So, /vr/, can we have a nice retro/borderline retro gaming PC thread?
Post your rigs, brag about specs/backward compatibility ect.
Well a twin Tualatin 1.4 GHz S server board with DDR, an ISA slot for old sound card and a GeForce FX 5950 would pretty much be the ultimate retro PC.
>>3291050
>twin Tualatin 1.4 GHz S
Aaand here comes Win 98 with no multi-cpu support. 2k/XP is okay-ish option, but it left much to be desired in compatibility department.
It could be a nice retro server though.
>>3291063
You could always dual-boot for older games. Doesn't matter if one of the CPUs is temporarily sitting idle.
I'm just using a P4 c. 2002 with a Radeon and a Sound Blaster that I finally found all together at a thrift store cheap. It took a little bit of manual search to collect 98 compatible drivers for all the integrated components but once I collected them it runs everything at maxed out settings. The only thing on my list to add is a Voodoo 2. The Radeon even has VGA, DVI and S-Video out on it.
>>3291343
>The only thing on my list to add is a Voodoo 2.
Why is so hard to find V2 at reasonable price these days?
And I'm not talking about some rare shit like Canopus cards or Creative special SLI set.
My main retro rig, the 1999 dream machine, is a Athlon 700 mhz slot A, Voodoo 3500 TV and Diamond monster sound MX300 for A3D. Going to add a ISA sound card but I have yet not decided which.
>>3293508
this sounds pretty neat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzU1EH3u0X0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVQTTBhuSkQ
>>3293587
The reverb on the snaredrum is too much imo, at least on the first video, it fits better with Stalker. But otherwise I really like it.
I wish I still had an old rig to play old FPS with.. I just replayed the entire game in DOSbox but music is crap in that.
got a machine with a 1.4GHz Tualatin, currently disassembled for the most part. the mobo has AGP 4x, 5 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot that shares space with a PCI slot. what should I put in it?
got:
>Nvidia FX5200 (AGP), Matrox G550 (AGP), S3 ViRGE (PCI)
>Promise FastTrak 378 SATA/CAID card (PCI)
>2* 12MB Voodoo2 (PCI), can put in SLI
>Realtek 8139 NIC (PCI), 3com 3C905CX-TX (PCI), Dual Gigabit Ethernet Intel NIC (PCI-X)
>AC'97 with SoundBlaster mode (onboard), ESS1868 (ISA)
>Motorola Dial-Up Modem (ISA) (no phone line though)
>a bunch of SDRAM, can max out mobo with 3x512MB
>a bunch of hard drives
Here's mine. Dell Dimension 4100.
>Pentium 3 866MHz
>GeForce2 MX 32MB
>Sound Blaster Live
>256MB RAM
Fun fact: I am posting from that very machine right now.
>>3293628
very nice
what os
>>3293627
tfw used fx5200 and a p4 up until 2011
>>3293628
What browser? Opera? I've been able to browse on my 98se machine but not post what site features do you have to disable?
>>3293661
Windows Me. Yeah yeah I know, but really the "WinMe is bad" meme is blown way out of proportion. Aside from the lack of real mode DOS (which I will never use seeing as this machine has no ISA slots) it's pretty much a more stable Windows 98. Once you get all the patches and updates for it, it's great.
>>3293670
Opera 12.02 using KernelEx. Everything works great including the capchas. And it's actually very smooth browsing multiple tabs on 256MB of RAM.
toshiba is life
>>3293665
Are you serious bro?
I had to use my FX5200/5500 with my P4 at 3GHz until around 2011 as well.
>>3293932
>the "WinMe is bad" meme is blown way out of proportion
actually agreed
Is there any actual drawback to running DOS games on Windows95/98/ME as opposed to running them natively in DOS? I know some games don't run well or at all through that method, but I'm talking about those that don't have problems running. There's nothing like increased latency or anything, is there?
>>3294129
Not really. You'll get less performance on really slow systems which is why game manuals recommended against it back in the day.
>>3294208
That's good to know. It's a lot more convenient than running native DOS, after all. Less fiddling with drivers and such.
I got an old 600X off Kijiji for $20 a few months ago. Came with all the original manuals and accessories, too, invluding networking. Mainly bought it to play the original Starcraft with friends since I switched to Linux, but for some reason after updating to patch 1.16.1, it keeps giving me a CD error, regardless of whether the CD is in the drive or not. Very frustrating. Has anyone tried running SC in a Win 98 VM? Is there any way around this?
Other than that, it plays all the 256 color games splendidly. I've also got an old Power Macintosh which is pretty much 100% dedicated to Civ II.
Abit BH-6
1 GHz PIII
768 MB RAM
3Dfx Voodoo 5500 64MB video card
Aureal Vortex 2 sound card
Sound Blaster AWE32 w/24MB & Yamaha daughter card
Intel PRO/1000 NIC
USRobotics v.92 modem (actually used once in a while for BBSing)
120GB SSD w/SATA-IDE adapter
Plextor 16X DVD rewriter
5 1/4" & 3 1/2" floppy
NEC FP950 monitor
IBM Model M keyboard
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer mouse
CH F-16 Combatstick
Gravis Gamepad
Dual boot Win 98 SE & DOS 7.1
Cranking down the clock speed and disabling cache can get it down to 386 levels of performance in DOS if needed.
I used to use a combiner cable for the two sound cards but that catches too much noise so now I just swap the plugs at the speakers.
Would like to get my hands on a decent Roland Sound Canvas and a Voodoo 6000 someday but money...
>>3293508
>Going to add a ISA sound card but I have yet not decided which.
Go for AWE64 (if you not into all that MUH YAMAHA FM-SYNTH stuff).
>>3294504
sounds like a wishlist for the most part. post guts
>>3294345
wanna buy another shitbox for 20 more bucks? I have one sitting in my closet.
>>3293628
Nice build right there.
Also, is Sidewinder 3D stick really worth buying?
>>3295123
I think it's pretty good. The placement of the controls is pretty much perfect for Descent, which is why many Descent pros swear by it. I think there's a homemade USB adapter you can make for it, but I know zero specifics.
The Sidewinder Precision Pro is essentially the same thing except with a more "ergonomic" design and most (but not all) models have USB compatibility with an included adapter. Personally the 3D Pro fits better in my hand though.
>>3293587
Yeah the DB50XG sounds good even when those song where made on Roland synths. I have listened to some proper XG songs and it sounds fantastic, to bad no games supported XG.
>>3294773
I do have a AWE64 gold, its emu8000 is cool with its custom sound font. But I think im going to put a ESS based card in as that is what I had back in the day (Muh nostalgia)
>>3295278
Didn't the original FFVII PC port have specific support for that Yamaha card, making it sound a lot better than the shit everyone else was exposed to? Or am I thinking of something else?
mines my old dell xps 1350.
even plays win95 and dos games thanks to shitvista OS.
>Athlon64 3200+
>512MB Ram
>AGP Geforce 530Ti
>Diamond Monster 3D II Voodoo2
>SB Live(fully works in pure DOS)
I also have a Pentium 200MMX with a Matrox MGA Millenium II
>>3295318
Yeah, the game supports XG.
It's not mine, I found it somewhere on 4chan, but this would be my dream retro setup.
(then again, I'm a huge fag for the Wing Commander games)
>>3293007
Demand, I guess. Since I only paid $10 for the whole rest of the machine I'll pay itwhen a no reserve auction comes along with a 99 cent opening bid and free shipping
>>3295739
>all those Dune books
thumbs up.
CPU: Intel 386DX 16 MHz
Mobo: Forex 486DLC
RAM: 16MB
HDD: Conner CFS270A 250MB (0 dead sectors after 25 years kek)
Soundcard: Creative Sound Blaster 16
Videocard: DEICO EGA-S800 8-Bit EGA
OS: Windows 3.11
FDD's: A: 3,5" 1.44 MB B: 5,25" 360KB
Took a nice Socket 7 AT-machine from my workplace recently.
K6-2@500 MHz, Lucky Star at-mobo on VIA chipset, 64 megs SDRAM, shitty Riva TNT2 m64, SB 32 ISA.
Gotta put some good ol' Voodoo3 in.
>>3296286
16mb ram kind of stands out with your classic specs
