Latest one day project....sorta

[blueraven]

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. 

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.

Nice setup.

That thing was top notch.

Totally clutch.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

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.

[thesteve]

just remember the eisa video cards.
think of the "MODE 9" cards

[nat]

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.

[geise]

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.   

[ProfessorProfessorson]

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.

[geise]

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.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

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.

[BlueBMW]

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

Oh and SB16/AWE32  

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    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 

[nat]

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.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

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 

Could be wrong, but looks like a Via chipset based board you were sporting there all proud and shit lol Seems like Via, Ali, and SIS really held a death grip over the Socket 7 market.

[BlueBMW]

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.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

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.

[BlueBMW]

Wow that's crazy!  I guess Ill hold onto it then . I know that tower is still buried somewhere in the attic.

[Arkhan]

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.