Re: Voodoo II Practical Differences between 8MB and 12MB cards

Posted on 2019-10-12, 12:29

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Having 8 MB of texture memory means less texture swapping than with only 4 MB. That's it. If a game uses lots of textures, performance with a 12 MB card is (or can be) better.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-12, 09:41

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Matrox Mystrique 2 MB + 2 MB expansion, unfortunately no box, but software is new. Nice, I own exactly that card as well (2 MB + 2 MB expansion) and the software, but also no box. Your copy of Mechwarrior 2 however seems incomplete, as it should come in a Jewel Case with inlays, not loose.

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Re: How do you store your "jewels" and other stuff without box ?

Posted on 2019-10-12, 09:31

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm hoarding tons of cardboard boxes in all sizes, bags, etc. so I can pack away smaller pieces easily. But in the end, all stuff is grouped and will end up in those IKEA boxes: IMG_20191012_101022934.jpg Once a pile of 3x4 is ready, it goes into storage.

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Re: Is this an Xbox Alpha Tower card?

Posted on 2019-10-12, 07:25

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Gateway GeForce3 Ti 200, nothing special.

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Re: Util to allow arithmetic operations in MS-DOS scripts?

Posted on 2019-10-12, 07:21

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Just use QBASIC, which is included with DOS.

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Re: Yamaha OPL YMF262 driver ?

Posted on 2019-10-11, 19:39

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

IMO, the only reason to use an OPL to play MIDI is if you hate polyphony. That's complete nonsense. The OPL3 has 18 channels and unlike the 16 channels of a GM device, the OPL3 can play these at the same time - always! FM synthesis is not based on voices, and hence does not use multiple voices for …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-11, 19:33

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

cyclone3d wrote: I have one of these I got a few years ago. Pretty sweet unit if I do say so myself. It's also compatible to XG. But unlike the SC-88 Pro, which already had unofficial XG mode, the MT-300s does it right. I could not hear any wrong sound or missing XG effect in my XG test files. 😀

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Re: Other than Roland, what are the other "best" sounding MIDI devices/sound cards out there?

Posted on 2019-10-11, 19:14

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

A point to make is that in-game, taking Sierra games for example, the Sound Canvas SC-55 was what the General MIDI games were composed for. So it's less a case of 'realistic sounding' in the case of the SC-55, which is almost 30 years old, and more a case of 'the MIDI was composed and balanced for …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-11, 16:47

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not really today, but almost. 😉 IMG_20191011_184039873.jpg Roland MT-300s. What a nice unit. It combines almost every feature a MIDI device can have.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-11, 14:54

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For someone with no knowledge, these spots don't look much different to the bigger soldering spots around. And at original size (that is, picture zoomed to the size of the card, not looked at 100%), these spots are tiny, not even 1mm.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-11, 14:47

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not to beat a dead horse, but you don't have to know anything about electronics to notice something is physically damaged. It's obviously not designed to have gouge marks in the backside. Well, while that might be true, the picture HanJammer posted is extremely magnified. If you own such a Voodoo 1 …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-11, 13:18

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Traces don't burn in such a small spot. These are certainly impact spots. Not sure what the silver color there is, however. Either remains of the metal part that caused the damage, or it's the inner ground layer. In the latter case, you can pretty much forget repairing it.

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

Posted on 2019-10-11, 12:49

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

"very slow" is quite exaggerated. Even if video RAM speed would be all that ever counts, the M64 could not be slower than half of what the non-M64 is able to perform. In reality, the impact of video RAM speed is much lower and the M64 even with only 120/125 MHz (slowest TNT2 of all) still has almost …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-11, 11:58

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got my case for the dual-Xeon build I'm planning. NOS and with all the goodies. 😀 Nice thing is that it has front USB ports hidden under a lid, so it could be used for a pre-USB build as well and would still look authentic. IMG_20191011_132502536.jpg IMG_20191011_132908406.jpg

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-11, 11:51

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That doesn't surprise me at all, knowing Commodore's history of cutting corners on everything that they could on home computers ._. I wonder what kind of other unneeded cost-saving measure they took While one could easily think that, it was certainly no cost-saving measure. Because then, early …

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Re: Is there a DOS-compatible handheld gamepad with analog stick?

Posted on 2019-10-10, 20:15

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally got around to trying the DOS Sidewinder driver. It was a good idea, thanks, but it refuses to load the driver: "Sidewinder not present or incorrectly configured." Just for the record: The Sidewinder and all the other models from MS, also Logitech "digital" joysticks etc. do not utilize the …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-10, 18:27

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Funny thing is that it's an assy 250407. I own a second C64 with the same assy and that one has every chip socketed from factory. Wonder why they apparenly did that so arbitrarily. Desoldering wouldn't be a problem, but it means removing the board, ordering a socket, etc. If you have a couple of …

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Re: looking for driver

Posted on 2019-10-10, 18:08

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

No, that's the WSS codec which the MAD16 Pro driver will take care of. OPTi MAD16 Pro < no drivers on vogons http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=699&menustate=0 These should work for the 82C924 as well. If not, use the attached one.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-10-10, 18:00

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sadly, playing some SID tunes started to make it clear that the SID is dying. It plays the music with all voices, but one voice won't correctly hit all notes, and often goes off-tune. This is a weird issue some dying SID chips exhibit. Have one C64 with exactly the same issue. The SID passes all 15 …

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Re: looking for driver

Posted on 2019-10-10, 16:46

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by derSammler

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

OPTi MAD16 Pro, drivers are easy to find.

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