Mike 01Hawk wrote:

And it was sitting up in my attic the whole time!!! DOH! :lol: […]
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And it was sitting up in my attic the whole time!!! DOH! 🤣

My first foray back in '06 to my retro goodness was a Packard Bell P200mmx that had this funky proprietary layout.

It worked well, but I wanted something that would be slow enough to run Wing Commander 1. I did some more sleuthing and found the Dell Optiplex GXpro that I currently have (I posted multiple times about both setups IIRC on here, so search if you would like more info).

WELLLLL... even w/ the GXpro's speed slowdown, it was still to fast. Oh well, one day I'll either get the Kilrathi Saga (that was re-coded to run on faster machines), or a flat out 386 😀

My retro gaming madness subsided for a good year or so, but like everything else I do, I'm back into it.

As I alluded to in another thread, well, I'll just copy/paste it:

Swaaye's setup has inspired me to think some more. I have but two lonely ISA slots available on my Dell GXpro. I'm thinking that […]
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Swaaye's setup has inspired me to think some more. I have but two lonely ISA slots available on my Dell GXpro. I'm thinking that this following set up would be killer for my needs!!!

ISA Slot 1: Soundscape (for digital effects for those games that support it natively)
ISA Slot 2: SB16 w/ DB50xg (for digital effects and the few games that the DB50xg is king, ie, FF7 and Descent are the only two I can think of off the top of my head)
ISA Slot 3: MPU-401AT w/ SCB-55 (for Sound Canvas music, and also have my MT-32 connected for games that sound lovely on the MT-32, i.e. the first Dune)

It's looking like a majority of the time I'd be rocking a SB16 for effects, and SCB-55 for music, unless of course I could 'upgrade' to the Soundscape

PCI Slot 1: Ethernet Card (if mobo doesn't support it)
PCI Slot 2: Video Card

I'd also like to get a tower configuration cause I believe that'd give me more flexibility. I'd love to get a known name brand such as Dell... but what would be a good MOBO that would fit my needs? I guess it should really start out at the MOBO, and then get a Case to fit that layout, then I could piece meal everything around that... hmmmmm

But then I started thinking to myself... self.. what about the friggen mini-tower you had in college... DOH!!!! Sure enough, I go up into the attic and there it is, all cold and lonely... but it's a Socket 7 😀

Here's a pic of it from another website:
http://www.geocities.com/hackedmobo/ga586hx/pboards.jpg

FOUR ISA and FOUR PCI!!! Joy oh joy!!!!

The only thing I'm bummed about is it has that old style com ports for the Mouse/Keyboard, not the new PS/2 style... so.. gonna have to research into that a bit.

BUUUT it'll give me something to play around with. IIRC I'll now have P1 166, P1 200, and P1 200mmx chipsets to mess around with... hmmm maybe P1 166 may be slow enough for Wing Commander 1, HA! Or maybe I could find the slowest Socket 7 CPU to throw in there and then try WC1.

I'm gonna have a busy weekend geeking out 😀

P166 slow enough for WC 1? don't think so 😉

It even runs a tad too fast on my 386DX 40mhz, but on my 25mhz 386DX it runs at perfect speed 😎

Amigaz wrote:

P166 slow enough for WC 1? don't think so 😉

It even runs a tad too fast on my 386DX 40mhz, but on my 25mhz 386DX it runs at perfect speed 😎

Sadly Amigaz is right... I just had similar thoughts and recently tried a Cyrix 5x86, which should rank somewhere between a 486dx-100 and a Pentium 75. It turns out to be way too fast. As the P75 is the slowest Socket 7 cpu you can get it will be too fast as well.

On the other side, Amigaz - I just wonder that a 386dx40 is allready too fast. Really? (That's just a 15mhz difference) I mean, what indicates that it is too fast?
With the 5x86 mentioned above you could easily see it in the opening scene that it is too fast (asteroids flying with lightspeed 😉 )

Silent Loon wrote:

Sadly Amigaz is right... I just had similar thoughts and recently tried a Cyrix 5x86, which should rank somewhere between a 486 […]
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Amigaz wrote:

P166 slow enough for WC 1? don't think so 😉

It even runs a tad too fast on my 386DX 40mhz, but on my 25mhz 386DX it runs at perfect speed 😎

Sadly Amigaz is right... I just had similar thoughts and recently tried a Cyrix 5x86, which should rank somewhere between a 486dx-100 and a Pentium 75. It turns out to be way too fast. As the P75 is the slowest Socket 7 cpu you can get it will be too fast as well.

On the other side, Amigaz - I just wonder that a 386dx40 is allready too fast. Really? (That's just a 15mhz difference) I mean, what indicates that it is too fast?
With the 5x86 mentioned above you could easily see it in the opening scene that it is too fast (asteroids flying with lightspeed 😉 )

Well...since I'm a veteran gamer I can tell when a game runs too fast
Space combat and cut scenes clearly runs a bit too fast
I've also played the Amiga versions alot, both the plain OCS/ECS version and CD32 version so I have a feel for how fast the game should run

Hec..the game even warp speeds on my 486SX 33mhz I had and on my 486DX2 50mhz

... Oh - I didn't want to doubt your experience. I just wondered that this game is designed to run with so few cpus. Minimum system specs were a 286 / 12mhz, but I remember that it didn't run well on my 286. So if a 386dx40 is allready too fast, there is not much left: 386sx16 - 386dx33, right?

I'm thinking 386sx 25mhz 😀

But it's quite silly for me to get a whole "new" pc just for 1 or 2 games! I just have a really soft spot in my heart for WC1/2.

Anyway, it looks like I'm in luck on this GA-586HX, it comes out of the box w/ PS/2 mouse support. So now I just need to find a PS/2 - AT Keyboard adapter, which are pretty cheap and plentiful on Ebay.

Reading your posts I would suggest you prefer the original hardware for the old games.
Nevertheless in this case dosbox might be the suitable solution. Furthermore as you own a MT-32. I have mine connected via a Soundblaster Audigy with my Athlon64-PC. Dosbox has no problems to access the MT-32 and runs the game quite well with 3500 cycles.

I wonder if WC2 causes the same speed problems.

did you try that alt-+ combo ?
I recall it slowed down the game by adding more frames.

Silent Loon wrote:

... Oh - I didn't want to doubt your experience. I just wondered that this game is designed to run with so few cpus. Minimum system specs were a 286 / 12mhz, but I remember that it didn't run well on my 286. So if a 386dx40 is allready too fast, there is not much left: 386sx16 - 386dx33, right?

My HP Vectra has a 386SX 16mhz (now upgraded to with a Cyrix)
It ran too slow imho on it, lolol 😵

Silent Loon, I'd like to stay away from Dosbox, mainly cause I'm trying to be a purist, but also because my main box is hooked up to a 24 inch LCD. Old games on a 24 LCD, that's just 'not right'. I'll stick to my old P1 box hooked up to a CRT 😀

Qbix, hmm... dunno, might try that option. I DO know that moslo and all those other software based slow downs just did NOT work 100% on my Pentium 1 based boxes, even Dell's Optiplex GXpro hardware slowdown wasn't enough 🙁

I have a PC Gamer July 2000 disk, it comes with the Kilrathi Saga version of WC1, and it works splendidly on my C2D 2.8ghz machine running windows XP... 🤣... dig that!

it was the + next to the backspace I recall.

Well who woulda thunk it, they make a ATX to AT power supply cable adapter / converter! That opens up a LOT of opportunities to find a passive / silent PSU 😀

I got this old mobo up and running, and after a bios reflash it's recognizing the 40gb hd 😀

I only have 8 meg of ram on it though, so no Win98se for me just yet (16 minimum from what I gather on the net) 🙁

Can't wait to get my SS, SB16 and MPU401at all in there at the same time. Heck, I could probably even put one of my PCI sound cards in there as well.. oh man...🤣

Cool 😀

You plan to use it for VGA, SVGA games or maybe even some 3dfx frenzy? 😉

Amigaz,

Well.... of course 😀

I like 3 main types of games, in order of preference

Graphical Adventure I've got a ton of Lucas Arts / Sierra games to go thru. I love the art and the music. The 7th Guest holds many found memories.
FPS For when I wanna just 'get in' and play for 10-15 min, need to go thru Duke,Dark Forces, Quake 1 etc etc all over again
RTS Dune2, C&C, Xcom

I've got a S3 for the basics... also a Voodoo1, but really no point in the V1 except for nostalgia now that I have the Voodoo3. I still think I'll have to swap out vid cards or figure out what really works for me as a 1 stop solution because I recall the V3 does NOT work with "Under a Killing Moon"... but the S3 works great.

I've got a bid on 256 mem of EDO ram 😀

Also need to get another AT PSU because the current one the fan is locked up and I'm worried about it frying all my cards if it goes... I saw this one over on Newegg that has 3 fan speeds, which should work great for me cause I REALLY want a quiet-ish DOS Box. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16817707002

However, I see that there are ATX to AT PSU adapter cables, so I might go that route as well and get a REALLY quiet ATX PSU 😀

Mike 01Hawk wrote:

Amigaz, […]
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Amigaz,

Well.... of course 😀

I like 3 main types of games, in order of preference

Graphical Adventure I've got a ton of Lucas Arts / Sierra games to go thru. I love the art and the music. The 7th Guest holds many found memories.
FPS For when I wanna just 'get in' and play for 10-15 min, need to go thru Duke,Dark Forces, Quake 1 etc etc all over again
RTS Dune2, C&C, Xcom

I've got a S3 for the basics... also a Voodoo1, but really no point in the V1 except for nostalgia now that I have the Voodoo3. I still think I'll have to swap out vid cards or figure out what really works for me as a 1 stop solution because I recall the V3 does NOT work with "Under a Killing Moon"... but the S3 works great.

I've got a bid on 256 mem of EDO ram 😀

Also need to get another AT PSU because the current one the fan is locked up and I'm worried about it frying all my cards if it goes... I saw this one over on Newegg that has 3 fan speeds, which should work great for me cause I REALLY want a quiet-ish DOS Box. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16817707002

However, I see that there are ATX to AT PSU adapter cables, so I might go that route as well and get a REALLY quiet ATX PSU 😀

256mb EDO? whoo-hoo, you'll never get memory fragmentation with that, hehe

btw. stay away from that Voodoo 3 if you want to run SVGA games....there's no VBE driver that supports it
I just replaced my Voodoo 3000 in my P200 box for a Tseng ET6000 because I was sick of not beiing able to play my fav. SVGA games

Memory fragmentation?

Tseng ET6000 would be one of the best DOS gaming SVGA card ever, but unfortunately it has this really annoying ModeX bug...

Take Jazz Jackrabbit, for example:

5u3 wrote:

Tseng ET6000 would be one of the best DOS gaming SVGA card ever, but unfortunately it has this really annoying ModeX bug... […]
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Tseng ET6000 would be one of the best DOS gaming SVGA card ever, but unfortunately it has this really annoying ModeX bug...

Take Jazz Jackrabbit, for example:

Jesus! 😲

Best to stick with SVGA games then or go back to my original plan and stick an S3 based card in my P200 instead