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Portal 2 on PC
Oscar Giner
Member #2,207
April 2002
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I have a fair number of old (16 bit) games that won't play because I supposedly don't have enough memory. Signed numbers fail at times.

Those games are probably complaining that there's not enough conventional memory, which is limited to 640 KB total no mather how much RAM you have in your system :P. You need to tweak things to have as much free as possible (I remember some games required more than 630 KB free, it was pretty hard to achieve that).

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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I remember some games required more than 630 KB free, it was pretty hard to achieve that

Those days. :'(

My childhood consisted of making different autoexec.bat and config.sys files just to load certain games. :-[

Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
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there's not enough conventional memory [en.wikipedia.org], which is limited to 640 KB

Some of them were Win 3.x games.

They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas.

GameCreator
Member #2,541
July 2002
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My childhood consisted of making different autoexec.bat and config.sys files just to load certain games.

Oh god. I remember this stuff.

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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Little known fact that I may or may not have just made up:

A friend of mine got a job at a computer shop because the owner was impressed by the autoexec.bat menu system that I had built for him (my friend). Later, when I was 16, he recommended that they hire me.

So an autoexec.bat started my career. :o

And somebody else took credit for it. Nothing has changed. >:(

Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
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And somebody else took credit for it. Nothing has changed. >:(

You should have included a GPL license. 8-)

[EDIT]

I stumbled across a treasure trove!

http://cd.textfiles.com/

Of course, there isn't any way to find out what you're installing before actually installing it unless you remember the game name in the directory, being there aren't any README.TXT or anything that isn't proprietary in the directories, but you can always copy your VM files before trying them. Some of them really are shovelware (useless) like this one.

http://cd.textfiles.com/beachware/GRAPHICS/

They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas.

Kitty Cat
Member #2,815
October 2002
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Except in the case where the developers were MONKEYS. FF7 PC was a hack job. Some things go way too fast if you try and run it on a computer twice (or more) the speed. Especially if you try and use the tnt2+ acceleration support.

Even then, as long as you or someone has a vested interest in making the game work, you can make it work... even if you have to hack the executable. It's a lot harder to get a PS3 to play PS2 and PS1 games that don't already work. I'd imagine it's even easier to get PS1 and PS2 games to run on a PC than a PS3.

bamccaig said:

At least with a console you can easily keep the old one around to guarantee (with a VERY high degree of certainty) that you'll be able to play your old games when you upgrade.

Until you have a hardware failure (which you will; just a question of when) and need to buy a replacement, at which point they'll be super rare and much more expensive. You don't have to keep old PCs around to play old PC games... at most you emulate old systems on your current one, but the need to do even that is very minimal for any semi-recent game. Not to mention, those old games can be improved over time (take Morrowind, released in 2002; not only does the PC version still run on today's top-of-the-line system, you can make it look like this).

--
"Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will pee on your computer." -- Bruce Graham

Desmond Taylor
Member #11,943
May 2010
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Well... I have done

Air Show, Asking for Trouble, Bridge Building, Bridge Over Troubling Water, Can't Touch This, Confidence Building, Door Prize, Drop Box, Dual Pit Experiment, Portrait of a Lady, Preservation of Mass, Pturrentdactly, SaBOTour, Scanned Alone, Ship Overboard, Smash TV, Stalemate Associate, Final Transmission, Friends List With Benefits, Gesticul-8, Good Listener, High Five, Lunacy, Narbacular Drop, No Hard Feelings, Obstacle Building, Bit Boss, Stranger Than Friction, Tater Tote, Team Building, The Part Where He Kills You, Tunnel of Funnel, Undiscouraged, Vertically Unchallenged, Wake Up Call, White Out, You Made Your Point, You Monster, You Saved Science.

Only 11 more achievements to go and then to wait for the Mapping tools ect so that there is more map packs :)

BAF
Member #2,981
December 2002
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Now show me a video card that bested the PS3 when it came out for 80 bucks. Not 80 today, but 80 back then. 8-)

Desmond Taylor
Member #11,943
May 2010
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It was about £100 back then that I could get it for. I remember my uncle asking me if I wanted a new one just before the PS3 came out and I declined simply because my system plays most of the games anyway.

At the moment, My graphics is only 512 MB and not HD but I don't have an HD monitor and don't really play any games other than Portal 1-2, CS:S, DOD:S, HL2, HL2:DM.

bamccaig
Member #7,536
July 2006
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Desmond Taylor
Member #11,943
May 2010
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bamccaig said:

OK, seriously, you need to play HL2:EP1 and HL2:EP2! Not on PS3 though. Upgrade your PC.

I completed them both on xBox 360 so don't see the point in buying them. They are too short. EP1 took about 3-4 hours amd EP2 took me a couple of days due to doing other stuff with the kids.

bamccaig
Member #7,536
July 2006
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Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
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I completed them both on xBox 360 so don't see the point in buying them. They are too short. EP1 took about 3-4 hours amd EP2 took me a couple of days due to doing other stuff with the kids.

So he's got at least another week before the RROD appear?

They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas.

Desmond Taylor
Member #11,943
May 2010
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So he's got at least another week before the RROD appear?

What???

Append: Never mind I get you now :P

Nope, Never had one and I had that xBox for about 2 years. I don't own it now my uncle does and he's had it for about 6 months now still in good working order. They break with people that keep them in wither upright position or in a confined space. They need to breath else they over heat and then they break.

GullRaDriel
Member #3,861
September 2003
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GameCreator:

I would have used something last that back in the days:

BREAK=ON
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
FILES=90
BUFFERS=30

Plus some parameters on the fscking SOUNDBLASTER I don't want to remember ^^

"Code is like shit - it only smells if it is not yours"
Allegro Wiki, full of examples and articles !!

Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
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Quote:

What???

Red Rings Of Death.

And I never used EMM386 because it wouldn't get along with realflat mode.

They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas.

Oscar Giner
Member #2,207
April 2002
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Some of them were Win 3.x games.

That means they where 16 bit games. The conventional memory think applies to Windows 3.x too.

And I never used EMM386 because it wouldn't get along with realflat mode.

Some games an programs required it (basically, any 16 bit app that wanted to use more than the first 640 KB). There you go another reason why you may had out of memory errors :P. You also needed to check if the game/program required EMS or XMS memory, or it could use any of the two.

Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
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Some games an programs required it (basically, any 16 bit app that wanted to use more than the first 640 KB).

I found out about realflat mode from Robert Collins pages, basically you could set the data segments as large as you liked while still in real mode (almost). As a matter of fact, if you enabled XMS but not EMS, you could use ES as a realflat segment as long as you zeroed it out first. It also worked for those linear frame buffers way up at the 16Mb mark :)

They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas.

GullRaDriel
Member #3,861
September 2003
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There was also some kind of optimization like specifying the LASTDRIVE letter.

I remember using some tools like doskey and ucd , Rhaa, good old days ! I miss the floppy drive noise ^^

"Code is like shit - it only smells if it is not yours"
Allegro Wiki, full of examples and articles !!

Billybob
Member #3,136
January 2003

bamccaig said:

You forget that the PS3 is a dedicated gaming machine whereas your desktop is powering an entire [bloated] operating system of services and programs on top of the game.

Modern consoles also run operating system ;) But yes, your point still stands, because the OS is not as large as a PC OS, nor is it running terribly too many applications.

So, anyone remember QEMM? ;D

MiquelFire
Member #3,110
January 2003
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---
Febreze (and other air fresheners actually) is just below perfumes/colognes, and that's just below dead skunks in terms of smells that offend my nose.
MiquelFire.red
If anyone is of the opinion that there is no systemic racism in America, they're either blind, stupid, or racist too. ~Edgar Reynaldo

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
avatar

eBay just informed my that my copy of Portal II has sold!

Note to buyer: you could have bought it brand new from amazon.com for less than what you spent on my used copy. >:(

Desmond Taylor
Member #11,943
May 2010
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You sold it or was buying it?

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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I sold it ... for more than the brand new retail price. :P

I'm glad to be rid of that terrible game. >:(

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