You could experiment with disabling the cache in the bios and see if that does it. Have you considered using DOSbox on a more modern system?

Rhuwyn wrote:

You could experiment with disabling the cache in the bios and see if that does it. Have you considered using DOSbox on a more modern system?

Yeah but I'm sure folks around here know the JOY of real systems.

If you want a system you can slow down you are looking at a K6-2/3 or VIA CPU. I don't think there is much you can do with a P2 unless the multiplier is unlocked you can under clock it and disabling the cache does do a lot in that department as well.

It might be unlocked, it's a Dell XPS D233 and has has a "maintainence mode" on the bios that allows for setting the processor from 200-450 (lol) Mhz.
Dell /literally/ left the ability to overclock for anyone who was into that, kinda weird/neat.

E: Hmm, searching around it seems that the multiplier is unlocked, but the bios hides most of the options. Is there any way to try a 66x1 fsb/multiplier through software?

Only way I am aware of setting multiplier by software is the setmul utility which I believe only works with K6, VIA, and certain Cyrix CPUs.

50 to 133MHz FSB on a BX Mainboard

This thread seems to have some info, gonna try that out in a bit. 50fsb x2mult would equal a first-gen P100, I think- except with MMX and some other instructions, which I assume this game would just ignore.

There are bios tools that can unhide options. If You can dump it and upload here, I can give it a try for you.

What tool do you prefer I use?
E: Although actually, this is like- a very, very, important system to me so that might be a bad idea.

Unless You screw up badly the tools are nearly foolproof. If it's a AMI bios, then an old version of AMIBCP will do the trick.
If it's a Award bios, then Award bios editor. Old versions are required for these old bioses.
I have done this on my 486 and Athlon XP motherboard bioses, no problems encountered.

Installing a very slow DOS graphic card could be a solution.

How about Throttle?
http://www.oldskool.org/pc/throttle/DOS/

Imperious wrote:

Unless You screw up badly the tools are nearly foolproof. If it's a AMI bios, then an old version of AMIBCP will do the trick.
If it's a Award bios, then Award bios editor. Old versions are required for these old bioses.
I have done this on my 486 and Athlon XP motherboard bioses, no problems encountered.

Where did you find an old version of AMIBCP ? I'm very interested

SRQ wrote:

Is there any way to try a 66x1 fsb/multiplier through software?

No, Pentium II/III cannot be jumpered to run at 1x multiplier. 2x is the lowest possible with a Pentium II (early production), on the right motherboard that is.

SRQ wrote:

Unrelated: What does the P in P5/6 mean? Pentium: 586?

Yeah, I would guess because it was a "586" and they called it Pentium, so you end up with codename "P5". I don't know what, for example, "P54C" means though.