Strife Streams

Regular posts about classic retro games, perhaps you'll learn something new or maybe just relive some gaming memories

[maverickuk]

After many years on Tumblr I've decided to move to using a CMS for more flexibility. So goodbye Tumblr and thank you! From now on I'll be posting content at http://www.strifestreams.com

[maverickuk]

The Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback joystick is still a very well regarded device to this day, as LGR demonstrates in his recent video.

It's a device I would have loved to have owned and experienced back in the day, but at the time I didn't have an income that would have made that possible. So it's a real delight being able to pick up such a item now.

I picked mine up on eBay without any of software or the power adapter. However such things can easily be purchased separately or in the case of the software replicated on a classy looking CD-R.

My Packard Bell with it's 200MHz Pentium processor seemed like a good place to start so I went ahead and installed the software.

Unfortunately although the joystick was detected, when I tested it in the control panel it didn't seem to detect movements smoothly. Worse still the various force feedback demonstrations didn't work! Was my joystick broken?

I decided to double down and ordered a Force Feedback 2 joystick, which is slightly smaller whilst also using a USB interface over the originals gameport connector.

However this newer joystick didn't want to play ball with my Athlon XP based system. What is going on? Have I just bought two broken joysticks?

I also decided to try the original joystick on my slightly more powerful Pentium III 600MHz machine. Perhaps the slower CPU just didn't have enough grunt, even though it met the minimum specs for using the device.

Finally I was rewarded with the behaviour I'd expect from the device. The demos worked and when I tried it in games it also worked perfectly.

Freespace 2 with force feedback? Wow, I'd waited a long time to experience that.

Recommended!

[maverickuk]

I've been waiting years to get my hands on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ so that I can try the PiStorm project in my Amiga 500

If you're not familiar, it allows for the Motorola 68000 CPU of an Amiga to be replaced with a Raspberry Pi that in turn emulates the original CPU in software.

At a basic level this lets you upgrade the performance of the Amiga, as it's possible to run at much faster speeds than the original CPU. Very useful

However that's only the start of the feature set. You can also simulate additional memory, hard drive support, retargetable graphics (to output via the Pi's HDMI port), networking support, upgrading the native Kickstart ROM and more.

Essentially as the CPU socket has access to all the components of the Amiga, it has the capability to override and replace any of these native chips.

What better excuse and environment to perform the upgrade than the September 2023 SWAG meet up.

After cracking open my A500 for the first time I gently unseated the 68000 from it's socket and prepared to install the PiStorm. It was only then I realised I'd forgotten to bring the vital component, a small board that allows the Pi to connect to the 68000 socket! Oh well, an excuse to play some games instead!

Once I was back in my workshop at home I decided to finish the job. Thankfully with all the correct hardware at hand it was a quick and easy task to get it up and running.

It was certainly quite a nice feeling the first time I started the emulator on the Pi and was rewarded by similar the familiar Kickstart 1.3 appear on the CRT monitor connected to the Amiga.

Seeing old and new hardware work in tandem always gives me a buzz

Finally I setup an FTP server on the Pi that enabled me to easily copy across a newer Kickstart version. After restarting the emulator on the Pi suddenly my A500 felt a lot newer.

Next on my list, to setup a virtual hard drive filled with classic games

[maverickuk]

My Steam Deck has brought me a lot of pleasure over the past year being able to easily play games in short bursts and to easily take my gaming library with me when I leave the house.

However because I decided to get the base model it only came with a slow 64GB eMMC SSD for internal storage. Sure I've got a 256GB SDCard, but it's transfer speeds are only a fraction of what's possible with an internal SSD.

As you can see in the image above the default internal storage only has one game installed, the rest is Steam Deck OS files. Not ideal.

After watching a few YouTube videos of people who'd successfully upgrade their Steam Deck's internal storage, I decide it would be worth trying it myself.

I decided to go with a Western Digital PC SN740 1TB M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD/Solid State Drive which cost me £80

I used iFixIt's great step by step guide to safely crack open my deck.

Valve have made a very serviceable machine in the Steam Deck and getting the old SSD removed and replaced was pretty straight forward.

After swapping out the drives I needed to follow the official SteamOS recovery guide to get things reinstalled. Which again was pretty straightforward and quick.

So, did it work?

Oh wonderful! Look at all that fresh open space, ready to be filled with lots of games!

I've now got more storage than the high-end Steam Deck at a lower cost. Gotta love that

[maverickuk]

Cartooners

A animated cartoon package from EA in 1988 running on my ICL 386 in 2023

Cartooners is an animated cartoon creation package from EA way back in 1988.

I had very fond memories of creating various animations as a kid growing up. Me and my siblings would take turns creating silly little animations, full of our current in-jokes.

It's a very simple to learn tool which can quickly be used to create some quite engaging cartoons.

Unfortunately it also has a few minor bugs that can undermine your work, such as background scenes sometimes not changing correctly during playback.

The video above was captured on my ICL 386 PC, however I used to quite happily use the tool on my Compaq 286 growing up without any issues.

You can quite easily track this one down on abandonware sites still and it's quick and easily to play with in DosBox.

I've introduced this one to my kids who still enjoy playing about with it 35 years after it was created. Recommended!

[maverickuk]

So how did the retrobite session of my Silicon Graphics mechanical keyboard work out?

My fingers were still aching the next day from all the manual labour of scrubbing each individual key by hand!

After emptying and cleaning out the plastic containers I used I then laid out all of the keys and the keyboard halves to dry out

Whilst this was going on I attempted to give the actual mechnical keyboard mechanisms some attention to get the faulting O key to respond again. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures of my work here. However in a nutshell I sprayed the board with a contact cleaner and then worked a curved piece of plastic over the board repeatedly to press down all of the keys multiple times.

But would this be enough? Would some contact cleaner and manual manipulation be adequate or was there a deeper problem which would involve unsoldering the individual keys.

I decided to try my luck and reassemble the keyboard.

Whether or not it would actually fully work, it certainly looked much fresher, cleaner and more consistent in it's colour.

I went ahead and plugged it into my 386 machine and crossed my fingers

Success! After firing up the PC I was extremely pleased to find the faulty O key was once again working as expected.

I'm imagine I would have been able to get that key working again without such an extensive strip down, however for my first time attempting a retrobrite procedure I was extremely pleased with the result

[maverickuk]

I really love my Silicon Graphics mechanical PS/2 keyboard

That Silicon Graphics logo always brings back fond memories of Jurassic Park and other movies made use of these premium machines to create magic.

Unfortunately mine has decided that the O key is ready for retirement. So I've decided to give the old girl a strip down, clean and refurb

First order of business is to carefully pull off all the keys

Extra attention to remember which ones have some added support

It looks pretty odd now, but also quite grubby. Let's go deeper

Alright, I think we're ready to give the plastic parts a really good clean

Judging by the tint of the water afterwards I think we've stripped back a few years of memories from them.

Finally it's out with the old Hydrogen Peroxide to try a retrobrite session

We shall see what happens...

[maverickuk]

Valve's Steam machines may have been a damp squib, but part of that idea was finally realised and then some when the Steam Deck came to be.

I'm posting this from my summer holiday which is when I typically take my Toshiba Libretto 100CT away with me to play through a classic retro game for the first time or perhaps just to revisit an old favourate.

However when I was packing this year I decided to leave it at home so that I'd be able to dedicate more time to my Steam Deck.

It's such a wonderful little device that is capable of playing a solid set of Steam's catalog of games.

This holiday I've been revisiting Bend Studio originally criminally overlooked classic Days Gone.

Unfortunately it launched in a sorry state that stirred up a hornets nest of angry reviews from the critics which in turn lead to consumers staying over. However after a series of patches this rough diamond polished up into something very special.

I originally had a great time playing it through on my PS4, but I was more than happy to pay for the pleasure of being able to enjoy this classic on the road.

Although it has made me consider upgrading my Steam Deck from it's base 64GB eMMC configuration to a much faster and larger NVMe drive. But that's for another post...

[maverickuk]

Monster Bash from Apogee

A wonderfully gory and action packed EGA platformer from 1993 created from Frank Maddin, who would later go on to work at Nintendo on the Metroid Prime games

I grew up playing the shareware chapter on Compaq EGA 286 machine which although meets the system requirements, the game is almost unplayable on a later cave level with the FPS dropping to 1 frame every few seconds at some points...

Anyway, I'm going to install this on my newer ICL 386 VGA machine with the added bonus of an Adlib card for music!

I do miss those old ASCII based installers and watching the decompression happen. Plus check out that beautiful ASCII Apogee logic, fantastic work there!

So what's the game actually like to play?

Your character must free all of the trapped animals before you can exit the level by firing your catapult at the cages to break the locks.

By default you've got unlimited ammo, but you can also upgrade to bigger & multi-shot along with homing sticks.

Thankfully it's not a one hit kill like Keen, so you can take a few knocks before you lose a life.

All the sound effects play through the PC Speaker, which I remember from playing it as a kid. Which leaves the Adlib for playing music at certain points, which I always find a bit strange as it means I've got sounds coming out of two separate speakers on my PC.

Each level is also littered with these funny little skulls. If you hit one you'll be treated to an animation of their eyeballs popping out their sockets as they fly off the screen! Wonderful!

I spent a lot of time with this one as a kid and I'm looking forward to enjoying another play through again now. Thanks Frank

[maverickuk]

3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 + Noctua NF-A4x10 fan = overclocking

Or at least, it'll run a little cooler and hopefully add a few more years to the old girls life.

It's not that I need to overclock an old video card when I can easily use a newer card if I'd like more performance. It's more that by enhancing the cooling and seeing how much more performance is hidden in the device takes me back to my younger years when it became a way to saving a good chunk of money by investing in a cheaper CPU or video card and then squeezing out more FPS through some TLC.

The Voodoo 3 range runs pretty hot by default and don't feature any active cooling. So back in the day it was fairly common for people to slap on a fan in a basic way in order to try and cool down the card a little.

The Voodoo 3 2000 ran at 143Mhz (GPU & RAM) by default which typically gave it quite a lot of headroom for speeding up. Where as the Voodoo 3 3000 running at 166MHz was normally running close to it's limit. Those with a Voodoo 3 3500 were already at 183MHz and would be unlikely to squeeze much more out.

From research it seems that typically it's the memory on the cards that give out before the GPU. With memory chips being used with speed ratings ranging from 6ns, 5.5ns to even some 5ns. Those with lower ratings having more headroom to run at higher speeds.

So what could I get some my card? First up, let's attach that fan

The stock 3000 heatsink features two little holes at opposite ends which I thought would be perfect to looping a cable tie through. The first one went in without too much difficulty.

Unfortunately with the second I just couldn't squeeze the damn thing through. After much frustration I instead put a screw through the fan and used some pliers to squash the metal of the heatsink onto the thread of the screw.

Not as elegant as I would have liked, but it's held in place securely enough for my needs.

Once in the Pentium III mainboard it fits in nicely and thankfully doesn't hit the PCI header next to the AGP slot (Of course I checked this prior to securing the fan...)

So after all that, how much more performance does this card have to give?

I turned to Unreal, as it was already installed and felt like a suitable game for the era of the hardware and ran a timedemo at 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions

An extra 14MHz gives an additional 6.5% performance at 1024 with a higher 1280 resolution giving a higher 9% uplift. Not earth shattering, but certainly a nice little bonus.

Unfortunately if I pushed the card any further Unreal would get a little psychedelic

Yay for overclocking!

[maverickuk]

SimCity 2000 from Maxis way back in 1993, when that 2000 moniker sounded very futuristic!

To be fair it did feel like a massive leap forward over the original, introducing high resolution SVGA graphics, deformable terrain, water systems management and quite a few more power generation options.

Like many of my childhood gaming memories, I first encountered this round a friends house who had a Dad that owned a PC and enjoyed playing games. Since then I've bought my own copy from GOG.com and other sources, but I'd never owned a physical copy.

I happened to stumble across a few versions available on eBay in either floppy disk or CD versions which both seem reasonably priced. However I wasn't buying a copy for me, but my eldest son who enjoys playing city builder games.

He's going to be 14 years old this year, so I thought this would be a nice memento for him to remember the times we've played SimCity 2000 together and enjoyed listening to the music through my Roland SC-55.

The physical box I bought was in very good condition. However it did have some sticker residue left on the box and generally felt a little grubby. So I reached for my trusty bottle of isopropanol alcohol and some paper towel to give the whole box a gentle rub down,

Yuck, that's years worth of handling and human grime finding a new home on my paper towel.

Much better, looks almost as good as new. Ready to be wrapped up as a birthday present.

[maverickuk]

The Thief series was created by Looking Glass Studios back when game studios would calmly create whole new genres of games before then jumping to an entirely different genre for their next title

After playing the original demo I was completely enamoured by the fictional world Garrett (the playable protagonist) inhabited. Even at the time the game engine had lower polygon counts (i.e. detail) than other games, but decisions like using motion capture for the movement of characters in the game really helped sell the realism of a world inhabited by living people.

Another aspect that felt a cut above the composition was the use of audio. Music was used very sparingly and instead ambient sounds came to the forefront. Better yet was the use of Aureal A3D technology to better simulate how sounds would propagate in 3D space.

The result of all this craftsmanship was a game that felt so very immersive and it's one I've revisited many times over the years.

One of the reasons I built my new Pentium III 600MHz Windows 98SE machine was so that I could install an Aureal A3D Vortex 2 audio card to use with compatible games.

At the time EAX was quite a basic technology that would simply add effects like reverb when a character ended a certain location. Whereas A3D would realistically calculate reverb through sound reflections within a given 3D space.

As much as I enjoyed Thief 1 at the time, for me Thief 2 was the highpoint of the series. This was mainly due to a reduction in the supernatural elements in the first game and instead a focus on the purity of being a thief in realistic environments.

As I look at my original Thief CD jewel case it takes me back to when I first purchased it at a local independent game shop. I was around the age of 18 and was finally earning enough money to indulge my love of technology and games. Sadly I've long since got rid of the bulky cardboard boxes that and other games came in, but I'm happy I've still retained this part of my connection my past.

[maverickuk]

The first time I saw Unreal running at a friends house was a literal game changer

I must have been exposed to Quake by this point, but Unreal introduced coloured lighting, more detailed environments and had a sci-fi aesthetic which really appealed to me.

I imagine it was running with only software rendering at perhaps a 320x240 resolution, but it was still one of the most impressive looking worlds I'd ever seen running in a computer at that point in my life

The way the lighting lit up the world with halos around certain light sources felt revolutionary. Fog was used to add atmosphere and really added to the sense that this was a real world.

With my newly obtained Pentium III 600MHz PC paired with a Voodoo 3 3000 I've been able to run this game using Glide for the first time ever. With the machine having a few bit more muscle than it required the game runs beautifully.

The funny part is that I can almost feel the same sense of wonder playing it again today. The first 5 minutes of the game are an amazing showcase for what the Unreal engine was capable of as it transitioned from the cramped metalic interior of the crashed spaceship you start in to the (then seemingly massive) outdoor world.

Also I imagine seeing it on my lovely Sony CPD-4410 Trinitron adds to the beauty of the experience!

[maverickuk]

Lemmings was and still is a very original game. It was first released for the Amiga but was quickly ported to just about every platform.

Growing up I had a Sega Gamegear which I loved for it's ability to let me play games in my own room, without needing to take over the family TV.

I clearly remember going to Woolworths on my birthday to finally get my own copy of Lemmings. Every colourful cardboard Gamegear game box seemed so exciting and valuable. I couldn't wait to get it home and actually play it.

Thankfully the Geargear port is Lemmings is extremely solid. I remember reading in Retro Gamer and an interview with the developer of the port recalling a lot of time and effort was spent getting the cursor acceleration just right so it could be easily controlled with the pad. Thank you!

The ability to easily pause the game whilst still allowing cursor movement and the changing of skills was a wise decision and makes it much more fun to play.

Something I really enjoyed about this version of the game was the inclusion of some unique levels, as shown in the video above. I would love to have my Lemmings explore the bathroom-like landscape and climb the pipes.

Thanks to my Analogue Pocket I've been able to rediscover my love for this game. It's still great fun to play again today.

[maverickuk]

I recently put together a Pentium III era machine with a Matrox G400 graphics card and Aureal Vortex 2 sound card.

For a short time Matrox went head to head with NVIDIA and 3dfx via their RIVA TNT2 and Voodoo 3 cards respectively.

From looking at the reviews from the time you can see it was a very close race.

I used a Matrox G400 in my work computer back in 2000, but I'd never used it for 3D gaming so I was excited to explore it's abilities.

I thought I'd start with some Matrox tech demos, which made me fondly remember the era where hardware companies typically made such things to highlight the unique features of their cards.

For instance the G400 featured environment-mapped bump mapping in hardware, which no other cards at the time featured.

Unfortunately the reef demo refused to work, as it didn't seem to detect the configuration of my monitor correctly. I tried manually editing the settings file, but I wasn't able to get it to run.

Thankfully the next tech demo did run and showed off the bump mapping support, which would have been very impressive to witness 20 years ago.

But how powerful are the 3D capabilities of the G400? Let's run the Final Reality benchmark to find out

I think the card and machine is general is actually a little too powerful for this benchmark, but from pure nostalgia I always enjoy running it.

So I moved on to 3DMark 99 which is from the correct era and little more demanding

It was nice to enjoy the bump mapping tests which I thought still looked impressive today. Is that 3DMark score good? Ah, that's synthetic benchmarks for you.

So how does the card manage when playing actual games? I installed Solider of Fortune to find out

Although the game runs smoothly, there is some artifacting at times such as the floor flashing black which can be quite distracting.

This does leave me wondering if I should continue with the G400 or try one of it's competitors from the time.

I ordered some case stickers from Geekenspiel to give me an alternative 3D card option...

[maverickuk]

Like many gamers of a certain vintage mentioning DOS, Windows 98 or Windows XP will allow us to recall our favourite games and memories from the time

I am lucky enough to own quite a nice collection of retro hardware and games that I've built up slowly over the years. However a gap in my continuum of classics was during the Pentium III era.

I recently came across a sensibily priced PIII based Dell on eBay and decided to pull the trigger

Unfortunately due to the age of the machine the front panel was very brittle and needed some repair. Thankfully I had some plastic glue on hand after needed to repair my Trinitron monitor base recently.

The machine came running Windows XP which I felt was a bit too ambitious and not very period authentic. So I installed Windows 98SE along with swapping out the video card for a Matrox G400

I actually bought a Matrox G400 for my work computer back in 2000 as it allowed me to use dual monitors - which was a very rare thing in those days. It features a very fast RAMDAC allowing for high refresh rates and resolutions along with industry leading image clarity for the time.

Another reason for putting together this machine was to allow me to play some of my favourite Aureal A3D games. For those who don't know, this was a strong competitor to Creative Labs sound cards by providing the ability to simulate 3D environments in hardware on the card enabling very accurate 3D audio to be delivered.

Sadly Creative Labs crushed them not with superior technology, but just their sheer weight

Anyway, one such game I have fond memories of using this card with was Thief. So after adding the audio card, that game was also installed

Now I've got a period appropriate Pentium III machine to explore whilst also seeing if the Matrox G400 can hold up to it's peers of the time (NVIDIA TNT2 & 3dfx Voodoo 3)

[maverickuk]

Simcopter is a unique game from an era of gaming history when Maxis was in their creative prime and bringing out quite a range of difference experiences

That isn't to say Maxis always made great games and I would go as far to say that many of their games are more curiosities and experiences or simulators than classical games, but that doesn't detract from the joy that can be found in them

I was impressed by the low system requirements of the game needing only a 75MHz Pentium and 16MB of RAM to run.

So it was a safe install on my mighty 200MHz Pentium system, even if the Voodoo 2 3D accelerator had to sit out this game.

It came out when 3D in gaming was still a novelty rather than a mainstream given, which was reflected in the difficult development of the title due to it's use of 3D. From memory I believe they had to hire in somebody with the experience as no-one at Maxis at the time had the knowledge.

Playing the game now is a quite clunky and confusing! I'm not sure how I managed to work it all out when I was a kid, but I needed to lookup some guides online this time to learn the ropes

There's a big nostalgic kick playing it again after 20 or so years. It reminds me of a time when big studios could afford to make such quirky titles. This creativity is what gave birth to The Sims, which did quite well on balance