I like Dopefish 😀

You will enjoy that machine. With caches disabled it performs like a 386 and at full speed you can play Doom and Descent without any dramas.

My favourite soundcard combination is the AWE64Gold + SoftMPU + MT-32/CM-32L + Sound Canvas 😀

wocko1 wrote:

Onboard ATi 3D Rage II+
Onboard ESS Audodrive ES1868

Sounds like a Compaq....

With Project Croft id suggest changing out the m64 with either;

Geforce2 GTS
Voodoo5 (if the board supports 1x 3.3v agp)
Kyro2 (just for something different, not really that powerful)

Adding a Voodoo1 to Project Dopefish would be good too 😀

@ForeverMore : I have a couple of questions? What would be the advantage of using a Voodoo 1 over a Voodoo 2 for Project Dopefish? I guess compatibility right? And as for the Voodoo 5, would it better to get a 5000 or 5500? I was considering canning the TNT2 M64 because it's a piece of crap

@leileilol : The computer is actually an old AST Research.

@Mau1wurf1977 : How do you normally have the three modules hooked up via the AWE64? Do you use MIDI THRU? Also, is it also possible to switch among the three?

@wocko1: I am led to believe a lot of the older 3dfx DOS games prefer the V1. Also you will see no performance benefit on that rig using a V2. And afaik, only the 5500 & 4500 made it past the prototype stage.

Forevermore wrote:

@wocko1: I am led to believe a lot of the older 3dfx DOS games prefer the V1. Also you will see no performance benefit on that rig using a V2. And afaik, only the 5500 & 4500 made it past the prototype stage.

See here compatibility chart on the Voodoo2. It supports all the popular games. Generally a Voodoo 1 is good enough, but the Voodoo 2 do offer some performance and resolution increases in some of the DOS games. If you have a Voodoo2 I wouldn't spend money to buy a Voodoo1 unless it was very cheap. If you don't own either, then I would just go for the cheapest and easiest accessible card.

Dopefish: Go with a genuine SB if the on-board sound can be disabled. Reduce RAM to 64MB or even 32MB as more will cause problems with some games. What are you planning to use USB for? If it's just for file transfer I'd use a network card instead. The 3D Rage II should be fine.

Croft: Voodoo 3/4/5 please 😀

wocko1 wrote:

@Mau1wurf1977 : How do you normally have the three modules hooked up via the AWE64? Do you use MIDI THRU? Also, is it also possible to switch among the three?

Yup I use MIDI THRU. And then the audio cables go into a 4 to 1 switch. Now note that if you want to listen to the third device in the chain, the other two have to be turned on as well.

For Dopefish, I knocked down the RAM to 64MB, and I just bought an AWE64 Gold to throw in. I am debating whether to do an SLI Voodoo 2 setup or a single Voodoo 1. For Croft, I might grab a Voodoo 5 5500

Also would it be wise to use FreeDOS?

@bjt : I am using the USB for the mouse, with Legacy mode turned on in the BIOS. The machine had USB onboard and yes it does have an Ethernet port too. What would you use for networking under DOS?

@Mau1wirf1977 : I have my sound modules plugged into a mixer, and I bought an AWE64 Gold for Dopefish.

SLI would be overkill for a P1, I don't think it can even max out a single Voodoo 2.

I'd steer clear of FreeDOS if this is a games machine, as inevitably there will be compatibility issues. If the USB mouse works then great, otherwise a PS/2 mouse is ideal.

A lot of people use mTCP for DOS networking: https://code.google.com/p/mtcp/. Personally I just boot into Win98 for that.

For DOS a Rage II+ is ok but not perfect. See here for a compatibility list.
I suggest you try first if the games you want to run work. If you run into problems and have a free PCI (or AGP) slot you can still put in a more compatible card later (I'd vote for S3 in that case). Of course onboard video is quite convenient.

Booting Win98 is useful if you want to do drive letter sharing. But if all you need is an occasional FTP command, that is pretty painful.

I am biased here, but I know that the mTCP FTP client has some features that the standard command line client in Win98 does not have. Support for "passive connections" which helps get through firewalls is one of them. If you are going to use Win98, get a better FTP client to go along with it.

Welcome to the madhouse 😀
I like both Dopefish and Croft but more than anything I like the way you named the builds - very cool. For Croft I would lean Glide as an add-on, like a Voodoo 2, or go higher as a main card - but of course only if you're feeling crazy... Having Glide on on Croft would be great.

Well the SB AWE64 Gold came in the post, and it works like a little ripper and I like the fact that it uses RCA jacks for the output so I can patch it into my mixer. Just curious, what are those pins on the board, I know it's not for a Wave Blaster, does anyone know?

My mate was saying to me he has a Voodoo Rush he could give me, but I heard that the Voodoo Rush is a steaming pile of shite. Would the best option is to whack a Voodoo 1 in there since this machine (Dopefish) is for DOS/W3.1/Early W95 games? For Croft, I'll get a 3Dfx Voodoo 5 5500

@idspispopd You are right about the inbuilt ATI card, Commander Keen is unplayable with the tearing graphics. I might drop in a S3 Trio64V+ for the 2D card for Dopefish.

The pins are for a memory module, creatives own creation and not easy to find.

I'd go with a Voodoo 2 for the extra res. in quake.

OK I have the final planned specs for the machines (Ones in bold are what I already got):

Project Dopefish
- Intel Pentium MMX 166MHz
- 64MB SDRAM
- 20GB HDD (planning to drop the HDD for a CF-based SSD)
- S3 Trio 64V+
- 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold (will be upgrading RAM to 28MB via SIMMCONN adapter, for the larger soundfonts)
- Roland MT-32 (OLD)
- Ethernet
- CD-ROM
- Roland CM-32L
- Roland SC-55mkII
- Windows 98SE
- SoftMPU
- Floppy Emulator

Project Croft
- AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.3GHz
- 512MB SDRAM
- 80GB HDD (Should I dump this for an CF based SSD or a SATA HDD/SSD?)
- 3Dfx Voodoo 5 5500 AGP
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
- Pioneer DVD-ROM
- Yamaha MU-80 Synth
- Windows 98SE

Will be posting pics soon after I get back home

Nice classic builds!
Interested to know about your choice of CPU cooler on the Thunderbird rig.

Very nice! Your systems are quite similar to what I have with a couple of differences:

- I use a Matrox Mystique in My P166 because of its fast SVGA and beautiful image quality compared to several others I've tried in that machine. (Ark Logic PCI, an interesting VGA card.)
- Why not use Windows 95 in Dopefish? It's fun to use different OS's where possible I think.
- IMHO a HDD is the way to go for the authentic experience (same goes for a real FDD).
- Do you have an ISA slot available in the Croft machine? I've found that even the mighty P166 struggles with maxed out SVGA games and it's a much nicer experience running them on my PIII 1Ghz, but these being DOS games it's better to use an ISA card with them. Nice choice on the Live! for Windows games though!