Finished my retro gaming PC

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Executioner
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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Err wrote:Is the Ghostbusters game you downloaded the 2009 Atari version? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbust ... Video_Game

If so, normalicy is right. The gameplay isn't very good. It's very repetitive. However, most of the actors from the original films voice their roles. The story itself in the game is what I'd like to have seen in a 3rd Ghostbusters movie. I played through it and the end boss was a nightmare to fight. The game drops frames like mad and you end up fighting at 10 FPS. I got lucky and managed to get through it. It was an awful port overall.

If you can put up with the gameplay, the story is worth it. If you don't want to bother, just search youtube for a cut-scene compilation.


This is a fun Easter egg. I think this was the ending screen to the NES version:
Yes that is the one I installed. So even with modern hardware, you got only 10 FPS? If that is the case, the I'll remove it.
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Err
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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Executioner wrote:
Err wrote:Is the Ghostbusters game you downloaded the 2009 Atari version? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbust ... Video_Game

If so, normalicy is right. The gameplay isn't very good. It's very repetitive. However, most of the actors from the original films voice their roles. The story itself in the game is what I'd like to have seen in a 3rd Ghostbusters movie. I played through it and the end boss was a nightmare to fight. The game drops frames like mad and you end up fighting at 10 FPS. I got lucky and managed to get through it. It was an awful port overall.

If you can put up with the gameplay, the story is worth it. If you don't want to bother, just search youtube for a cut-scene compilation.


This is a fun Easter egg. I think this was the ending screen to the NES version:
Yes that is the one I installed. So even with modern hardware, you got only 10 FPS? If that is the case, the I'll remove it.
The framerate is fine up until the final boss. It's a known issue that was never fixed. The boss was almost unplayable on modern hardware and from what I researched, nobody can pinpoint why this happens. The game isn't even offered on Steam anymore. Here's a cut scene compilation:

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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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Thats odd that XP wouldn't boot with 4GB. I've only seen that happen with a bad stick of ram
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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Exec, that mobo could never address more than 3GB, even with that memory mapping BIOS setting that supposedly allows it to address more than 3 (seems to only work with x64 OSes - I did have WinXp x64 in there as a dual boot and it let me use 3.5 Gb). You need to make sure that you disable that setting and just use it with 3GB with regular XP.

I would definately use the 3GB because some of those retro games can make use of it, and you'll get the performance benefit of dual channel memory.

A lot of mobos from that era couldn't address more than 3GB. Don't forget that back then 512Mb was the standard for XP and 1GB was considered more than enough for desktop work until Service Pack 3, which really preferred 1GB minimum and 2Gb ideally.
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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Hmm. Looking at your list of games I'm getting an itch to build an XP retro gaming system myself since a lot of those games won't run on modern hardware and OSes.

I have an old Vista era Dell Inspiron in the garage with a decent Radeon addon card. Might be a fun project.

BTW Max Payne would be a great addition to your rig if you can find it. I Might still have the original CD - I'll have to look. Matter of fact I should have a bunch of interesting retro games you might like, and yeah I usually have the no-cd hack to go with them. Evennif I bought the game, I hated having to use the CD.
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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FlyingPenguin wrote:Hmm. Looking at your list of games I'm getting an itch to build an XP retro gaming system myself since a lot of those games won't run on modern hardware and OSes.

I have an old Vista era Dell Inspiron in the garage with a decent Radeon addon card. Might be a fun project.

BTW Max Payne would be a great addition to your rig if you can find it. I Might still have the original CD - I'll have to look. Matter of fact I should have a bunch of interesting retro games you might like, and yeah I usually have the no-cd hack to go with them. Evennif I bought the game, I hated having to use the CD.
Up them to the hub. I'm always interested in these older games that don't require an internet connection; however, some of the ones that I installed did try to phone home, because after I stopped the game, I saw the XP firewall asking me to allow blocking it which I said yes.

As for Max Payne, yes I did find 3 versions:
Max Payne 3 Complete Edition (2012)
Max Payne (2015)
Max Payne 2 The Fall of Max Payne (2003)
So based on these versions, I'll grab the last one. I really don't want any games later than 2010 or 2011.

I've been downloading these using Linux Mint. I then move them over to a portable flash drive and run them through Malwarebytes and ESET. I then install them in XP, with Malwarebytes in XP. Yes Malwarebytes still works with XP, but I have to use their last supported version, but I do get the free 15 day trial. So all these games I've installed in XP are clean.

I also kept copies of patches for a lot of games I played in the past. I plan to load these up in the Hub.
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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Well I found a better PC since I can't put a big tower on my workbench to play games. I have a 2011 Core i3 Dell Optiplex 790 USFF (ultra small form factor). It's a very small PC - about the size of a hard cover dictionary. It's a spare I have for my Media Center PCs. Small enough that I can stick it in a drawer and pull it out when I want to play.

I threw the Dell WinXP OEM SP3 installer on there, and drivers were no problem since that PC supported a WinXP downgrade when it was released so Dell had drivers and I downloaded the latest video driver direct from Intel.

It has an Intel HD 2000 video chipset, which was never an awesome gaming chip, but seems to run all the retro stuff I put on it just fine. Honestly it's probably equivalent in horse power to that Radeon HD 5570 you're using.

I've dug up a few games in my library that you don't have on your list. Once I've tested them I'll put them on my shares.

BTW: I'm sure you've already discovered this, but there's some things you need to install in XP: Visual C++ redistributable, DirectX 9c redistributable, NET Framework 3.5.

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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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FlyingPenguin wrote:BTW: I'm sure you've already discovered this, but there's some things you need to install in XP: Visual C++ redistributable, DirectX 9c redistributable, NET Framework 3.5.

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Yep, I had to install those and DirectX. If a game did not start, the first piece I updated was directX and that seem to fix the problem if the game not launching. Once I got those installed, then XP when out and got patches for those.
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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Some games I can recommend that I own from GOG and you can get dirt cheap:

Unreal Gold
Sid Meier's Pirates
Silent Storm Gold Edition
Fallout
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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Only game I've had a problem with so far is Doom 3. It doesn't like my video card - lot's of bizarre video artifacts.

I can confirm that these GOG games all work fine on my WinXP rig:

Unreal Gold
Sid Meier's Pirates
Fallout
Master of Orion Classic(runs in DOSBox)
Dungeon Keeper Gold (runs in DOSBox)

Silent Storm doesn't run properly. May be my video card.

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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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I have a really old game: Zaxxon. Came out in the early 80's. It's a single COM file only. Remember COM file extensions? In order to get it to work, I had to use DosBox and slow down the CPU with the counts option; otherwise, the game would stop in 2 seconds.



I now have XP seeing 3 gigs of ram after turning off that option.
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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Oh hell yeah I remember Zaxxon.

I used to have a DOS version of Spy Hunter. Those two games were my arcade favs.

This rig only sees 3.25Gb. I'm guessing it can only address 3.5 and the missing 250Mb is for the on board video.
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Re: Finished my retro gaming PC

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BTW. Notice I don't have the garish green & blue bubble gum colors on the task bar? I have a Zune dark brown/gray and orange theme I used for years on my XP workstations. I like the darker colors and goes better with a dark gritty backgrounds like that Quake2 wallpaper.

I can post it if you want it. It comes with a Zune wallpaper but you can change it:

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