what's your gaming machine?

[jjoel]

mine just happens to be my notebook.
Amd athlon 2200+
512 ddr ram
40 gig
cdrw/dvd
64 meg ati igp 320m graphics
16 bit soundblaster
15' xga lcd

not bad for a notebook!

[ZURKE]

2100xp
512ddr
128mb xabre pro

Hopefully soon to be
3000xp
1.5g 400ddr
I am still stuck on whether to get the ATI 9800 or the nividia 5200.
Or maybe even just get the 9700..I dunno.:)

[Jiggy]

AMD2600XP.
Abit NF7-S nForce mobo.
Geforce 2 Ultra (getting ATI for Doom3 and Half Life2).
1G RAM DDR 2100.
Win XP Pro.
60mil Delter on heatseat.

[saphalline]

AthlonXP 2000+
512MB DDR
GF4 Ti 4400 - 128MB
19" monitor :D

soon to be

P4 2.26GHz
1GB DDR

[red indian]

P4 2.0
1 GB DDR
RADON 9700 PRO 128 MB
WIN XP

HOPEFULLY ILL SWITCH TO A GEFORCE 4 OR FX

ANYBODY HAVE AN FX YET
IF SO, DOES ANYBODY HAVE THE 256 MB CARD?
AND HOW GOOD IS IT?

STILL TRING TO DECIDE BETWEEN THE ASYLUM TI OR THE NEW FX
ANY REPLYS WOULD BE HELPFULL.

ALSO CANNOT WAIT FOR DOOM ,BUT DOES ANYBODY KNOW IF THERE GOING TO ENDORSE ANY EXTRA FEATURES FOR GRAPHIC CARDS?
(EXAMPLE:WITH THE APACHE GAME IF YOU HAD THE NFORCE TI CARD YOU COULD SEE THE WATER RIPPLES WHEN THE HELICOPTER WENT OVER THE WATER)

[hiredgoonz]

NEC Versa LX Laptop
Windows XP Pro
PII 266mhz
256mb RAM
4.0GB hard drive
4mb ATI Rage (non-AGP model)
Gamepad Pro USB

I use it to play Nintendo (original 8-bit NES) games using the FCEU emulator and Atari 2600 games using Stella...for everything else, I think console gaming is pretty much the way to go. Can't think of a game yet that I wanted to play that has been released for PC only...and I paid less for my PS2 AND Gamecube together than I would have for a top of the line vid card...

:D

[Ghost_Hacker]

I too have switched over to console gaming. But then along came THE PC game I must have... Star Wars Galaxies... which ,right now, is only being released on the PC. (A XBOX and PS2 version is coming, but I can't wait!!!)


My current box could proably play the game at the lower settings, but my processor may be a bottle neck, so its off to upgrade I go.

Not sure yet if I'll go all out or ,since this is probaly the last "gaming" upgrade I'll ever do, just opt for whatever I need to run this one must have game. :)

I have been reading my old Maxium PC mags and also Saphalline's old post to try to get an idea of what I'll do. (thought about getting an old Geforce card, but decided againest it)

Here's my list so far:

ATI 9600 Pro ( could go for the 9800, but then I'm only interested in this one game, so no need to go over board)

AMD processor 2000+ or greater


Still looking at MB and memory combo trying to get the cheapest set I can. ( I just don't want to spend alot for a "one" game system)

[saphalline]

Hmmm... G_H, may I suggest a Radeon 9500 Pro if you can find one? Better than the 9600 Pro (go fig) and the same price, but being phased out unfortunately. Grab one for $180 US or less if you see one.

Otherwise, I think the GeForce FX 5600 (non-Ultra) might just be a better choice. The 9600 Pro and FX 5600 have pretty much the same feature set and specs, but the FX 5600 is a bit less money.

That's my two cents on that.

Wow, hiredgoonz! I gotta get in on that emulator stuff! There are many old NES, SNES, and other console games that I'd love to play again on my pristine PC (with back-up capability ;) )! I'll take a look at that FCEU that you mentioned. Are there any other tips you can give me in that area?

[Ghost_Hacker]

Thanks saphalline :)


I'll start looking around for that 9500 pro and the FX. I'll have to admit I haven't been following the video card market, so your insights are very, very helpful. (esp. when it comes to the confusing array of GeForce cards)

Thanks again!

[hiredgoonz]

G_H:

I know what you mean...if there was a game that I absolutely had to have, and it was PC only, I'd suck it up and get a new vid card. But since I do almost no PC gaming, my Radeon 7500 works just fine and I can't live without dual monitors :)

saphalline:

The hardest part about the emulators is finding the ROMs (game dumps to file). As long as you own the original cart. then there's nothing wrong with playing the game on an emulator. It falls squarely under fair-use. You can buy the hardware to do it yourself, but it's expensive.

However, as with Napster, Aimster, Bearshare, Kazaa, etc...not everybody downloading music has purchased it in any form and therein lies a copyright violation.

Same rules apply here...a lot of people using emulators have never purchased the games originally and therefore have no license to use them. Personally, I only play games I own (I have boxes of NES and 2600 games and a couple broken consoles of each) because it's more of a nostalgia thing.

If I had never played the game originally, it's probably not going to hold my interest. Solving the original Zelda two weeks ago was a blast though. I cheated a little, you know where you can bet with the old man? Well with the emul. you can save anywhere you want, e.g. directly before each bet and if you lose go back to that point and try again, only this time you know which bet to make.

But to get back to the point: because it's impossible to tell who is pirating games and who is using their existing license, the rom sites get shut down a lot and it can be tough to find games. For the NES, I probably only have 1/3 of the ROMs for which I own carts.

The emul. scene is pretty amazing though...there are 2600, NES, SNES emulators for the Dreamcast. There's a NES emul. for the Gameboy Advance, although you need a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff (flash card in the shape of a GBA cart. and transfer hardware) to use it.

If you want some links, email me. I'd put them here, but I have a bad reputation for posting URLs I think are OK, but aren't :D

FCEU is the best for NES
ZSNES is the best for SNES but snes9x is great too
Stella is good for the 2600, but I've had some sound issues. Supposedly there is a better emulator, but I haven't taken the time to look, the sound on the 2600 sucked anyways :D

[saphalline]

Hey thanx, hiredgoonz! I, too, have a lot of NES & SNES games lying around unused. My NES bit the dust awhile ago, so I sold it to some electrical tinkerer at a garage sale. I kept the games intending to buy that revised deck version (remember the more rounded one after the SNES came out?) but never did. The SNES works OK but has some graphical artifacts, I assume from dust and such inside. As soon as I find me a freaky screwdriver, I'm gonna open it and clean it.

Any ideas on the screwdriver?

The games I want to play again are actually all my RPG's. I have a blast with the AD&D computer games like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights (especially since it's so easy to cheat on PC games! :p) but sometimes I miss my FFIII system. I played those games to the point of near break-down, and most of the older NES ones have dead internal batteries so I can't really save reliably. :( I wonder if those batteries are replaceable?...

The rest of my games aren't worth playing again, if only because they're ancient "action" games or arcade games. These can be had for free on the internet as clones so I don't really care about them.

[hiredgoonz]

The batteries are replaceable, though most are soldered in and unless you use some sort of battery/alligator clips setup to provide power to the memory while you swapped the battery, you'd lose your saves anyway(provided they were still there).

A great site on restoring the NES can be found here:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dsullo/nes.htm

He has the bits you need to take apart your carts, the part you need to fix the NES console along with instructions, spare parts, and even whole consoles available for sale. I'll be repairing my NES systems very soon...

Luckily, I bought one of the second-gen SNES consoles right before they went off the market about 5 years ago. I got it at Target, bundled with SNES Zelda for $50, played it for about an hour and then boxed it back up until about 3 months ago when I started buying up games I used to have (Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Street Fighter 2, Donkey Kong Country).

For other gaming stuff, including the other wacky screwdrivers you need to disassemble consoles, try:

http://www.lik-sang.com/default.php

[saphalline]

Ooh! I like that lik-sang site you gave, hiredgoonz! Have you ordered from them before? How are they at shipping things to the US? I really like those converters they have for using console gamepads on your PC, was thinking of getting a couple...

[hiredgoonz]

No, I haven't ordered from lik-sang, but from what I've read about them, they are THE source for weird gaming stuff. They respond to emails promptly and intelligently though and I would have no reservations about ordering from them.

As far as the adapters, I have an Adaptoid (N64 to USB adapter) and a Joydapter (PS to USB) they both work flawlessly and with no need for (additional) drivers under ME/2000/XP...

[saphalline]

Yes, I'd really like to use a N64 controller for playing my games. Where did you get your converter?

Also, the emulators I have seem to be a touch more complex than I anticipated. Normally I'd take my time learning these features, but something bothers me in my Crono Trigger ROM - sound problems. Some of the enemies are supposed to sound rather ominous or at least threatening, but end up sounding like a shrieking little girl! :eek:

Is it the ROM I have or can I adjust the sound? I'm using ZSNES.

[hiredgoonz]

That's weird, zsnes is supposed to be better than snes9x, but I don't remember any sound problems w/chrono trigger using snes9x, maybe you should try that one...

You've probably already checked the faqs/message boards (if any) at the zsnes site, but that would be my only suggestion.

I know there used to be a few texture issues w/smoke effects using snes9x w/C.T., but they may have been fixed...

I've stopped using the snes emuls. altogether for now, one too many consoles to hook up at once in the living room, plus I don't think my wife would have been thrilled, and she knows where I sleep :D

So now I have the actual console connected to a system with an old atl all-in-wonder up in the office...she doesn't care what happens in there, hahaha...

Right now I'me having a blast playing Killing Time, an old 3DO game...another broken console...but I found the PC version...