"Magic" config for WC III \ VOGONS

"Magic" config for WC III

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First post, by Amigaz

Posted on 2009-02-22, 16:48

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Some people here know how much I hate Origin since I always batter them since their games always need the hardware that was around when the game made or it would either crash or run at thw wrong speed.

At the moment I have 4 working 486 based pc's here and I've only managed to get the game to run reasonably well on one of them.
The "magic" to get it working lies on using a slow enough cd-rom drive and have no cache software running or have a cahing controller or you get a big red nagging warning during the install of the game.
The results of using the wrong hardware results in löckups during the game when it tries to read from your cd or the game crashes and gives you an error message it failed to read your cd.."contact Origin if you continue to have problems blabla etc"
With IDE controllers and 2x - 4x cdrom drives there's no problems.

Has anyone gotten the game run with faster drives?

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 1 of 12, by Malik

Posted on 2009-02-24, 15:21

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I remember in certain other occasions, not only confined to WCIII, where this CD-ROM read error occur.

Mostly the games crash when the programs wait for a certain amount of time to read from the cd drive. In the newer drivers which take time to spin up from its wait state, if the program routine is unable to receive any feedback data from the drive while the cd drive is just picking up speed and not yet ready for reading, this said program spits out the error message.

Reply 2 of 12, by Amigaz

Posted on 2009-02-24, 15:42

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Malik wrote:
I remember in certain other occasions, not only confined to WCIII, where this CD-ROM read error occur.

Mostly the games crash when the programs wait for a certain amount of time to read from the cd drive. In the newer drivers which take time to spin up from its wait state, if the program routine is unable to receive any feedback data from the drive while the cd drive is just picking up speed and not yet ready for reading, this said program spits out the error message.

Maybe Origin sold compatible cd-rom's bundled with the game 😁

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 3 of 12, by Malik

Posted on 2009-02-25, 00:29

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Amigaz wrote:
Maybe Origin sold compatible cd-rom's bundled with the game

You really DO hate Origin, don't you? 🤣

Reply 4 of 12, by swaaye

Posted on 2009-02-25, 00:59

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Wing3? I ran it on a Pentium Pro @ 233MHz + Matrox Millennium II about 2 years ago. Even that was a little choppy in SVGA at times. I beat the game on that rig.

Reply 5 of 12, by Amigaz

Posted on 2009-03-01, 14:15

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Malik wrote:
Amigaz wrote:
Maybe Origin sold compatible cd-rom's bundled with the game

You really DO hate Origin, don't you? 🤣

Nah, I love their games when they WORK but I wonder how lazy they were when they made them..

Yesterday I tested it with a 4x IDE cd-rom on a socket 5 P90 pc I threw together...and the setup complained my cd-rom was too slow.....WTF!!! 😵

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 6 of 12, by Amigaz

Posted on 2009-03-01, 14:16

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swaaye wrote:
Wing3? I ran it on a Pentium Pro @ 233MHz + Matrox Millennium II about 2 years ago. Even that was a little choppy in SVGA at times. I beat the game on that rig.

choppy? it runs very fluidly on my am5x86 133mhz rig

Did you use a Trident gfx card? hehe

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 7 of 12, by swaaye

Posted on 2009-03-01, 19:56

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In SVGA, I doubt it runs all that well on a 5x86. The game is pushing polygonal 3D after all and the 486 FPU isn't big on that kind of thing. 😀 The PPro did run it super well for the most part. Doesn't Wing3 have a framerate counter that can be enabled?

Retro usenet post with info from Origin BBS:

1Since everyone has been wondering about the frame rate for
2Wing Commander 3, I asked Frank Savage, the project leader
3and chief programmer, to make up a chart with expected fps
4(frames per second).
5
6                VGA  SVGA SVGA (Local Bus)
7
8486/33           12     4   10
9486/50           17    10   15
10486/66           20    13   18
11Pentium/60       24    15   20
12Pentium/90       24    15   24
13
14These are averages for space combat with fighters.  Around
15capital ships, the game will run about 3-5 fps slower.
16
17Additional RAM (above 8MB) or faster CD drives (above double
18speed) won't make a frame rate difference, but it will make
19difference in the game load times.

I started out with a 486 DX2/50 with Trident card, indeed. Uhg. "Upgraded" that year to the best DOS ISA card I could find, which was a Diamond Speedstar Pro (CL5426). I didn't have a VLB mobo until a year later or so.

I have a CGW issue with a big interview with Frank Savage and how he went from being stuck as a business software programmer to lead programmer at Origin for WC3. He was a huge fan of the older WC games and ran into Chris Roberts somewhere. His favorite snack was eating coffee beans, btw. Don't make me go scan that. 😀

Reply 8 of 12, by bestemor

Posted on 2009-03-01, 21:42

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No scanning needed, but... which CGW issue is it from ?

http://cgw.vintagegaming.org/galleries/index. … =0&pub=0&id=500

Reply 9 of 12, by swaaye

Posted on 2009-03-02, 00:33

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Might be this one with the "Secrets of the Computer Game Developers".
http://cgw.vintagegaming.org/galleries/index. … 94&pub=2&id=120

Could also be this one
http://cgw.vintagegaming.org/galleries/index. … 95&pub=2&id=127

I don't know for sure. Don't have the mags near me at the moment.

Reply 10 of 12, by swaaye

Posted on 2009-03-02, 06:56

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I decided just to scan the 3 pages. It's from the October 1995 issue.

Last edited by swaaye on 2009-03-02, 19:38. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 11 of 12, by Amigaz

Posted on 2009-03-02, 08:25

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swaaye wrote:
I decided just to scan the 3 pages. It's from the October 1995 issue. […]
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I decided just to scan the 3 pages. It's from the October 1995 issue.

click the image to go to the imagebam gallery, eh.

Thanks

Now I can print the page with the gut's face on so I can throw dart arrows on it when pissed of at WC3 😁

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 12 of 12, by swaaye

Posted on 2009-03-02, 19:44

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heh heh. For some reason I am intensely curious about how awful eating coffee beans really is....

Wow do I miss the days when we had all sorts of simulations. We had a good decade there and then it all went away basically.

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