Problems only 90s gamers will understand

I don't know how to describe this. I had this dos thing where you had to change some values so you could play the game.
 
czc said:
I don't know how to describe this. I had this dos thing where you had to change some values so you could play the game.
Click to expand...

Either dosbox? If you referring to playing old games on todays system. or if you talking about old games on old systems was it maybe something to do with IRQ and things like that that we always had to fiddle with to get our soundblaster 16 to be picked up :D
 
czc said:
I don't know how to describe this. I had this dos thing where you had to change some values so you could play the game.
Click to expand...

mottamort said:
Either dosbox? If you referring to playing old games on todays system. or if you talking about old games on old systems was it maybe something to do with IRQ and things like that that we always had to fiddle with to get our soundblaster 16 to be picked up :D
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This probably predates dosbox. I think there was config.sys and autoexec.bat that needed tweaks for memsys or something... Been so long, I'm probably off with some of the names...

beans100 said:
Actually referring to age in last paragraph. Was wondering if you can call yourself a gamer at age 5. More like an opportunist.
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Ah, I knew it wasn't about Myst, but I saw an opportunity and I took it. (That's numberwang!)
 
murfle said:
This probably predates dosbox. I think there was config.sys and autoexec.bat that needed tweaks for memsys or something... Been so long, I'm probably off with some of the names...



Ah, I knew it wasn't about Myst, but I saw an opportunity and I took it. (That's numberwang!)
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Ahhh! Was it EMM? Expanded Memory manager. (expanded or extended). I remember having to sometimes "activate" that or get the game to realise we have it on before it would play :D
 
mottamort said:
Ahhh! Was it EMM? Expanded Memory manager. (expanded or extended). I remember having to sometimes "activate" that or get the game to realise we have it on before it would play :D
Click to expand...

That sounds quite familiar, ya... Things were so much simpler back then, its just we didn't have the resources we have today available to get the right settings, so if the game manual didn't tell you, or you don't have O/S manuals at home, you were screwed...
 
My dad bought me Final Fantasy 8 when it was released on PS. I played every single day from the start for 4 months before he bought me a memory card.

Another 90's problems...cheats. When another player steals all your lives on the first level of Contra and you finish the game on one life. Life stealing player in question is my mother by the way "whistling:
 
czc said:
I don't know how to describe this. I had this dos thing where you had to change some values so you could play the game.
Click to expand...

mottamort said:
Ahhh! Was it EMM? Expanded Memory manager. (expanded or extended). I remember having to sometimes "activate" that or get the game to realise we have it on before it would play :D
Click to expand...

Ah, the good ol' Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files.

I also remember using a tool called QEMM to try and free up base memory as several older games couldn't use extended or expanded memory.
 
not having enough ram on your graphics card to play a game, i had a 4mb ati 3d rage pro and alot of games ran but had white untextured section due to a lack of ram
 
PsychoFish said:
I don't miss the good old days
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Yeah every time I pine for the "good old days", I remember there used to be a time where we'd have to install older versions of graphics drivers (3Dfx, Nvidia, and ATi were all culprits, if memory serves) to get acceptable performance from a game.

Nowadays some crypto mining works like that and it made me all nostalgic :love::p
 
Jan said:
Yeah every time I pine for the "good old days", I remember there used to be a time where we'd have to install older versions of graphics drivers (3Dfx, Nvidia, and ATi were all culprits, if memory serves) to get acceptable performance from a game.

Nowadays some crypto mining works like that and it made me all nostalgic :love::p
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Thats strange. My first interaction with drivers was immensely positive. I didn't know there was such a thing as driver updates (no internet, so very difficult to get anyway). So when my gfx card was severely hampered by the "car building" scene in Enter the Matrix (I still remember it so vividly) the game would go down to like 3-4 fps. Driver updates and entire game played super smooth. It was like a free gfx card upgrade! :D




EDIT: FOUND IT! Holy crap this game brings back memories



It doesnt seem to auto start at the right time, which is 3:03...weird....
 
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PsychoFish said:
Unloading the mouse driver so you could launch a game...the good old days

I don't miss the good old days
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Nevermind that, trying to load the mouse, cdrom and sound blaster drivers in UMB and dos into High so the game can have access to the full 640kb base mem. 1kb less than the full 640 and the game would tell you to bugger off and try again.
 
Apollo said:
Nevermind that, trying to load the mouse, cdrom and sound blaster drivers in UMB and dos into High so the game can have access to the full 640kb base mem. 1kb less than the full 640 and the game would tell you to bugger off and try again.
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Yup, I remember those wonderful messages "639kb memory available, 640k required"
 
bradbear117 said:
cleaning the dust off you mouse ball lol!
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Yes! I remember I got so annoyed when I was playing Ghost Recon and could not aim correctly because, the mouse ball would skip all the time.

Edit
I just checked, Ghost Recon came out in 2001. That was one of the first games I recall that needed a mouse to aim correctly. Sadly, not a 90's game as most did not really make use of the mouse to aim. SiN, Heretic, HeXen, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior all had some form of auto aim.
 
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