1024x768 8bpp is almost 1MB of Video RAM. So anything more in pixels, or bits-per-pixel will require over 1MB Video RAM.

Filosofia wrote:

and what games were writen for 386 that run to fast on a 486 (apart from test drive 3)? thanks

That doesn't make sense. There are probably many games that ran fine on a 16 MHz 386 that would run too fast on a 100 MHz 486 DX4.

If you are trying to find a good reason to keep a 386 around, perhaps you should decide what games you actually want to play rather than what games you could feasibly contemplate playing.

So, by the power of your answers combined I must reach the conclusion that the amount of video ram is important mainly in what concerns to the max resolution...? and that there are too many games that need either a 386 or a 486 to play a good play?

The reason for this questions is I'm still waiting for the 386 to arrive, but also I'm looking some time now for an old laptop just for ms-dos games and stumble yesterday upon a Toshiba T2400CS,

it only has 1MB Video Ram (but has VESA local bus) and the cpu is a 486DX2 50MHz , it seems to have a enable/disable cpu cache feature but I'm not certain (and don't know if it works with games designed for 386), 4MB ram and it has a SB Pro compatible sound card of some kind, an VGA output (and a cute 9'5'' DSTN)and 2 ps2 connectors for simultaneo external mouse and keyboard...

Filosofia wrote:

and that there are too many games that need either a 386 or a 486 to play a good play?

I have no idea what this means.

(and don't know if it works with games designed for 386)

What exactly do you mean by "designed for 386" ? What leads you to believe that Test Drive 3 is "to fast for a 486", for instance?

When I say "designed for 386" I don't mean anything very technic, I just mean designed with 386 in mind. Are there many games from 1988 untill 1992 that run too fast on a 486? EDIT: Say a DX2 50MHz (and not the DX4 100MHz you mentioned earlier)

I think the speed difference you are talking about is too small to be concerned about? There are games for old 4 MHz computers that are too fast at 12 MHz, and of course there are games that work on a 486 that run too fast on a Pentium 333, but no, I see no particular reason why a game purposely written when the 386 came out that runs adequately on a 386 would be too fast on a 486.

This is all speculation, of course, since you haven't actually said what games you want to play.

I see you realy wanted to help me, the list of the games will not be much greater than 200 games, from 1988 until 1994, so I will gather it and post it as soon as I can. Thanks for your effort and patience.

Do you really think you're going to play 200 games?

Jorpho wrote:

Do you really think you're going to play 200 games?

Um, you should see my list of old games. Probably goes over 200 easily, and I play them (not all at the same time.) I have about 60 installed right now, and I play one for a few days, then another for a few days. Might take me a couple of years to go through them all, but yeah, I play at them.

Filosofia wrote:

(and a cute 9'5'' DSTN)

That's huge!!!

AFAIK the "sweet spot" for the original Wing Commander is supposed to be somewhere between a 386SX16 and a 386DX33. Don't quote me on this though, I haven't played around too much with 386s. I do know that it runs too fast on a 486, though.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

AFAIK the "sweet spot" for the original Wing Commander is supposed to be somewhere between a 386SX16 and a 386DX33. Don't quote me on this though, I haven't played around too much with 386s. I do know that it runs too fast on a 486, though.

Yeah, I'd go for that. I first played it on my 16MHz 286; it was playable (until you had some of the levels with carriers, capital ships etc), but I later upgraded to a 386SX-40 and it was lovely and smooth. Still quite playable on my later 486DX2-50 when I replaced the 386; you just had to be careful of engaging afterburner in dogfights as if there wasn't a lot on-screen at the time you could end up going further than you expected. WC2 was more suited to the 486 as it had more detailed graphics, some animated fmv bits etc.

After some google research here are some of the games I remember playing in the 90's, they all came in floppies exchanged amongst friend so we had no way of choosing which games travelled to us, each new game was a party!

1000 Miglia
3D World Boxing
4x4 Off-Road Racing
Aaargh!
Aces of the Pacific
Aces Over Europe
Aladdin
Alien Breed
Alien Carnage - Halloween Harry
Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark 2
Another World
Arcade Pool
Arkanoid II - Revenge of Doh
B.A.T.
Baby Jo in Going Home
Bad Blood
Battle Chess
BattleTech - The Crescent Hawks Inception
BattleTech - The Crescent Hawks Revenge
Beneath a Steel Sky
Bio Menace
Blackthorne
Blockout
Blues Brothers, The
Blues Brothers - Jukebox Adventure, The
Bram Stokers Dracula
Brix
Body Blows
Bubble Bobble
Buck Rogers
Budokan - The Martial Spirit
Buffalo Bills Rodeo Games
Buggy Ranger
Bumpys Arcade Fantasy
Brutal Sports Football
Burntime
Cadaver
California Games
California Games II
Cannon Fodder
Cannon Fodder 2
Castlevania
CD-Man
Chaos Engine, The
Cisco Heat - All American Police Car Race
Colorado
Commander Keen
Cool Croc Twins
Cool Spot
Crazy Cars 3
Dangerous Dave
Deadly Racer
Desert Strike - Return to the Gulf
Doom and Doom II
Double Dragon II
Dyna Blaster
Duke Nukem
F29 Retaliator
First Samurai, The
Flashback
Fury of the Furries
Games - Summer Challenge, The
Games - Winter Challenge, The
Gods
Golden Axe
Grand Prix 500 2
Grand Prix Circuit
Harley-Davidson - The Road to Sturgis
Incredible Machine, The
Indianapolis 500 - The Simulation
International Ninja Rabbits
Ivan Iron Man Stewarts Super Off Road
James Pond 2 - Codename RoboCod
Jetpack
Jill of the Jungle
Lakers vs Celtics and the NBA Playoffs
Lamborghini American Challenge
Lemmings
Life and Death
Loom
Lost Vikings, The
Lotus - The Ultimate Challenge
Manager, The
Mechwarrior
Micro Machines
Mortal Kombat
Suzuki's RM250 Motocross
Nascar Racing
One Must Fall 2097
OutRun
Pacmania
Paperboy
Paperboy 2
Perestroika
Pinball Dreams
Pinball Dreams 2
Pinball Fantasies
Pipe Mania
Power Drive
Prehistorik
Prehistorik 2
Prince of Persia
Quarantine
Raiden
Rampage
Rampart
Rick Dangerous
Rise of the Triad
Sensible Soccer
Silpheed
SimCity
SkiFree
SkyRoads
Soccer Kid
Steg the Slug
Stellar 7
Street Fighter II
Street Rod
Street Rod 2 - The Next Generation
Stunts
Supaplex
System Shock
Test Drive
Tetris Classic
Titus the Fox - To Marrakech and Back
Ugh
Vette
Warlords
Wings of Fury
Wolfenstein 3D
Zool

You've got many titles there that would certainly benefit from a faster DOS machine rather than a slow/midrange 386...

archsan wrote:

You've got many titles there that would certainly benefit from a faster DOS machine rather than a slow/midrange 386...

On the other hand though, there's definitely games in that list that are from the 286/early-386 era that will probably be a bit too fast on a 486. The list seems to span 87/88 to around 94? A DX2-66 should be quite comfortable for the upper end, but you may need to play around slowing things down for some of the older titles.

megatron-uk wrote:

The list seems to span 87/88 to around 94? A DX2-66 should be quite comfortable for the upper end, but you may need to play around slowing things down for some of the older titles.

In that case, a socket 7 system will be more flexible. Go full speed e.g. P166 or more and disable all caches and lower clock to 50MHz x 1.5 to get slow 386 speed.

Some of this games realy gave a hard time to my 386SX 25MHz, so I see the need for a faster 486. That is why I got one today 😊 There are probably only a handfull of games prior to 1988 that I will play, and yes I don't see any game here later than 1995 but I'm certain that will be plenty of games I want to play from that year and even 1996.
The 486 I got now is a DX 33MHz with 12MB of ram and a ISA VGA card from western digital (did not knew these guys made graphics, it is a wd90c11-LR and it seems to have only 512k of ram 🙁 ) and a ct4170 (vibra16) , I'm very happy because it is a beauty 😀

I do have the super socket 7 system set up with a pentium-s 100MHz, just in case, but I think I fell in love with this 486 😅

Here he is,

Filosofia wrote:

Here he is, […]
Show full quote

Here he is,

It's not clear in your pics, but I hope it doesn't have a leaking (or soon to leak) barrel-type battery in there.
If it still has one, best is to remove it (and use an external battery pack).