From: masten@beta.lanl.gov (David A. Masten)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: Game Machine
Keywords: hardware
Date: 20 Aug 92 13:47:43 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory

>In article <1992Aug20.001209.26607@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>, c60a-zh@volga.Berkeley.EDU (A L L E N --LabA) writes:
> In article <1992Aug19.172136.4929@gn.ecn.purdue.edu> halls@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Scott Hall) writes:
>Hello 
>
>I am sorry to post a hardware Question but I just got rid of my 8086 after
>graduation and am looking to buy a new game machine.  I know some of the new
>games reguire 386, so i at least need to go that high.  Any suggestions 
>about machines with good graphics, sound, mouse, joystick, and SPEED would
>be appriciated.  
>
>Thank You
>
>Scott

Depends on how much money you have to throw away and what else you want
the computer for.

Get at least a 386/33.  Lesser computers save very little money.  If you
also want a coprocessor for any math application you may need (like,
gasp, for work) then get a 486/33 rather than a 386+387.  486/33's are
getting so reasonable that you may want to go for that anyway.  It'll
help fro games like Falcon 3 and AOTP.  Probably also the Ultimas, Links
386, and games that are on the drawing boards.

Get at least 4 MB RAM.  Newer games use extra memory.  I wouldn't want
less than this for F3, for a disk cache, digitized voices, and VCR
replay. If you want OS2, get at least 8MB RAM.  Note I see little use
for Windows in terms of games.  OS2 is reported to work a lot better
with them.  I don't have any direct experience.

At least an 80 MB disk.  I have a 130 MB with Stacker (a ~2:1 disk
compression utility), and I'm using it up.  WCII+speech, F3 take
21MB, 11MB respectively.  OS2 would take up 30 MB!

I've heard positive reports about using a local bus VGA card.  This
works through the 32 bit bus directly on the motherboard so it should
clear up the possible 8mhz bottleneck of normal video cards.  I compared
the framerate of an ET4000 (Tseng Labs Chipset) local bus board on a
*486/33* to my Diamond Speedstar+ with a *386/33* with Falcon 3.0.  The
486 was only about 25-50% faster.  I was surprised the difference was so
small.

Get both 3.5 and 5.25 disk drives.  You may just happen to find a game
you want in stock (or by trade) in only 5.25 format.

I bought a cheapo interlaced sVGA monitor.  No complaints with either
games (which are almost all 320x200, never mind sVGA) or Windows.  But
a multi-synch non-interlaced monitor like one of the NECs would probably
never need replacing.  Who knows about mine if standards change.

I'm happy with my Soundblaster (not Pro).  Sound ain't great but its
decent.  Most games still don't support the Pro.  Waiting to see if this
Gravis Ultrasound is all that it purports to be.  Then maybe I'll
upgrade.  But I see nno reason to get a SB Pro.

Get a mouse (I have a Ligitech Mouseman Serial, no complaints).
Definitely get a joystick if you are a sim nut.  I heartily recommend
the CH Flightstick.

If you are a true computer jet jock, consider the Thrustmaster FCS
(joystick) and WCS (throttle plus other buttons).  I have the WCS and
really appreciate it for my ~6 flight sims.

Thats all I can think of.

Dave Masten
masten@beta.lanl.gov