82-T/A
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Posts posted by 82-T/A
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On 4/4/2024 at 3:38 PM, shane857 said:
Personally, I think it's probably the best emulation/rom dumping console at the moment thou...
I find myself using it for 7800 carts and games that will not work on my original Atari VCS at the moment.
Compatibility is great. There is a noticeable difference thou if you are used to playing on original hardware. Compatibility with games and joystick/paddle control response, and also lack of support for other controller devices. Keypad, driving paddles.
Hey, that's just my personal opinion...what are yours? 🤔
Other than the fact that I don't have a whole lot of time to play it, I think it's pretty awesome.
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5 hours ago, TheRingBearer said:
Ready and waiting myself. 🙂
I don't know man, I am always careful about making sure I use the term envious rather than jealous, but I think in this case, I downright hate you! Hahaha...
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Game has been pretty good so far. Graphics are amazing, and the fights are actually quite good. There seems to be stories within stories, and I've found that I've had to temper what I do for fear that I'll upset one of the party members over the other. What one party member might approve of, is not always something everyone approves of. As a Paladin (Good), I am also more or less obligated to make certain decisions that may upset other party members. There seems to be a lot of discussion of slavery in the game, so as a Paladin I generally need to disadvantage these people and / or attack them outright.
There are dozens of potential "party members" as I cheated and looked up more or less a list of them. They can all be convinced to join your party at one point or another. You can include them or leave them in your "camp" which I find interesting. As of this point, I don't have any stragglers... meaning that I've flat-out rejected anyone except the people immediately in my party. There can only be 4 total people, and I've taken the vampire thief, the cleric lady, the wizard, and myself (who is a Paladin).
Another thing I noticed... not to offend anyone, but apparently every single male character is gay (if you're playing a male character I guess). Like... apparently you can romance them (from the IGN page that shows the character list). Alternately, there are only 2 female characters that you could potentially do this with, but like 9 male characters. I mean... I guess this is just what it is with WOTC today, but I found it odd. I'm not going down that path, but I'm having to constantly say things that are "less than nice" because some of the phrases are interpreted as encouraging a "relationship" with these male characters. I'm not aware of any positives to having a relationship with someone in the game other than the story building, but I have noticed that it affects your character's performance when someone with a very high "emotion" toward you is gravely injured. It causes a disability roll if you will against you for future attacks (probably not the best way to word it).
Either way, the game has been pretty cool, and I hate myself for getting into it. I'm shooting through it quickly, but there's a lot of smaller quests and such that an individual could follow along. A lot of hidden things too which I find myself skipping over (but hope to go back to).
It really feels like a "find your fate" kind of book, because there's so many possible solutions to a variety of different things. Really... it's probably the closest thing I've seen to one of the original games, Pool of Radiance (SSI Gold Box), where you just have a wildly open world, and you can basically do whatever the heck you want. Most of the other games in between all seem to focus on getting from point A to point B while not having a lot of diversion. So this has been really cool.
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I'm happy to hear this. I appreciate what Wade Rosen is doing. I do hope he has deep pockets, because he's rebuilding an empire, but I hope he's not doing it too quickly. But, it's not expensive to buy-back licensing and rights. Either way, glad to see it!
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11 hours ago, sirlynxalot said:
So I have to agree with this topic I just found when googling my issue. The game is picky with soundcards and I can't get SFX and adlib music to play simultaneously!
The configuration program seems to autodetect my isa soundcards correctly. If I use my generic opti soundblaster, I can get music but no sound. If I use my gravis ultrasound pnp I can get sound but no music. If I select both cards together, the music plays Ok but the sfx don't, and there is a loud repeating glitched sound that plays while the game runs.
If I had the CD I would try the CD audio option, and I have a hunch that would work, but I don't understand why having both sound and music would be so tough to get working.
In a lot of the games I used to play in DOS, there were usually two drivers that needed to be loaded... one for the Adlib/MIDI/OPL music, and another for SFX. So I'd imagine that it's just a programming issue, more than it has anything to do with the cards. My guess... Atari (then) probably tried to rush it out at the time, and didn't put a whole lot of effort into little things like that.
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13 hours ago, Zerosquare said:
Oh dude... I really do like this. It definitely doesn't have the RLL sound, but it does emulate well the later 486-era IDE drives.
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55 minutes ago, sirlynxalot said:
Thanks, I've got everything for that. Performance in some benchmarks is basically tripled with the clock doubler and cache enabled. 3D bench gives me FPS of about 6.5 with stock settings and as high as 16.1 when I've got the clock doubler and cache enabled... This does help get many early 90s games into a playable state, but anything 3d and texture mapped is pretty rough and slow and most wouldn't consider it to be playable. Hmm, now that I think of it, there's quite a few similarities between the capabilities of this PC and our favorite atari system 😅
We used to take our graphics cards for granted back then. But like Sauron is implying, I think you should consider upgrading your graphics card. The link I posted above for the $50 dollar one uses one of the higher-end Cirrus Logic processors. It's literally one step down from the $150 one I also posted next to it. It really does make all the difference in the world. Like I mentioned, if you notice graphics "skipping," then it's the graphics card. If you notice graphics going incredibly slow, then it's the processor.
But really, you should be busting out a came of Scorched Earth on that and call it a day! Haha...
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Ugh, the game is good. I'm so pissed at myself for getting into this damn game. Like, I wouldn't have even bought it myself... but now I'm addicted to it.
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10 minutes ago, sirlynxalot said:
Its actually very tricked out already. I think its a 386dx25 to start with, and then in the 90s my family put in a cyrix 486dxr2 clip on cpu, so if you have it initiated through the appropriate software drivers, you will get a clock doubler, 486 instruction set and 1kb of L1 cache from the cpu.
If you're missing the .exe file that enables the cache for whatever reason, I have the latest version of it. I have a 386 SX-25 that was upgraded to a 486 DLC-25 Cyrix processor also. Just let me know and I can e-mail it to you.
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2 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:
... if you're getting all anal probed by your halfling cleric or something, probably because you chose that. I don't think it's has any mandatory "lets bang a bear" scenes or anything like that.
Hahaha... yeah, I can tell the sexual undertones are hard-core. The troll lady was pissed that I freed the elf lady, and the elf lady keeps going on about how I saved her and all that. Man, these games are hilarious. So far it's been pretty good... but I can tell that as you say, there's a path that takes you down one way, and another that takes you down a different way.
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So... I looked up some videos to see what I could expect, man... I guess I'm from a different time. There's a male-on-male relationship... ok, whatever, but one of them is a mind-flayer, and there's some "odd" activity that occurs during that with the tentacles. Man, I grew up with games like Civilization, Kings Quest, Starflight, Star Control, the AD&D gold box series games. About the naughtiest stuff I saw was when I'd go into the cave on Legend of the Red Dragon BBS door game. Hahah... I think I'll probably play with the mind-flayer sex option turned off.
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39 minutes ago, Sauron said:
Yup, you get the best performance and storage capacity with those. I certainly understand the nostalgia for the old HD sounds, but having such a modern convenience on older hardware makes you never want to go back to mechanical media ever again, on any platform.
This is super lame... but I installed one in my 8088 KayPro PC-10. It has an NEC V20 8088 processor, and originally came with a Seagate ST-225 RLL hard drive. The "sound" was every bit what made the computer what I remember it. I saved my original one, but put in a non-working one (hardrive spins, but tons and tons of bad sectors). Removed the old RLL controller, and installed the PC-XT card with a 128mb DOM, and then I still plugged in the Seagate RLL drive... just with power, so it turns on with the power. You hear it running, it doesn't give the beep/boop sounds of loading files, but you still get that disk spinning sound, even though I'm using the DOM. hahah...
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On 2/14/2024 at 7:26 PM, dsullo said:
This one is really cool! I wonder if someone scanned / transcribed these? I'd love to read these...
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On 4/3/2024 at 1:25 PM, Machine said:
I finally got around to making this. Looks even cooler in person.
That is really nice.
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1 hour ago, Sauron said:
It'll play fine on a higher clocked 386DX, sure, but good luck getting it to load with 1 MB of RAM. The game would never load for me with anything less than 4MB, and no memory manager utilities or boot disks would change that. That said, Wolf3D is certainly playable on a 386SX with 1MB, provided you're freeing up enough RAM for it.
The DOM should help a lot too. I'm nostalgic for the old hard drive sounds, but you just can't beat a 512mb storage capacity on a 386. You can basically load every game you'd possibly want to play on it... and have it load at the fastest speed possible by the processor.
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A friend of mine bought me the Deluxe set, and I started playing it. I think I'm bombing so far... I crushed the brain in that dude's head who was telepathically talking to me, and I'm trying to help my second player / character out of a mindflayer tank and can't figure it out. I seem to think the two of these things are related.
Also, what's with the option to pick the hair color for my balls? Like... that's an odd thing. Am I going to be doing a lot of running around naked? I'm wondering what I'm going to expect out of this game, hahah...
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5 minutes ago, Sauron said:
If he's able to run Doom at all then I highly doubt it's a 386 SX with only 1 MB of RAM. The game required a 486 and 4 MB at minimum, IIRC. Outside of that, I'll second those recommendations.
Doom played fine on a 386. That's the system that most people played it on originally. It came out in 1993, and most people still had 386s at the time. It didn't play all that great on a 386 SX, but played totally fine on a 386 DX. Remember that you could minimize the screen size as well to reduce the processing demands. Minimum system requirements was a 386 w/ 1mb of RAM, but recommended a 386 DX w/ 4mb of RAM.
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8 hours ago, sirlynxalot said:
I recently restored a 386 pc from 1991 that I had in storage for decades. Its on the weak end as far as performance for mid 90s dos games are concerned. For instance, stuff like Doom and Descent run like slideshows. In fact, most 3D games run very poorly on it, which is not a huge surprise. Its specs really limit it to early 2D gaming for the most part, Commander Keen and Duke Nukem 1 and the like, and even some of those early 2d games have some slowdown here and there.
As I'm testing things out on it I decided to try out Tempest 2000 dos version. Surprisingly, this game runs extremely well. It has some slowdown here and there as the action gets going, but its similar to the slowdown on the jaguar version and doesn't feel too obtrusive. Sure enough, I'm googling the system requirements on the box and it suggests the minimum system requirements are a 386dx40.
What are the system specs? Is it a 386 SX? We had a 386 SX-16 back in the day, and you'd be surprised how much quicker you can make it if you upgrade some of the things in it. The same principles apply then as they do today.
- Upgrade the graphics card... I don't know what kind you have in there now. Maybe some generic VGA card like a TSeng Labs or an Oak Technologies or something. If you go with a high-end ATI with like 1mb of memory (minimum), you'll probably get much better graphics performance. Believe it or not, this still does have a direct affect on the frame rate for games like DOOM. When the graphics "skips" then it's the monitor. If the whole thing moves really, really slow... then it's the processor. This is good: https://www.ebay.com/itm/326019278032, and this is better: https://www.ebay.com/itm/266758711367, $50 or $150.
- Memory... my guess is you have 1mb of memory in there, maybe four 256k SIMMs? Look on the SIMMs and see what the "speed" is for those. Generally, you want at least 70ns RAM chips, but 60ns was the bomb back then (that means good in 90s speak). Most of the time, you're going to have 80ns CHIPs. The lower number the better (I'm sure you know this already, but just saying it anyway). You generally will want 4mbs. You can go up to 8, but 4 is really all you'll ever use at that speed. You can get exactly this here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/155045342274 (4, 1mb 60ns RAM chips). $24.99
- Hard Drive... if you are still using an IDE magnetic disk, you can purchase what's called a DISK ON MODULE, or DOM. It plugs directly into your normal IDE slot, and even uses the normal MOLEX power cable. It replaces the hard drive, and gives you the maximum allowed (under your current BIOS / OS) of 512mb storage. They are lightning fast, and limited only by the throughput of standard IDE. Basically... loading times will be half of what they are now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295101618394 $6.99
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9 hours ago, CyranoJ said:
There's a list to get on that, but you have to wait.
Haha...
I think the name is kind of funny, because half the songs are made by Slayer anyway in the original game (from Seasons in the Abyss). But I think there were some Pantera songs too.
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Please add me to the waiting list.
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTD1L2P6
Ok, I just bought one... no idea why, but I did. Anyone know what songs are on it? haha...
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I own the stock too... NOT because I think it's necessarily a good investment, but because I don't mind giving a little something to my favorite company. Honestly, you would have to consider it a long-term investment. I think I bought like 5 grand of Atari stock. Because the buy is so low, it fluctuates wildly. I either double my money, or lost half of it repeatedly throughout the week, haha.
As far as Atari long term, I think they're fairly solid. The prospectus isn't great, but it seems like the CEO/majority owner has his own funds to purchase it outright. If he's willing to put his family's money on the line, I don't mind doing the same for keeping alive what I grew up with.
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38 minutes ago, MrChickenz said:
That’s great! @82-T/A I guess there are different kinds of collectors. As for me I collect to play. I’m enjoying games today that I didn’t get to experience back in the day. Last year I found a copy of Gravitar online new sealed CIB. As soon as I received it I opened it up and started playing. I only paid 25.00 for it. I did purchase a clear plastic protective box to preserve it. Afterwards I read some where not to leave games in the sealed plastic wrap because it crushes the box. So I do try to preserve what I have but I’m all about playing these games!
Thanks for your input. I really enjoyed your take on the subject
Hahah... sorry, that was both a serious and sarcastic response at the same time. Really... I'd only replace a label if it's really trashed. But I can't imagine that anyone would be upset (or that you shoudl be concerned) if you're replacing it with a nice quality replacement. I've become like you, as a collector. I do still have all those games in the picture above (and they're still wrapped), but I intend to take them out and actually just enjoy the games. I'm not concerned with "collecting" anymore. I sold off a lot of the stuff I have, and now just keep the things I think I'll actually play.
But to each their own, and I'm not judging... it's just for me, my priorities changed and I just don't have the space. But my 2600 games, I'll never get rid of. That's my childhood!
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On 4/8/2024 at 12:24 PM, MrChickenz said:
Whats your opinion?
Oh man... you do not know what you're asking. Here goes...
For one... what is your goal in collecting them? I think most game
hoarderscollectors have a fantasy of opening a game museum in the future. Some do, some die of heart disease and most of their games find their way to a dumpster after the estate sale, and others eventually realize it's not what they want and blow them out on eBay.I came to at least one of those conclusions many years ago... but not after I individually wrapped every single one of my Atari 2600 games in a special plastic bag, and then placed them in two large Tupperware bins. At least I did that in the top one.
Eventually it occurred to me that if I wanted to actually play all... 220 games? I'd have to take them out of the plastic bags.
So clearly... what you need to do here is... buy duplicates of everything, and keep the nice one wrapped, and the shitty one to play.
No! Sorry... scratch that. Figure out what your goal is... do you want to play these games... or are you just collecting them / so you can look at them fondly?
If you want to play them, and the labels are already trashed, you're only making it better by replacing them (my opinion).
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AtariAge Store Last Chance Sale!
in AtariAge Store Discussion
Posted
Lol, I got all the way to the fourth page before I realized that "Last Chance" was the name of the game being sold. I kept thinking... "ok... this is my last chance for... what???"