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Non-NEC Console Related Discussion => Console Chat => Topic started by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 21, 2011, 04:17:10 PM
Title: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 21, 2011, 04:17:10 PM
This will probably only interest maybe one or tow of you but anyway, contrary to the popular belief of the select few, the chosen girls of fail, I do actually stay quite busy with different projects. I make it no secret that I love old pc hardware, let alone new stuff. Typically any craigslist trolling or whatever other lulz is done while waiting for benchmarks to finish up on other systems I have built, etc, when I am sitting here at home. It gets boring watching 3D Mark 99 run for the 1200th time, or installing Windows 98 for the umpteenth time, so you have to keep busy somehow while doing so. Anyway, that brings me to this. Finally had time to get my 3DFX build back together during sunday evening and most of monday. Originally I was using a Jabil Kadoka Slot A board with a Athlon 900mhz Quoth had nabbed me a long while back (actually he nabbed me a Slot A 850 and 900mhz both during a run at a pc parts store near him). That board and the 900mhz Athlon were a good pair when running with a SoundBlaster Live and a Voodoo 5, but, really a bit of overkill for Glide specific titles as far as the Voodoo 5 is concerned, unless you want FSAA specifically.
After a bit of use I broke that system down and packed parts away, and sold off the V5. I had a Monster Fusion Banshee waiting to be used, one day..... I always loved the Banshee ever since I first owned one. They scaled well with faster cpus, which was never reflected in the original reviews done for the cards, since back then they benched them with lowly Pentium II and PIII processors on Slot 1 boards. Some of the manufactures also sold the cards overclocked right off the bat, which was rare at that time. Anyway, finally got out the parts to do the rebuild from my legacy parts closet. Ended up wanting to go with a Sb 128, Aka Ensoniq Audio PCI, because its Dos support is solid, but it had issues with the Kadoka. So I went with a far far faster Asrock K7VT2 and Athlon XP 2400+ combo. The system is now up and running flawlessly, and can be viewed on the link below.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: nat on June 21, 2011, 04:23:50 PM
I've owned only Macs for almost ten years now, but I've been considering putting together an old Pentium or somesuch to use as a DOS box for running old games.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 21, 2011, 04:56:43 PM
Yeah I have been building and refurbishing older systems for Dos/Win 95 and 98 use to sell. The stuff is kinda in demand now and not easy to set up. Some of the better Socket 7 boards that only use ISA and pci slots can really fight you on the later 128-bit gpu driven grafx cards and certain audio cards, so you need to choose your parts wisely. I have a ton of spare parts,etc I had stowed away over the years. I actually need to get to work on refurbing a K6-2 NEC tower soon to list for sale, but before that I need to finish up a Slot 1 Pentium II tower to list too. This system I just did was for my games that use 3DFX mainly. The only reason I even wanted to tack on Dos audio support was for a few Dos titles that have Glide modes. I already have a main system I use for normal Dos and old Direct X titles, consisting of a K6-2, PCI MX4000, Awe 32 pnp, and 128 mb ram which I will do a video of if I get the chance. On that one I can run stuff out via S-video to a small tv I have nearby if I want. Some of the really old Dos stuff when run on a normal tv actually looks a bit better then in VGA, especially the arcade port stuff. As far as mac stuff, I dont mess with that. I had picked up a old Mac prior I considered using for old games. This was a few years back when I did. Ended up giving it to Quoth09 to use. I also came across a batch of new sealed Quake 1 copies for Mac once that I got for a buck each. Sold them all on ebay for between 15-20 bucks a pop, because at the time they were considered rare. Now I don't think anyone gives a f*ck about the Id stuff on Mac. I dont think it goes for much at all.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: PunkicCyborg on June 21, 2011, 05:37:30 PM
you should press the enter/return key every so often
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 21, 2011, 05:40:11 PM
You should for me. I'm lazy.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: blueraven on June 21, 2011, 06:07:48 PM
Lol. Makes me want to play X-Wing with the full-keyboard of commands again.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 21, 2011, 07:24:37 PM
I basically play X-Wing with a Gravis pad and Keyboard combo. I do have a older gameport flight stick I could use too though I guess if I cared to hook it up.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: nat on June 21, 2011, 07:46:48 PM
I used to own a Gravis Pad, used that thing for years. It still worked the last time I used it but that was, uh, like 12 years ago. I haven't seen it in many many years, I suspect it probably got lost during one of my moves since then. That thing was top notch.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 21, 2011, 07:54:49 PM
Yeah old controller wise, besides the flight stick, I have two Gravis Gamepad Pro USB pads, a Interact Propad 6, and a Gravis Destroyer GamePad.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: Arkhan on June 22, 2011, 01:16:48 AM
awww no MT-32? :(
That is my preferred way to play crap in DOS. Ultima don't sound right without it.
and, yeah, trolling the internets is a good way to fill the void when somethings building/installing/rendering/etc. I do it alot, ;)
That or playing PCE.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: SuperDeadite on June 22, 2011, 02:23:20 AM
I've owned only Macs for almost ten years now, but I've been considering putting together an old Pentium or somesuch to use as a DOS box for running old games.
Just get Dosbox for your mac. That's all you need. If you have a decent Mac it will run perfect. No need for a whole extra pc tower.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 22, 2011, 04:43:15 AM
Anything I run DOS wise the AWE 32 handles quite well on its own music wise, so I cant complain. Probably the only thing Id play that uses MT32 well enough is Dune and a couple others. I dont really care for the Sierra library of titles, Might and Magic, Ultima, etc, so I wouldnt get much use out of it. I considered nabbing a Yamaha DB50XG to mess around with a SB16, but not really sure its worth the hassle. For the curious, the SB PCI 128, etc, all that rebadged Ensoniq AudioPci stuff supports Soundscape in Dos. The cards are well rounded for handling any of the mid 90's Dos titles, however FM playback is horrible, so you wont be doing any Megarace 1 on that card.
I've owned only Macs for almost ten years now, but I've been considering putting together an old Pentium or somesuch to use as a DOS box for running old games.
Just get Dosbox for your mac. That's all you need. If you have a decent Mac it will run perfect. No need for a whole extra pc tower.
Dosbox has flaws, and its kinda just nice to actually set up and use real hardware. Its part of what makes the hobby fun.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: geise on June 22, 2011, 05:41:16 AM
Yeah I agree it's more fun of a hobby on real hardware. I'm just saying if you don't have aPC and are using a Mac it might be easier to get a quick fix using DosBox for Mac if you're only wanting to play certain games. If I had a crap ton of old games already, then yeah I'd just put together an old computer if I had all the parts.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: Necromancer on June 22, 2011, 06:49:24 AM
For the curious, the SB PCI 128, etc, all that rebadged Ensoniq AudioPci stuff supports Soundscape in Dos.
Heh. This brings back fond memories of the full length ISA board stuffed in my 486 back in the day; that thing was just too damn big to not be awesome.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: blueraven on June 22, 2011, 07:04:41 AM
The Gravis PC Gamepad was top notch: I think mine is probably in a box in my parents basement. I remember trying to get it to work with Magic Engine back around 2001 or so but to no avail, I wasn't as tech saavy as I am now. It really added a new dimension to being a PC gamer, as I didn't have many (any really) systems as a youngster.
I do remember using it to play some first person shooters.
For the curious, the SB PCI 128, etc, all that rebadged Ensoniq AudioPci stuff supports Soundscape in Dos.
Heh. This brings back fond memories of the full length ISA board stuffed in my 486 back in the day; that thing was just too damn big to not be awesome.
Yeah Ensoniq made some good tech. If I get some time here in a bit I will do a video of a few games running in Dos using the Ensoniq rebadge specifically. One of the systems I listed up on ebay is setup with a Ensoniq AudioPci card: That one video there just shows a general range of games running, not just Dos titles using Soundscape, so I def need to make another.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: thesteve on June 22, 2011, 07:40:07 AM
just remember the eisa video cards. think of the "MODE 9" cards
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: nat on June 22, 2011, 04:09:35 PM
I've owned only Macs for almost ten years now, but I've been considering putting together an old Pentium or somesuch to use as a DOS box for running old games.
Just get Dosbox for your mac. That's all you need. If you have a decent Mac it will run perfect. No need for a whole extra pc tower.
I already have DOSBox on my Mac, but like Mike said, it has some flaws. For the casual player they probably aren't anything too noticeable, but I played these DOS games for years back in the day and I pick out inconsistencies right and left. Then it becomes more of a flaw-spotting experience than an actual game experience. Actually, installing DOSBox and revisiting many of these old games is sort of what triggered my interest in possibly picking up a real DOS box.
DOSBox also seems to have a critical bug, however, at least in the Macintosh version. If you're using the keyboard for gameplay, pressing a key cancels out any other key that's being pressed simultaneously. Case in point: you're holding down a direction key to move, then you press the jump key to jump over a pit. Pressing the jump key cancels out the fact that you're holding down the direction key and your character jumps straight up into the air and then falls to the ground at a dead stop. You're still holding the direction key. You should have jumped over the pit, but you didn't. This alone is pretty much a deal breaker for me.
As has been said, part of the fun of the "hobby" is in working with the real hardware. Just as I don't emulate my consoles on my computer. I'm not an emulation sort of guy all around, to be honest. The only emulation I've been able to handle for regular play is the sort you get on platforms like the Wii and Dreamcast, where you're using a recent-gen console to emulate an older system.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: geise on June 23, 2011, 01:24:20 AM
Yeah I didn't know. Everything I played "seemed" to run fine to me, but I was more of a casual DOS gamer. I was always using and Amiga or Atari ST. Then I had the first Mac Power PC in 94. Didn't get a windows/dos machine till 96. Like you said though, you played those games for years. I understand. It's like emulating pc-engine and noticing all the flaws cause you have played them for so long. BTW I have an old dual pentium II 350mhz motherboard, with both processors. I believe about 768 megs of ram. It has an oxygen vx1 32 meg video card. I used it with windows NT/95 back in the day as one of my power house computers for computer animation. I'll give it to you for nothing and find out how much shipping would be if you want it? No tower, just the MB, video card, hell even a sound card. Hehe I can throw in an internal zip drive lol. I also have the SCSI 10gb HD and CD Rom Drive. All are SCSI. Also an old Sony CD Burner. Send me a PM if you're interested. :D
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 23, 2011, 09:04:37 AM
Im not positive, because it has been forever since I looked into dual processor configs for PII and PIII, but I think that Windows 95-ME will ignore the second cpu totally. NT and Win 2000 will use them, but that wouldn't do you any good as far as classic gaming goes really because Windows 2k is not too friendly with some stuff prior to Direct X 6.1. It will vary from title to title. Would make a awesome server build though for something like Shogo, Quake, or Interstate 82 for hosting multiplayer sessions if there was any interest in that still among anyone here. I'm always up for a match of Shogo myself.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: geise on June 23, 2011, 11:16:25 AM
Yeah I know back in the day nt, and 2k were the only ones that used dual processors. That's why I had a dual boot NT/95 setup. NT for work and 95 for games. I know 95 was only using 1 processor. Was just stating what I have in case he was interested.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 23, 2011, 01:52:25 PM
Yea since your offering it he should nab it. Like I said, would make a good build just for hosting multiplayer matches alone. And yeah, that too, he could always do a dual boot if he cared to.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: BlueBMW on June 23, 2011, 02:30:06 PM
Wow, I just stumbled upon this thread. I love messing with old PC hardware. I've still got almost every machine that my family has owned since our 486.
I grew up playing DOS games long before I started playing console games. I would watch my dad play and eventually I learned the DOS commands to load up the various games.
Speaking of the gravis gamepad... I LOVE that controller. The game I remember using it with most was Star Control 2. I've still got two of them today, but modern machines never sport the gameport :( When I built my current computer about two years ago, I had to search hard to find a motherboard that still had a floppy header on it!
I think the earliest dual core machine I had was a twin processor pentium 100mhz machine that was running Red hat 6 or something. I didnt know how to do anything in Linux, but it was neat to mess with. I remember overclocking them to 120mhz just because I could, then it just up and died one day :-k
Oh and SB16/AWE32 :clap: :dance: :-({|=
If there's any older hardware you're looking for, let me know!
Anything I run DOS wise the AWE 32 handles quite well on its own music wise, so I cant complain. Probably the only thing Id play that uses MT32 well enough is Dune and a couple others.
Dune :clap: Not sure why I love that game so much, but I do!
Oh and here's me with my freshly built AMD K6-2 500mhz from back when that was still relevant tech. Yeah I was a total nerd :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: nat on June 23, 2011, 02:38:41 PM
Thanks for the offers guys, I'll take them into consideration.
You know, for a long time I had a dual-processor Pentium II machine that I used daily. It was, really, the last non-Mac I ever used on a daily basis. One day, about ten years ago, I needed to update the BIOS firmware for something or other. I'm thinking it might have been around the time of the Windows XP release. The f*cking update utility FROZE in the middle of the update. I left it there for like half an hour just to be sure, but it never moved. As people familiar with these things knows, you abort a BIOS update before it's complete and you're toast. Well, I didn't interrupt it myself, but the end result was the same. I sourced a replacement BIOS chip at the time through a mail-order company and vowed I'd have the thing back on its feet in no time. In the meantime I picked up a PowerMac G3 (later upgraded to G4) that I began using as my daily "driver." I became so enamored with the speed of the un-bloated operating system, I kept putting off repairing the PII. Like 8 years passed and it just sat it my closet, following me through move after move like a lost puppy. I'm pretty sure when I made the "final" move last summer when I bought this place, I finally parted ways with that thing. It, along with a few other derelicts from my Apple repair days found final peace at the bottom of a dumpster.
It's ironic really, of course the year after I finally ditch the thing I get the itch to revisit some past PC glories.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 23, 2011, 04:03:53 PM
Oh and here's me with my freshly built AMD K6-2 500mhz from back when that was still relevant tech. Yeah I was a total nerd :mrgreen: (http://i905.photobucket.com/albums/ac253/bmcdanold/geek-1.jpg)
Could be wrong, but looks like a Via chipset based board you were sporting there all proud and shit lol :P Seems like Via, Ali, and SIS really held a death grip over the Socket 7 market.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: BlueBMW on June 23, 2011, 04:24:29 PM
Thats right! It was an Epox board with a VIA Apollo chipset of some sort... somewhere I've got a pic of all the pieces and parts strewn out pre-assembly.
Edit: It was an Epox EP-MVP3G-M board lol. Not sure why I picked it at the time, but I did hehe. Now I pretty much choose Asus when given the choice.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 23, 2011, 05:38:59 PM
Thats right! It was an Epox board with a VIA Apollo chipset of some sort... somewhere I've got a pic of all the pieces and parts strewn out pre-assembly.
Edit: It was an Epox EP-MVP3G-M board lol. Not sure why I picked it at the time, but I did hehe. Now I pretty much choose Asus when given the choice.
The Epox stuff is collectable. If you still have it, hold onto it. Epox has a cult following for their parts since they have been long gone out of the business now. I sold off a Socket A Nforce 2 board of theirs for around 40 bucks late last year, and a AM2 SLI board of theirs that I paid around 30 for originally new, I got 80 bucks for it a few weeks ago. I still have a full size ATX Socket 7 Epox board that supports AGP and k6-3. Due to the rarity, I think I am just going to hold on to it.
edit: Now that I think about it, the Epox board you have there, I think it is the one I have. I would have to doublecheck to be sure though.
Edit #2: Here is the one I have: http://www.active-hardware.com/english/reviews/mainboard/ep-mvp3g2.htm Mine is basically a updated version of your board that ended up a couple points slower in favor of ATA66 it seems. I wonder if they ever resolved that speed difference in a bios update, because there shouldn't really have been a gap there with both the boards using the same chipset.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: BlueBMW on June 23, 2011, 06:53:29 PM
Wow that's crazy! I guess Ill hold onto it then :P. I know that tower is still buried somewhere in the attic.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: Arkhan on June 24, 2011, 04:15:32 AM
I remember fixing some P90 from ebay up to play Ultima and crap after my sister f*cked our Pentium 2 up.
I can't remember but I am pretty sure I put a trident video card in that thing.
It did ok until I got an AMD-K6 setup! 300mhz of POWER! Icewind Dale and UO all day. lol.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: nat on June 24, 2011, 05:40:41 PM
Good ol' Trident. Had lots of Trident video cards over the years.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 25, 2011, 01:06:23 AM
Spent last nite refurbing a Acer Aspire K6 166mhz comp. Removed the dead 2gb hard drive and replaced with a 4gb Maxtor, disabled onboard video and audio, and installed a Matrox Millennium II and a SoundBlaster 16. Also, only 16mb installed originally, so I added one more 8 meg stick to bring the total to 24mb, and did a fresh Win 95 c install, and added updates, etc. Tested it out for a bit with Duke, Crusader No Remorse, Out of this World, Volfied, NBA Jam, Wolf 3d, Death Rally, and Doom II. Works perfect. Will prob list it on ebay in a couple weeks after I move other stuff out, unless I decide to keep it. Not sure yet. (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/Picture24-2.jpg) (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/Picture25.jpg) (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/Picture26-2.jpg)
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: Arkhan on June 25, 2011, 05:00:27 AM
That monitor looks pretty pimptastic.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: BlueBMW on June 25, 2011, 05:02:22 AM
I've got lots of old Gateway 2000 towers. Not sure why but I just LOVE the old GW2K stuff. Still have some of the cow boxes they used to get mailed in (back when they were mail order only)
I'd say keep that machine Professor. Its always nice to have native hardware available to run old stuff if you wanted.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on June 25, 2011, 08:49:15 AM
That monitor is my Sony Trinitron you see in most any pics I do for this stuff. Its a nice solid monitor, has vga and BNC in, but its heavy as hell. As far as old stuff goes, I already have a ton of it as is, I just wouldn't mind having a flat top box is all. Honestly though, don't know where Id put it. About the only thing I don't have is pre-Socket 7 stuff, which Id not have too much use for anyway.
Beat around the bush on listing this one, but its up for sale on ebay as of today. If you guys wanna check the video, would give you a example of how well Sound Blaster Live cards sound in Dos.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: Arkhan on June 26, 2011, 04:31:52 PM
I loled at the Connect to the Internet Icon
and then I applauded the Hexen.
Hexen and The Heretic were way more badass than Doom.
that was back when having a PC for gaming actually meant something.
Title: Re: Latest one day project....sorta
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on July 31, 2011, 11:33:42 PM
Finally got around to taking better pics of stuff. Not everything I have by any means, but these are the computers that see action as far as for personal use goes, some of which I will list the specs in detail: Crossfire system: Athlon II X4 635 @2.9ghz MSI 790XT-G45 4gb DDR2 two HD 5770 cards 250 gb WD Blue and 160 gb Seagate Sata hd LG Super Multi DVD-R burner onboard Realtek HD audio BFG 1000 Watt psu GMC X7 X-Station (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/customs/DSCN3186.jpg) (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/customs/DSCN3187.jpg) (yeah in case you are wondering, you're seeing the system temp correctly read at 26 degrees Celsius / 78 °F., and yeah, I achieve that temp on air cooling only)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SLI system: Athlon64 FX-62 @2.8ghz Asus M2N-SLI 3gb DDR2 two 8800GTS 320mb cards C-Media 7.1 audio onboard 160 gb WD Blue Pioneer DVD-R burner BFG GS-650 watt Aerocool Terminator 3 themed case (circa 2003)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- gigantic Gateway tower from 1995: Pentium 100mhz S3Trio64 Pci Creative Awe 32 Seagate 1.2 gb harddrive plain jane cd-rom drive 64 megs ram 150 watt psu (I think???) (shot of lower area of the inside, since I needed to pop it open and do some work on it, swapping out case fans, etc) (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/customs/DSCN3190.jpg) (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/customs/DSCN3191.jpg)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- custom Dosbox/Win98 tower: AMD K6-3 400mhz EPoX EP-MVP3G2 ATI Rage 128 Pro STB Blackmagic 3dfx Voodoo 2 12meg Creative AWE 64 4 gb and 20 gb harddrives cd-rom drive 128 megs ram 250 watt psu (shot of the inside) (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/customs/DSCN3192.jpg) (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/customs/DSCN3193.jpg)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acer flattop box (you saw this one posted prior): AMD K6 166mhz Matrox Millenium II Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro16 II 4 gb harddrive cd-rom drive 24 megs ram 100 watt psu (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/customs/DSCN3188.jpg) (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/Amakusa666/customs/DSCN3189.jpg)