Re: Fixing an old Packard Bell Legend 316SX, but have hit a roadblock - DOS refuses to boot

Posted on 2010-11-14, 01:07

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Doesn't DOS automatically format the partition during the installation? I remember being prompted by DOS' installer to format the partition I created with FDISK(and yes, the partition was made active). Anyways, here's the error I get: Non-system disk or disk error Replace and press any key when …

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Fixing an old Packard Bell Legend 316SX, but have hit a roadblock - DOS refuses to boot

Posted on 2010-11-13, 17:58

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I dug up an old Packard Bell Legend 316SX my father brought home over 10 years ago, and I'm trying to get it back up and running again(computer runs on an AMD 386SX clocked at 25MHz with 4MB of RAM). The hard drive that was originally in the computer crashed, and I wound up replacing it with a 7GB …

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Re: My classic gaming PCs

Posted on 2010-11-04, 01:12

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Well looking along the lists, the only bad parts are the ATI video cards - you've got the terrible ones of their generation. Ok they're fine for 2D, but... Rage II in 3d isn't something you want to play on. :) I tried to play X-Wing Alliance with that graphics card back when my 300PL had a 500MHz …

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My classic gaming PCs

Posted on 2010-11-04, 00:44

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Just thought I'd share the specs of my 3 PCs that I'm using for classic PC games. First computer is an IBM Personal Computer 300PL, my primary MS-DOS gaming PC, with these specs: -Intel Pentium II 266MHz -192MB of RAM -5GB hard drive -ATI Rage II graphics card -5GB hard drive -Intel motherboard with …

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Re: Sound Card Recordings

Posted on 2010-10-28, 00:15

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Teppic wrote: I can provide some recordings from a Sound Blaster 16 if you would like. Since swaaye declined your request for SoundBlaster 16 recordings, I don't want any recordings of old sound cards to go to waste. Mind if you make some recordings for me of your SoundBlaster 16?

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Re: Anyone interested in recordings of different sound cards? I've got some here for you.

Posted on 2010-10-24, 01:35

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Added another video of the SoundBlaster Vibra128, this time with the Collector's CD-ROM edition of Star Wars X-Wing. Here's the clip(link also on the first post): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua4F7ebOSWI That wavetable makes my ears hurt.

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Re: Sound Card Recordings

Posted on 2010-10-23, 00:40

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Nice. By the way, I found some flaws in the OPL2 part of ESS AudioDrive ES1868F. Like with the SoundBlaster AWE64, certain notes are different, and this is most noticeable with the floppy disk edition of Star Wars X-Wing(the Collectors' CD-ROM edition doesn't show as many flaws). So it looks like …

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Re: Sound Card Recordings

Posted on 2010-10-22, 23:01

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I've always been curious to hear OPL4 FM Synthesis. Are there any DOS games that support it?

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Re: Sound Card Recordings

Posted on 2010-10-22, 22:43

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

OPL3 seems to sound different from sound card to sound card, be it due to the use of an incorrectly cloned YMF262 or different external circuitry. Case and point: my OPTi 82C929A. Its OPL3 seems a fair bit rougher than the SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 and the ESS AudioDrive ES1869. I wouldn't be surprised …

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Re: Sound Card Recordings

Posted on 2010-10-22, 21:44

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I can record various sound cards for you using X-Wing: -SoundBlaster AWE64 -Diamond Multimedia Monster Sound with Aureal Vortex 2 chipset -ESS Maestro-2 ES1968S -C-Media CMI8738 -C-Media CMI8738 LX(just bought this a few minutes ago) -SoundBlaster Vibra128 -SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 -ESS Solo-1(also …

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Re: Sound Card Recordings

Posted on 2010-10-22, 15:54

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Call me stupid, but I think the music in Doom actually sounds good using Ensoniq's "simulated FM Synthesis." Dark Forces, on the other hand, sounds bad. Say, may I provide a recording of Star Wars X-Wing's opening from my OPTi 82C929A?

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Re: Ensoniq / Creative AudioPCI

Posted on 2010-10-22, 01:48

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Agreed. I'm pretty sure that every sound card that was made back in the days when the 486 was the fastest CPU available either made use of a real YMF262, a cloned YMF262, a real YMF262 integrated within an ASIC, a cloned YMF262 integrated within an ASIC, or like Ensoniq did: simulate FM Synthesis …

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Re: Ensoniq / Creative AudioPCI

Posted on 2010-10-22, 01:16

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Ouch. Usually, I keep those recordings and post them on the Internet so people know just how bad a certain sound card can sound. That's why I even recorded the sound produced by my SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 and my SoundBlaster Vibra128. Now you have me curious as to just how bad the SoundScape's OPL3 …

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Re: Ensoniq / Creative AudioPCI

Posted on 2010-10-22, 01:06

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Even the SoundBlaster Live!'s absolutely dreadful emulated YMF262 sounds better than the "simulated FM Synthesis" of the SoundBlaster Vibra128 and other Ensoniq AudioPCI-based SoundBlaster sound cards. OPL2 sounds like complete crap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsQbD33vtg But OPL3 actually …

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Re: Anyone interested in recordings of different sound cards? I've got some here for you.

Posted on 2010-10-22, 00:43

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The shop's closed at this time, but tomorrow, I'll pass by and pick up the ES1869 and one of the ES1868s. If they both work exactly the same way, I'll return one and keep the one I like best or that's less of a pain in the *** to fit in my MS-DOS gaming PC. I do like my OPTi 929A, but I don't like …

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Re: Ensoniq / Creative AudioPCI

Posted on 2010-10-22, 00:38

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

A little contribution for this thread. Here's a video clip of Star Wars X-Wing(floppy disk edition) played using the AdLib sound option on a SoundBlaster Vibra128, which is based off the Ensoniq AudioPCI and sounds absolutely terrible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXObHZEY8u4

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Re: Sound Card Recordings

Posted on 2010-10-21, 23:22

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Yes, I've been looking at that for a while. The big problem is trying to solder wires on that damn chip. Surface-mounted chips hate me; it is GUARANTEED that some pins will be shorted on the chip while I solder on it. I think I'll spare myself the trouble and pick up one of the ESS AudioDrive ISA …

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Re: Anyone interested in recordings of different sound cards? I've got some here for you.

Posted on 2010-10-21, 22:24

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Like I posted on another thread, I hear zero difference between the ESS AudioDrive ES1869 and my OPTi 929A when it comes to the FM Synthesis. In fact, it's so similar they both have the same extra roughness in the sound(and my OPTi 929A has a true Yamaha YMF262 on it)! I've seen several ESS …

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Re: Sound Card Recordings

Posted on 2010-10-21, 21:55

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Well this sucks. The motherboard is dead. Crap. Say, would it be possible to remove the Solo-1 from that motherboard and rebuild the circuitry around the chip as shown in the diagram on page 2 of the PDF? Now, may I make a request? Record Star Wars X-Wing on the SoundBlaster AWE32 using the General …

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Re: Sound Card Recordings

Posted on 2010-10-21, 20:13

by

by Ace

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The Solo-1 has ESFM??? Holy crap, I have that sound chip integrated on a motherboard that was in an IBM Aptiva computer I have lying around! Couldn't get that motherboard to work, but I will most certainly give the ESFM a test myself once I fix that board(I believe I was trying to use a faulty CPU …

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