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Sam & Max Hit the Road: Best Slowdown Utility/Settings?

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First post, by OpenRift

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So I've been trying to get the DOS version of Sam & Max Hit the Road working on my Win98 PC, but seem to be having a bit of difficulty. I'm aware it's one of those games that is CPU-speed-sensitive, but it's like the one game I haven't gotten working with slowdown utilities and/or booting into DOS mode.

The thing that's made this really tedious to figure out is the fact that not only does the game crash presumably because of CPU speed, but it locks up the whole computer, forcing me to reset every time.

The weird thing is though, if I delete or rename the configuration files, the game will load up just fine, with or without the slowdown utility, just with no sound whatsoever. I guess it must have something to do with the game's sound drivers? I've also tried some of the patches floating around, like the ones from The Patches Scrolls, but to the same issues.

There is a native Windows port that was used in the 2002 re-release, and while I've tried that and everything works as intended, it does not look good on my CRT (bilinear filtering), regardless of what configuration of the new settings that comes with it I try. According to a web page regarding this port, it was more designed for flat-panel displays anyway, so while it's usable and playable, it's not a great option.

I have a Slot 1 Pentium III running at 1.0GHz, for reference.

With all that said, does anyone know a good way to get the DOS version running correctly? Is there a certain slowdown tool I should try? Maybe some specific speeds? Or maybe something else entirely?

Reply 2 of 7, by OpenRift

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elszgensa wrote on 2024-05-07, 20:33:

Well, since you're already entertaining the idea of using a port instead - ScummVM has a Win95 build, and lets you configure filtering and whatnot.

I also tried that, it doesn't scale correctly on a CRT. It doesn't have an option to use native 320x200 resolution.

Reply 3 of 7, by crusher

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If you have an ALi Aladdin V chipset based board you can use this utility:

Throttle for ALi Aladdin 5 Socket 7 boards

For me it's working well for all speed-sensitive games that need slowdown.
The only issue I have is that the PC shutdown button does not work when in throttling mode.
Pressing it gives a permanent beep and computer freezes.
But I know how to deal with it:
First reset PC (throttling is not running afterwards).
Then I can shutdown it normally.

P.S.: In the moment of writing I had the idea to disable throttling instead of a PC reset.
Have to check this if it also works.

Reply 4 of 7, by Gmlb256

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ACPI throttling on Pentium III computers usually works with Throttle and CPUSPD. Note that this method isn't guaranteed to work flawlessly with every game.

VIA C3 Nehemiah 1.2A @ 1.46 GHz | ASUS P2-99 | 256 MB PC133 SDRAM | GeForce3 Ti 200 64 MB | Voodoo2 12 MB | SBLive! | AWE64 | SBPro2 | GUS

Reply 5 of 7, by Sombrero

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Gmlb256 wrote on 2024-05-08, 13:28:

ACPI throttling on Pentium III computers usually works with Throttle and CPUSPD. Note that this method isn't guaranteed to work flawlessly with every game.

Yep, I got S&M working well on my Pentium 3 with Throttle, luckily it's one of those games that is ok with ACPI throttling.

I had to bring it down pretty far, maybe throttle 7 to get the game run well and this was on a Pentium 3 @650Mhz/100MHz FSB. I'm not sure can you throttle a P3 1GHz down enough. Disabling L1 cache should do the trick though?

Reply 6 of 7, by OpenRift

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Sombrero wrote on 2024-05-08, 13:42:
Gmlb256 wrote on 2024-05-08, 13:28:

ACPI throttling on Pentium III computers usually works with Throttle and CPUSPD. Note that this method isn't guaranteed to work flawlessly with every game.

Yep, I got S&M working well on my Pentium 3 with Throttle, luckily it's one of those games that is ok with ACPI throttling.

I had to bring it down pretty far, maybe throttle 7 to get the game run well and this was on a Pentium 3 @650Mhz/100MHz FSB. I'm not sure can you throttle a P3 1GHz down enough. Disabling L1 cache should do the trick though?

I tried doing throttle 7 with Sam & Max and while the game actually seemed to run, the sound was choppy and the mouth movements weren't in-sync with the speech because they were animating too slow (speech would end before their mouths stopped moving by a lot).

Running throttle 6 just gave me a black screen, but at least I could alt-tab out of it.

Reply 7 of 7, by Sombrero

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OpenRift wrote on 2024-05-09, 17:27:

I tried doing throttle 7 with Sam & Max and while the game actually seemed to run, the sound was choppy and the mouth movements weren't in-sync with the speech because they were animating too slow (speech would end before their mouths stopped moving by a lot).

Running throttle 6 just gave me a black screen, but at least I could alt-tab out of it.

Did you use the windows version or the dos version? You can find the link to the dos version on the windows version page Gmlb256 linked. I have experience only with the dos version and it mentions it works better in dos mode, ie not under windows. At least the dos version should be used with -c variable, without it it disables L1 cache AND throttles slowing it way too much. Write the command like so:

Throttle 7 -c

If that is not enough and you still have issues get SetMul and disable L1 cache with Setmul L1D, this should drop your CPU to around 386 40MHz speed which should get the game working, though some slow downs are possible. You can re-enable it by setmul L1E or rebooting.

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