Re: Olivetti PCS 33 / Commander Keen

Posted on 2021-07-13, 15:40

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Ah, that would explain it. I was aware of (was it Matrox?) issues with scrolling, but not Tseng cards having graphical problems 🙁 Guess I need to source a different ISA VGA card then. Any suggestions?

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Re: Olivetti PCS 33 / Commander Keen

Posted on 2021-07-13, 15:32

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

It’s a 2TheMax 2MB Tseng ET4000AX based card. I’ve owned it from new, it only got its first installation 3 years ago!

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Re: Olivetti PCS 33 / Commander Keen

Posted on 2021-07-13, 07:58

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Thanks, that's solved the sound card and memory issue. I've cleaned the ISA slots twice now, and the video card. The issue remains. Here's a video of the PC happily playing Bumpy's Arcade Fantasy: https://www.oldpc.co.uk/vogons/bumpy.mp4 And here's a video showing the corruption on Keen4: https:// …

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Re: Olivetti PCS 33 / Commander Keen

Posted on 2021-07-12, 15:44

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Opti sound card drivers? What sound card is this? A 386 should have an SB 2.0 or SB Pro, or whatever cheap SB Pro clone you can get to put in there. No drivers required. It's an Opti 82C933 chipset card that is SBPro compatible. Before I installed the driver diskette Keen would only show PC Speaker …

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Re: Olivetti PCS 33 / Commander Keen

Posted on 2021-07-12, 12:18

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

So whilst I was indeed able to run the game once I'd removed the EMMBOX3.SYS driver, now I've installed the Opti sound card drivers I'm down to 226k, with which the game no longer loads. I've tried using DOS 6.22's built in memmaker, but that's still not freed up enough conventional memory to run …

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Olivetti PCS 33 / Commander Keen

Posted on 2021-07-09, 11:16

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

So I've recently picked up an Olivetti PCS 33 machine (386SX-25) and the first thing I wanted to try was Commander Keen, specifically Keen4 as this was my favorite episode back in the day. The PC itself appears to be ok, stable, everything seems to work just fine. It's booting into what looks to be …

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Re: Need help identifying a few GPUs

Posted on 2021-07-05, 07:02

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

3rd pic, top row, left. BCR Geforce FX5200 128MB. 3rd pic, middle row, left. Gainward Geforce FX5200 128MB. 3rd pic, middle row, right. Powercolor Radeon 9600XT (R96-TD3) 256MB. 3rd pic, bottom row, left. Asus V3800 TNT2 16MB.

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Re: voodoo 5 5500 or NVIDIA Riva TNT2 Ultra

Posted on 2021-07-04, 08:52

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Context. It makes the difference between an inane question and a valid one. I’d go with the Voodoo 5 5500 in situations where that would give me a performance or compatibility advantage. Then I’d use the TNT2 Ultra (Pro in my case, I don’t own an Ultra :() in situations where the TNT2 has an …

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Re: FX5200 Replacement mini form factor

Posted on 2021-07-02, 07:33

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looking at half-height cards I think is going to limit you to at best, the same performance as you already have. If you can use full-height PCI, why can't you use full-height AGP? If it's a location problem, could you use a riser or flexible extension to move the AGP card?

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Re: My CRT haul and giveaway (UK only)

Posted on 2021-06-28, 15:32

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Essex is most definitely a jaunt for me, but I’m seriously tempted by the 19” Dell regardless of the cracked cover.

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Re: “Period correct” 1998 Voodoo2 SLI build

Posted on 2021-06-28, 15:27

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As nice as “period correctness” is, Voodoo IIs in SLI actually scale pretty well with CPU speed. As such you can get much better performance out of the cards by NOT staying period correct. It’s for this reason that my Voodoo IIs are SLI’d in my Tualatin system.

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Re: Has anybody got a Matrox card to operate at AGP 2x on a VIA MVP3 chipset?

Posted on 2021-06-25, 08:05

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I can try with a Millennium and my DFI P5BV3+ machine. I'll go dig it out of storage.

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Re: Dead Asus P3C-E?

Posted on 2021-06-24, 11:45

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Seems that the clock generator chip (ICS 9248AF) is getting quite warm very quickly. Never seen a clockgen chip die/internally short, but it certainly seems likely.

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Re: Dead Asus P3C-E?

Posted on 2021-06-23, 15:33

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This might be related: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=745082#p745082 Also try booting with a pentium 2 Good find, shame mastergamma12 didn't go into more detail about what "I thought it was dead until I found out that the power cable for the button wasn't in the right location because the …

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Re: Dead Asus P3C-E?

Posted on 2021-06-23, 11:36

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Checked the voltages and they are all stable (regardless of PSU). The reset LED is constant on the POST test card however, regardless of if there is a CPU/RAM/GPU installed in the board. No idea what diode mode readings should show for the reset pins, but I only get a reading if I have the +ve lead …

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Re: Dead Asus P3C-E?

Posted on 2021-06-23, 08:07

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This is the board in question: And here's a link to a Google Photos album for the board with close ups of all areas of the board front and back: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xrRvNnd5zpt2K1dU8

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Re: Kyro 2 Video Noise in-game only?

Posted on 2021-06-23, 07:20

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

All of my Kyros are pretty clean and sharp image wise, certainly nothing like your video shows. That's across an AGP Kyro, PCI Kyro and AGP Kyro II (all Hercules).

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Re: Dead Asus P3C-E?

Posted on 2021-06-23, 07:16

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not an expert, but did you try it with a different power supply? I had a motherboard that would not post any code till I changed the power supply, even though the power supply worked perfectly fine with a different motherboard. The only clue was that the "permanent reset" LED was lit on the post …

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Dead Asus P3C-E?

Posted on 2021-06-22, 14:24

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've recently come into possession of an Asus P3C-E that appears to be stone dead :( Currently loaded up with 256MB of PC800 (2x 128MB sticks), and a P3-733 133FSB Slot-1 CPU. I've tried numerous video cards, but I'm 100% sure that the motherboard itself is the problem. When powering up the board, …

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Re: ASUS P2B 1.10 can't retain BIOS settings even with a new battery...

Posted on 2021-06-20, 14:59

by

by paradigital

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My P2B was the same, I ended up flashing to the latest BIOS with my Mini-Pro, which solved the problem.

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