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486 Update! HELP! AHHHHHH!
BobA:
I was trying to get an old mame running on a 486/75 with 24 Meg of memory. I found that I could not get it to work properly with the 4 meg vid. Since it was a laptop I could not try a replacement of the vid card. So my guess would be that more memory will not help without zipping up the vid card. Even the other stripped down emulators such as vantage, retrocade etc would not perform.
BobA
Dink:
--- Quote from: bcard74 on October 11, 2002, 12:46:42 pm ---
Its not just money, it is the time to go around and find this stuff and put it in. Last time I checked that was the purpose of this board. Maybe someone has experience with trying the same thing and can tell me whether it will work or not with that kind of hardware. Saves time and my all precious 5 bucks.
Sorry to bang my head on your time.
--- End quote ---
I never said it wasn't the purpose of this board. Your post is quite valid.
You can bang your head on my time all you want. If I had a problem I wouldn't come to this website or read your posts. :)
...lets get back to the banging... (giggle)
SirPoonga:
--- Quote from: bcard74 on October 11, 2002, 12:25:20 pm ---
I am aware of the fact that a faster computer will work. However, my question is whether an increase in RAM and a better video card will actually PLAY these older games. Why bother buying a P166 or something for 50 bucks when I can spend 5 on a 2MB card and another rack of RAM? The whole computer only cost me 15 bucks CAD, thats about $.03 USD. And yes, I know that is about what its worth :)
Thanks ;)
--- End quote ---
First, Where are you going to find SIMMs?
Then you hace to find out if they are past page or EDO and what the 486 can handle.
Oh, I just read your original post again. What OS you using, dos? If do pacman is not running slow because of memory, unless you here alot of swapping with your hd. 8megs I think woul be fine for mame in dos with just pacman. Though I just ran mame 61 with pacman and it takes up 31megs. So a little more ram is probably needed. Probably a 32meg chip will do for pacman:) Note, an older mame in dos won't take up that much mem.
I gotta give you the build a new computer speech too:)
Computers are alot cheaper. I know you don't want to spend much money on a new computer, but prices have dropped alot. $400 for a new computer is super cheap, considering 5 years ago it was $4000 for a new top of the line computer which only was about a P200 at the time.
You know, for $300-$400 you can haved a very awesome system.
These prices ceom from pricewatch. They are not always the cheapest price there! I look for more quality products there than the cheapest. Look at reviews for products first.
IDE 25gig drive WD - $54
ATI Radeon VE - $33
ATX 400W case - $43
Micron 265meg memory - $22
CDROM 48x (a little over kill imho) - $20
AMD Athlon XP 1900 (1.6Ghz) + Shuttle mobo $138
That's $310, add in more if you want keyboard and mouse:)
Those prices are with shipping:) As pricewatch lists prices with shipping now, woohoo. Though if you live some place with a good computer store check their prices out.
I've had good luck with shuttle, not other cheap mobos. Though you could spend a little more and get an asus or abit for high quality.
BTW, I'm not saying build that machine and make it your mame machine, if you want to great, though that can become your main machine and you could use the one you currently play mame on:)
bcard74:
All agreed on the newer system. However, I am looking to spend 20 bucks on a computer to build a bar top with, and thats my budget. If I can weasel this 486 to do the trick, great. If not, of well, I will tear it apart and give it away on Ebay and make my 10 US dollars back in shipping.
I just went out and traded an old guitar amp for a Pentium 200MMX with 32 MB of RAM and a 6 GB HD. 12 MB Video card and a SB 16. Got it for basically 50 bucks worth of amplifier. Just trying to get it working now but I can't get anything on the screen ...
All this is just trying to be done so I can get used to building a little bit and not spend very much money as I have my Rampage cabinet stripped down and ready to go. Once I get this VERY cheap little bar top done, I will be in a better financial situation to buy another good computer and put this 1.4 Athlon in my cabinet.
All I am trying to do is practice a little without spending any money and see if I can get a little bar top going for under a hundred bucks.
Thanks for your posts, I understand where you are all coming from in the upgrade department, I hope you understand a bit more where I am coming from too. Cheers, thanks again.
Brent
SirPoonga:
And as I said, where you going to find SIMMs? I think a little more memory will help, but if you can get a pentium class computer that will be better.
Man, I still have my 486/133 around, but it doesn;t have the memory anymore:(