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Top game pics for 286 era

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First post, by snorg

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What are your top game pics for the 286 era, say 8-12 mhz system, 256 color VGA and 640k RAM?

Please do not include anything that would need a hotrod 16 or 20mhz 286 and gobs of RAM (well, gobs for a 286...basically anything over 640k)

Reply 2 of 38, by snorg

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Yeah I may be able to expand to 1MB but not counting on it. The expansion board I have will detect 128k, so far I haven't tried out all the dip switch combinations so there may be another 128k on there (or it may just be two banks of 64k, not sure) and there is 1 bank empty still so I may be able to get it to a full 1024kb provided all banks hold 128k. So ideally anything that will work with just 640k is preferable.

Reply 6 of 38, by Gemini000

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Thexder
King's Quest
Bubble Bobble
Serve & Volley
Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh
Kroz Series Games
Rogue

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 8 of 38, by retrofanatic

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Budokan: the Martial Spirit (I just played this yesterday albeit on DOSBOX and it really brought me back to the days I used to play it on my friends 286)

Scorched Earth (original)

Civilization (as PeterLI mentioned above)

SimCity (original) as Donutking mentioned as well, but I just wanted to add that I think this was one game that took advantage of a Co-processor (if your 286 can take one)

Leisure Suit Larry 1 and 2 (and I think 3 ran good on a 286 as well) and pretty much all Sierra games before King's Quest V came out I believe were some of the best games to come out during the 286 era.

The original Links golf game (if you're into that sort of thing)

Reply 9 of 38, by SquallStrife

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I don't think Wolf3D runs too nicely on an 8MHz 286. You need a faster one, or a 386 to play it smoothly and without a reduced view port.

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Reply 11 of 38, by SquallStrife

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Interesting... When I had a 286 with VGA I had to bump the view size down a few notches to make it buttery smooth.

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Reply 13 of 38, by stbunny

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Gods by Bitmap Brothers;
Prehistoric 2;
Wolfenstein 3D, which runs smooth enough on Harris 20MHz + 1Mb RAM + Trident 9000c ISA.

P55T2P4, Intel Pentium 133MHz, 32Mb EDO, S3 Virge 325, YMF-719s + SC-55, AHA-2940U2W, ST39175LW, UltraPlex40Max, Opti USB PCI, Sony CPD-G400P 19"

Reply 14 of 38, by bristlehog

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Civilization
King's Bounty
King's Bounty 2
Golden Axe
Prince of Persia
Prehistorik 2
StarGoose
Xenon 2: Megablast
Knightmare
Centurion
Warlords
Ski or Die
Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion
Shadow Knights
Metal Mutant

All of these were played on a 8 Mhz 286s with 1 Mb RAM.

Hardware comparisons and game system requirements: https://technical.city

Reply 15 of 38, by Half-Saint

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stbunny wrote:

Wolfenstein 3D, which runs smooth enough on Harris 20MHz + 1Mb RAM + Trident 9000c ISA.

I have the same system and if I compare it to a 386DX-40, Wolf3d runs like crap on a 286.

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Reply 16 of 38, by SquallStrife

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stbunny wrote:

Wolfenstein 3D, which runs smooth enough on Harris 20MHz + 1Mb RAM + Trident 9000c ISA.

OP said they weren't interested in a "hotrod" 20MHz 286. 😉

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Reply 17 of 38, by stbunny

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Half-Saint wrote:

I have the same system and if I compare it to a 386DX-40, Wolf3d runs like crap on a 286.

It's all relative, you know. Some 80386 and their clones are running much worse than 80286-20 Harris. Still, for me it was playable.

SquallStrife wrote:

OP said they weren't interested in a "hotrod" 20MHz 286. 😉

Er... my bad, though. 😕

P55T2P4, Intel Pentium 133MHz, 32Mb EDO, S3 Virge 325, YMF-719s + SC-55, AHA-2940U2W, ST39175LW, UltraPlex40Max, Opti USB PCI, Sony CPD-G400P 19"

Reply 18 of 38, by snorg

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While I'm not opposed to the idea of a faster 286, I just don't think it is going to be possible to upgrade this system. Even if I could swap a new chip into the PLCC socket, I don't think there would be a way for me to adjjust the clock crystal, I'd probably have to swap a new one in. Then I'm still limited to 640k RAM. I can probably bump that to 1024k maybe if I can get the expansion board I have working, but there is no guarantee of that (this is my Tandy project box, and I'm not interested in destructive modifications or trying to make it into a 386 or something. I had thought I would hotrod it as much as I could, but my plans sort of fell through when the Everex memory expansion board I purchased for it was just too darn big, so I'm very limited in the amount of RAM I have).

So that's why I specified standard 8-12 mhz speed, 640k RAM, VGA, etc.

Reply 19 of 38, by Half-Saint

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stbunny wrote:
Half-Saint wrote:

I have the same system and if I compare it to a 386DX-40, Wolf3d runs like crap on a 286.

It's all relative, you know. Some 80386 and their clones are running much worse than 80286-20 Harris. Still, for me it was playable.

My example is not relative, it's absolute. A 386DX-40 is a faster processor. Period.

A 386SX-16 and SX-25 are slower than a 286-20 in some cases but that's beyond the point. My point was that running Wold3D on any 286 is a little more than a slideshow when compared to a 386DX-40. It's playable but not something I'd want to do more than a couple of times.

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