Got some Creative Cards today! (CT 1320c, CMS chips and 2x CT1680)

[Mau1wurf1977]

Tested all 3 and all good!

[Nytegard]

Glad that all 3 are working well.  I need to replace my sound blaster soon:(

Anyway, what is the game on the second screen btw?

[Nagra]

Anyway, what is the game on the second screen btw?

That´s Wing Commander I :-)
The screen shows exactely the same two games that started it all for me, years ago.

[Nytegard]

Ah, thanks.  Although I do own the first 4, I've never actually played them, not really being my genre of choice.  I'm just more of an adventure game fan, so no wonder why I didn't recognize it:)

[Mau1wurf1977]

Hehe yea the good old Wing Commander!

It's one of these "speed sensitive" games. It will run way to fast on 486 and faster. A 386 ~20 - 25 MHz seems to be the sweet spot.

The machine is a Slot 1 PIII 1 GHz with L1 Cache disabled. It's part of a project I am doing. The project is about using newish parts and covering 386 - 486 speeds through Cache disabling tricks.

Here is a (poor quality) YouTube video of this machine running Wing Commander:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD3eul8dDIE

And this is another one with DOSBox and a MT-32 (Old):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV8VvLRV3fA

[Nagra]

Nice videos. I´d like to play those games again on my mac but unfortunately I had problems with a mac version of ch products flightstick. It had an old adb-port. I connected it with a usb-adaptor (griffin iMate) to my computer but it did not work.

 I will give it a try with ch products (very expensive) fighterstick (usb) sometime. I love the idea of having a ch products stick again working on my modern computer :-)

Years ago I used a pc-flightstick (ch products). I still got it. I have a pc with an amd celeron 600 or 800 Mhz here around for real dosgaming. But I dont have the space for both my mac AND the old school pc. Thats why I want to go for the usb-fighterstick...

[Mau1wurf1977]

There is always DOSBox! Especially if the Game supports MIDI and you use a real Roland module, it works very well. The music is played by your Roland module, the MIDI data is simply passed through from DOSBox.

I have some videos here which I recorded with DOSBox and a MT-32 (old) so you get an idea what it's like.

You can use old sticks (with a 15 pin to USB converter) or new USB ones...

Wing Commander:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV8VvLRV3fA

Heart of China 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2iv2RSXkXA

Heart of China 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1GTr-27Ah8

DOSBox is very good, although not perfect. E.g. in the Heart of China there is a scene in the Bar which scrolls from one room to another. And this scene is super smooth on a real machine, but nowhere near as smooth under DOSBox. Enabling "Double Buffer" helps make the scrolling smooth, but then the sound slows down (Sound Blaster and Roland does this).

Still there a lot of benefits also.

[Nagra]

There is always DOSBox! Especially if the Game supports MIDI and you use a real Roland module, it works very well. The music is played by your Roland module, the MIDI data is simply passed through from DOSBox.

I have some videos here which I recorded with DOSBox and a MT-32 (old) so you get an idea what it's like.

You can use old sticks (with a 15 pin to USB converter) or new USB ones...

Thanks, I already use dosbox... for years :-) works perfect. You mentioned USB adaptors for old joysticks. Can you (or someone else) recommend a device that REALLY works? After a research on amazon and a talk with a local pc stuff dealer I came to the point, that they all suck.

[Mau1wurf1977]

Have you actually tried one?

Also if you are using DOSBox what is wrong with a USB joystick!

Avoiding the doggy analogue joysticks is another benefit of going with DOSBox...

[Nagra]

Have you actually tried one?

Also if you are using DOSBox what is wrong with a USB joystick!

Avoiding the doggy analogue joysticks is another benefit of going with DOSBox...

I have a macbook pro. Months ago I tested an old apple joystick (with adp-port) with a griffin iMate (adb-to-usb-adaptor). It did not work in dosbox. All flightsims I tried were unplayable.

After that I purchased an old ch products flightstick (pc-model). It worked well with my celeron pc which I can not use at the time (space problem).

So I thought of using a gameport-to-usb-adaptor. But I only found negative reports about devices like that. So, no, I never tried one by myself. That is why I now asked, if someone around here can recommend an adaptor that works flawlessly.

Of course there is nothing wrong with a real usb joystick, but, the only model that I would go for is the ch products fighterstick, which unfortunally costs a lot of euros (130€)...

[Mau1wurf1977]

Ok now I understand...

But wouldn't a cheap USB joystick still be better than having no jostick at all? (At least that's what I undestood)

A basic Logitech or something like that. Should do the trick and these days even the bottom models have heaps of buttons all of which you should be able to configure in DOSBox.

[Nagra]

Ok now I understand...

But wouldn't a cheap USB joystick still be better than having no jostick at all? (At least that's what I undestood)

A basic Logitech or something like that. Should do the trick and these days even the bottom models have heaps of buttons all of which you should be able to configure in DOSBox.

Of course a cheap usb stick will be better than having none :-)

I think it would be wise to give a cheap model a try than to go blindly for an expensive one. Its just that I kinda like the idea of having and using a ch products stick again. I think its for the nostalgia feeling. No matter if it is stupid or not :-)

[Mau1wurf1977]

Nah I get you...

Still 130 euros is a LOT for a joystick