Post any time you get ANYTHING retro 3.

[Cepp]

I bought the same case earlier in the year (from eBay, made by Acme). Currently has a S370 Mendocino 500MHz Celeron setup in there with a 3dfx Voodoo 3. I might look into upgrading to a P3-based motherboard at some point though. Well made case although a little restrictive, particularly if you're using a full-sized ATX power supply as that will prevent the use of any longer drives in the 5.25 bays.

Sounds like a nice little setup, I'll bear that in mind regarding the PSU I'm still on the hunt for the right motherboard atm but should find one soon hopefully.

The grey colour of the ST was distinct. I think it looks pretty nice.

Never been a fan of the ST's look personally. Something about that grey and those function keys. Thats just me though!

[Hohum]

Sounds like a nice little setup, I'll bear that in mind regarding the PSU I'm still on the hunt for the right motherboard atm but should find one soon hopefully.

It's decent enough but quickly becomes CPU limited with any games beyond 1998/99. Ideally I'd go for a S370 setup with a P3 around 800MHz or higher, but I'd have to source another motherboard. Full size ATX boards crop up regularly, Micro-ATX less so unfortunately!

[Cepp]

It's decent enough but quickly becomes CPU limited with any games beyond 1998/99. Ideally I'd go for a S370 setup with a P3 around 800MHz or higher, but I'd have to source another motherboard. Full size ATX boards crop up regularly, Micro-ATX less so unfortunately!

Absolutley. I hear whispers there are MATX boards out there with integrated Voodoo 3s. I would love to get my hands on somethng like that

[paulus]

I recently got hold of a black, Dell 27" CRT. Is this matching black PC Tower any good for vintage gaming?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193577315040

[Hohum]

Absolutley. I hear whispers there are MATX boards out there with integrated Voodoo 3s. I would love to get my hands on somethng like that

I bought one last year (MSI MS-6168) but can't use it as the board needs caps replacing first. I did test it to BIOS and that seemed fine, but wouldn't want to use it until that is done. I will invest in a soldering setup eventually. Didn't pay much for it as it was listed as a generic vintage motherboard with some poor quality images.

[Cepp]

I recently got hold of a black, Dell 27" CRT. Is this matching black PC Tower any good for vintage gaming?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193577315040

I'm not that familiar with the motherboard but I'd give that one a miss tbh mate. He's talking it up as this great DOS/98/XP rig but the motherboard only has one PCI slot and no ISA slots. It has onboard audio which wasn't the best back then and although he states it has Soundblaster compatibility, there's no way of knowing how good/accurate it is until you have the system yourself. Some Soundblaster compatible cards sound awful. The CPU is 500MHz so I doubt it'll be much use for XP gaming. I'm not sure which Trident GPU is integrated but they aren't known for great 3D performance.

If it was £20 or something I'd say give it a punt, but not at £80.

What kind of system are you looking for? Is it late 90s Windows games or do you want to be able to play DOS games as well?

I bought one last year (MSI MS-6168) but can't use it as the board needs caps replacing first. I did test it to BIOS and that seemed fine, but wouldn't want to use it until that is done. I will invest in a soldering setup eventually. Didn't pay much for it as it was listed as a generic vintage motherboard with some poor quality images.

OK, now I'm jealous. That is a sweet motherboard.

[dvdx2]

Recent release from retro games!

https://ibb.co/BqMdfS1

[paulus]

I'm not that familiar with the motherboard but I'd give that one a miss tbh mate. He's talking it up as this great DOS/98/XP rig but the motherboard only has one PCI slot and no ISA slots. It has onboard audio which wasn't the best back then and although he states it has Soundblaster compatibility, there's no way of knowing how good/accurate it is until you have the system yourself. Some Soundblaster compatible cards sound awful. The CPU is 500MHz so I doubt it'll be much use for XP gaming. I'm not sure which Trident GPU is integrated but they aren't known for great 3D performance.

If it was £20 or something I'd say give it a punt, but not at £80.

What kind of system are you looking for? Is it late 90s Windows games or do you want to be able to play DOS games as well?

Just Dos games and early 3D stuff really. Looking for smooth 60fps or more performance, must be black, hate beige stuff

[Hohum]

OK, now I'm jealous. That is a sweet motherboard.

To be fair I don't really need it now, as I eventually bought a standalone V3 card anyway. At the time it seemed a good idea, honest I'd let it go for what I paid if an enthusiast genuinely wanted to recap the board themselves and use it, but I'd worry that most would just promptly flip it as-is for significantly more money, which would leave me feeling a bit of a mug!

[Cepp]

Just Dos games and early 3D stuff really. Looking for smooth 60fps or more performance, must be black, hate beige stuff

A Pentium III system is your best bet then, one with at least a single ISA slot for DOS sound. Search eBay for Socket 370 systems, they're cheaper than the earlier Slot 1 motherboards, probably because they don't have that "wow" factor, but they run faster CPUs out of the box. You might struggle to find an all-in-one desktop that's black from that era but you could always transplant it into a new case. You could also source the parts individually if you're feeling up to it.

Pentium 4 PC's can also make for a very cheap Window 98 rig that'll run everything and usually comes in black. Throw in a Geforce 4 and you're laughing when it come to 9x gaming. You may have more issues with sound in DOS though. It can be done with various results but it depends how far into the weeds you want to go with it.

[kalishah]

"Very nice article,
If you want to design a (Eh, no. Colin), you can make it with photoadking.This site has lots of gaming logo templates. In which you can create a pleasant gaming logo. Thank you."

[Ghost]

Been on a bit of a saturn binge recently while they are still relatively cheap. Picked up Virtual On, Bio Hazard, Fighting Vipers, Fighters Megamix, Gungriffen, Virtua Fighter 2 (sealed), Virtua Fighter Kids (sealed) and Virtua Cop (with light gun). Also picked up Samba de Amigo with maracas and an official dreamcast steering wheel.

Biggest pickup for me though was a Sony CRT which someone had thrown out that I saw while driving, as soon as I saw it I stopped the car and stuck it in my boot to do my bit for recycling (wife wasnt too impressed though). I didnt even think it would work as it had been out in the elements for god knows how long and it had been raining every night for the past 2 weeks, plus it was covered in a think layer of dirt. To my utter surprise it switched on ok and works perfectly, Ive cleaned it up and now all I need to do is find a remote for it to calibrate the image as it is slightly slanted. Its no PVM and its only got s-video ports but im chuffed to bits with it, I've been after a CRT for years and since Japan moved to digital only 5 years ago finding one has been extremely difficult as thrift stores refuse to take them and most of them end up in the dump or being aold on yahoo auctions for silly money.

[speedlolita]

Nice find, even a non RGB CRT is many times better than using an LCD (even with an upscaler).

[Ghost]

Yeah I was really surprised when I connected the PS2 via s-video how crisp the image looked and how vivid the colours were, hooking the system up via component to an LCD screen the colours look washed out and the image fuzzy. Even with a framemeister the image isnt as good.

The 8-bit and 16-bit console its not a problem and I think they look better on a LCD/OLED but the early 3D games just look terrible compared to how they look on a CRT

[Leon Retro]

The 8-bit and 16-bit console its not a problem and I think they look better on a LCD/OLED but the early 3D games just look terrible compared to how they look on a CRT

I think scalers like the Framemeister are designed for 8 & 16-bit games, so they don't work very well with 32-bit era machines onwards. It's especially bad with PS2 era consoles, as the 480i or 480p image ends up looking quite grainy with artifacts. You just don't get a really clean vibrant image like you do with 240p machines.

I'd love a scaler that's specifically designed for 480i/p, and manages to generate a really clear upscaled image.