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

Posted on 2021-03-16, 19:54

by

by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently bought a 19 older games in bundle. Most of them are scratched. I don't know what people do to their disks. They use them as drink coasters after they finished gaming? I tested some on my P4 build. Need for Speed: Most Wanted - This was the reason I picked up the whole bundle. A little …

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

Posted on 2021-03-16, 11:05

by

by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently bought a 19 older games in bundle. Most of them are scratched. I don't know what people do to their disks. They use them as drink coasters after they finished gaming? All the games I bought brand new still look like they've never been in a drive after 15 or 20 years while buying used ones …

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Re: Origin or Steam

Posted on 2021-03-15, 13:36

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by RandomStranger

in Milliways

in Milliways

This happened to me. I live to tell the tale and warn others. €500 down the drain over the years. Steam sales are evil. After I got past 100 games I bought, but never launched once I decided I'll only buy 1 game for ever 2 I've played. You just have to realize that there are at least 5 big sales …

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Re: Understanding what usefulness of PII 400 or 450 vs PIII 800?

Posted on 2021-03-11, 06:36

by

by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the argument "it's only good if you care about period correctness" is true for just about the entire vintage computing hobby. If we wouldn't care at least somewhat, we'd run everything on significantly more modern hardware that are still compatible or even current hardware with emulators and …

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Re: The quest for an affordable (and possibly cheap) SFF retro PC! (DOS up to Win98)

Posted on 2021-03-10, 09:01

by

by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For a time I was thinking about the same thing. I considered the Dell Optiplex GX260 SFF might be a decent choice. It's compact (a bit larger than a fat Xbox360 and has similar design ), offers AGP and PCI expansion slots, though only low-porfile, basically all Willamette or Northwood Pentium 4 is …

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Re: Good value PC for Win98 - evading the RETRO TAX

Posted on 2021-03-10, 07:27

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by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As someone who has used that card for 4 years back in the day, I cannot agree. No hardware EAX support means the card taxes your CPU which reduces performance in games. It also sounds noticeably worse than proper hardware EAX. The drivers are pretty bad too. I used to have BSODs quite frequently …

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Re: Good value PC for Win98 - evading the RETRO TAX

Posted on 2021-03-10, 06:41

by

by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm genuinely curious, why would anyone recommend this in good faith? Those cards are barely any cheaper than a SBLive (e.g. 5 EUR vs. 10 EUR) while providing a significantly worse feature set. No hardware EAX, absolutely awful FM synth emulation and mediocre General MIDI based on ECW sets, with no …

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Re: Good value PC for Win98 - evading the RETRO TAX

Posted on 2021-03-10, 06:24

by

by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

However, the not-too-fun practice of slapping silly prices on retro hardware that got somewhat popular due to influencer activity is really hard to stomach and I am looking for components that are still "kinda" under the radar. Thus, I ask you for recommendations on: - Processors (pentium 3 has …

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Re: Origin or Steam

Posted on 2021-03-07, 20:20

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by RandomStranger

in Milliways

in Milliways

drosse1meyer wrote on 2021-03-07, 20:00: Given a choice I prefer Steam. Origin = EA = no bueno. However unfortunately I am forced to use Origin and Epic's apps for certain games. Someone forces you to play certain games?

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-03-03, 11:54

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by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I remember the Mendocino core Celerons had really fast L2 cache and performed very close to the Pentiums at the same clock.

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Re: the signs that a forum is dying

Posted on 2021-03-03, 10:13

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by RandomStranger

in Milliways

in Milliways

Namrok wrote on 2021-03-02, 17:12: Every forum I've been on that died, died because the all consuming leviathan of politics finally visited it. That's sad, but I can see that happening. Most forums I visited and died were killed by facebook.

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Re: Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2021-02-22, 10:58

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by RandomStranger

in Milliways

in Milliways

Not yet, but it's on my backlog.

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Re: Origin or Steam

Posted on 2021-02-22, 07:40

by

by RandomStranger

in Milliways

in Milliways

When it comes to online stores, I check what additional things they offer. For example GoG offers a DRM free library and the option to download the game installers and carry them over to your retro rigs. It also doesn't force its launcher on its users. Valve/Steam is a pioneer of Linux gaming …

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Re: Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2021-02-22, 07:08

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by RandomStranger

in Milliways

in Milliways

On an intellectual level, I love the Ultima series, and I could ramble for hours about its evolution and legacy and the massive impact it's had on RPGs as a genre, both Western and Japanese. But I was only seven years old when the finale Ultima IX came out, never even heard of the series until more …

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Re: Audigy 2 zs problem on windows 98se

Posted on 2021-02-22, 06:04

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by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I do not know what the problem is, try with a fresh installation of Windows 98se but I had the same results so I tried another installation on another hard drive this time windows xp-sp3 and a geforce 6800xt and it worked perfectly, no blue screens or freezes I understand everything works until you …

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Re: Best socket 775 CPU for Radeon HD 3850 AGP

Posted on 2021-02-16, 10:22

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by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Lazar81 wrote on 2021-02-16, 09:31: Ok.. just thought the list could be incomplete It is. Bloodem claims to use it with an E7500 and the whole E7xxx series is also missing from the list. So I guess it's likely, but not guaranteed to work with the E6800.

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Re: Best socket 775 CPU for Radeon HD 3850 AGP

Posted on 2021-02-15, 20:10

by

by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't know what your mobo works with unofficially, but officially you don't really have an upgrade path. https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/775i65G/#CPU . I was checking out the same motherboard just today considering whether I should upgrade my main XP build to s775+AGP for the multi-core CPU …

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

Posted on 2021-02-15, 16:01

by

by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

When I'll have the spare time I'll recap my V9750/TD/128M. I hope it's only problem is a case of capacitor plague. It works well until the drivers installed, no artifacts, nothing that would indicate any problem, but crashes right after the desktop loads after the drivers installed. Anyway, I got a …

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Re: Cracked PCB Connector Help

Posted on 2021-02-10, 13:07

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by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd try using super glue. I think Loctite has a thicker gel glue which is easier to work with. It stays where you put it and won't go onto the contacts unless you use too much. I fixed broken RAM slots with that.

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Re: Building project pentium II

Posted on 2021-02-10, 12:44

by

by RandomStranger

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

the case is probably the most difficult to find. (Especially if you wan't one in white/beige like I do.) Only if you want then new. People don't value those old beige/white/off-white boxes. If you look hard enough you might get one for free. To be fair, if you don't want to get fancy you can get …

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