RetroLizard wrote on 2020-05-21, 15:44:

This is probably not the right place for such a question, but is a Voodoo 3 3000 card powerful enough to run a Playstation emulator with?

(I already have my separate Windows 10 PC for such a thing, so this is purely just for curiosity.)

This is the minimum specs of a well known PS1 emulator

Minimum system requirements:

Intel Pentium III CPU
256 MB of RAM
16 MB VRAM
x16 CD-ROM
Windows XP SP3
DirectX 8

Give it a try! 😀

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-05-21, 15:50:

This is the minimum specs of a well known PS1 emulator […]
Show full quote

RetroLizard wrote on 2020-05-21, 15:44:

This is probably not the right place for such a question, but is a Voodoo 3 3000 card powerful enough to run a Playstation emulator with?

(I already have my separate Windows 10 PC for such a thing, so this is purely just for curiosity.)

This is the minimum specs of a well known PS1 emulator

Minimum system requirements:

Intel Pentium III CPU
256 MB of RAM
16 MB VRAM
x16 CD-ROM
Windows XP SP3
DirectX 8

Give it a try! 😀

Hm. I find that minimum system requirements don't mean too much for older games. Jedi Knight 2 (Jedi Academy), for instance, is a DirectX 9 game, supposedly, but it runs on a Voodoo 3 card. Not as well as it could, but it does run.

That doesn't compare. Games can scale depending on the hardware, so the minimum system requirements are given fairly low. But an emulator emulates a system that has fixed performance. If you meet the system requirements of the emulator (which are normally spot-on, since the power required for emulation is known), it will work fine apart from maybe with some problematic games.

Also, the PS1 is very weak when it comes to 3D by any "modern" standards. The Voodoo3 can easily push 50-times as many textured polygons as the PS1 can do in-game. And that is only relevant for high-level emulation, since low-level emulation renders in 2D anyway (like the emulator "pSX" does - which I recommend trying, it even runs on 98/ME).

I recall plying PSX games on a old Piii system with a voodoo card of some sort. It was ether a voodoo 2000 or 5500. But I can't remember witch.

I remember playing Mario64 on a Pentium computer with a Voodoo 1 card thanks to UltraHLE.

UltraHLE was a freakin miracle back in those days

ragefury32 wrote on 2020-05-11, 14:21:

lolo799 wrote on 2020-05-11, 14:13:

Installing Win98 on a Nexterm RT500 Geode LX thin client, finding drivers for it is probably not happening, maybe vbemp works on it...

See if the driver bundle referenced in this blog entry will work -> http://www.toughdev.com/content/2015/03/explo … le-motherboard/

Installed Win98SE this time, the audio works with the drivers from your link.
Network installs but still no life out of the ethernet port, and the video drivers are not working either.
Still, having sound makes it better and with VBEMP it makes for a good silent Win98 machine for software mode games for example.

trying to get cd audio playing through toslink via vortex 2 superquad digital. given up on audigy 2 zs sb0358

Tried to test out/start using a GoTek FDE, and it was a no-go. Probably forgot to set up the flash drive properly.

In the process, though, I somehow caused my computer to stop recognizing the hard drive. Oops.

Besides that, I also got around to installing the drivers for an Aureal Vortex 2 card (A Turtle Beach Montego). At first, I attempted to use the drivers from Phil's Computer Lab, but those didn't work, so I located the Montego disc on Vogonsdrivers and used that.

Cleaned up an old late 99 PSU I've used for a few years now, mainly for testing & hardware-lite builds - an Astec 145W unit. For what it is, component quality seems decent - Rubycons on the input, Nichicons on the output, Yate Loon fan on rubber mounts

Finally got my 17" CRT monitor repaired and hooked it up to my Win9x rig.

It's kinda fun running Quake 2 in 640x480 @ 120 Hz with VSync on, and not getting even a single frame drop. Also, 2D Windows games like StarCraft and Heroes of Might and Magic 3 look much crisper here than they did on an LCD.

While sorting my PlayStation stuff, I found this and played around with it:

Completely ignored it back then, as when I wanted to cheat, I always used in-game cheats. Today I found out that it can also run backup copys on any PlayStation, so no modchip needed. Now I wonder why modchips were even a thing if you could just plug in such a cartridge...

derSammler wrote on 2020-05-22, 11:11:

Now I wonder why modchips were even a thing if you could just plug in such a cartridge...

You didn't even need a mod chip. First gen PS1's worked with a swap trick. Sony put a stop to it at some point though.

Yes, but the swap trick was annoying and due to the clip-on design of the disc drive, you'll damage the inner ring of the discs when doing that a lot.

I never heard that before. We (me and my mates) did it for years.

Check the inner ring of the discs, if you still have them. You'll probably find cracks and dents there. My Tekken 2 disc for example has died because of that (used that as the disc for swapping before I had a modchip installed). The cracks damaged the sealing, so air and moisture caused the reflective layer to rot.

derSammler wrote on 2020-05-22, 11:43:

Check the inner ring of the discs, if you still have them. You'll probably find cracks and dents there. My Tekken 2 disc for example has died because of that (used that as the disc for swapping before I had a modchip installed). The cracks damaged the sealing, so air and moisture caused the reflective layer to rot.

Yeah that stuff is long gone so I'll have to take you word for it. The inner rings were black plastic so I doubt I would have noticed anyway.

Was working on putting together a "Super-Simple-&-Compatible" 95/DOS machine - MVP3 motherboard, P166 MMX, 64 MB RAM, PCI S3 Trio Video, AWE64 Value, 3COM 3C905B.

For some reason I've got working MIDI on the sound card but not working normal PCM sound, which is really confusing me at the moment.

derSammler wrote on 2020-05-22, 11:11:

While sorting my PlayStation stuff, I found this and played around with it:

IMG_20200522_120307747.jpg

Completely ignored it back then, as when I wanted to cheat, I always used in-game cheats. Today I found out that it can also run backup copys on any PlayStation, so no modchip needed. Now I wonder why modchips were even a thing if you could just plug in such a cartridge...

Likely because modchips are cheaper and work with all PS1 models (even the ones that do not have the parallel port).

aha2940 wrote on 2020-05-22, 17:38:

Likely because modchips are cheaper and work with all PS1 models (even the ones that do not have the parallel port).

Err... no. Neither the first Action Replay from 1995, nor that very late Equalizer (which is the same, they just changed the name) were more expensive than a modchip and paying someone installing it. And unlike with the latter, you did not lose warranty and got additional functionality.

The PS1 models with no parallel port are not relevant. The PSOne was released in 2000 when the PS2 was already close to being sold. The only other PS1 with no parallel port was the SCPH-900x, which was not very common and interestingly released before the SCPH-750x, which (still/again?) had the parallel port and was the model that was sold until the PSOne came out. You were also not forced to buy a model without a parallel port. Besides, many modchips stopped working with the SCPH-700x series and new ones were required, which were not available until months later.

I'm pretty sure it was more about knowing about modchips and these cartridges. Modchips were a big deal back then and everyone knew about them. The Action Replay on the other hand was probably not widely advertised. And if, they certainly did not advertise that it will play backup copies. Or maybe they did, Sony sued, and that's why it was no longer called "Action Replay" at some point. No idea.