy with speed sensitive issues popping up in some games (such as incorrect pitch or …

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Re: 2024 - End of the era of Retro Computing Youtube channels?

Posted on 2024-02-02, 21:31

by

by Shponglefan

in Milliways

in Milliways

The "sitting at home and tinkering with Computers" is probably one of the simpler things to film after a lets play. Imagine you had to do real work like Interviews, filming on remote locations with proper lighting and audio or just proper skilled speaking (a script for example)... This all depends …

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Re: 2024 - End of the era of Retro Computing Youtube channels?

Posted on 2024-02-02, 20:16

by

by Shponglefan

in Milliways

in Milliways

It’s easy to criticize yet so much harder to actually produce a palatable product and build an audience. Until someone has tried their hand at video production and editing, people have no idea how difficult and time-consuming it really is. I especially give my hat off to anyone who enjoys the …

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Re: 2024 - End of the era of Retro Computing Youtube channels?

Posted on 2024-02-02, 20:11

by

by Shponglefan

in Milliways

in Milliways

I've never understood the LGR fandom. Clint seems like a nice guy and all, but he has very limited hardware knowledge and his repair skills stop at replacing CMOS batteries. In fairness, LGR's videos have never been about repairs. His channel started primarily as a games review channel, and …

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Re: ESS Solo-1 DOS Compatibility Testing on Multiple Systems

Posted on 2024-02-02, 02:58

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I would advise caution with such games. While they might initially appear to "work" what happens after you complete a level? Or when the music track changes? I've encountered similar things before on a different card (YMF744) and it didn't always result in a permanent "fix". I tested Abuse in-game …

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Re: Recommended boot manager for quad boot from single drive (DOS / Win 95 / Win 98SE / Win XP)

Posted on 2024-02-02, 01:55

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

megatog615 wrote on 2024-02-01, 19:46: You can turn off the fancy stuff, even run it in 80x25 text mode. That's good to hear at least. Are there any screenshots of what it looks like in basic text mode? When I researched Plop I just keep seeing screenshots of its 90s video game style interface.

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Re: ESS Solo-1 DOS Compatibility Testing on Multiple Systems

Posted on 2024-02-02, 00:28

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Doing some more testing and discovered that I could get Abuse's General MIDI music working provided I first initialized the MIDI interface with another game's setup program. In this particular case, I launched the Blood setup program and tested General MIDI playback. Then I launched Abuse's setup …

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Re: Retro PC MIDI to modern PC

Posted on 2024-02-01, 16:25

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Phil did a video on this. If you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out: Roland MIDI Emulator Project 2.0 for best music with DOS Retro Games

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

Posted on 2024-01-31, 23:42

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The IBM is done, for now at least. IMG_2936.jpg It's successfully booting Windows 95, complete with sound coming through the ultimedia speaker on the front panel, OS/2 2.11, and even has a completely non-setup DOS 6.22 partition for when I eventually have a need for a very slow 486 and want to much …

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Re: Pentium Pro Socket 8 CPU Cooler

Posted on 2024-01-31, 21:55

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

boggsman wrote on 2024-01-31, 21:53: Hey! That's really cool the way you mounted the fan. Where did you find your heat sink though? I think it was included with one of the Pentium Pro's I bought.

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Re: Pentium Pro Socket 8 CPU Cooler

Posted on 2024-01-31, 21:48

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Pentium Pro cooling solution was to use a regular Pentium Pro heatsink and attached a Noctua fan to it. I did this by gluing screws in place on the fan and then attaching it to the heatsink with rubber grommets. Filename Fan Mount 1.jpg File size 225.41 KiB Views 823 views Filename Fan Mount 2. …

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Re: Recommended boot manager for quad boot from single drive (DOS / Win 95 / Win 98SE / Win XP)

Posted on 2024-01-31, 20:34

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

megatog615 wrote on 2024-01-31, 20:12: plop boot manager I considered it but I couldn't get past the ugly interface. Hence why I want something that it's just a plain text menu with no attempts at being 'fancy'.

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Re: Which graphics card for Pentium Pro build?

Posted on 2024-01-31, 19:23

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

One big exception to Pentium Pro performance are Build engine games (e.g. Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, etc.) in higher resolutions. The Pentium Pro significantly underperforms on these games compared to regular Pentium processors. I've even tested a Pentium 133 against a Pentium Pro 200 (256kb …

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Re: Repairing an Orchid Righteous 3D, question about memory chips

Posted on 2024-01-31, 19:03

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I should mention I did conduct a physical inspection including pin testing. Everything seems solid. The card is in otherwise immaculate shape.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2024-01-31, 17:04

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Picked up this MiroSOUND PCM 20 sound card. Don't really know anything about it, but it looked unusual so I bought it. I think it has OPL4 on it. Anyway, nice find! Miro used to make high quality stuff back in the day. That's good to know! I'm curious to try this card out and see what it can do. :)

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Repairing an Orchid Righteous 3D - turns out the card is fine, problem was testing on too fast a system

Posted on 2024-01-31, 16:55

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by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Orchid Righteous 3D - not working.jpg Updated: The video card itself is fine. The problem is I was testing it on a Pentium 4 which was clearly too fast for it to work reliably. I have this Orchid Righteous 3D that is having issues. Using MOJO.EXE and logging debug output, the results appear fine in …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2024-01-31, 16:30

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Picked up this MiroSOUND PCM 20 sound card. Don't really know anything about it, but it looked unusual so I bought it. Filename MiroSOUND PCM 20.jpg File size 543.06 KiB Views 468 views

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Re: Dead 486! Anyone able to repair what I can't?

Posted on 2024-01-31, 13:49

by

by Shponglefan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

...try using the POST card with an ISA port instead. Those Chinese knockoff cards can be a bit flaky when using them on the PCI bus, some of them can even damage the computer. The ISA connection usually works perfectly though. I haven't tried that yet as I don't know which direction it's supposed …

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