You can do that no problem, just link Speaker Out on the motherboard to a Line In on the sound card (the one you're not using for your CD). PC speaker is mono, so you may want to sent it through both channels.
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90's PC Gaming Appreciation Thread: From Boot Disks to 3dfx Voodoo cards
- Thread starter blast processed
- Start date
You can do that no problem, just link Speaker Out on the motherboard to a Line In on the sound card (the one you're not using for your CD). PC speaker is mono, so you may want to sent it through both channels.
I've been watching a lot of old Computer Chronicles recently. I've never heard of it until about a few months ago, and I'm fascinated by how they show old computer stuff as when they were brand new. They go back from 1985, but I just saw this one episode about the brand new Windows 98 operating system and all the cool stuff you can do with it and the internet! They also have a segment about Linux and its millions of users, and the latest gadget, a small device by a company named Research In Motion that you can use to access your emails on the go! So cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8zUW62oGKc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8zUW62oGKc
Computer Chronicles was a great show. It fueled my interests in computers and technology at a young age.
One episode that I always remember is one where Stewart looks at a few different PC games in 1995 and talks to the designers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCXlt51OgAY
There's also a great interview Matt Barton did with Stewart Cheifet a couple years ago. Highly recommended for fans of Computer Chronicles.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
One episode that I always remember is one where Stewart looks at a few different PC games in 1995 and talks to the designers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCXlt51OgAY
There's also a great interview Matt Barton did with Stewart Cheifet a couple years ago. Highly recommended for fans of Computer Chronicles.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
mattwhite924
Member
Picked up a Voodoo 3. Holy crap does that thing run hot. O_O
Still though, I never had a Voodoo card in the 90s, so it's cool to finally get to experience one. Need for Speed 2 runs quite a bit better than in the software mode that I was used to, and the horrible mip-mapping issues I saw in Half Life with a TNT2 don't seem as bad either.
However I have noticed that DOS seems to not look quite as crisp. Just a slight blurriness. Is that common with the Voodoo 3? Everywhere I'd read said it had pretty decent quality 2D rendering.
Still though, I never had a Voodoo card in the 90s, so it's cool to finally get to experience one. Need for Speed 2 runs quite a bit better than in the software mode that I was used to, and the horrible mip-mapping issues I saw in Half Life with a TNT2 don't seem as bad either.
However I have noticed that DOS seems to not look quite as crisp. Just a slight blurriness. Is that common with the Voodoo 3? Everywhere I'd read said it had pretty decent quality 2D rendering.
This is my Super Socket 7 machine I am currently rocking at the moment. Just need to retr0bright the case front. I was very lucky to find a Yamaha Sound card with both opl 3&4 chips on it for a very very good price.
AMD k6-2 500mhz
Asus P5A board
128mb Ram
AGP Voodoo 3 3000 16mb
ISA Yamaha OPL3 & OPL4 sound card
40gig Samsung Hard Disk
Enlight 7237 Case
I've removed the audigy 2 card now I just never used it.
Fucking AWESOME, congrats for your machine, dude ^^
This is my Super Socket 7 machine I am currently rocking at the moment. Just need to retr0bright the case front. I was very lucky to find a Yamaha Sound card with both opl 3&4 chips on it for a very very good price.
AMD k6-2 500mhz
Asus P5B board
128mb Ram
AGP Voodoo 3 3000 16mb
ISA Yamaha OPL3 & OPL4 sound card
40gig Samsung Hard Disk
Enlight 7237 Case
I've removed the audigy 2 card now I just never used it.
mattwhite924
Member
This is my Super Socket 7 machine I am currently rocking at the moment. Just need to retr0bright the case front. I was very lucky to find a Yamaha Sound card with both opl 3&4 chips on it for a very very good price.
AMD k6-2 500mhz
Asus P5B board
128mb Ram
AGP Voodoo 3 3000 16mb
ISA Yamaha OPL3 & OPL4 sound card
40gig Samsung Hard Disk
Enlight 7237 Case
I've removed the audigy 2 card now I just never used it.
Nice! I've got a K6-2 that I'd love to do something similar with, but the motherboards seem to be oddly high priced for decent ones these days.
I'm jealous of your CRT too.
I was going to use my old one that I had as a kid. My mom said she'd go get it out of the shed, and bring it up with them for Thanksgiving, but it turned out that squirrels like to eat CRT components.
Nice! I've got a K6-2 that I'd love to do something similar with, but the motherboards seem to be oddly high priced for decent ones these days.
I'm jealous of your CRT too.
I was going to use my old one that I had as a kid. My mom said she'd go get it out of the shed, and bring it up with them for Thanksgiving, but it turned out that squirrels like to eat CRT components.
I was actually quite lucky to pick up the Asus P5A really cheap. But your not wrong, good SS7 boards fetch decent prices now. It's a waiting game for a board to pop up for a reasonable price.
The Dreamblaster S1 is about to be out of stock! About a dozen are left.
http://www.serdashop.com/waveblaster
It's a fantastic little MIDI daughterboard to add MIDI to your old PC without having to go for an external MIDI device. But you don't need a wavetable header on your sound card to use it, you can plug it externally through the game port when used with its special case. Though it does increase the total cost sadly.
It's only 30euros worldwide shipping included. In my opinion it's the perfect pairing with a Yamaha Audician 32plus ISA card, for a super cheap yet excellent sounding retro PC.
Plenty of recordings here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWXRJGTMlkU
http://www.serdashop.com/waveblaster
It's a fantastic little MIDI daughterboard to add MIDI to your old PC without having to go for an external MIDI device. But you don't need a wavetable header on your sound card to use it, you can plug it externally through the game port when used with its special case. Though it does increase the total cost sadly.
It's only 30euros worldwide shipping included. In my opinion it's the perfect pairing with a Yamaha Audician 32plus ISA card, for a super cheap yet excellent sounding retro PC.
Plenty of recordings here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWXRJGTMlkU
mattwhite924
Member
I managed to find a pretty basic one for an ok price, but it doesn't have an AGP slot. I've got a PCI Geforce 4 MX 420 I could use, or maybe try to track down a PCI Voodoo card. I'd go all out with a Voodoo 2 setup if it had more than 2 PCI slots. :/
Yeah, I love mine! If anyone has been on the fence about it, I highly recommend grabbing one!
arts&crafts
Member
Anyone remember this game? It was sweet.
theSlacker
Member
Anyone remember this game? It was sweet.
I had/played it on Dreamcast. Worth it to find the old PC version as well? I remember liking it but I didn't beat it.
I know this may be the wrong thread, but maybe see if it holds up at all Silver, then go retro for it
Why would it be the wrong thread? GOG is cool, it allows us to play the good old games from back in the days. Not everybody got the time and energy to deal with old hardware, but they should have a mean to play these games. Besides, there is no clear boundary between generations on PC, 32bits code still runs on modern Windows and games often only need slight tweaking to play perfectly fine.
smashballTaz
Member
Anyone remember this game? It was sweet.
For some reason I remember the ad in PC Zone magazine. It's tagline was 'All that glitters is not gold..' PC Zone was such a fantastic magazine. /tangent
I see now the thread is about more than 90s hardware love
mattwhite924
Member
I've been pleasantly surprised at how many GoG are fairly easy to get running on real hardware. A lot of them just straight up include the install disk ISO in the download. Like after the DF Retro on Crusader I picked it up on GoG, burned the disk ISO, and ran it on my DOS PC. Way way easier than tracking down a physical copy.
While building hardware is fun, in my opinion it's the games that matter the most!
Shadow Hog
Member
The hardware is just means to an end, anyway. The end is the real goal here.
I just purchased an HP Pavilion 8290 on eBay. $65 shipped. The main reason I bought this PC is because I had an HP 8240 (pentium MMX 233) in my childhood, and was really nostalgic for the case. I think it is one of the best looking 90s PC cases. It is a nice grey, rounded design rather than the usual 90s beige box. The back panel of the case looks really fancy, which is something most PC cases overlook. I managed to find a brand new matching keyboard/palm rest too! Now to track down the matching CRT/polk audio speakers...
Anyways, here are the important specs:
400MHZ Pentium II MMX
Ensoniq AudioPCI sound card
ASUS P2898-XV motherboard with 4 PCI slots+2 ISA
Integrated ATI 3DRAGE Pro
12GB Quantum Bigfoot HDD (dat sound!!!!)
64 MB RAM (it had an additional 128MB stick in there, but it makes the PC not boot)
original DVD drive
upgraded (?) from Win95 to Win Me
It was absolutely filthy when it came in, and reeked of cigarette smoke. I took everything apart and cleaned it out. The smell is about 90% gone now. I think it just needs a new power supply to get rid of the little smell left (I was too scared to clean the insides well). It still had the specs sticker on the front of the case, but the cleaner I was using got on it and melted the ink off it. Oh well, I can always make another one.
Anyways, here are the important specs:
400MHZ Pentium II MMX
Ensoniq AudioPCI sound card
ASUS P2898-XV motherboard with 4 PCI slots+2 ISA
Integrated ATI 3DRAGE Pro
12GB Quantum Bigfoot HDD (dat sound!!!!)
64 MB RAM (it had an additional 128MB stick in there, but it makes the PC not boot)
original DVD drive
upgraded (?) from Win95 to Win Me
It was absolutely filthy when it came in, and reeked of cigarette smoke. I took everything apart and cleaned it out. The smell is about 90% gone now. I think it just needs a new power supply to get rid of the little smell left (I was too scared to clean the insides well). It still had the specs sticker on the front of the case, but the cleaner I was using got on it and melted the ink off it
. Oh well, I can always make another one.
Oh god. you're in for a world of hurt if you keep WinME on there
mattwhite924
Member
I finally found a decently priced super socket 7 motherboard on ebay. Not to familiar with the chipset, so I hope that turns out well.
It was $40 shipped with a 500MHz K6-2 and 192 MB of RAM. Didn't really need the CPU and RAM, but whatever. I think I might end up putting the Voodoo 3 in here, and finding a better GPU for my Pentium 3 machine.
It was $40 shipped with a 500MHz K6-2 and 192 MB of RAM. Didn't really need the CPU and RAM, but whatever. I think I might end up putting the Voodoo 3 in here, and finding a better GPU for my Pentium 3 machine.
I'm seriously considering using a Pi with Munt to get that MT-32 sound, using the I/O pins for MIDI in/out and LCD out. It's overkill though, I wish someone FPGA'd the module so that people could get it for cheap.
sixteen-bit
Member
love this cat's videos
That thread on star trek teleports got me thinking. I've recovered my old computer back from my parents', which was your average AMD64 2800+ with a 7600GT. I've decided to pimp it up a bit: I've changed the motherboard for a microATX one so I could fit it in a smaller case, I bought a 3700+ processor, and will put an SSD in place of the old spinning drives. Soon enough I'll also change the video card.
I'm now realising that, if I keep the old parts, I'll be able to rebuild my old computer and end up with two old computers. At which point in the building process does my old PC stops being my old PC? And, in the end, which is it? is it the one with all the "new" parts, or is it the pile of disassembled parts that I'm about to throw away / sell on ebay?
I'm now realising that, if I keep the old parts, I'll be able to rebuild my old computer and end up with two old computers. At which point in the building process does my old PC stops being my old PC? And, in the end, which is it? is it the one with all the "new" parts, or is it the pile of disassembled parts that I'm about to throw away / sell on ebay?
Shadow Hog
Member
Congratulations on your Ship of Theseus
mattwhite924
Member
Ignoring the unanswerable philosophical question, if you decide to go with Windows XP then I'd recommend grabbing an Audigy 2 or original X-Fi soundcard. Being able to use EAX sounds is a pretty nice benefit to retro PCs.
Fun fact is that EMUs chip that is used on the awe64 and sb32 etc are also the chip responsible for effects in Emu systems old pricy samplers like emu esi32 turbo / 2000 / 4000.
I had a yamaha xg1w or something that was a yamaha synth on an isa card. It sounded awesome.
Otherwise go for sb32 and put in simms into it.
That's the plan! I actually scored an Audigy 2 complete in its box with the manuals and original software, along with a Live! front panel, for 20€ a couple days ago.
I've considered using it as an overkill 98 machine, but I'm not even sure there are demanding 98-only games that wouldn't be happy on my K6. Now to decide on a good 3D card...
How retro are you looking for the card?
I'm not trying to go period accurate if that's what you're asking. I currently have a 7600GT and if I were able to make it work in 98 with modified drivers, I was considering replacing it with a 7950GT. If I couldn't make it work I would go for a 6800GT. The other option is to forget about 98 entirely and go for a card that would work best with the AMD 3700+, without bottleneck but without being overkill either. I don't think sticking a GTX 1080 in it would do much good for example.
blast processed
Member
Nah, don't look at it like that. You just have great taste in games.
PumpkinSpice
Banned
Did you end up doing this? I've been considering it but I'm not confident it'll work properly with my dreamblaster hooked up at the same time.
TrAcEr_x90
Member
That voodoo card brings back so many memories!!!
Not yet! I don't think there is a working image uploaded somewhere, so I'd have to devise all the software myself and debug the thing when it inevitably doesn't work when I plug it in, and I'm not confident in that
I do have all the pinout ready to have midi in and LCD out via the GPIO though. Hopefully I should have the time to do that by next summer.PumpkinSpice
Banned
There was someone on vogons that uploaded an image that did this. Somewhere in this thread https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=43524Not yet! I don't think there is a working image uploaded somewhere, so I'd have to devise all the software myself and debug the thing when it inevitably doesn't work when I plug it in, and I'm not confident in that
I don't remember if they did it through the UART pins or via the adapter the OP (Phil) used.
Edit: actually there's a thread here just for it: http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=46899&p=483478#p483478
Tarin02543
Member
Retro pc gaming is a thing now? Amazing.
Beautiful!I picked this Combo up a couple of weeks ago for the awesome price of £25!
Its a Diamond Monster MX300 Vortex 2 Card with a Yamaha DB50XG daughter board. It sounds awesome.
Tons of great PC games from the 90s, so why wouldnt it be? By the way, most of the people frequenting this thread are regular from other threads on Retro-Gaf, so I guess there are just a few people who likes gaming regardless of when it was made or which plattform it is on.
mattwhite924
Member
Got a new case for my retro PC. I had it stuck in an old Thermaltake Armor case that I used back in college, but that thing was WAY too massive for what I needed (not to mention I kind of grew out of that aesthetic).
Great cable management, I know. >_>
It's just a cheap little Rosewill Blackbone case, but it does the job pretty well.
The PC itself is a 700 MHz P3, 256 MB RAM, Voodoo3 3000, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (for Winidows98), and a Yamaha Audician 32 plus with a Dreamblaster S1.
I love the slot 1 motherboard, cause it's really easy to swap CPUs. I bought a few ebay lots of them, so it's pretty painless to go from a 300MHz P2 up to a 1GHz P3 with anything in between.
Great cable management, I know. >_>
It's just a cheap little Rosewill Blackbone case, but it does the job pretty well.
The PC itself is a 700 MHz P3, 256 MB RAM, Voodoo3 3000, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (for Winidows98), and a Yamaha Audician 32 plus with a Dreamblaster S1.
I love the slot 1 motherboard, cause it's really easy to swap CPUs. I bought a few ebay lots of them, so it's pretty painless to go from a 300MHz P2 up to a 1GHz P3 with anything in between.
I use the Saitek X-52 since it can not only be used for contemporary sims like Elite Dangerous, but it also works perfectly with old games, at least the ones that I've tried.
Otherwise, I also got a used Microsoft Sidewinder (USB) from the late 90's on Ebay for around 30 bucks. That also works incredibly well and it has such a nice grip.
So cool! I had this! And I had also the S3 Savage 4, if I remember correctly!And my very first graphic card was based on a S3 Trio 64V+ chipset - PCI slot. Amazing times!
So cool :3
The Savage 4 PCI was my first.
Playing Unreal Tournament with the S3 API was an experience. Shame it very bad at Diablo 2, forcing me to ditch it for a TNT2 M64. I managed on that for far too long until I finally got an AGP motherboard and a GeForce 3 Ti200.
Thanks! So I see the X-52 is ranging from 50 to 200 dollars. Any reason why I need the expensive one, or should the cheap be enough?