Kekkula wrote on 2024-12-23, 20:53:

The card is indeed tseng et3000ax and bios doesn't have shadow option, but I did find tseng directory from hard drive but I think its for et4000 there is fastbios.sys file.
I loaded it from config.sys and it takes over 30kb ram and has no speed effect at least in lm60.

The idea of fastbios.sys is to "shadow" the video BIOS in conventional memory. This obviously only makes sense if your computer doesn't already do BIOS shadowing. Any benchmark that accesses video memory directly will not be affected by fastbios.sys. IIRC checkit benchmarks both DOS or BIOS character output and direct video memory character output. fastbios.sys is supposed to enhance the BIOS speed a lot, but won't have any effect to the direct video memory benchmark in checkit.

Kekkula wrote on 2024-12-23, 14:01:

So I'm going to grab my 12mhz 286 with memory expansion card and swap vga adapter from it to vectra ega adapter. It's same kind […]
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So I'm going to grab my 12mhz 286 with memory expansion card and swap vga adapter from it to vectra ega adapter.
It's same kind of setup I had as a kid.
I remember playing games like streed rod, eye of the beholder and grand prix circuit.
What are your recommendations?

All of the early Sierra adventure games from about 1985 to 1990.

A lot of those games were right at home on a 12 MHz 286.

@mkarcher
Thanks for the clarification.

I'm thinking maybe I should hook up mt32pi to this rig, but then again I would have to change the sound galaxy card and network card out.
Replace them with picogus and xt-ide card, so I could have intelligent mode mpu-401 mode... I don't think softmpu works with 286.
It would be neat setup though many sierra and lucas arts games would be nice to play setup like that...

I'm thinking maybe I should hook up mt32pi to this rig, but then again I would have to change the sound galaxy card and network card out.

"SOUND BLASTER MIDI PORT UTILITY
This utility by Anders Olsson will modify Sierra games to run on an MT-32 using a SoundBlaster (or compatible) card as the MIDI interface."

http://www.sierrahelp.com/Utilities/SoundUtilities.html

Too late 😁
Already swapped parts...
And already playing one of the best EGA games ever... Hoyle's book of games vol1

Some personal favourites. I used to play these on an 8Mhz XT clone back in the day - some were slow as hell, but a 286-12 should play them nicely, especially if the board is 0ws.

Test Drive II
DeathTrack
Ghostbusters II
Arkanoid
Rick Dangerous

and of course, the classic EGA lucasfilm adventure games:

Maniac Mansion
Monkey Island 1
Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade
Loom

Is there any memory test programs for 286 machines?
I've run into few issues. Civilization crashed in the late stage of the game, and for some reason game doesn't auto save... Even though it's enabled in the menu.

Another game that crashed was street rod.
It's also a game that is best on real hardware, it's really hard to find right speed in dosbox. I also don't like the se version where cars have been changed.

Overkill seems great game. I tried it first on dosbox, and it was really hard, but when I run it on original hardware the game was much easier... So definitely speed sensitive game.

I think arkanoid and popcorn are too difficult too... Maybe I should test those with my xt machine.

Kekkula wrote on 2024-12-28, 06:40:

Is there any memory test programs for 286 machines?

CheckIt! version 3 is the classic, it even has a feature to assist finding faulty DIL chips on motherboard.

Thanks, I'll try it.
I also wanted to try wing commander, I know it's not going to be playable, but installer started to convert textures and errored out before end.
So I'm thinking does gog version of the game have all needed files. What I've been reading lately about gog gives me the impression that they are doing everything they can to stop people using their games on real hardware.