I am probably one of the few who did not like Tomb Raider. With Duke 3d, Quake, Red Alert and Diablo out same year I found it very long winded and boring compared to most others as far as game play. Even games like Civilization and Hexen and the Sim Games were better for game play IMHO. We all like and dislike different games for different reasons....

Went through boxes of graphics cards to find the GF2MX and GF4MX cards, discovering to my surprise I actually got barely any GF4MX440 cards where I thought I had more (just one 440 which needs a cap replaced and one 440SE which is the cut down 440).
Also have been working hard in the attic lately and the really fun stuff is gonna start tomorrow when I think which new place I'm gonna give everything 😀

I kept playing with my OSSC, learning how to use it and looking at ways to make it work the best way possible for my needs .

darry wrote on 2020-06-09, 00:40:

I kept playing with my OSSC, learning how to use it and looking at ways to make it work the best way possible for my needs .

Curious what are you connecting the inputs too and how is it working out ?

added: went thru some more archive cd's and found a different game set, last disk has text's of the abandonware sites I got them from, not one still exist in there original 2002 form 🙁

Horun wrote on 2020-06-09, 00:50:

darry wrote on 2020-06-09, 00:40:

I kept playing with my OSSC, learning how to use it and looking at ways to make it work the best way possible for my needs .

Curious what are you connecting the inputs too and how is it working out ?

I am using a Voodoo 3 (VGA) mode with the OSSC and am outputting to an Acer VW257 (1920x1200 75Hz max ) over HDMI .

As for how it's working out, I recommend you look at this thread starting at linked post --> Re: What are the best Vga to hdmi scalers or peripherals for MS-DOS games ?

TLDR :
It works great for passthru resolutions (800x600 to 1600x1200) . Monitor preserves 4:3 aspect ratio .
It works great as an integer line-doubler for 640x480 ---> 1280x960 . Monitor preserves 4:3 aspect ratio .
It works in passthru and line2x mode for 640x400@70Hz DOS modes, but the monitor stretches to 16:10 .
Line3x mode converts 640x400@70Hz DOS mode into perfect 4:3 1600x1200@70Hz, BUT this overclocks the the HDMI TX in the OSSC and gives artifacts with my unit, so not usable for me 🙁
I am currently using an imperfect workaround in line2x mode that gives almost 4:3 aspect ratio , but slightly uneven pixels on the horizontal axis .
I have opened 2 feature requests for OSSC (one for reduced blanking timings at 1600x1200 and one for adding a 1066x800(400) mode in line 2x mode) .
https://github.com/marqs85/ossc/issues/56
https://github.com/marqs85/ossc/issues/59

Ok thanks ! Yes was watching that topic in Video since April but had not checked it in a week. Sounds like you are getting things worked out !

Horun wrote on 2020-06-09, 01:48:

Ok thanks ! Yes was watching that topic in Video since April but had not checked it in a week. Sounds like you are getting things worked out !

Well, I am trying to, at least . If the feature requests for OSSC end up not being feasible, I will have to wait for the OSSC Pro, unless an HDMI scaler/processor with 70Hz input and output exists somewhere at less than 300-400$ CAN .

I have not found one yet at any price .

darry wrote on 2020-06-09, 02:03:

Horun wrote on 2020-06-09, 01:48:

Ok thanks ! Yes was watching that topic in Video since April but had not checked it in a week. Sounds like you are getting things worked out !

Well, I am trying to, at least . If the feature requests for OSSC end up not being feasible, I will have to wait for the OSSC Pro, unless an HDMI scaler/processor with 70Hz input and output exists somewhere at less than 300-400$ CAN .

I have not found one yet at any price .

Ok this may sound nuts but if a new monitor can do 720x480 (a non-vesa mode) and still include VESA modes and add things like 1920x1080 (non vesa) why can they not include 640x400 ? Yes I know am asking a dumb question but with advances in tech it seems they all want to go BIG and forget the older standards just because it requires 70Hz versus 60Hz. Just ranting...

Horun wrote on 2020-06-09, 02:20:

darry wrote on 2020-06-09, 02:03:

Horun wrote on 2020-06-09, 01:48:

Ok thanks ! Yes was watching that topic in Video since April but had not checked it in a week. Sounds like you are getting things worked out !

Well, I am trying to, at least . If the feature requests for OSSC end up not being feasible, I will have to wait for the OSSC Pro, unless an HDMI scaler/processor with 70Hz input and output exists somewhere at less than 300-400$ CAN .

I have not found one yet at any price .

Ok this may sound nuts but if a new monitor can do 720x480 (a non-vesa mode) and still include VESA modes and add things like 1920x1080 (non vesa) why can they not include 640x400 ? Yes I know am asking a dumb question but with advances in tech it seems they all want to go BIG and forget the older standards just because it requires 70Hz versus 60Hz. Just ranting...

The answer to that is likely "because nobody but us old farts cares" . Nearly everybody who wants >60Hz wants it at 16:9 resolutions anyway . Hardly anyone cares about 4:3 resolutions anymore (on a PC monitor, TVs are a different beast), so we are a lucky to even get a "preserve aspect ratio" in monitor settings, I guess .

EDIT : My Acer VW257 150 CAN$ monitor accepts all manner of oddball invented resolutions but has non-documented criteria to determine what qualifies as being worthy of preserving aspect ratio (always assuming square pixels) and what needs to be stretched to full screen . Obviously 4:3 modes have their aspect ratio preserved, but 720x400 and 640x400 (and multiples) do not . 1140x800 does not get stretched horizontally either . Why ? Who knows .

Installed a Zip 100 drive and Ethernet card into the Gateway G6-200 to make it easier to get larger files on without having to burn a CD.

I was watching an episode of Home Improvement today and noticed a flat panel monitor in the Toolman's house. This episode was taped in 1993! That...must've been expensive! Assuming it's a real monitor, of course.

Got dos audio working on my Audigy 2 in my Dimension 8200 and I got 98 running more or less properly with a Core 2 Duo E6600, 2gb's of ram (thank you R.Lowe patch), EVGA 610i motherboard and a Geforce 7600 GS.

Excellent. Testing a BIOS for my Abit AB-TX5 for bigger HDD support, CPU support, RAM, and so on. So far, no issues. Need to fix the LS-120 drive in my Socket 7 build and change the CMOS battery as the settings erased after sitting in storage for almost 2 years.

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-06-08, 21:39:

Resident evil is not a 3rd person shooter, I used the term FPS to specfically rule out pre-rendered 3rd person games. Also maybe you are too young to remember Alone in the Dark which is what Resident Evil was a rip off of.

Actually, the designers of Resident Evil just used the same solution to the same problem (fixed camera angles with 3D characters on 2D backgrounds because whole 3D worlds looked like shit on the Playstation). Other than that, nothing of it is a ripoff. Because the rest comes from Sweet Home.

I played both of them extensively. Also, to know of an obscure French game from the other side of the planet would be rather difficult in the early 90s.

Tried the original RTS Warcraft (not the modern MMO), and I'm not going to judge it poorly, but going to such a basic game after playing more modern titles like Starcraft, Red Alert 2, Planetary Annihilation, etc... It feels so weird.

I suspect, reading previous posts, that Tomb Raider is the same way.

Yeah, not every game is timeless, no matter how good it may be. Super Metroid, Sonic 3 & Knuckles (combination is mandatory), and Super Mario Brothers 3 are a few that I would consider timeless, despite their age.

As far as doing anything, I'm gathering tips for Windows 95 that apparently are too obscure to appear on old tip sites, to put on my site. It's getting to the point where I'm going to have to subdivide the site again, into PC and console stuff, although all I have for the latter, really, are a few ROM hacks I made in 2018. One of the tips is how to change the mapped network drive icons, an issue which apparently even Microsoft Support couldn't understand. Of course, I have that information in the icon packs they're relevant for, but I may as well make the instructions searchable.

This was actually yesterday, but I only got to post this today. Finally received the Nichicons, and proceeded to install them on my boards.

First was the ASUS A7N8X-E. It was a tight fit, because the caps are actually shorter and wider than what normally fits in that board, but they got in, and I made sure to put them reversed, because apparently ASUS can't silkscreen for shit. However, the result was actually worse: the CPU fan spins at full speed for 1-2 seconds, and then it shuts down. Weird, at least when I had the wrong caps in the wrong way it stayed on...

Next was the Abit-KD7. The caps fit just fine, but there was no improvement on the board, but I think it stayed on for just a little bit longer. I also noticed that even the PSU Fan had trouble getting to spin when hooked up to this board. I think I'm on to something...

Last was the Gigabyte GA-K8VT800pro. It was a tight fit. but that one worked just fine. It didn't really have any issues with the Samwha RD caps (not yet anyway), but I figured I would do it right, since I got 30x low ESR 6.3V 3300uF Nichicons for that reason. Anyway, I expected it to work after replacing the crappy caps, and sure enough, it did. Unfortunately, I noticed that one of the tabs for the heatsink had broken off, so it's unlikely that I'll be using it any time soon. I just can't have a working AMD system. Shame, because I really want to build an AMD based system, but they never really work properly. It's not even because of AMD! It's usually crappy boards, capacitor plague, fried VRMs, cracked/chipped CPU dies (I once did that myself by accident, I blame that on me) or corrupted BIOS chips (need to get myself a BIOS flasher)

I also found a laptop. A Toshiba Tecra A4 PTA42E. It's a good thing the courier didn't bother to actually send the caps to my home 🤣
Anyway, I proceeded to diagnose and service it. Its HDD is toast, but the GPU is actually fine. I also upgraded the RAM to 2GB and the CPU to a Pentium M 770 from 512MB and Pentium M 750. It still seems to not work properly, but I'll figure it out.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2020-06-09, 06:14:

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-06-08, 21:39:

Resident evil is not a 3rd person shooter, I used the term FPS to specfically rule out pre-rendered 3rd person games. Also maybe you are too young to remember Alone in the Dark which is what Resident Evil was a rip off of.

Actually, the designers of Resident Evil just used the same solution to the same problem (fixed camera angles with 3D characters on 2D backgrounds because whole 3D worlds looked like shit on the Playstation). Other than that, nothing of it is a ripoff. Because the rest comes from Sweet Home.

I played both of them extensively. Also, to know of an obscure French game from the other side of the planet would be rather difficult in the early 90s.

Alone in the Dark was a massive hit in the US not some obscure french game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_in_ ... ideo_game)

"Alone in the Dark received critical acclaim upon its release, and is considered a breakthrough and influential title, as it was the first 3D survival horror game."
"It is widely considered to be a forefather of the survival horror game genre, setting the standard for later rival popular survival horror games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill."

So yes Resident Evil was a successor, or as I would call it, a rip-off. I'm not using that in a negative tone, just that they exactly copied the formula of the genre defining original.

Yeah, pretty much everyone I knew was playing Alone In The Dark on its release here in the U.S. No one had seen anything like it before. Lost a bit of sleep on that one.

It was also released on two platforms in Japan the year after its DOS release.