sbarrett00
Rear Admiral
if you could build the ideal computer that would give you the best experience for each wing commander game without having to run moslow, etc... what would it be?
-shannon
-shannon
the ideal computer system to play wing commander.
- Thread starter sbarrett00
- Start date
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
This is a great topic.
I've spent the last year and a half trying to build the perfect Wing Commander computer.
Basically, there's no way you'll run both ends of the Wing Commander spectrum on a single machine without some sort of slowdown procedure. Even a 486 is too fast for the original Wing Commander - and you won't be able to play most of the other games on a system that slow. You can almost always slow your computer down - but it's harder to speed it up. At the high end, the perfect Wing Commander Computer needs to...
- Play Prophecy (Test/Demo/Retail) with 3dfx options and FSAA.
- Play Wing Commander IV DVD.
- View the Wing Commander Movie DVD.
- Emulate various consoles (FM Towns, SegaCD, SNES, Amiga, CD32 and PC88)
For those reasons, I chose to go with a Pentium III as my base (mine is a 650 - YMMV). My motherboard is an aBit BX6r1, chosen because it has three ISA slots - more than most modern motherboards. Wing Commander and Wing Commander 2 must be slowed down - which is easily accomplished by turning off the cache in the computer's BIOS menu. Wing 1 runs normally and Wing 2 has properly synched mouths. (I went with 128 megs of RAM, based on word that anything over this ammount can wreak havoc with some old DOS games. I've had no trouble, memory wise.)
I used an eighty megabyte hard drive, partitioned into one 40 gigabyte FAT32 drive (with Win98SE) and a number of 2 gigabyte FAT16 drives (with DOS6.22 and Windows 3.11). The key is to establish the DOS partition first, then work with your partitioning software to set up the Win98 segment). Floppy disk drives are a generic DVD-ROM (for Wing 4 and the movie) and an Epson 3.5"/5.25" combo drive.
My primary video card is a 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 (AGP). This card works with both Prophecy and the Prophecy Test, and adds FSAA mode to the game. I have a secondary video card, which I switch to with a BIOS option, which is a Trident 2MB PCI card. There are no Windows 3.11 drivers for the Voodoo - so if you want to play with Origin FX (the screensaver package) you'll need an old video card. I don't use it much, but I rest easy knowing that it's in there. Should I chose to use the computer for other old games, having an older video card will be a big timesaver. The third video essential is a RealMagic Hollywood+ DVD decoder card, which will allow Wing Commander IV DVD to work properly (a Creative Labs DXR2 or DXR3 will work equally well). There's a registry hack necessary to get these cards to output surround sound properly.
Which brings us to sound! For the Windows games, I have a simple SB!Live 5.1 PCI (with the ancient Liveware 1 installed - there's a special sound environment for Prophecy). It also lets me have 5.1 sound for playing the movie DVD. DOS is a wee bit more confusing...
I have a SoundBlaster 32 AWE ISA as the 'base' soundcard in DOS. It does sound effects in Wing 1, 2, Academy, Privateer and Armada. It's in the traditional irq/port/dma dealy, 220/5/1. In ISA slot number two, I have a Roland RAP-10 GM MIDI card. This was a 'high end' sound card in 1994, which Wing Commander III and IV were among the only games to take advantage of. The RAP-10 does all the sound for both of them - I have it at something like Port 340. Next, I have a Roland LAPC-I LA MIDI card in my last ISA slot. The LAPC-I does music (and some sound effects!) for Wing 1, 2 and Academy. It's hard-wired to Port 330, and can't be changed. So... that's sound for everything and music for everything but... Privateer and Academy!
Privateer takes advantage of Roland's 'GS MIDI' sub-standard (GM MIDI with some extra drum kits and such)... and, for whatever reason, will *only* look at Port 330 for a MIDI device (even though the others are selectable in the install). To solve this, I got an external Roland SC-55 MIDI synth, which connects to the MIDI-OUT of the LAPC-I via a Roland MCB-10 breakout box.
Whew, that's a lot of sound options. The games sound far greater than I'd ever heard them before, though - the SC-55 and Privateer are really incredible together.
Now, external stuff.
Since I'm out of internal slots and still want to play Armada on the phone and via network, I need... a parallel port-based external NIC and an external 56.6 modem! That pretty much covers your bases, Armada-wise. Creative Labs makes a nice line of speakers - I went with the Inspire 5700, which had plenty of inputs and sounds very nice (need a 5.1 system for the movie... or a 4.0 system for the surround sound capable games). Monitor is a 21" ViewSonic CRT. No special reason. There's some software that lets you you do voice commands in Prophecy (plus you'll want to record Armada taunts), so I threw in a headset microphone.
Joystick set up is a first generation Sidewinder FF 'stick in Windows and a Thrustmater FCS/WCS/RCS combo for DOS. The old games support anywhere from one piece to all of Thrustmasters old HOTAS setup... and Privateer with rudders is a lot of fun.
I also picked up a Quickshot Master Pilot console, which has 'overlays' for four or so Wing games. Not very useful for much - but it's an awesome glowing panel that makes your setup look more like a fighter plane.
Lastly, there are three systems that (IMO) aren't ready for primetime emulation yet: the PowerMac, the PSX and the 3DO. I integrated them into the Wing Commander system using an external ViewSonic TV-In (for the consoles) and an IOGear KVM Switch (for the Macintosh). Each system has their own flight stick - another Thrustmaster FCS for the 'Mac, a Sony Dual-Flight Controller for the PSX and a CH Products Flightstick Pro for the 3DO.
And that's all I have so far.
I've spent the last year and a half trying to build the perfect Wing Commander computer.
Basically, there's no way you'll run both ends of the Wing Commander spectrum on a single machine without some sort of slowdown procedure. Even a 486 is too fast for the original Wing Commander - and you won't be able to play most of the other games on a system that slow. You can almost always slow your computer down - but it's harder to speed it up. At the high end, the perfect Wing Commander Computer needs to...
- Play Prophecy (Test/Demo/Retail) with 3dfx options and FSAA.
- Play Wing Commander IV DVD.
- View the Wing Commander Movie DVD.
- Emulate various consoles (FM Towns, SegaCD, SNES, Amiga, CD32 and PC88)
For those reasons, I chose to go with a Pentium III as my base (mine is a 650 - YMMV). My motherboard is an aBit BX6r1, chosen because it has three ISA slots - more than most modern motherboards. Wing Commander and Wing Commander 2 must be slowed down - which is easily accomplished by turning off the cache in the computer's BIOS menu. Wing 1 runs normally and Wing 2 has properly synched mouths. (I went with 128 megs of RAM, based on word that anything over this ammount can wreak havoc with some old DOS games. I've had no trouble, memory wise.)
I used an eighty megabyte hard drive, partitioned into one 40 gigabyte FAT32 drive (with Win98SE) and a number of 2 gigabyte FAT16 drives (with DOS6.22 and Windows 3.11). The key is to establish the DOS partition first, then work with your partitioning software to set up the Win98 segment). Floppy disk drives are a generic DVD-ROM (for Wing 4 and the movie) and an Epson 3.5"/5.25" combo drive.
My primary video card is a 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 (AGP). This card works with both Prophecy and the Prophecy Test, and adds FSAA mode to the game. I have a secondary video card, which I switch to with a BIOS option, which is a Trident 2MB PCI card. There are no Windows 3.11 drivers for the Voodoo - so if you want to play with Origin FX (the screensaver package) you'll need an old video card. I don't use it much, but I rest easy knowing that it's in there. Should I chose to use the computer for other old games, having an older video card will be a big timesaver. The third video essential is a RealMagic Hollywood+ DVD decoder card, which will allow Wing Commander IV DVD to work properly (a Creative Labs DXR2 or DXR3 will work equally well). There's a registry hack necessary to get these cards to output surround sound properly.
Which brings us to sound! For the Windows games, I have a simple SB!Live 5.1 PCI (with the ancient Liveware 1 installed - there's a special sound environment for Prophecy). It also lets me have 5.1 sound for playing the movie DVD. DOS is a wee bit more confusing...
I have a SoundBlaster 32 AWE ISA as the 'base' soundcard in DOS. It does sound effects in Wing 1, 2, Academy, Privateer and Armada. It's in the traditional irq/port/dma dealy, 220/5/1. In ISA slot number two, I have a Roland RAP-10 GM MIDI card. This was a 'high end' sound card in 1994, which Wing Commander III and IV were among the only games to take advantage of. The RAP-10 does all the sound for both of them - I have it at something like Port 340. Next, I have a Roland LAPC-I LA MIDI card in my last ISA slot. The LAPC-I does music (and some sound effects!) for Wing 1, 2 and Academy. It's hard-wired to Port 330, and can't be changed. So... that's sound for everything and music for everything but... Privateer and Academy!
Privateer takes advantage of Roland's 'GS MIDI' sub-standard (GM MIDI with some extra drum kits and such)... and, for whatever reason, will *only* look at Port 330 for a MIDI device (even though the others are selectable in the install). To solve this, I got an external Roland SC-55 MIDI synth, which connects to the MIDI-OUT of the LAPC-I via a Roland MCB-10 breakout box.
Whew, that's a lot of sound options. The games sound far greater than I'd ever heard them before, though - the SC-55 and Privateer are really incredible together.
Now, external stuff.
Since I'm out of internal slots and still want to play Armada on the phone and via network, I need... a parallel port-based external NIC and an external 56.6 modem! That pretty much covers your bases, Armada-wise. Creative Labs makes a nice line of speakers - I went with the Inspire 5700, which had plenty of inputs and sounds very nice (need a 5.1 system for the movie... or a 4.0 system for the surround sound capable games). Monitor is a 21" ViewSonic CRT. No special reason. There's some software that lets you you do voice commands in Prophecy (plus you'll want to record Armada taunts), so I threw in a headset microphone.
Joystick set up is a first generation Sidewinder FF 'stick in Windows and a Thrustmater FCS/WCS/RCS combo for DOS. The old games support anywhere from one piece to all of Thrustmasters old HOTAS setup... and Privateer with rudders is a lot of fun.
I also picked up a Quickshot Master Pilot console, which has 'overlays' for four or so Wing games. Not very useful for much - but it's an awesome glowing panel that makes your setup look more like a fighter plane.Lastly, there are three systems that (IMO) aren't ready for primetime emulation yet: the PowerMac, the PSX and the 3DO. I integrated them into the Wing Commander system using an external ViewSonic TV-In (for the consoles) and an IOGear KVM Switch (for the Macintosh). Each system has their own flight stick - another Thrustmaster FCS for the 'Mac, a Sony Dual-Flight Controller for the PSX and a CH Products Flightstick Pro for the 3DO.
And that's all I have so far.
sbarrett00
Rear Admiral
bandit LOAF!!!
that was the most HELPFUL thing i've seen.
i'm going to have to try to put together somethign like your system... i guess should start trolling ebay...
that was the most HELPFUL thing i've seen.
i'm going to have to try to put together somethign like your system... i guess should start trolling ebay...
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Yeah, the great thing is that ten years later all these old once-top-of-the-line parts are really cheap (G) I can finally build the computer I really really wanted when I was 12.
Anyway, I'm happy to provide any help I can - my WC machine is pretty much complete (until I realize something else I need for it, at least).
Anyway, I'm happy to provide any help I can - my WC machine is pretty much complete (until I realize something else I need for it, at least).
sbarrett00
Rear Admiral
yeah. it's just funny i spend several thousand for the top of the line computer but i can't run any of the games i really want to run on it.
i will say that i'm pretty happy that all the console systems have been pretty much backwards compatible (at least psx ones)
s
i will say that i'm pretty happy that all the console systems have been pretty much backwards compatible (at least psx ones)
s