#Computer Cores

1 messages · Page 22 of 1

summer dragon
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Is it normal behavior for the X68k core that you can’t use the virtual keyboard in games? Or maybe does it only work with disk games? I guess I’ve only tried to use it with HDFs

elder cove
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Virtual keyboard?

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That’s the first I’ve heard one exists lol. How do you open it?

summer dragon
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right click on the mouse (or emulated mouse)

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then you can left click and drag it into view

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I also just tested it with a disk game and it did work in-game for me. Seems like maybe it only works when launching disks and not HDFs

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definitely useful for games where you want to use a controller but you need a couple buttons to navigate menus or change sound settings, etc.

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I wonder if it's because the keyboard is baked into the boot hard drive that is used for launching disks? Maybe that HDFs just don't have that baked in idk

summer dragon
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ok, so it seems like maybe virtual keyboard is a game by game basis...if you load it fast enough when loading an HDF, it comes up as well but it disappears when the game starts...gonna have to try some more games to see

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actually, I think it's probably that the game needs to have mouse support

robust ibex
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Is there a way to load tapes on the Astrocade core? The only option i see is .bins

plucky sleet
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I thought it was an arcade core? Did it have tapes?

robust ibex
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It was a home console

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bally_Astrocade

Bally Astrocade

The Bally Astrocade (also known as Bally Arcade and initially as Bally ABA-1000) is a second-generation home video game console and simple computer system designed by a team at Midway, at that time the videogame division of Bally. It was originally announced as the "Bally Home Library Computer" in October 1977 and initially made available for ma...

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Also just realized im in the wrong section, whoops lol

plucky sleet
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Looks like just bin files alright

robust ibex
robust ibex
plucky sleet
robust ibex
plucky sleet
robust ibex
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Appreciate it!

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It was a one-off curiosity i saw in a video so don't worry too much bout it lol

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But i am curious to see if its possible to get it to run on the core

plucky sleet
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It's surprising they arent all available in bin

robust ibex
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That particular game seems to be ultra rare so im not terribly surprised

young gust
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@summer dragon saw you upload NHL 94 n 95! Freaking sweet! I look forward to seeing if you can get a decent frameate outta NHL 96. Only way I could was low red mode and disabling the crowd and other details

summer dragon
young gust
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Is there a way to increase the volume of the Mt 32 pi? It's so quiet

deft estuary
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the archive of games you're referring to it's the official 0MhzDos one that I can use the .sh script to retrieve?

copper slate
weak zephyr
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Is there an official tutorial on how to convert games to the 0mhz format? I’ve been searching online, but have only found bits and pieces

elder cove
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Formatting for 0MHz is pretty straightforward. It’s essentially this:

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  • Copy a uniquely configured install for your specific game, complete with all disc images, in a unique directory under games/ao486/media (ie. games/ao486/media/Myst). This is usually done by putting the commands to start your game in autoexec.bat (DOS) or the Startup folder (Windows 3.1/Windows 95). Compress any disc images to .chd with MAME’s CHDMAN tool to save space.
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  • Create a .mgl file to auto-launch any hard drive and disc images as needed. If the title is multi-CD, name the CDs in a way that it will be clear to the player which is which, and set the first or most common CD to load as default. (I recommend taking a look at some prebuilt 0MHz configs if you’ve never built one before - they’re pretty straightforward to figure out from an existing install.)
elder cove
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  • Add the .mgl file to a directory based on the operating system you are using, with an _ at the beginning so it shows up in the main menu. (For MS-DOS titles, this is traditionally _DOS Games .)

  • Compress this together with the games/ao486/media/{game directory} folder structure with your VHD/CHD files inside, and you've successfully made a 0MHz install.

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With Windows titles, it does seem to have one nitpick that different individuals seem to make here, and so I have to ask this:

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Which do people prefer, “Win 3.1 Games” or “Windows 3.1 Games” as the name of the directory? I’ve noticed the same for Windows 95 games - tends to be a mix of both formats, “Windows 95 Games” and “Win 95 Games”.

sullen geode
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For 0MHZ when copying things over it keeps wanting to overwrite the CFG. Is that cool or are they all specific to that game? Saw a few tutorials mention the popup but not what to do.

elder cove
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Yep, that’s normal.

sullen geode
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Thanks!

young gust
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Good to know! I had wondered the same thing myself!

deft estuary
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Hi guys, is this trackball supported by 7800 core or Atari 8 Bit core?

IMG_0152.jpeg IMG_0153.jpeg
summer dragon
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@young gust giving NHL 96 a try

young gust
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Woooo

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I'm guessing it's just to much to get a solid frameate but when you disable stuff like the crowd there's still some fun to bad had. I played the ever living fuck outta this game back when I was 13

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Literal obsession

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Then waited for the 3DO version that never came 😭

summer dragon
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hmmm didn't seem that bad...but I think I also setup the control wrong and wasn't actually playing haha

young gust
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Haha

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Killer soundtrack too

summer dragon
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huh when I try to use the joystick, I can move but don't have buttons

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that said, the framerate seems fine>?

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compared to a youtube video it seems comparable

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it might be a tiny bit less smooth comparably...but not by a lot

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one thing I double checked was that the Vsync in the core was set to variable so it's running at 70.1Hz, not forced to 60

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it seemed pretty much fine forced to 60 too, though

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uploading now...will be up soon

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@young gust try it when you get a chance and let me know if it's better than when you tried it or if it's still a bit off...there might be another way to gain a little more performance from it

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I feel like it seems fine, but I never had this one back in the day

young gust
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Ok. I'm laying down here for like 2 hours cause I feel like crap and when I get up I'll try it out

summer dragon
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yeah...it's probably gonna take that long to upload anyways elmorise

young gust
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Runs pretty much the same as when I installed it

abstract trout
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Where are the NHL games? I don't see them in the 0mhz collection archive.

young gust
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NHL 94, 95, 96 were recently added

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Sort by recently added

abstract trout
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Found them. Thanks.

summer dragon
young gust
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For sure..when I used to play this on my old PC it was pretty smooth

summer dragon
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huh, interesting

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it seemed fairly smooth to me I guess...maybe just the slightest bit of slowness

summer dragon
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@young gust and you definitely made sure that you set the core's Vsync setting to "Variable" and the MiSTer's Vsync setting to "2"?

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huh, this game seems to do some resolution switching...menus are 60hz, game is 70.1, but the MiSTer doesn't always seem to output it correctly...right now it says the game is outputting 70.1, but MiSTer says its outputting 70.5

elder cove
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Since no one seems to mind one way or the other, I’m going to recommend for 0MHz packs going with “_Win 3.1 Games” and “_Win 95 Games” in future. (That way it stays uniform, and it eliminates copying an extra folder onto your drive.)

young gust
summer dragon
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yeah it’s in the ini file vsync_adjust

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that said, after looking at it a bit more, I think you’re right and that no matter what it’s just a bit sluggish maybe…looked at a youtube video again and it does seem a bit smoother there

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I tried to see if I could swap the dos4gw extender for dos32a to eke out a bit more performance (since I’ve heard that can work), but when I did it and tried to launch the game, it threw an error

young gust
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I figured the way it was was the best it was gonna get.

summer dragon
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yeah...it is possible I didn't patch the right file for nhl and if I could get it to properly switch to dos 32/a we'd see it perform slightly better

summer dragon
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nah, actually i'm pretty positive I patched the right file

young gust
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Hey it's no biggie. I kinda figured that one may be pushing things a bit to hard. But I disable the crowd and it runs well enough that it's playable.

I'll be interested to see if you're able to get Afterlife to boot

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This core in general has played so many DOS games well enough that I'm having such a blast with it

young gust
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I'm gonna try my own install of Flashback: The Quest For Identity. Tried the MT-32 MHz but there's no music or sound.

young gust
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Well to hell with the CD version of Flashback. Crashes on sound card detection, but it also has the terrible FMV's instead of the original ones

summer dragon
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I'm not sure yet, but I might've fixed the crash in Worms...

exotic prairie
young gust
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lol

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I absolutely despise the Atari Jaugar. Everything about that console screams low rent

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Let's release a console to the public where you connect your A/V cable to exposed motherboard

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that totally makes sense

exotic prairie
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Does the Jaguar play Flashback? Yes
Does the ao486 play Flashback? No

Seems pretty black and white imo

young gust
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I enjoyed the 3DO Version of flashback, but it also has the crappy revamped FMVs

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In general, I just think the Jag is SO bad, AvP is cool, just wish it didn't run at 4 fps

summer dragon
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hell yeah, I can reproduce the crash in Worms on the version downloaded from 0MHz every time, but can't in my new one...will upload it

young gust
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sweet!

summer dragon
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should be there in a couple hours

summer dragon
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Worms used dos4gw, so I replaced it with dos32/a and I also gave the VHD a little headroom spacewise since it only had 400kb or something free. I thought using dos32a was the fix, but now I’m wondering if the VHD was just too full before 😅

robust monolith
# elder cove Since no one seems to mind one way or the other, I’m going to recommend for 0MHz...

There is a Mister 0mhz build of win85 on the ahem, site that archives everything, has Duckman (Point and Click Adventure). Fallout (RPG), Hover. Night Trap, Road Rash, The Neverhood, Captain Quazar, Yoda Stories, Horror Tour 3, Killing Time, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, Puyo Tsuu, Antman 2, Encarta 95, Microsoft Dinosaurs, Microsoft Bob, Microsoft Cinemania '96. Me, personally I'd like to see more done like that. Win95 with a pile of stuff on. 🙂

void belfry
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Speaking of Win9x games, need to do some more play tests, but think also NT 4 can be a better alternative for some very few games (Panzer General 2 and AoE comes to mind as working somewhat better)

summer dragon
summer dragon
young gust
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The 0mhz Flashback non Mt 32 works fine. The mt32 pack game me no audio whatsoever. So I downloaded the CD version myself and when installing it it, the installer crashes on soundcard detection.

summer dragon
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ohhhh I see

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I’m actually getting an MT-32 Pi very soon (should be here tomorrow), so I will be able to test that soon and also start adding some more games that support it

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I’m also attempting to get some of the bugfixed games I added to get updated in the actual 0MHz pack, but so far I haven’t heard anything 😅

young gust
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You'll love the MT-32 Pi

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I grew up on a sound blaster awe 32. I wish there was support for that, but DOSBOX doesn't support it either. You can download the sound fonts for it, and replace them in your general midi on windows so DOSBOX will use it if a game supports general midi but it's not always accurate.

summer dragon
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I’m pretty sure I just had a lowly sb16 😅 …I really don’t even know, I just know it was “sound blaster”

young gust
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The Sound Blaster 16 was a great card too

exotic prairie
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I was buying sound cards long after onboard sound became good. I just refused to believe that onboard sound could sound as good as a dedicated card (it did, and I was a fool)

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I still remember the first time I did the spatial audio demo with my A3D card. It was like magic

young gust
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I hear ya,\

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I still to this day find it odd I don't use a dedicated sound card

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just feels wrong lol

lunar trellis
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@zenith charm has dropped three new computer cores ready for community testing:
VTech Laser 350/500/700
Exidy Sorcerer
LM80C
#test-builds message

They all require boot.rom BIOS files. People using the WIP DB will have everything they need and cores in their Unstable folder. :-).

copper slate
deft estuary
summer dragon
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@deft estuary that's awesome! All I know, is I patched that file and Worms started working...I think just so I know for sure, I'll make another copy with the original exe that uses dos4gw and place it in the larger VHD and see if that version also doesn't crash

summer dragon
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@deft estuary just tried to put the old Worms exe that used dos4gw into my newer VHD with more space for funsies and I could still reproduce the crash. In this case, it does appear that switching to dos32a fixed it 🫡

young gust
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@summer dragon also, if you happen to use the AmigaVision core, there are games in the Amiga core that use the MT-32 as well! I think there's even some use for it with the Sharp X6800 core also but not positive on that

hollow ice
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Definitely on the x68k but not always obvious how to enable it.

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Castlevania is always the go to example since it is a menu that happens before you play.

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The x68k might be one of the biggest reasons to have the mt32(pi)

summer dragon
young gust
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Hah that's awesome. I got a dive into the 68K one of these days

summer dragon
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Anyone played Discworld on the AO486 core via the 0MHz pack? It seems to crash right at the start of the game...

young gust
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I just tried Amiga out for the first time in my life last month

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Discworld is one of my all time favorite games!!

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I skipped the intro and I messed around a bit in rincewinds room and it didn't crash

summer dragon
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if you get a chance, try starting the game and then walking out of the first room and walk down the stairs and see if it crashes

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doesn't seem to crash until you go down the stairs ha

young gust
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Ah ok I'll try it right now

summer dragon
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someone on github said they fixed it by changing from 256 to 16MB of ram, but that isn't working for me

young gust
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Playing some Sword of Vermilion right now and was bout to play some final fantasy xiv with my daughter but she can wait one sec while I try out discworld lol

summer dragon
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ok, actually, EMM386 was enabled and I just disabled it and got down the stairs

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ope spoke too soon...I got mostly down the stairs

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looks like this is one where they also switched dos4gw for dos32a...wonder with the recent fixes if maybe switching it back to dos4gw would work

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if my understanding about these extenders is correct though, it shouldn't matter...then again, Worms had an issue with the extender so 🤷🏻‍♂️

young gust
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Never know

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Loading it up now

summer dragon
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ok, emm386 disabled, 16MB of ram...seems to be working now I think

young gust
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Man they really butchered the music in the DOS version

summer dragon
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ope nvm it still crashed hmmm

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could just need a fresh install maybe

young gust
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Yup mine crashed

summer dragon
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when I changed it to 16MB I was able to get down the stairs but if I went back up it crashed again

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I wonder if it crashes if I keep progressing forward

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not that it really matters...it shouldn't crash ha

young gust
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Thing is throughout that game you will go up those steps a few more times

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You have to go back to your room once you get the broom to hit your luggage off the wardrobe

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I remember too much bout that game lol

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The couterwise wine section was such a pain in the ass

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Counterwise

summer dragon
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huh, booting the game direct from CD, there's no sound

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it looks like there isn't an install for this game on the disc

young gust
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That's weird

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Maybe it just writes a save file to C drive n that's it

summer dragon
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ah mouse driver also doesn't work completely

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yeah doesn't crash now...but also no sound, so that might help it not crash

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ok, got a version from exodos that still has dos4gw

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ok, crash seems to be gone!

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works with 256MB as well...the only difference I think is that the exe uses dos4gw instead of dos32a? Not really sure

young gust
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Hey if she works that's what matters! I'll have to delete the one I got and get the new one when it's up

summer dragon
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this game supports MT-32 too...once I have mine I'll go back and start adding more of those packs

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not really sure why 0MHz just didn't use menus so you can easily switch sound configs and made them separate packages...I guess the idea was that you shouldn't have to make any decisions whatsoever 😂

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oh wait

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I let the game just sit here for a bit and it crashed

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damn

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oh wait

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if I move really fast to get into the game it crashes reliably

young gust
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Ouch that sucks

summer dragon
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for some reason my mouse is all messed up too

young gust
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It'd be cool to hear how Discworld sounds on the MT-32

I loved how it sounds on PSX. Next time I do a Discworld playthrough i was gonna try the Saturn version to see how different the music is

summer dragon
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huh, a mister reboot fixed my mouse issue and now i can't reproduce the crash that was happening by starting the game really fast

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guess I need to wait for the game to sit for a bit again

summer dragon
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huh, yep, crashed again

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I wonder if EMM386 is actually needed for this game

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pretty sure I've seen similar crashes when it was turned on unnecessarily

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seems to run without it...now to let it sit here with no input for a bit again...

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still crashed hm

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maybe this one's another case where it needs QEMM or something that's not EMM386

young gust
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Discworld is being a tricky bastard

void belfry
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I can't reproduce any crash at this game. As usual, DOS 7.1, QEMM and EMM386 tested. Installed it from CD (EU version apparently) and it just works.. Also patched to ver. 1.04, seems to fix some sound related issues

summer dragon
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ok, I’ll try building it fresh later

void belfry
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oh btw, don't think it matters, but I use MT32-pi for the music (and SB16 for digitized sounds)

summer dragon
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I should have an mt-32 pi waiting for me when I get home 🙏

void belfry
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it is still running (now it has that nice screensaver lol) for some hours already

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You'll love that little thingie 😄

exotic prairie
lunar trellis
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It has been awhile since I tried the PC88 core, and it has had a lot of work on it over the past year, are there any tips for getting games to run on it? I remember when I last looked a few years back it was esoteric to say the least and I only managed to get a version of Mario Bros to run I got off of Gaming Alexandria.

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Ah, looks like you still need to reset the core after loading a d88 file

hollow ice
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@vestal isle mister main was released with my changes. I haven’t cycled back around to do any more work, but maybe you can make magic happen like you did for the other bsd release.

vestal isle
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I'll look at it in a day or so, got some honeydoo's in the mix.NotAmused

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@kevind What changes were made to ao486/mister so I can see if they help with the bsds?

hollow ice
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main thing is addition of some cd packet commands that netbsd had been complaining about and then the cfg file where you can override spt to something openbsd likes

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I haven’t cycled back to bang my head against the unacknowledged “read”…the OS makes a request for data at position 0, mister main sends back the packet, and then….nothing

elder cove
plucky sleet
lunar trellis
void belfry
young gust
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The first Discworld just has a special charm about it.

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The 2nd one is good as well, but man the first one is just perfect

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It's also got a funny easter egg where eric idle says he wants to be the first person in a video game to say the word fuck which the devs snuck in some early releases.

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and then they made an easter egg about that in the 2nd one lol

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you had to click on a specifc pixel at the end game like 20 times or something to trigger it

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and this is from Discworld 2

elder cove
young gust
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I've noticed some people here use DOS 7.22, the tutorials I saw online said to use DOS 6.2 is there any performance gains or better compatibility in AO486 using one over the other?

elder cove
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7.1 is basically the internal DOS removed out of Win9x. 6.22 was the last official version of plain MS-DOS.

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Some titles, which expect a Windows install but run under the DOS subsystem, run better under DOS 7.

hollow estuary
young gust
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ah

hollow estuary
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I had a job setting up PCs back when 6.20 and 6.22 were current. The only reason to install 6.20 over 6.22 I came across at the time was because you didn't have 6.22 disks on you.

young gust
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hahahaha

summer dragon
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Yeah, I just use DOS 7.1 for everything since all the 0MHz games use that

willow pond
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Same, i'm using the china dos 7.1 but it does lack a lot of basic software in 6.22, but 6.22 lacks fat32 support and has it's issues with himem

elder cove
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Question - how would everyone recommend imaging 3.5" DOS floppy disks? I have a USB floppy drive, I'm just not quite sure what software everyone would recommend for creating the disk image.

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There's a game called Free D.C. I want to create a 0MHz package for, but I feel like the preservation for it has been a bit inadequate. So, I'd like to rebuild it from the original floppies.

summer dragon
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@elder cove I think WinImage is the generally used solution for that?

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at least, I’m pretty sure that’s the one

hollow estuary
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Yeah, was about to say, WinImage if you're on Windows. If you on Mac then probably just Disk Utility, and linux dd

elder cove
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Sounds good - I'll use that. Thanks!

burnt pelican
hollow estuary
summer dragon
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alright, Discworld 0MHz version is fixed thanks to @void belfry chefkiss

young gust
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Wonder now if Discworld 2 has any issues

summer dragon
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didn't see any reported on the github

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if you take a look and find any, feel free to let me know

young gust
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Will do

deft estuary
summer dragon
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@deft estuary other games with dos4gw seem to run fine (i.e. Discworld)...seems like it was just Worms for some reason (so far)

deft estuary
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ok thanks, maybe you can open a issue on github if this now is an isolated case? Thanks!!

summer dragon
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not sure if I have enough information really...it could be something different that fixes it and maybe running it with dos32a is just a coincidence that it works

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currently trying to get another dos4gw game to work...Toonstruck...it kinda works, but the cutscenes have like a faux scanline looking effect on them and I can't figure out how to fix it

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...and no, I don't accidentally have any video filters turned on NotLikeThis

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seem playable...I'd just love to get the video looking right

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the game kinda freezes briefly on occassion, though

elder cove
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It’s a speed issue. The game does that with the animations at 1/2 resolution if it detects that the video could stutter otherwise.

summer dragon
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ahhh

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I used a newer version of univbe than what the game came with because interestingly the version it came with doesn't work

hazy tree
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Thanks for your work on the new 0mhz stuff

hollow estuary
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Random x68000 question, does MIDI/MT-32 music work for anyone on Gradius II: GOFER no Yabō with your MiSTer and mt32pi?? I keep seeing lists where its mentioned as working with the MT-32 but at least my copies of it don't seem to work.

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Although I noticed that for the games that mt32pi does work with that most of them seem run some midi related commands before starting the game. Is that maybe part of it?

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Ah found how to enable it:

Enable it by holding down F4 while booting (at the same time as holding down the button to enable arcade mode).

exotic prairie
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Yeah, some games require you to hold keys down. I don’t know how to enable arcade mode though. You either need a keyboard or a mouse to do it, unfortunately

hollow estuary
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And to enable arcade mode:

Hold Up and buttons I and II while the game is loading. Keep holding the buttons until the title screen appears.

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OK, so F4 isn't needed at all. On the title screen you just arrow down until the Sound Mode option is selected then press A to go into the menu and change it from internal to MT-32 music

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Sounds pretty great

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This slaps

summer dragon
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can’t wait to try some X68k games with mt-32…mine didn’t get here today after all cryclops hopefully tomorrow or friday 🤞

hollow estuary
summer dragon
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I’m gonna def be putting together some 0MHz packs for mt-32 once I have it

hollow estuary
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We need an mt32pi organized set of mras/mgls for compatible games 😄

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Heh, Nemesis '90 lets me enable mt32 but there's no midi output and when you start the game it hangs on a blank screen

summer dragon
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does that one work without enabling mt32?

hollow estuary
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Yeah

summer dragon
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ah nice

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disk or hdf?

hollow estuary
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hdf

summer dragon
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potentially worth trying that game with mt32 on disk too maybe

hollow estuary
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lol, the speed when loading from floppy disk images is very um, period accurate

summer dragon
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yes it is brutal elmorise

hollow estuary
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Hmm the only d88 versions of the game exhibit the same problem, oh well

summer dragon
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ah well, worth a shot

void belfry
young gust
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that's a bummer

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Might just be more than the core can handle.

void belfry
void belfry
young gust
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That sucks

void belfry
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I'll try it later under my NT 4 which has DirectX 5 beta, though I don't have much hopes tbh

summer dragon
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oh dang, didn’t realize the second one had issues

void belfry
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has the same distorted/noise sound (not for FMVs though) as Fallout 1 for DOS

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interesting (though I am pretty sure it doesn't use FPU), under DOS 7.1 with EMM386 (not QEMM) plus Q87, sound is no longer distorted but it stutters and game is kinda same slideshow as under W9x

void belfry
willow pond
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anyone know of a minimal windows 95, start menu, progman etc is not needed, thinking of making a 0Mhz for early windows games

void belfry
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No, don't think I heard about such thing. The ones from archives are just standard installs I think.

willow pond
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yep they are, was just wondering if someone had created one, no point in reinventing the wheel 🙂

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i should probably go for the RTM version, i remember it was a lot faster than the OSR2 back on my old 486 SX

granite umbra
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You have also windows 95 lite https://crustywindo.ws/Windows_95D_Lite_1.5a
Maybe required less ressources to run

CrustyWindows
Windows 95D Lite 1.5a

Windows 95D Lite 1.5a is a bootleg Windows 95 OSR2 edition, which was created by Kugee and TheOneGoofAli (who made the modified AutoRun and the 95D Lite logo). It released on December 23, 2021, and was added to the archive on February 15, 2022. The rest of the Windows 95D Lite versions were added on July 25, 2024.

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98 have also the same windows version

summer dragon
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oooh I didn’t know about that version

willow pond
#

Oh i like this, i can use this as a base and remove tools (ie who needs defrag etc for gaming and it's on a SD card anyway)

summer dragon
#

@willow pond if you do that and make a new base Win95 image, I’d love to get a copy 😀

void belfry
#

I'm a simple network engineer, I see this, I press Like 😄

image.png
granite umbra
willow pond
#

sure, i dont mind 🙂

granite umbra
#

I need to check again Diablo with lastest updates of AO486 core
before it is quite slow maybe very is some improvements

willow pond
#

size wize it's like RTM as far as i remember (it's been so long since i installed that version), back in year 1997 i think it was

soft sigil
granite umbra
summer dragon
#

is there anyone in here who I haven’t talked to who has uploaded packs for 0 MHz on archive? I’m thinking of consolidating all of the community uploads to a single page to make things easier for people

#

I wanted to try and make sure that everybody that uploaded was OK with me including their stuff and of course I would credit them

#

that said there is also part of me that thinks I don’t really need to ask for permission…. any opinions on whether I’m doing things the right way or being “extra” about it are also welcome 😅

hazy tree
#

people do seem to pop up who don’t know there’s been any community additions since the first 0mhz drop, so consolidating them and explaining duplicates or filtering out stuff that doesn’t work, or explaining when there’s likely to be performance issues or problems, seems like it’d be a public service.

summer dragon
#

yeah, that's true...there are definitely duplicates out there

#

it'd be nice to have one place where people can report issues or share tips/fixes, etc.

#

does anyone know of a way to query archive so that I could get a list of all users that have uploads tagged with "0MHz"?

hollow estuary
#

Wow, 532 results

summer dragon
#

@hollow estuary what did your search look like? I only get 381 when I search for "0MHz"

#

maybe I need to add more because maybe some people didn't use that 0MHz tag

#

and of course, it appears that archive records "uploader" but they use the user's email address and don't actually have a field for "username" derpweow

hollow estuary
summer dragon
#

and of course, I can't export "uploader"...which makes sense, but yeah, kinda unhelpful for this purpose

#

ahhh

hollow estuary
#

I shared a link before and didn't realise that @strong wharf removed it

copper slate
#

We are very strict against linking to places that host copyrighted material. It’s for the community’s benefit.

#

Again apologies and thank you for understanding.

hollow estuary
copper slate
elder cove
#

@summer dragon The official search term for the 0MHz collection is “0MHz DOS Collection”. That’s the result which you are directed to from the download button of the 0MHz homepage.

summer dragon
#

ahhhh, where is that supposed to be placed? as one of the subjects I guess?

#

I never did it like that I guess...I just did 0MHz

exotic prairie
#

@void belfry Can I bug you on the side about x68k hdf creation? I have been following the directions here and referencing this forum post but I am still having trouble. Id love if you could look at an image for me and tell me what I'm missing (if you have time, of course)

hollow estuary
summer dragon
#

@hollow estuary no worries, @elder cove is aware and they have been a big help in helping me get this stuff going chefkiss

#

We've basically already got all the community uploads catalogued...the next step is for me to actually download everything. Then I can cleanup the packages where needed, de-duplicate and take the best versions and whittle things down to a "Megapack" so to speak

young gust
summer dragon
#

ha thanks! I've been hoping someone would do it for a while and I just got to the point where I figured I might as well just try and do it

young gust
#

Once everything is fully organized. I'll look at the best DOS games by genre, see what's missing from the collection and see how many run well in ao486 and try to get as complete a collection as possible for people to enjoy.

young gust
#

Nothing brings me greater joy than introducing someone to a game they never heard of before, them playing it, and enjoying the hell out of it

#

I've been wanting to start up a retro gaming podcast too dedicated to hidden retro gaming gems across all retro consoles and DOS/WIN 3.1 thru XP.

My wife just had a baby 2 months ago once things settle down n return to normal I think I might just start it up

void belfry
willow pond
#

@summer dragonit seams that version of win95 is too unstable, i've reinstalled it multiple times, same result...

#

In any case i'll try out RTM, otherwise ill need to strip down OSR2 instead

void belfry
vestal goblet
#

OSR2 is the way to go. I didn’t install the original win95 at all, but waited for the real one

#

there are communities that have grafted parts of Windows 2000 and XP back into it to maximize app compatibility and fix some security problems

summer dragon
#

So in prepping this new supplemental 0MHz pack, I've discovered after some testing that setnames don't care if there are spaces in them and nor do the associated CFG files. I was thinking of doing this for maximum readability in the config folder...so for example:

<setname same_dir="1">AO486 - 9 - The Last Resort</setname>

produces a config file in the config folder named:

AO486 - 9 - The Last Resort.CFG

Can anyone smarter than me think of a good reason I shouldn't use spaces in the setnames? 😂

void belfry
summer dragon
#

haha

void belfry
#

sry Grandma, mgl is not really my jam 😄 But still, jokes aside, why not use _ ? Think is same as elegant

hollow estuary
#

AO486 - 9 - The Last Resort.CFG vs AO486_-_9_-_The_Last_Resort.CFG

Personally I prefer spaces

void belfry
#

AO486_9_The_Last_Resort.CFG

hollow estuary
#

So the setname would need to be <setname same_dir="1">AO486_9_The_Last_Resort</setname> 🤔

void belfry
#

just an idea...

#

it's readab;le to me

hollow estuary
#

I don't really see what the problem is with the spaces. How often are people actively going to be interacting with the .cfg files?

void belfry
#

me neither, but let's say to alleviate potential issues ?

#

come to think off it now, guess my "dislike" of spaces in filenames comes from the mid-to-late 90's lol

summer dragon
#

haha

#

yeah i'm wavering back and forth

exotic prairie
#

not_a_virus.exe

summer dragon
#

I was just thinking I could do AO486-9_The_Last_Resort

#

so AO486-Game_Name

#

maybe it's better for scripting purposes...like for any downloaders that pull this stuff down or future scripts someone might write to manage cfg files, launch games, etc.?

#

I'll leave it alone for now in case others have opinions on this

void belfry
void belfry
exotic prairie
summer dragon
#

should it be AO486-9_The_Last_Resort or AO486_-_9_The_Last_Resort?

void belfry
#

first one

exotic prairie
#

+1

summer dragon
#

i'm down with it

#

so, the new supplemental pack will have it's own config file with it

#

err

#

each game in the new pack will have its own cfg file with it

#

but it will just still be a generic config, but when you save changes it will save it per game

exotic prairie
#

are you going to redo the ones in the existing pack?

summer dragon
#

wasn't planning to...

#

but I could

exotic prairie
summer dragon
#

now that said...the folders and filenames for the actual game files DO have spaces and always have with 0MHz stuff...

#

I'm spaced out ova here O_O

void belfry
#

what games have spaces in their filenames ???

summer dragon
#

so in that case, maybe spaces are A-OK

#

not the actual games contained in the VHDs

exotic prairie
#

If we have spaces in dos directories my immersion will be ruined

summer dragon
#

I mean the folder names and the files stored in games/ao486/media

#

oh but ya know what

void belfry
#

ah, ok.. but guess you can quick rename them. I'm no powershell/bash expert, but think it can be done automatically

summer dragon
#

no, nothing needs to be renamed

#

because they already function perfectly fine with spaces in the names

#

out of just complete overprecaution, I will stick with a AO486-Game_Name convention

summer dragon
#

MT-32 on AO486 question....I presume the core itself needs to be set to use MT-32 in the audio settings?

exotic prairie
#

Not sure. Do the mt32pi MGLS do anything differently?

summer dragon
#

well I was gonna use setname anyways

#

but I can also bundle a specific mt-32 cfg file with those that already turns on mt-32 in the core

#

i notice that the cfg file for the mt-32 packs in the official 0MHz donh't have a different name or anything

#

well, I can test and see if it's any different

exotic prairie
#

oh so it's calling a different VHD

summer dragon
#

sooo

exotic prairie
# 
    <rbf>_computer/ao486</rbf>
    <file delay="0" type="s" index="2" path="media/stunts.mt32/stunts.mt32.vhd"/>
    <reset delay="1"/>
</mistergamedescription>```
summer dragon
#

yes

#

but not a different cfg file

exotic prairie
#

yeah

#

all one CFG file

summer dragon
#

so i'm wondering if when you typically load those games, do you have to go toggle mt-32 on

exotic prairie
#

no, not when you load the mt32pi version

summer dragon
#

oh wait

exotic prairie
#

The mt32pi is always on in cores the support it. I believe it's whether or not the core sends data to it

summer dragon
#

there is no setting you have to change in the core for mt32 i see

#

only a volume ctl setting

#

FM mode should be set to OPL3 too right?

#

so in that case...should MT-32 versions AND their non-mt32 counterparts just share the same set name?

#

or is there a reason to just make them unique per version

elder cove
#

Probably should just share it. I can't think of any use case where they would benefit from being split, and many games just put the MT-32 / Sound Canvas options inside the same .mgl via a simple DOS menu anyway.

summer dragon
#

yeah...I also had the thought of consolidating the mt-32/regular versions and using a menu selector

#

buttt I think the original idea of 0MHz was basically "you don't have to make decisions, just pick your version and run it"

#

we'll see how many mt-32 titles I end up with after cleaning these up

summer dragon
#

should I call out when a title is a CD title?

#

0MHz official did not

exotic prairie
#

I don’t think it’s necessary

summer dragon
#

yeah that's kind of what I was thinkin'

exotic prairie
#

I feel like the only additional information folks need is if it’s mt32pi or not. It being a CD doesn’t affect how it works, right?

summer dragon
#

I was thinking more along the lines where some games have multiple versions

#

floppy vs. CD

#

now, really, I think we're just trying to go with CD versions here anyways if available

#

eh screw it, I'm just not gonna worry about

#

it

young gust
#

Don't over think it brother

elder cove
#

I'd say include the format if it comes with a significant content difference (ie. voice acting or remastered graphics) & another version is already preserved in a 0MHz pack.

#

For instance, SimCity CD-ROM (referred to in the MGL as SimCity Enhanced) is a good example of this, given that it features a lot of differences from the standard version.

exotic prairie
#

Is there a reason to include a non-cd version when a cd version exists?

summer dragon
#

preservation sure

elder cove
#

Yes - a number of CD games cut or change content from their floppy releases.

Most often surrounding voice acting - developers had a habit of making dialogue trees more limited to save on storage space for audio clips, and would often cut sequences around this. (LOOM's CD version was especially infamous for this.)

summer dragon
#

but in the pack from a practical standpoint...maybe not...THAT said, once I set the initial pack out, people can add stuff and fix stuff and I'm gonna do my best to be more responsive to getting things updated more frequently

exotic prairie
#

oh that’s interesting. I just assumed that the cd version was always superior

#

I just liked it when roger wilco talked

young gust
#

Flashback the Quest for Identity also has fmvs on the CD version. I'd argue the CD version is worse

summer dragon
#

which version does official 0MHz have?

elder cove
#

The floppy version.

#

Yeah, the original versions featured rotoscoped 2D cutscenes, similar to Another World, whereas the CD versions replaced them with 3D CGI FMVs.

summer dragon
#

ah yes so that’s a significant enough diffrrence

young gust
#

Yeah and the cgi fmvs are terrible in my opinion

elder cove
#

I don’t think they’re terrible, but they’re definitely a step down from the rotoscoped originals. The CGI just doesn’t fit particularly well with the art style of the original game.

exotic prairie
#

the rotoscoped versions are so good

elder cove
#

100%. I wish more games used that artstyle - apart from this and Another World, the only other instance I can think of off the top of my head is Cruise for A Corpse.

#

(And ironically, it used it in the opposite way - the cutscenes are hand-animated in some really stellar pixel art, while the onscreen character graphics are all rotoscoped using this 2D vector block method.)

exotic prairie
#

both of those games felt like they didn’t belong in the generation they were in

#

like we had cracked open the door to some advanced technology, and just a little bit had snuck out

young gust
#

The cgi fmvs were so choppy. That was the worst thing about them

#

If you guys dig games like flashback and out of this world check out Full Void. It's amazing

copper slate
young gust
#

I don't recall the ending lol I was tired when I finished it. I don't recall having an issue with it. It's just a story to me. I don't take it to seriously

#

I'm definitely down for games that I can finish in 3 to 5 hours

meager mural
#

Any progress on adding write-ability of tape and disk images to the Coleco Adam core? It's impossible to play most tape/disk games without that functionality.

elder cove
#

Which would people prefer for me to work on next - adding more of the Sim series on ao486 (adding things like SimIsle, SimTown, SimPark, SimRefinery, etc.), or adding obscure point-and-click adventure/art games (things like Museum of Anything Goes, The Tale of Orpheo’s Curse, Bad Day At the Midway, four-sight, Venetian Deer, etc.)?

copper slate
exotic prairie
#

yeah Elph, you’re doing the lord’s work - pick your poison

elder cove
#

Going to start today’s packs, then, with Are You Afraid of The Dark - The Tale Of Orpheo’s Curse:

summer dragon
#

Can anyone think of any DOS games that have some vital information needed right off the bat in order to play? For example, @elder cove pointed out to me that 9 - The Last Resort requires you to read a letter included with the game in order to start the game.

#

Reason I ask is because with the new megapack I’m adding a little banner script that will display when booting games like that (i.e. if you boot up 9: The Last Resort`, you’ll get a message telling you to go read that letter first. The letter will be included in the docs folder too, so you can access it from Help in the OSD). The message will be toggleable so you can always turn it off after first boot

#

sometimes notes can be as simple as this game has a lot of keyboard controls you might miss, so it’s a good idea to read the included manual (OSD > Help), etc.

exotic prairie
deft estuary
#

@elder cove sorry how can I find your 0Mhz repo?

copper slate
#

Search it on the archives is what I hear

deft estuary
#

I know very well that I have to search, I was looking fro a specific search term..

hollow estuary
deft estuary
#

Ok I will DM Elphive thanks

hollow estuary
#

Or you could search for it. If you use Google there's nothing else except for links to this specific thing

deft estuary
#

uh, that's incredible, thanks!

copper slate
#

I’m so sorry

lunar trellis
#

It would be good if there was a 0mhz+ project for things not in the "official" 0mhz project and a corresponding script to grab everything in those ones. Could be crowd sources to add all the games people would like to play that aren't in the official one, which I understand isn't being added to.

copper slate
#

@deft estuary genuinely not trying to make things hard for you

deft estuary
#

I apologize to all, sorry...

exotic prairie
lunar trellis
#

Oh nice, good effort picking up the ball there!

exotic prairie
#

Grandma is cooking 🙂

hollow estuary
#

<gen alpha mode> Let her cook! </gen alpha mode>

#

I don't know if anyone else was looking at this but I was pondering building something that could browse the 0mhz packs and then dl what whatever packs you selected. Got as far as figuring out what I need to query on the IA API side of things. That's about it though.

exotic prairie
#

hasn’t been updated in a bit

hollow estuary
#

Haha yeah, at 500+ hits we don't want people pulling everything by default

#

That script looks neat, maybe I should just PR that to add in the browser

summer dragon
#

Yeah and like I mentioned I’m working to bring all that stuff into one place on archive with some additional standardization and improvements, so maybe eventually the script could point there

#

I think once I have that page up, a lot of the other pages may get taken down too

hollow estuary
#

Yeah I was going to ask if there was a plan to standardize the tagging. There's quite a variance in what tags existing packs have atm

summer dragon
#

yeah i’m just planning to put it all in one place…if I have to split pages, we’re probably only talking like two different pages, so yeah the tagging will be standard

#

gonna take quite some time to upload everything I’m sure elmorise

hollow estuary
#

Sounds great! I'll wait for you to get things in order before I do anything then

summer dragon
#

yeah the new pack will have manuals/help docs bundled per game (where available) as well as use setname for per-game configs (and easy access to help files per game)

lunar trellis
#

I was going to say, would it be useful to have a sheet that has every game in the different packs out there and what pack they are in, but sounds like this will be covered? It would be good to have a list of what games are all done (and an easy way for people to request ones not done that would like to play)

summer dragon
#

yeah, I will probably make a github page or something to store all the game config files, MGLs and folder structures so that people can report/contribute

#

well I will almost certainly do that, I should say

#

really the pack just needs a name now…was considering something like 0MHz MiSTer Community Megapack

#

or maybe I shouldn’t lead with 0MHz and just do MiSTer Community 0MHz Megapack

exotic prairie
#

0MHz II: The Revenge

hollow estuary
#

Yeah, I think the second one is clearer on ownership

copper slate
#

I guess 0MHz is enough of “a thing” where people understand what it means.

#

I was thinking maybe you don’t need to name it 0MHz?

summer dragon
#

I could forgo having it in the title

elder cove
#

I’d still include it. That way it shows up if you search for the project.

summer dragon
#

I just figured leave it in so that it’s unmistakable that the games are formatted that way

#

yeah, I’ll be tagging it too of course

young gust
#

It'd be cool if the script showed you everything that was currently uploaded there, and then you could just select what you want

lunar trellis
#

Is there a list somewhere of the games in the format, not part of the original pack, that can be shared without linking to copyright material? Very keen to see what else has been done not in the original (pretty comprehensive) set

elder cove
#

I can share the spreadsheet that @summer dragon and I put together - one sec

lunar trellis
#

Ace, thanks!

elder cove
summer dragon
#

yeah I think @elder cove noted which games weren’t fully in 0MHz format too

lunar trellis
#

Side question, is Jack In The Dark included as a playable option in any of the Alone In The Dark games in the pack? I played it as a standalone on a floppy way back when. Great, creepy little game.
https://aloneinthedark.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_in_the_Dark

Alone in the Dark Wiki
Jack in the Dark

Jack in the Dark is a spin-off game made during Alone in the Dark 2's development. It was used as a promotional game, distributed at Christmas 1993. The game was on a single floppy disk in a...

summer dragon
#

i’ve already completed the packs for a few of those…I’m not too far into the list yet though…lots of review to do yet

elder cove
summer dragon
#

@lunar trellis I’m almost positive that one is a separate upload

lunar trellis
#

Ace, thanks chaps

#

That's a lot of games done looking at the sheet, great work, be brilliant to have this all under one umbrella

young gust
#

Yeah a script that could look at the archive and let people select n choose what they want would be bad ass.

copper slate
lunar trellis
#

Are all the expansions for C&C and Red Alert covered? Also wondering if Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor would be possible, am curious to see how the practice mode actually plays, even if online play is obviously not doable

void belfry
#

Online play, yeah, not yet there (have to go back at some point to the IPX stuff). But LAN could be doable (it was for Doom (and derivates) at least)

robust monolith
#

THe mrchrs downloader is ancient, and only pulls down the releases from Mister Tea. We need a own on downloader, that pulls down all the releases basically.

young gust
#

Yeah. Need one that examine me the entire archive and then says "pick what you want"

copper slate
young gust
copper slate
summer dragon
#

well, I hope no one puts the work in on that before I’m done putting everything all in one place waaaaah

#

hoping I can get the megapack page up by the end of the month or at least by mid-April

lunar trellis
#

Godspeed, will be great when it is all under one roof and can select what is desired or grab everything.

#

Is the second Discworld game too advanced to run on the core? Didn't spot that in any pack (may have missed it)

summer dragon
#

I thought it was in the 0MHz official pack, but others said it doesn’t run too well

lunar trellis
#

Ah OK, it is from 1996 so maybe a bit too much for the core

summer dragon
#

another plan that I had at some point was to make a similar pack for the dosbox and scummvm scripts for games that don’t run well in the core….that said, I am not sure what the volume would look like there. The games that don’t run well in the core might simultaneously be too much for MiSTer’s builds of dosbox and scummvm

lunar trellis
#

Probably a good thing to document on another tab on the sheet or elsewhere, games that have been tried that don't run so aren't included

summer dragon
#

yeah I plan to keep track of those and then maybe try them in dosbox/scummvm later and see if that pack is viable or not

karmic fog
#

Riven from 1997 ran acceptably on ScummVM, i think that was the most demanding one I tried

#

no way to get rid of screen tearing, though

lunar trellis
#

There seems to be great coverage already, looking through them all the only thing that sprung to mind I would like to finally try is whatever not-online content was in C&C Sole Survivor, never got to try that back in the day

elder cove
summer dragon
#

ohhhh interesting

exotic prairie
#

how does it run on the unstable?

hollow estuary
elder cove
summer dragon
#

@elder cove you know what interesting is that the sound for Discworld I was also messed up before I applied a patch to the game…I wonder if there’s an audio patch for Discworld II?

elder cove
#

Could be - believe they use the same engine, so it’s definitely worth taking a look.

summer dragon
#

there is a patch file named dw2patch3.zip it looks like

#

doesn’t say what it does

#

ok found some notes on archive…no notes about sound, but there is one about cd access

elder cove
#

Interesting - it looks like I’m no longer getting the green line bug with the older core

#

I upgraded my power supply from a 10W LTE supply from MiSTerAddons recently to a stronger 20W Meanwell supply - wonder if that was causing it?

summer dragon
#

there was also an update to mister main

elder cove
#

True

#

In either case, good to see that’s fixed.

#

I confirmed that the same audio behavior happens between the stable & unstable cores on Discworld II.

#

Cutscenes play their audio correctly, but once you get into gameplay, the audio suffers from heavy distortion.

summer dragon
#

yeah hmm wonder if that patch could help at all

#

or maybe it’s a sound setting? idk

worn oxide
#

out of curiosity before I pull needless efforts - how does Tomb Raider 1 run on ao486?

#

-# does it even run?

young gust
#

Probably at like 5 fps would be my guess.

worn oxide
#

maybe up to 8 fps with the smallest software window

elder cove
#

Unfortunately, the floppies with my copy of Free D.C. proved unreadable, so I wasn't able to archive a full copy of the game. Unfortunately, that means we're stuck with MT-32 exclusively for music, as the Adlib music driver appears to be missing from the commonly available version.

#

I did, at least, get a chance to scan all the paperwork.

Which told me there's a lot more missing from the game anyway, as there's an ad for a Voice Expansion as a separate purchase which adds more dub dialogue to the game (a really unusual thing for a floppy disk release, as the 5-disk floppy version I have includes some dialogue scenes dubbed as well).

elder cove
#

I contacted the original developer behind the game to see if he might have an original copy of the expansion disks. I'll let everyone know here if he responds.

elder cove
void belfry
worn oxide
#

Looks like I have to shell out for an actual Pentium and a Voodoo card to play Tomb Raider in late 1996

#

😔

void belfry
#

or play it on PSX core ?

copper slate
worn oxide
#

Tomb Raider Anniversary is NOT TR1

#

-# I don't wanna go into bs semantics

#

Or I could time travel to 2025 and install TombATI via Tomb Raider Automated Fix on my steam deck

#

Or just use OpenLara via luxtorpeda

#

Or play it on a Saturn core

#

At least I have an option for cycle accurate(???) lowest spec PC of 1995-1996

copper slate
void belfry
#

cycle maybe not, but for sure accurate in the other aspects (the "pain" of DOS setups)

elder cove
#

ao486 is based on a software implementation of the 486 hardware, so I wouldn’t consider it to be cycle accurate to any existing 486 board.

ruby charm
silver inlet
#

Yeah ao486 is one of the least "cycle accurate" cores on MiSTer, built out of a generic open core with a bunch of tweaks and hacks to make it run reasonably well on MiSTer.

#

A ground-up 486/586 core would probably run better than ao486, but that would be an undertaking on the scale of the N64/PSX/Saturn cores.

fast kraken
#

it fits well enough in the cyrinx/intel envelope that most things work fine

#

like its probably more compatible than some actual cyrinx chips

#

there's been a slow trickle of fixes the last few years that have fixed most of the little oddities too, most turned out to be actual bugs and not really cycle accuracy types of problems

karmic fog
#

the biggest issues with using ShapeShifter outside of inscrutable compatibility issues (and a limited ability to troubleshoot them when they arise) are mostly with i/o - it requires juggling things through the amiga core first, then onto the mac image. not ideal, really

#

there are various workarounds but it will always be a bit of a kludge just by its nature

deft estuary
#

Hi folks there is a thing I can't understand with 0Mhz...

#

within each pack a *.cfg file is included

#

this *.cfg will overwrite the general config of AO486, isn't?

#

So each time we launch a game we have to copy manually this file?

jaunty iron
# deft estuary So each time we launch a game we have to copy manually this file?

This CFG file is not explicitly necessary, the core will generate a default one when launched without it present. It is a core wide cfg file, not a per-game cfg file. I don't specifically know what this cfg file sets, but using the 0MHz pack myself this included cfg file prevented my core from even loading until I deleted it.

copper slate
#

It’s included to make sure someone starting from scratch has it working right and someone who had previous CFGs with another HDD set also gets it working right

#

Easier to tell someone “replace your CFG” then walking em through removing the previous VHD, like with the Top 100 pack

deft estuary
#

so currently a "per core" cfg is not possible? And what, for example, about to set a custom speed (as from ODS) per game?

hollow estuary
#

Its possible, the games usually have an .mgl file that you probably should be using to launch the game instead. When you launch those, they'll have their own configs

#

Some games will show up in a "DOS Games" folder in your main MiSTer menu

deft estuary
#

ok but can I found somwehere a documentation about setting speed? for example, setting "386SX" or "486DX" per game?

copper slate
#

Some games also do use set names to create a different core CFG so the game runs correctly.

hollow estuary
#

Heh, I just realised that 🥴

#

Doh, only a single game that I've downloaded has a setname 😬

copper slate
#

Yeah I forgot which one, but I saw it

jaunty iron
# deft estuary ok but can I found somwehere a documentation about setting speed? for example, s...

Most/all? 0MHz games set their CPU settings inside DOS itself using the mister sysctl utility program, bypassing the need for most per game config settings. You can find examples of this in most games rungame.bat script inside the game folders themselves.
Details about these can be found under Optional Programs & Drivers here: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_MiSTer?tab=readme-ov-file#core-speed-and-options-and-drivers

GitHub
GitHub - MiSTer-devel/ao486_MiSTer: ao486 port for MiSTer

ao486 port for MiSTer. Contribute to MiSTer-devel/ao486_MiSTer development by creating an account on GitHub.

deft estuary
uneven cliff
#

#blessed

copper slate
#

what if you called the new releases..... 1Mhz Collection

young gust
#

🤡 🤡 🤡

#

Followed by the 1kb ram collection

summer dragon
#

got my MT-32 Pi tonight and have been testing it a bit...tested Joe and Mac in DOS and then switched to the version without MT-32 and that version is all messed up speed-wise elmorise I went into the mt-32 VHD and checked for differences and only saw a tiny difference in the RUNGAME.BAT where after sysctl 30MHz L1+ L2+ there was a > nul...I replaced the rungame in the normal joe & mac folder with the one from the MT-32 folder and voila! Now it runs fine?!

#

the funny thing...I think I may have been the one that got the sound working on this game, so it's possible that was my fault 😂

#

wtf now all of a sudden it's back to running like crap even after a reboot?!

#

oh wait

#

no, this is weird, I don't get it

young gust
#

Gotta love DOS 😂

summer dragon
#

ok, I think it's joystick

#

you have to go into the game with a keyboard

#

but once you're in the game, it works fine to switch to joystick

#

this game is annoying though because it seems to always default to joystick on startup

#

err well at least it seems like it does...I gues it might not necessarily

young gust
#

I've always had issues with joystick in DOS and getting games to recognize enough buttons. So I've just mapped keyboard buttons to the controller directly. Has worked for every game. Except I can't seem to map f1 thru 12 to any controller buttons for some reason

summer dragon
#

ok, it is NOT a joystick issue! It's literally a "don't press ANY buttons until you hear the game music" elmorise

#

if you press a button before you hear music, you're screwed...if you wait, you're fine

#

and actually, I mapped the joystick to keyboard, so I was never really using a joystick anyways...joystick doesn't seem to work in Joe & Mac at all

#

at least mine does not

#

oh, I also figured out my joystick problem with Rayman...it was literally my DualSense not working with it...I tried a SNES NTTData Pad via Reflex adapter and it worked just fine...wonder if that'd work here in this game too...

#

huh, this game is really frickin' weird...sometimes it boots perfectly fine and sometimes it doesn't

#

OK, I'm pretty positive I figured out the problem with Joe and Mac...holy hell

#

If you set your keyboard controls and exit to DOS...the game saves a PREFS.DAT file....Once the PREFS.DAT file exists, the game runs like crap UNLESS you're playing the MT-32 version!

#

yup, game booted, ran bad. exited to DOS, deleted prefs.dat, problem fixed NotLikeThis

#

lol downloading some prefs.dat from a 2004(!) post from vogons, it works fine now!

#

wtf

#

I wonder if it didn't like me assigning action keys to Z and X or something dumb

#

changing the controls after starting with that specific prefs.dat file has fixed the problem..I...I don't.....I need to go to bed

#

nope...still unreliably boots bad...this is such an odd case

#

if I exit to DOS without touching anything, it saves an automatic prefs.dat...if I don't touch it at all, it seems the game boots fine every time

#

ugh now prefs.dat doesn't exist and it's running bad..dude 🥲

pure fog
young gust
pure fog
#

@hollow estuary @summer dragon I’ll do a better job later, but for now, here’s what has worked for me3

Akumajou Dracula | 悪魔城ドラキュラ | MT-32, SC-55 (unofficial support of GM compatibles)
Angel Dive | エンジェルダイブ | SC-55
Arcus Odyssey | アークスオデッセイ | MT-32
Asuka 120% Burning Fest | あすか120％ BURNING Fest．| SC-55, Yamaha TG-100
Atomic Robo-Kid | アトミックロボキッド | MT-32
Bosconian (has special midi version)
Choujin | 超人 | MT-32, CM-64 (supports CM-64 expansion cards SN-U110-07 and SN-U110-10), SC-55
Daimakaimura | 大魔界村 | GM compatibles
Detana!! TwinBee | 出たな!!ツインビー | MT-32, SC-55
Dino Land | 超闘竜烈伝DINO LAND | MT-32, CM-32L, CM-64
Etoile Princesse | エトワールプリンセス | SC-55
FZ Senki Axis | FZ戦記AXIS | MT-32, CM-64
Garou Densetsu | 餓狼伝説 | MT-32, SC-55
Gemini Wing | ジェミニウイング | MT-32, CM-64 (supports CM-64 expansion cards SN-U110-07 and SN-U110-10)
Gradius II | グラディウスII | MT-32, SC-55
Granada | グラナダ | MT-32
KU2 | CM-32L, SC-55
KU2 Front Row | CM-32L, SC-55
Motos | モトス | MT-32, Korg M1
Neural Gear
NIKO2 | ニコニコ | MT-32
Parodius Da! | パロディウスだ！ | MT-32
Sol-Feace | ソルフィース | MT-32, CM-64
Square Resort | SQUARE RESORT ハイパー戦車戦 | MT-32, SC-55
Thunder Blade | サンダーブレード | MT-32
Xenon 2: Megablast | MT-32, CM-32L
Cyberblock Metal Orange EX | メタルオレンジEX | SC-55
Cynthia v2 | シンシア | GS compatibles (only the one disk version supports midi)

summer dragon
#

@young gust so I'm up super late because I was helping with a code roll at work and also tinkering with Joe and Mac...I'm starting to think it might be a refresh rate issue with what the core is trying to output (maybe)

#

it seems like sometimes the MiSTer outputs something slightly different than either 60Hz (if Vsync is set to that) or 70.1Hz (If Vsync set to Variable)...it could be a me problem too maybe, so I'd love for anyone else to try Joe and Mac in DOS and just boot and reboot it a handful of times to see what happens

summer dragon
#

I gotta walk away from this Joe & Mac issue for now 😂 I tried switching between 60Hz and Variable Vsync settings, tried setting vsync=0,1,2 on the MiSTer itself...it doesn't seem to make a difference. No matter what mode I'm in, sometimes that game just loads up in a slow/choppy state...why the MT-32 version seems unaffected, idk

hollow ice
#

did you try it disabling the different caches?

#

looks to be speed sensitive according to vogons…maybe the extra cycles to manage sound are screwing with the performance?

#

not sure your workflow for getting them working, I assume you did, but might as well suggest it

elder cove
#

Would it be possible to add an option to increase the volume of just the MT32pi? I’ve noticed it seems to be mixed quiet on my unit.

summer dragon
#

@hollow ice tried disabling caches yeah…tried changing the ram setting

#

when it does work, it seems to run at the proper speed

#

you know what I might not have done….is tried disabling L2 cache prior to booting 🤦‍♂️…just disabled it and hit reset and apply HDD and it is running ok so far…

#

you know what that might be ot

#

I was tired last night and forgot to make sure I wasn’t just disabling that cache while the game was running

#

it’s interesting that it works fine with L2 cache on sometimes

#

but since I saved my settings as having L2 cache off, it’s booting fine every time

hollow ice
#

odd…I wonder if that is something that might have cropped up during normal use….the company is out of business as of 2003, and I can’t find a web presence on archive.org

#

so no idea if they ever had any sort of patch

#

might and magic was a big series, so I am surprised I can’t find a website

summer dragon
#

yep, with l2 cache off it seems that both joe and mac soundblaster and mt-32 versions are working fine now

hollow ice
#

I wonder if that affects any of the early might and magic games…wasn’t ever a huge fan so I never tried them on the core

summer dragon
#

interesitngly, it seems like the mt-32 versions runs ever so slightly smoother with l2 on lol…it’s really hard to tell for sure but i think it is

#

yeah mt32 version smoothes out a tad and always boots fine even if L2 is on

#

Ha! After like 5 successful boots of the soundblaster version of Joe and Mac with L2 off, I booted it again after leaving the mt32 version and it’s slow again!

#

and same thing with this version…the game definitely runs a bit smoother with L2 on

exotic prairie
#

No idea if it is happening here, but one of the current quirks of the jaguar core is that a game can behave differently if it’s the first game on core boot, or if it’s loaded after another game has been loaded

summer dragon
#

yeah, that’s true, but this game sometimes behaves this way even on first boot

exotic prairie
#

yeah, i dunno if it’s a thing on any other core. but, on the other hand, computers 🤷

summer dragon
#

yep

young gust
elder cove
#

I set the MT-32 gain to 2.0 and the FluidSynth gain to 0.4 in the .INI file. A bit painful to tweak this way, but it works for now. (Would be nice to have a realtime software control either on the MiSTer’s mixer side or on these gain controls, though, given there’s no guarantee every game expected the same mix levels.)

FluidSynth sounds good at that volume, but MT-32 sounds like it might need to be a bit louder still - will continue experimenting.

young gust
#

Oh shit you can tweak it in the ini? awesome. I'm gonna give that a try.

#

I was playing X-COM UFO Defense and the music sounded so good, but was so quiet.

#

is this the mister.ini or a different file?

elder cove
#

Sorry - .cfg file. MT-32pi.cfg on the root of the Pi's SD card

#

Here's the poster for Free D.C. after some cleanup work, and with the 16:9 reformat for the 0MHz pack:

young gust
#

never heard of that one

elder cove
#

It was a collaboration between a team of ex-Cinemaware developers and Will Vinton Studios, the team who coined the term "Claymation" and invented numerous famous ad characters like The Noid and The California Raisins.

young gust
#

neat

elder cove
#

I think, once I finish the collection I'm currently working through, I'm going to do something similar for the "feelies" and books for the Infocom text adventures.

For those who aren't aware, almost all of the Infocom games came with a wide range of items in the box - matchbooks, pens, sunglasses, decoder cards, in-game equipment manuals, stock certificates for ingame companies, you name it. Many of them were actually essential for gameplay, containing key clues for solving the title's puzzles. As such, I want to have versions of the objects you can view from different angles as PDF, as well as 16:9 optimized versions of the books that came with them. (I also think I have a solution in mind for the InvisiClues hint books, which I'll include as well.)

Going to start with Border Zone - it's the only one I own a physical copy of - but after that, any requests?

hollow ice
#

Bureaucracy?

elder cove
#

Sure!

strange bluff
#

Does anyone know if the game are playable on the AO486 core? Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
Fallout
One Must Fall: 2097
System Shock
The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery
The Incredible Machine
The Last Express
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger
Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom

#

The DOS versions

summer dragon
#

The Incredible Machine and OMF2097 are. I believe Fallout mostly is, but has some issues and I think it works best in Win95 if memory serves. As for the others, I can’t remember offhand

elder cove
#

Fallout runs, but is slow. I haven't seen someone tackle Broken Sword yet, but it should work - I'll add it to the docket to test it. If not, it should run on the MiSTer via the ScummVM source port (same for The Beast Within).

Not sure about Wing Commander 3 & 4, but Wing Commander Armada works. You'll probably have a better experience with the PS1 versions of those two, though.

Haven't tested System Shock, but it should run fine. I'll add The Last Express to the docket to make a 0MHz pack for.

exotic prairie
#

wing commander 3 was rough to get running on my 1gz pentium iirc - probably too much for the core

lunar trellis
#

I suspect if that one would run OK it would have been included in the top 300 pack and original 0mhz set

#

Also seems odd System Shock and the others mentioned, that are big games, would have been overlooked if they ran acceptably

#

Stranger things have happened though, well worth a look

#

I recently discovered there was a black and white DOS game based on the 1974 French film "Emmanuelle". Sadly though, I suspect it is too sexy for the 486 core to handle. Don't want your board to overheat.

exotic prairie
#

lol what

strong yoke
#

Wing Commander 1 was barely playable when I tried that (a couple of years ago) so I'd be absolutely astonished if 3 and 4 work

lunar trellis
#

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuelle_(video_game)

Emmanuelle (video game)

Emmanuelle is an erotic graphical adventure game from Coktel Vision, originally released in 1989 for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS. The game was developed by Muriel Tramis (better known from her games in the Gobliiins series, Fascination & Lost in Time), and is loosely inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan's Emmanuelle series of novels.

exotic prairie
#

ooo la la

lunar trellis
#

I might have to self report myself for posting that

exotic prairie
#

I doubt that made it into amigavision

#

i wonder if it's in this bespoke atari st pack that I paid some gentleman in eastern europe for

lunar trellis
#

Everything about that sounds wrong.

#

But I would be disappointed if I bought a pack of roms out the back of some Russian dude's car and it didn't include Emmanuelle.

#

I will patiently wait for the "0mhz After Dark" collection.

elder cove
#

There's already an existing 0MHz pack for Fascination, another similar production by Coktel. I hadn't heard of Emanuelle, but Fascination runs as part of the Gob engine in ScummVM (same as Gobliiins and Lost in Time).

hollow ice
#

Wing commander 1 shouldn’t have any problem except running too fast?

elder cove
#

Wing Commander 1 & 2 were included in the original 0MHz pack, along with Wing Commander - Academy, Wing Commander - Privateer, and Wing Commander II's Special Operations expansions.

strong yoke
#

It has been a couple or three years and several core releases since I tried it.

lunar trellis
#

Is the MT-32 talkie version of Monkey Island stable these days? When I last tried it a few years ago it would crash a lot and I got sick of having to go way back to a previous save and do everything over.

elder cove
#

I seem to remember the Ultimate Talkie Edition patches were always a bit unstable. I don't think that's on the core.

exotic prairie
#

@lunar trellis ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

IMG_2974.jpg
lunar trellis
#

I will never speak ill of Eastern European ROM sellers ever again.

exotic prairie
#

Hand Curated

lunar trellis
#

"From Russia... With love"

smoky yew
silk prism
young gust
#

Broken sword works very well. Just takes an eternity to install

strange bluff
#

That's great! Thanks for the answers. None of these games have 0MHz releases as far as I can tell, so I guess I will need to install them myself.

summer dragon
#

@strange bluff just in case you hadn’t, be sure to search for game name 0MHz on archive because it may be a separate upload that isn’t part of the main pack

strange bluff
elder cove
# smoky yew I got 100% on both on PC probably six months ago, but have only gotten like an h...

Generally, the MiSTer ScummVM script is faster than ao486 when running the same games.

It can run essentially everything minus the ex-ResidualVM 3D cores (things like Myst III, Grim Fandango, etc.) at the full intended speed.

That, however, comes at the cost of games being source ports with occasional software emulation for sound hardware rather than a FPGA implementation of the original game hardware.

strange bluff
#

I actually found One Must Fall: 2097, but not the others

lunar trellis
#

ScummVM doesn't have MT-32 Pi support, does it?

#

Does someone still maintain the MiSTer ScummVM? I don't think I have updated my version since I first set up MiSTer years ago, I don't think update all takes care of that one...

hollow estuary
#

Its got ScummVM 2.9.0 in it, which is the latest ScummVM version, so I guess there's no need for updates atm?

#

But yeah, update_all doesn't take care of it. But the way the mister_scummvm repo is setup doesn't really lend itself to being updateable from update_all. I was actually having a look around at it to see if it could be done and came to the conclusion that it'd be easier to start it from scratch.

lunar trellis
#

I guess it isn't like a regular core that would benefit from Framework updates is it?

smoky yew
#

ScummVM does have midi support so unless that's stripped from the MiSTer version it should work

hollow estuary
#

The main benefit from having it updateable would just be an ease of use thing I guess

elder cove
#

Yes, I believe ScummVM supports the MiSTerPi as a MIDI interface.

I had it previously working with a USB MIDI adapter with a physical MT-32, as well.

summer dragon
#

it’d be cool eventually to catalog all the worthwhile games that only work with scummvm/dosbox and release 0MHz style packs for those

#

the only slightly annoying part is you have to launch those from the Scripts folder (unless there’s a way to launch those with MGLs?)…

elder cove
#

Creating a single-game script with ScummVM is pretty straightforward - I’ve already done one for Myst: Masterpiece Edition to launch my copy with Zaparoo.

summer dragon
#

single-game scripts for dosbox are fairly easy too

elder cove
summer dragon
#

yeah, I didn’t think so

#

I think I saw someone mention you can add the scripts folder to your path so they’ll run from anywhere but idk if that’s a good idea and I didn’t know how to do it

summer dragon
#

Some of the games uploaded to archive separately are noted as having issues. For example, Some games that user Win95Packs uploaded have these notes:

Road Rash
  - VERY slow
  - High Res mode is a slide show

The Neverhood
  - Plays OK
  - Opening FMV stutters
  - Graphical flicker (severe enough that it might be unplayable for some people)

Fallout (RPG)
  - Slow, but playable
  - Long waits whenever changing modes

Anyone have opinions on whether stuff like this should be included in the new community megapack?

#

in this case I could go either way for Fallout and Neverhood, but Road Rash seems like there wouldn't be much point in including it

lunar trellis
#

For things like this, may be worth keeping aside for when we eventually have the successor board and the 486 core on that is running better. Likely these games that are struggling now will work fine/better on the next board.

summer dragon
#

true

#

I could even include them but put them in their own folder to indicate they have performance issues

lunar trellis
#

Yeah that seems sensible

fast kraken
#

there were 11 wing commander games in top300, pretty sure they all worked

lunar trellis
#

Huh, I thought everything in Top 300 was in the original 0mhz pack

fast kraken
#

top300 predates 0mhz

#

sorry i see what you mean

lunar trellis
#

Yeah, but didn't everything in Top 300 get covered by 0mhz?

fast kraken
#

i don't think they did every single one

exotic prairie
#

no, 0mhz is like 150 titles?

fast kraken
#

you have to be a pretty dedicated WC fan to get 11 games working, i have no idea why we did it 😄

#

some were definitely a pita, you can probably use top300 as a reference to see how we got them to run

#

very speed sensitive iirc

lunar trellis
#

Hmm, probably be worth someone checking what is in Top 300 that isn't covered by 0mhz and getting a list together of what could be made up in 0mhz format, as all of those would surely run fine

exotic prairie
#

Tracking down the top 300 pack is a pita

fast kraken
#

you'll never get all 300 to run i'm afraid

#

there were only 299 games in top 300 😄

#

i've still got access to the top300 github if you want stuff out of that

#

it hasn't got the games but it has the launch.bat scripts that did most of the logic

lunar trellis
#

Has it been wiped from archive?

exotic prairie
#

I am pretty sure

lunar trellis
#

I think I have it all on my SD card still

exotic prairie
#

i have a hard drive image

lunar trellis
#

Seems like it would make sense to get everything in there covered by 0mhz if the project is dead

exotic prairie
#

but I dunno if that was how it was initially distributed

fast kraken
#

its pretty dead at this point and tbh 0mhz is just neater all round

exotic prairie
#

but I thought I read that this was going to be the only official 0mhz release

fast kraken
#

0mhz is more of a philosophy than a single pack now

copper slate
#

Yeah, even the original 0Mhz is dead

#

Long live 0Mhz

exotic prairie
#

i can't even get this 300 vhd to boot. i put the dos98 drive in idea 00 and the top 300 dos in 01 but it says that I need to mount the games drive

#

in the immortal words of jar jar binks: my give up

lunar trellis
#

Yeah, even if it needs rebranded, having a way of getting all the dos games people want to play in this 0mhz format under one umbrella, that can be maintained and added too would be a wonderful project

#

Having complete coverage of everything in the Top 300 pack would be very good to have

#

For some reason I thought the original 0mhz was 500 games, not 150

exotic prairie
#

I was wrong, more like 250 games. 319 total games, 72 are mt32pi variations

copper slate
#

Some of them don’t run well but that’s ok

summer dragon
#

I still have the top 300

#

I do feel like not everything there actually works, though

#

but, it could be something about my setup

#

last I talked to flynnsbit about a year ago, they said they were working on updating that pack but I have no idea if that’s still the plan

#

but yeah, it probably is worth it to cross check top 300 against 0MHz stuff and add anything that hasn’t been 0MHz-ified yet

young gust
#

I can't find flynnsbit stuff anywhere. It's like it was scrubbed off the Internet and the dude just vanished. Searching for a lot of his stuff is was initially ler me to this discord

lunar trellis
#

How much time does it take to make a 0mhz game?

#

Is it quite involved?

summer dragon
#

not really

#

it depends

#

if you run into issues, then you’re just troubleshooting settings really

#

but most games it’s just:

  1. Create a VHD of the size you need
  2. Install DOS 7.1 (or whatever version or OS you need)
  3. Add/install your game
  4. Edit Config.sys for what settings you need
  5. Edit the autoexec bat to launch that game’s exe and load any drivers. Standard practice for 0MHz is to launch it with a rungame.bat that also uses the sysctl program to set the core CPU speed and turn L1/L2 caches on or off, but it’s not necessary now that we can use setnames and per-game configs.
#

I have a tool posted on the forum called VHD Kitchen in the 0MHz thread that does steps 1 and 2 for you

young gust
#

That's awesome.

fast kraken
#

i'm surprised nobody has done all the wing commanders yet those are popular

young gust
#

I was under the impression Wing Commander 3 ran pretty poorly on it but haven't tried it yet myself.

void belfry
#

TinyCore Linux 5.3 (kernel 3.8.13) running on ao486 core. Still need some more work to get it in a more usable form

WIN_20250316_18_22_29_Pro.jpg WIN_20250316_18_23_11_Pro.jpg WIN_20250316_18_28_52_Pro.jpg
#

Updated list as well: #1047332497492553799 message

vestal isle
#

that was quick

void belfry
#

Installed base OS in Qemu as in here https://firewallengineer.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/first-attempt-to-install-tiny-core-linux-to-hard-disk/
Then installed several TC extensions to compile the kernel/modules as per here : https://github.com/archlabo/Frix?tab=readme-ov-file as I was not in the mood to get another VM with Debian 7/Ubuntu 14 for this task:
tce-load -wi compiletc tce-load -wi perl5 tce-load -wi bash tce-load -wi ncursesw-dev tce-load -wi bc tce-load -wi flex tce-load -wi bison tce-load -wi elfutils-dev tce-load -wi zlib_base-dev.tcz
After that, downloaded http://tinycorelinux.net/5.x/x86/release/src/kernel/linux-3.8.13-patched.txz, applied the patch from above Frix github link and compiled kernel/modules after some more modifications in the .config file.
Repacked core.gz with new modules, copied bzImage as vmlinuz-ao486, modified grub's menu.lst and that's kinda all in a very small nutshell

vestal isle
#

@void belfry Would you do a 'cat /proc/cpuinfo|grep bogomips and tell me the bogomips?

void belfry
#

17.92

void belfry
#

Speaking of DOS adventure games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWA-ei3xNP4&ab_channel=OldAndNewVideoGames -- I watch this channel from time to time for inspiration on games to test on ao486

YouTube
OldAndNewVideoGames
The BEST PC Adventure Games of 1990s! Part 1

We've covered platformers, we've covered first person shooters, so it's about time, that we touch on the genre of genres - Adventure games. The entire video will be split in 4 parts, but when they're all out, I will also re-render them as a single upload. For now though, take a look at the bottom 20 out of 80 best PC Adventure games of 1990s as ...

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void belfry
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for sure never heard before about Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender 👀

vestal isle
# void belfry

I asked Bard: what would the bogomips be for a 386 running 90MHz, the response: 90MHz * 0.18 = 16.2 BogoMips.

void belfry
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Still my favorite traffic generator with Backtrack 2 😄 exactly because it is slow (adding 115200 baud PPP in the mix)

white narwhal
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How's the PC-88 core these days? Audio board on my PC-8801MA is having issues. Thinking about fixing it up and selling it since I'm tired of messing with it.

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I see there's no tape support, but my model doesn't handle those anyway without a very expensive expansion card

granite umbra
white narwhal
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Oh, wow. Didn't realize development was still so active

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That's very exciting. I'll check it out and compare the sound once I fix my MA

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Some really great music on the PC-88

granite umbra
final zephyr
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I'd be curious to know why it runs badly. Might be possible to fix it/optimise it.

open torrent
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Asking here as well in case it's a better forum. Interested in any sort of support for flux-based images.

strong yoke
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Are there any weird-format protected floppy games from PC/XT days? I don't recall this ever being a thing on PC but I only got started after the AT came out.

elder cove
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Unrelated, but I've noticed a crash which occurs with a 0MHz package recently.

Dark Seed 2 tends to crash for me when playing the cutscene when clicking on the TV screen. The game does this morph animation, then the game gives an exception which crashes the OS.

Has anyone else noticed this?

limpid tiger
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To be fair, all of the games I ever knew with protection were cracked very quickly, making protection mechanisms more of an intellectual exercise than a practical one.

open torrent
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Apparently Microsoft Adventure and Jet 1.0 had some exotic encoding methods as well. To me it's less about specific named titles than it is about accurately replicating how original hardware worked.

strong yoke
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Fair reason, for sure. ao486 core is very packed so if it takes many LE's...

strong yoke
hollow ice
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Is fdd handling done in the core or in main?

burnt pelican
strong yoke
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No need for updates; it works fine (I have a drawbridge here)

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He does some real fun stuff

open torrent
strong yoke
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All the floppy images are just bytestreams though

burnt pelican
hollow ice
open torrent
# strong yoke All the floppy images are just bytestreams though

I think the issues is how the code on the image acts. If it depends on the idiosynchrasies of the hardware it may not work. For example I wrote a custom Greaseweazle diskdef for Flight Simulator to convert it to an MFM bytestream. Turns out I was just replicating what the HxC firmware can do. Problem is it doesn't work on the PC/XT core in Tandy mode.

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As best I understand it loads the first track or first few sectors, then bootstraps the system and takes over from there. If I knew assembly I could possibly convert it but that's a whole other ballgame.

limpid tiger
# strong yoke Amiga is the same; many original games had weird protections but they all got cr...

Sure, fair enough - for 100% accuracy, it eventually should be done. But it's always a question about which outstanding feature is most important at any given time. And that depends on the feelings of the implementor (and to some degree the feelings of the end users). Also, the perceived difficulty of implementing it. If keyboard mapping is wrong, it may not affect very much - but it might still be more important than something like this (and less work to understand what needs to be done).

strong yoke
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It's well off in the diminishing returns weeds for sure

limpid tiger
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Much of the time, such protections count CPU cycles, and are highly dependent on how the underlying hardware operates - if that is still not 100%, then trying to make protections work properly may be a wasted effort.

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So it's layers and layers

copper slate
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As long as people understand that their request may not be implemented then it’s all gravy.

void belfry
vestal isle
void belfry
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Awesome would have been me to fully RITFM before going through the whole rabbit's hole of TC and spending several days learning some of this distro's quirks 😄 NotLikeThis

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anyway, for completeness, will have a look on the PPP side of things, to get the correct pppd.tcz version and see how it works out

void belfry
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works on ao486 if anyone curious, never heard about this game before lol 😄

granite umbra
void belfry
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lol, starting to like this game 😄 Well, I like edutainment games (Dr Brain series being my fave)

young gust
void belfry
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huh ? it writes in the very title of the video : Crosscountry USA (also archive links for ISO in description)

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if you mean what genre... i guess truck edutainment ? 😄

void belfry
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And now I have to search where usually you americans have granite so I can drive there, pick it up and then deliver it to Boston MA, while already being robbed by a hitchhiker. So yeah, truck edutainment to its best I guess 🚚

void belfry
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DOS 7.1, QEMM/EMM386 so far tested on this game (though I don't think it even requires those, just my usual tests)

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actually it does need 560K conventional mem, so better use those/loadhi most of things (mouse driver is implicitly needed)

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young gust
void belfry
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Happens to us all 🙂 go check it out, it's quite interesting and advanced for the time. Vibes of Oregon Trail 😄

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Now really, don't wanna go to google... Where do I find granite (mining areas presumably) in the USA ? Rocky mountains, west side ??
In my defense, I'm from across the pond lol 😄

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but... why ? 🥹

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young gust
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I mean as silly as it sounds, stuff like this was trying to push boundries back then with extremely limited hardware for what was trying to be accomplished

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so yeah this stuff ain't gonna be perfect, it'll have flaws, and that's the charm to it for me.

void belfry
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could not said it better, mate 🍻

young gust
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This is the whacky stuff i seek out as a retro gamer today

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Don't get me wrong...Love playing today's MS Flight Sim in VR and all that, but this stuff is wild that way back when there were devs like "yeah let's just fucking go for it!"

void belfry
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I had not the faintest idea about this town. Now I do, thanks to a '96 game I never played/know about it at that time.

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young gust
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That's so wild

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I gotta find this n try it out tonight.

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Looks so freaking neat.

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i love discovering wild new retro games

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Once my life settles down a bit here soon I wanna start up a podcast about unique retro games across all retro consoles and DOS and up to Windows XP

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Everyone talks bout FF7 and your mainstream stuff but there isn't much I've come across that delves into the hidden gem stuff

void belfry
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Imho if more edutainment games (and IT overall) would have been taught/allowed in schools since computing age for masses (more or less 70-80's+) all over the world, we would have a better society now

young gust
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I 100% agree.

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In general school should teach more life skills

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At least in America, you never learn how to manage money etc.

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And it's been that since forever

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More life skills should be taught when people are young.

void belfry
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I was lucky to have two very dedicated teachers in high school (one emigrated to SoCal area 2 years after I graduated) who made tremendous efforts to beat up the ex-communist regime from the mid 90s and secure us (the students) as much as they could in terms of that time tech

elder cove
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Are there issues with Return to Zork on the ao486 core? I’m surprised no one’s tackled that one yet.

void belfry
void belfry
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Just a random thought: Betrayal at Krondor also had issues playing the CD tracks, but that got fixed by using CHD instead of BIN/CUE. Worths trying the same with Return to Zork I guess..

hollow ice
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Interesting. Next time I have to play around with it I should try to see if there are any ide errors. Might be a similar issue to that Japanese game that I fixed (or might have even been the same error)

void belfry
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These two games I read they had some unusual mix of CD Audio tracks and MIDI which caused issues on OG hardware as well iirc (think it was some Vogons thread but can't recall atm for sure)

granite umbra
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Last updates of PC88 (end of previous month) more games are running 🙂

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azure gyro
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the first megami tensei is top down on pc88? Gonna have to check it out!

granite umbra
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Yes it is available also on MSX2, SharpX1 and FM7

azure gyro
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nice, I guess that's something to try out tonight then!

void belfry
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Tested on stable, unstable, QEMM/EMM386, no luck other that the re-mounting "workaround"

void belfry
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The Time Warp of Dr. Brain running on ao486 🙂 This is the 4th Dr. Brain game, needs Win 3.1 (or 95 but I didn't test it yet).

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elder cove
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Looks like that’s running well!

My next 0MHz package is Skytrip America, released in 1997 by Discovery Multimedia:

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young gust
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very nice!

void belfry
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yeeey, beat up the Space Invaders minigame 😄

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void belfry
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Cooked a proper Time Warp of Dr. Brain vhd using a W31 template, so far tests are not showing any issues. and re-learn to add Programs in Win 3.1 Startup 😄

elder cove
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Nice! Looking forward to it.

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Skytrip America is up - I’m working on two other Discovery Multimedia games also developed by Human Code next, referred to as the Team Xtreme series (Operation: Weather Disaster and Operation: Eco Nightmare).

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Also recently added the first oddball Maxis sim I’m working on - the once-lost SimRefinery - and Venetian Deer, an exploratory art game in the same vein as Alice: An Interactive Museum.

hollow ice
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Brings back a lot of memories.

lost nest
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nedit, xv! nedit is much faster than most modern GUI editors, good for gigantic text files.

woven lava
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there's also an OVA from 1987 that you can find on Youtube

azure gyro
woven lava
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the telenet one is more faithful to the original novel

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Famicom one laid the foundation for SMT, though - as they added more things that were expanded in later games

elder cove
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Team Xtreme Double Pack is going up now - that includes both Operation: Weather Disaster and its sequel Operation: Eco-Nightmare.

void belfry
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Return to Zork** DOES NOT** freeze under Windows 3.1 !!!

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I gotta go to town, but basically I took a W3.1 template to mess with Win32s and WinG stuff. On a whim installed RtZ (unrelated to Win32s or WinG), it will require to also put a DOS mouse driver in autoexec.bat as it won't work with the Windoze one. But no more freezes 😄
Will see in the evening to make a proper sized VHD and pass it also to @summer dragon to check as/include in 0MHz collection. That if no one beats me to it 😄

summer dragon
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nice work!

elder cove
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Awesome!

I’ve started going through the Encyclopedia Frobozzica and converting it to TV aspect. Currently on F doing layout adjustments in InDesign - thankfully, another individual named John Holder transcribed it digitally around 1997, though that individual appears to have omitted some parts I’ve had to re-add.

Probably going to split it up by letter & appendix for easier navigation in the final version - with expanded fonts for screen reading, this book jumps to over 300 pages.

elder cove
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I also picked up a copy of Bureaucracy to do some better scans for the classic Infocom 16:9 packs. Expect some demos of that over the next few days.

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hollow ice
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Wow. You didn’t have to go that far for my request, but definitely appreciated

void belfry
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Done the Return to Zork Win31 vhd (also CHD-ed the CD image), tested bit some more, it just works 🙂 I'm quite intrigued lol

elder cove
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I had no idea the pencil was this small lol:

IMG_3746.jpg
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It’s like the size of a toothpick

void belfry
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pencil for ants 😄

void belfry
elder cove
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Yeah - Infocom games famously came with a wide variety of in-box components, many of which were quite silly.

void belfry
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eh, simple things but in the right context.. nice touch

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nowadays you pay $ and receive a code 🙂

wild spruce
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Think of the pencil as a prop for the game ("feelies" they called them) and not meant to be functional but instead a keepsake. Another example, The Witness came with a matchbook that was a clue and the matches were non-functional (which some consumers complained about).

void belfry
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love the idea

hollow ice
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Well, the game is all about ridiculous bureaucracies and the nonsense you have to go through. A useless pencil to fill out forms is on brand.

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One of the mechanics is keeping your blood pressure down 😆

void belfry
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wow.. 😄

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and I thought Cross Country USA was crazy edutainment

elder cove
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Haven’t tried The Witness, but Border Zone also came with matches serving as a game clue (and, like The Witness, they’re also completely non-functional):

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elder cove
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So, my theory for implementing Invisiclues is this:

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Each question will be included as its own PDF in an InvisiClues folder. By advancing the PDF, you see more answers until you get the full solution.

willow pond
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what is the D0000h-EFFFFh setting in ao486 for ?

elder cove
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Some samples from the Bureaucracy booklet:

elder cove
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And here's some samples from the "I Am Frobnia" booklet for Border Zone:

elder cove
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I'm considering also doing a ZZT Megapack, built off of the resources archived by the Museum of ZZT.

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I do have a question in regards to that, though, and I'd be curious what people think about it.

ZZT is a game engine that runs on top of DOS - I want to include those titles in their own folder, but should I include them in a subfolder of _DOS Games, or put them in their own _ZZT Games folder on the drive root?

hollow ice
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Hmm, I’d think subfolder? Not really sure.

vestal goblet
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I adore ZZT, but haven’t played it in decades. Whenever I talk to folks from Epic, I always mention the epiphany that game was for me by including the level editor for the game in the game.

elder cove
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There's still quite a few people developing games for it, even more so these days since the source code was reverse engineered.

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Many of the modern levels do crazy things with the engine - if you haven't taken a look at the scene in a while, I'd recommend giving Dr. DOS's Best of ZZT lists a look:

ruby bramble
elder cove
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Not too far. When you start, go two rooms over to the living room and click on the TV. It should start a cutscene - whenever it gets to the warping animation from the newscaster to the alien H.R. Geiger painting, it crashes for me.

granite umbra
woven lava
elder cove
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ZZT is small enough to fit inside a DOS boot disk, so I’ll probably just run individual game configs off of floppy images.

young gust
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I'm gonna try to figure out how to make a 0mhz game tonight so maybe I can start uploading some games and contribute

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First one I'm gonna try n work on is Seal Team

sudden ice
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@granite umbra thank you for the pull request on x68000

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Does it fix games that crashes when turning on midi?

exotic prairie
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👀

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oh the old pull request. Zet-Sensai did a build with the midi fixes. #1351743248850227360 message

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(and the keyboard stuff)

granite umbra
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some games don't crashes with midi activated

exotic prairie
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oooo

sudden ice
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big changes

summer dragon
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ohh that’s awesome!

exotic prairie
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it's basically the zet build but now in the unstable (as soon as sorg merges it)

ruby bramble
void belfry
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click to skip the FMV ?

void belfry
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this should be the error, seems to be related to IR32.DLL from Video for Windows package. Checked the system.ini in the [drivers] section, it's ok.
Other forums/blogs suggest to replace it, will see later if I can get one around

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void belfry
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After the TV FMV starts, click to skip it and game can be continued. Dunno if this will be same case for every next ones, didn't played this one before

copper slate
ruby bramble
void belfry
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Seems like the same FMV issue on Fallout 1 under W95. You have to skip them (mouse click) to not have the game error out

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so yeah, not seeing a quick solution than clicking out the TV scene for now.

void belfry
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Oh well, not an issue I can help solve it for now, so high times for a classic

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exotic prairie
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my beloved

void belfry
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This and Curse of Monkey Island were my fave point and click adventure games back then 😄

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I played the previous ones (in the series) after playing these lol

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also earlier capture , gets me every time

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copper slate
exotic prairie
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Those were my introduction to point and click adventure games (1-5)

void belfry
copper slate
hollow ice
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One day I’ll play though Sam and Max again

void belfry
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Full Throttle -- that's what I want to play next then finish 3 skulls of Toltecs

exotic prairie
void belfry
ruby bramble
void belfry
# ruby bramble It’s optional no?

I have no idea, probably it has some clue for next/future in game story. But yeah, if I click after TV scene, games continues, I answer the door, receive package, go outside etc.

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Maybe it is is mandatory to advance the story, someone who played this can chip in

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What I did not try is how it works (if it does) under W95 or NT

copper slate
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Yeah the version I played it was unplayably slow, corrupted audio, the works.

void belfry
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holly crap !!!

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DarkSeed II does work fine under NT 4

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Watched all the TV FMV which gives some clue in the story, then the doorbell rings and game progresses fine I guess

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re-done the scene already 3 times (saved before) and no freeze, no error whatsoever. Ofc the downside is the NT 4 itself loading time if you're really anxious. Once you're logged in, it's smooth as butter

ruby bramble
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How long does nt take to boot up?

void belfry
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Will see next W95 (don't really have a "standard image, but yeah)

void belfry
ruby bramble
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Windows 95 would be faster I think

void belfry
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actually measuring it now 😄

ruby bramble
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Oof

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Not the worst but yeah

void belfry
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more or less accurate due to human between chair and MiSterFPGA

ruby bramble
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I’d rather wait 2 minutes and have a working game

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I’m grabbing some windows 95 images for you