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**Cepp** · 22-07-2020, 19:22

Originally posted by paulus View Post

Hi again Cepp, I managed to score a Pentium 4 rig for £55 in the end, here is the description:

"Here I have one of my Retro Gaming Vintage computers with an Intel Pentium 4 2.93Ghz CPU, 256Mb RAM and Windows 98 second edition with an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card for sale, these don’t get used as much as they should do so I am thinning down the collections I have...This is the ultimate Windows 98 gaming machine pretty much as fast as you can get that is compatible with all the drivers needed to work properly
This machine is a tower form factor machine, this is a great machine for playing older retro games on.
Specs:
Intel Pentium 42930Mhz CPU skt775
256Mb DDR RAM
DVD-ROM
Windows 98 Second Edition installed
VGA output
RS232 serial port
Ethernet 100Mb Network port
Parallel port
4 x USB Port
ATI Radeon 9600 128Mb AGP Graphics Card

this is an ideal machine to play those older games on, ideal LAN party machine due to its decent power."

At that price I felt that battling to get the sound working on some titles would be well worth it. Here's a picture: - https://www.flickr.com/photos/773779...blic/lightbox/

Have I wasted £55?

That looks like a decent PC actually. The 9600 has solid Windows 98 drivers, 256MB RAM is more than enough for 9x games and both of those combined with that CPU should ensure it absolutely flies with the games your looking to play

**paulus** · 22-07-2020, 19:58

Wow, that's great news. Will it run DOS stuff painlessly too?

One last question, will it take an SSD or will I be better off with one of those Compact Flash thing's?

**Cepp** · 22-07-2020, 20:59

Originally posted by paulus View Post

Wow, that's great news. Will it run DOS stuff painlessly too?

One last question, will it take an SSD or will I be better off with one of those Compact Flash thing's?

You might struggle with DOS. If a DOS game runs fine from within Windows I think you'll be OK, but anything that need to boot into DOS to work right (Epic Pinball for example) will probably result in no sound, unless you happen to have a P4 motherboard that has an ISA slot (some do, not many though).

You can get PCI sound cards that have DOS support but they're a little flaky tbh. There's no harm in trying games on a case by case basis and seeing how you get on though

-edit-
I forgot to mention, I use an SSD with my retro PC connected via a cheap sata to ide convertor and it's blazing fast. Just a cheap 120GB drive can be had for pennies now so it's worth it imo.

**Ghost** · 23-07-2020, 10:17

Originally posted by Leon Retro View Post

I personally don't like how old games look on LCD screens without scanlines. Even with a good scaler, I'm not happy until scanlines are enabled. It makes retro games look similar to how they are on a CRT, so that's what I aim for. But some people might feel having no scanlines looks good, so opinion varies.

For me it depends on the type of graphics, if they are 2D games then I prefer the clearer pixelated image without scanlines, 3D games (especially PS1 and N64) then scanlines and smoothing are a must.

**QuantumLeap** · 26-07-2020, 16:29

Yesterdays arrival ,

It's no Devil Crush but I kinda like it.

**Leon Retro** · 26-07-2020, 19:19

Originally posted by Ghost View Post

For me it depends on the type of graphics, if they are 2D games then I prefer the clearer pixelated image without scanlines, 3D games (especially PS1 and N64) then scanlines and smoothing are a must.

We definitely have opposite taste when it comes to scanlines -- they're a 'must-have' for me with 2D games. Not so much with 3D stuff. Especially with the Dreamcast, I just use VGA without scanlines.

I know that scanlines aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I like how they look when done well. It's nice when you manage to get a CRT-esque look on an LCD.

**Leon Retro** · 26-07-2020, 19:20

Originally posted by QuantumLeap View Post

Yesterdays arrival ,

It's no Devil Crush but I kinda like it.

The image isn't showing.

**Ghost** · 27-07-2020, 06:15

Went to Akiba for the first time in about a year as I was looking for a VA1 dreamcast thats compatible with GDemu after frying two of them trying to mod them with DCHDMI. All the thrift stores near me only have the VA0 systems and online prices are insane. Ended up getting quite a bit more than that, picked up the following;

Dreamcast system
Official DC arcade stick
DC light gun
Saturn 3D pad
Saturn memory card
PC engine system
Ridge Racer V (US)
Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution (US)
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec (US)
Virtual Professional Baseball 95 for the virtual boy

Was pretty shocked by how much prices have shot up within the last year, especially nintendo stuff like super famicom and GBA games in particular. Metal slug Advance for $160 or Puzzle Bobble on the GBA for over $400 and Street Fighter Zero 3 on the saturn for over $300 were the standouts. Even saw a super famicom game that was over $2,500.

**CMcK** · 27-07-2020, 06:36

I’ll look forward to trying these out later in the year.

**Yakumo** · 02-08-2020, 11:16

Probably the biggest Retro Core gaming pick-ups ever with 18 games, loads of mini consoles and a strange computer terminal thing.
Games for the PS4, Xbox One, Game Cube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation and Xbox 360 included. Quite a variety.

**mmmonkey** · 03-08-2020, 16:07

I’ve been picking up some CRTs lately, the one I like the most has really annoying image shift on an RGB input. I’ve been looking forever for the right combo to get into the service menu and I can’t find it. So took it apart and found the h-shift adjustment pot, but that doesn’t shift it enough. I tried making a circuit to correct it but that failed, so I bought this board...

Works great :-) I don’t show it but the entire image shifts left and right (well, and up and down - but I didn’t need that).

A spare PS1 to tinker around with at some point, came with the first revision analog controller.

**speedlolita** · 03-08-2020, 17:07

Oooh, Dual Analog. Still haven't used one of those.

Any info on that board? I have a friend that was looking for something like that.

**mmmonkey** · 03-08-2020, 17:59

Yup - should have included a link anyway, here’s one they’ve just started doing with a sort of case - https://m.aliexpress.com/item/400107...f17150f&is_c=Y

They do a couple of Scart switches with it built in too.

Pete