NamelessPlayer wrote:
AWE64 Gold? My friend has one(he's also the one with the Socket 7 mobo w/AGP slot), but I think it's a PCI model. Also, I hear the AWE series has some disadvantages compared to the classic SB16. I don't see the problem, though, as my SB Live! Value seems to work quite well already. And another thing-I keep hearing things about daughtercards-what are they for?
Well a AWE64/AWE32/SB32 really IS just a SB16 with some EMU wavetable chips added on. They all use the same Windows drivers, with some additions for the wavetable-equipped cards. Sound Blaster was the gold standard thru most of the '90s; almost every game supports them. REAL old games, like late '80s/early '90s may need a SB PRO for compatibility reasons though, cuz SB16's SBPRO and SB-classic support isn't perfect believe it or not.
Also, ISA cards are simply by far the best for DOS. The Live should work ok though, for digital sound only. But midi will be far better off with a ISA card with hardware midi capabilities (like AWE). Or you could get a full-blown DOS MIDI ISA card like the Yamaha SWXG cards (SWXG-60 is a good one) or even a Roland SCC-1 sound canvas (most games developers used this to compose their game music back in the day)
Daughtercards are little addon boards for sound cards with a Waveblaster header. Waveblaster is a bad Creative daughtercard that basically created the daughtercard market, because all the other manufacturers used the waveblaster connector for their cards. The best of the daughtercards are Roland's SCD-10 and SCD-15. You need to attach these to a ISA sound card to be able to use them in DOS (so say a PCI Aureal Vortex card with a waveblaster connector probably won't work for DOS stuff, you won't be able to access the thing)
NamelessPlayer wrote:
My keyboard port uses a round port larger than PS/2, and my mouse is native PS/2, so that's not a problem. The problem, though, is that my Saitek Cyborg 3D Gold & my Logitech WingMan Formula GP are both USB controllers. I guess that's reason enough to invest in the original Thrustmaster FCS HOTAS for legacy games, complete with pedals-MW2: Mercs might just benefit from it. And about AGP-are you sure that I don't need a Voodoo 3 instead of a Voodoo 2?
That keyboard connector is the old AT syle DIN. It's fine. You can get adapters for PS/2 keyboards to that thinger.
For DOS games you are going to need to get a joystick with a plain gameport connector. Anything else is probably a hopeless cause. Even if there is some magical driver out there, DOS games are unlikely to work well cuz DOS games didn't always work well with plain gameports!
NamelessPlayer wrote:
Trust me when I say even an ATI Xpert 98 PCI is much better than an SiS 530. This integrated chipset can't even keep the video in sync with the sound of an anime episode, and that's just 2D work!
No doubt. SiS graphics cards always are poor. Even today. 😀
NamelessPlayer wrote:
Finally, if I am to get a new mobo, be aware that it has to be compatible with an AT case. My current mobo has 2 ISA slots(1 free)& 3 PCI slots(1 free). An Ethernet card(for networking & Internet access)& the SB Live! Value take up the PCI slots-I moved my PS/2 & USB ports to another slot location not over a PCI slot. Therefore, if I want V2 SLI, I just have to dump the SB Live! Value & settle for integrated audio(if I don't have some sort of ISA sound card yet).
I'd try a PCI Voodoo3. Voodoo3s rock for 2D too. They have just an excellent 128-bit VGA core and Windows accelerator. The slowest Voodoo3 (2000) is a bit faster than Voodoo2 SLI.
Or just 1 Voodoo2. Honestly, DOS-only games do not need more than a single Voodoo2. A Voodoo1 would probably be adequate, and even may work better since even Voodoo2 has some compatibility issues with very old Glide games. Though there are probably workarounds out there.
NamelessPlayer wrote:
Anyway, it looks like I have all the information I need to make this into a decent gaming PC. It just might make every game made in its era run decently...except for Unreal Tournament(which problably begs for a more powerful CPU-K6-3 500 anyone?)
I have a K6-III+ running at 500 and it struggles a bit with UT. K6's are crippled by the Socket 7 architecture (terrible memory performance) and by their own FPU inadequacies. Athlon or P3 is God at UT compared to any K6.
And, 🤣, a P3 or Athlon is likely to be cheaper than a K6-III cuz people are collecting them and they are rare, especially the + mobile versions that are quite overclockable (~600Mhz usually).
But UT and Unreal are definitely games where a Voodoo card is BY FAR the best choice because the engine was designed for Glide and then they wrapped D3D and OpenGL on top. Voodoos are especially best if your CPU is overworked cuz Glide has far less CPU overhead than D3D.
UT isn't retro-enough for a retro rig 😀 You should be looking to play some DOS Carmageddon-1 in Glide Mode! Or original Tomb Raider.....or maybe Forsaken. Or Quake 1! 😈