Thanks for uploading those videos about getting the GOG versions of games working on vintage computers.
I've had problems getting CD audio files to work in DOSBox, even when I'm using an original game CD, and I wonder if that isn't one reason why GOG uses mp3 or ogg files instead.

skitters wrote:

Thanks for uploading those videos about getting the GOG versions of games working on vintage computers.
I've had problems getting CD audio files to work in DOSBox, even when I'm using an original game CD, and I wonder if that isn't one reason why GOG uses mp3 or ogg files instead.

You're welcome 😀

I tried DOSBox, well actually D-Fend Reloaded because I find it much easier, yesterday with an original game CD and it worked quite well but there was some sort of audio skipping which is hard to describe.

I think GOG.com uses compression because of file size more than anything. Personally I have no issue if a DOS Game is a 700 MB download but maybe others do, people with slower Internet connections.

But the odd thing is that some games come with uncompressed CD Audio tracks, whereas others don't. I haven't spotted a pattern or rule to this.

By the way I'm planning on doing a video on D-Fend reloaded which might help out but not in the near future. I'd like to plan it well and not leave anything out.

This one took me a while...

AMD K6-2 vs K6-2+ vs K6-III+ Comparison

In this video I am comparing the K6-2, K6-2+ and K6-III+ @ 550 MHz. I am looking at these points:

- Choose between K6-2, K6-2+ and K6-III+
- Clocked at 550 MHz
- Impact of Ram / Cache-able area
- 128 MB vs 512 MB
- I read that on the K6-2+ and K6-III+ turning off motherboard cache improves performance
- Use the AMD K6-III+ in a 66 MHz motherboard, how does K6-III+ 400 MHz (66 MHz FSB) compare

System:

- Gigabyte GA-5AX (ALi Aladdin V chipset)
- F4 BIOS
- 100 MHz FSB
- 5.5x multiplier = 550 MHz processor clock speed
- 128 MB and 512 MB RAM (both tested)
- 3dfx Voodoo 3500 AGP
- Latest 3dfx Reference driver 1.07.00 WHQL
- Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold
- Windows 98 SE
- MS-DOS mode for MS-DOS benchmarks

Results below. Analysis in the video:

Been making a few videos comparing 30 and 60 fps because YouTube now supports 60 fps videos. Also got a new capture gadget the AVerMedia Game Capture HD II.

The current consoles are a bit disappointing. All this 1080p60 talk before launch and now most games run at 1080p30 if you're lucky.

These videos are also good tests to see if your system / OS / browser / graphics card / driver / plugin combination actually plays back 60 fps consistently without any skips.

30 vs 60 fps

30 vs 60 fps alternate version

720p60 vs 1080p30 in Racing Games

Would love to hear your thoughts.

- Can you see the difference?
- Do you care?
- 720p60 or 1080p30?

The K6-X video was nice.

You seem to get the same result as I did. For some reason the performance tanks even with the K6-2/3+ when you use more than one memory module. My bet is that you would get the same performance with 256 MB as with 128 MB with the K6-2/3+ as long as its a single 256MB stick. With the K6-2 you would still lose performance when going outside the 128MB the Ga-5AX can cache.

The motherboard cache seem to do very little for the K6-2/3+ so I do not think this is the issue when it comes to the performance loss when using 2 or 3 sticks of memory. I think the issue is that "Write combining" gets disabled when using more than one memory stick with the GA-5AX and this is even though its activated in the BIOS setup.

I got really great performance with the K6-3+ and a 256MB module, the only reason I turned the motherboard cache off was to be able to use higher FSB settigs. Other than that I did not see any performace difference at all between motherboard cache on/off just like in your video.

Interesting! So a single 256 MB stick beats two 128 MB? Do you think this is a Gigabyte thing or to do with the chipset? I would also like to check out a VIA board at some stage.

I dont know if its a Gigabyte thing or not since I do not own any other motherboards with Aladdin V but it would be good to know.
Its important to add that disabled "Write combining" beeing the reason for the perfromance loss with more than 1 memoy stick is just pure speculation.

The difference in performace between 2x128MB and 1x256MB was pretty much the same as between 128MB and 512Mb in your video so I think we stumbled into the same issue.
The largest performace difference was in CPUmark99 where I saw a HUGE performace loss when going from 1 to 2 sticks.

Its also possible that two single sided 128MB modules would perform OK but that two dual sided 128MB modules (which is what I tried) suffer the performace loss.
If that is the case I guess that two single sided 256MB modules would have been optimal but its not supported by the GA-5AX, I have tried.

Well I quickly checked it out with a single 256 MB but with the 400 MHz clock (66 FSB). No change under DOS, but that's fine, and a small boost in Windows (compared to 512). BUT the 128 MB results are still a bit faster.

I will test it at 550 MHz next and see what comes out of it...

EDIT: Yes that makes sense. Ok a single 256 stick is slower than a single 128 stick but faster than two 256 sticks. It's pretty much in the middle 😀

So I guess cache-able size still matters but so does your findings with using just one stick. I shall use this knowledge going forward, thank you!

Not the most entertaining video to watch, but hopefully educational / useful

In this video I am sharing my personal experiences and opinions about various hard drive options for your Retro PC. Discussed are:

- SCSI drives
- Old IDE drives
- Compact Flash drives
- Modern SATA drives
- PCI SATA controllers
- SATA to IDE adapters / converters
- Benchmark results

Note that your results may vary. Every setup is unique with different chipsets, BIOS and drivers. What suits me might not suit you.

Hard drive options for Retro PCs

Keeep up the good work. i'm sure there are people who find this interesting and or need/want such videos/information.

cdoublejj wrote:

Keeep up the good work. i'm sure there are people who find this interesting and or need/want such videos/information.

Thank you for the encouragement 😀

Some Wing Commander III game play on an AMD K6-III+ DOS Retro Gaming PC!

Quite a good game. Lots of options and I really should study the manual and all of that. Played with the mouse because I don't have a joystick and it plays quite good.

This is the GOG.com version which ships with a DVD ISO image, just rename and burn onto a DVD and it's ready to go. Full installation CD with everything included.

Let's Play Wing Commander III on a DOS Retro Gaming PC

Get your headphones out!

This video will give you a taste of what A3D on a Aureal Vortex 2 sound cards sounds like.

Needs to be listened to with headphones and make sure you disable any audio enhancements in the driver!

Aureal Vortex A3D Demos Headphones

Get your headphones out, it's more Aureal Vortex A3D time 😀

In this video we are comparing how Quake 3 sounds with and without A3D.

The video contains two parts, in the first part the audio switches every 10 seconds between A3D off and on. In the second part you can listen to them one after the other.

The video is 60 fps, best watched directly on YouTube and in Chrome or IE:

Quake 3 Aureal Vortex A3D Headphone Surround

1024 x 768 Monitor Option Retro PC Gaming

Nice video. This is one of the reasons I like 1024*768, you can often get pixel perfect image using for exaple old widescreen laptops.

Sadly it isnt as easy to get a perfect 1280*1024 or 1280*960 image using newer screens so your are stuck with CRTs or old 17/19" LCDs for these resolutions.

Nice monitor for retro gaming, but its backlight looks bad in the video. Does it look better "in real life"?

Firtasik wrote:

Nice monitor for retro gaming, but its backlight looks bad in the video. Does it look better "in real life"?

🤣 No, not really as bad. It looks terrible on the video, but it's fine in RL. But it's not the best one regarding backlight bleed. You get used to it quickly and the main thing that stands out is how razor sharp the 1024 x 768 signal of let's say a Voodoo 3 is in games.

Another option is buying a 1280 x 1024 screen, but I don't know if game developers back in the day accounted for the 5:4 aspect ratio or stretched the game. And the V3 will struggle with that resolution.

Skyscraper wrote:

Sadly it isnt as easy to get a perfect 1280*1024 or 1280*960 image using newer screens so your are stuck with CRTs or old 17/19" LCDs for these resolutions.

1280 x 1024 screens at least are still being made! Brand new, with DVI and VGA or both. Usually in the business line. We got some at work and I will borrow one in the near future and do a review on it.

As soon as you go a few years forward in the time line, Nvidia supports display scaling, allowing 1:1 pixel mapped gaming. I've actually got a video in the works talking about this. So stay tuned 😀

This is an Asus 1366 x 768 monitor with 4:3 aspect ratio control:

http://www.asus.com/Monitors_Projectors/VS197DE/overview/

It's mentioned in the third paragraph below.

Hey Phil, have you tried running 320x200 DOS games on that monitor? How does it run? Could you perhaps provide footage for that?

Evert wrote:

Hey Phil, have you tried running 320x200 DOS games on that monitor? How does it run? Could you perhaps provide footage for that?

It does 320 x 200 very well. I actually took pictures a while ago:

It supports the 70 Hz for DOS of course and in Windows you can run it at 75 Hz as well.