System Shock 2 Demo @ Vintage P233MMX with 3DFX Voodoo1

System Shock 2 Demo, developed by Irrational Games, released by EA in september 1999, running on a P233MMX with a 3DFX Voodoo1 Graphics card PC from 1996/1997.

Considering that the system barely manages to get past the minimum requirements, I'd consider the performance to be quite good and the game is actually pretty playable. It gets a little bit choppy when multiple enemies are on screen, but I was really surprised how well it performed.

Recorded with a low budget Aiptek AHD Camcorder, which I still can't get to focus right, except when I move it closer to the screen, which isn't an option.
No serious gameplay, I just wanted to run around a little bit, showing a different game while testing the new stand I bought for my camcorder. Haven't played the game in a while either, so I do some stupid things.

Detailed System Specs:
intel Pentium P55C 200MMX@233MHz
128MB 60ns 72pin EDO RAM
Asus P55T2P4 Rev 3.10 Mainboard
Miro Highscore 3D with 3DFX Voodoo1 and 6MB RAM
Matrox Mystique with 4MB RAM
Creative SoundBlaster AWE32

Hardware updates since the last video:
-Added 64MB of RAM. Previously only 64 were cacheable, but I found the necessary TAG ram to increase the cacheable area
-The SBAWE32 recieved a Yamaha DB60XG clone by NEC, which doesn't to anything for System Shock 2, but it enhances quite a few DOS games that support General MIDI to a whole new level. Will make a few videos soon.

The system uses hardware components that were available in late 1996 or early 1997.

If anyone knows how I can edit MOV files in WindowsXP, please drop me a line!

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• 3DFX
• Voodoo1
• System
• Shock
• irrational
• games
• EA

[iris030380]

Thats a pretty pimping Pentium 1 MMX. Personally, I prefer the vanilla non-mmx brand of pentium. Real oldschool. I saw this running on my friends 166mmx with a voodoo 1 on the games release date, and it was so choppy he didn't even get past training. Two weeks later he bought a new PC, and I bought a P1-200 CPU and a voodoo 1 and borrowed this game! :D

[mystftg]

@iris030380 I used to have the non-mmx P200 in there, but I just couldn't pass up the speed boost from the MMX's extra cache and instruction set.

[iris030380]

@mystftg Well I never owned an MMX pentium 1 until about 2005, but I remember my friend had a P166mmx and I had a vanilla 200, and after all the hype about MMX i was expecting his CPU to blow mine away, but my 200 always beat his in every game - by some margin (I think Quake 1 timerefresh was like 24fps 166mmx, 32fps 200v). So I was never convinced. As I understood it back then, MMX was gonna help play FMV and other video media faster, but who ever did that with a gaming machine in windows 95 :D

[mystftg]

@iris030380 The MMX instructions weren't really used in games, especially in the early days of the P1MMX. What gave the MMX CPUs a slight advantage was the larger L1 cache (twice the size of the non-MMX).

In theory a 166MMX should be about as fast as a 200 non-mmx, also depending on the application. But there are a lot of other factors to the overall system speed, so your friends 166MMX might've been handicapped by other components in his system. But the 166MMX won't blow the P200 away.

[Core2QX]

i have a 200mmx and 64 mb with Voodoo1 and its run well

[mystftg]

@Core2QX Yeah, it runs surprisingly good on these old machines. I've made some further tweaks to the system and now it runs a lot better. I'll make a new video with the vga capture card someday :)

[mystftg]

@1986wumpscut Well, I also got a dual core PC, but where's the fun in that? Running old games on even older hardware is way more interesting :)

Besides: The old 233MMX can even surf the web while playing MP3s, whee! No need for anything else *g*

[Bruce777999]

Creepy game + nice setup.

[infurnus1]

hahaha 0451 nice reference

[MrLetsdolunch]

@MrLetsdolunch

I remember using AltaVista and InfoSeek and all kinds of crap, and it just never found whatever you wanted. Websites were also pretty crappy too, a lot of them didn't work and didn't have much info, and they looked bad. But we were still happy because it was new and exciting and a gigantic breakthrough. Those of us who played games couldn't believe how cool it was, all of a sudden playing with people all over the world! Before that, gaming was mostly a solitary experience.

[MrLetsdolunch]

@KedViper

It was the golden age of gaming. There were so many amazing games, and they were often so original. Far fewer sequels and rehashing like we have now, and they were really challenging and exciting, and there were big leaps in technology too. The 80's and 90's was the best for gaming. The internet sucked though. Very few people had it prior to about 1997/98, and the few that did had to make do with low speed dial up. The big deal though was no google! Just terrible search engines.

[iris030380]

@KedViper Well the PC game scene was quite different as everything was new. It was in it's childhood if you will. There were many new and original games coming up, some worked out well and some did not - but it kept the scene interesting. The graphics look dated now, back then having a voodoo card was groundbreaking. The internet in the early - mid 90's was totally different too. It was also new, and it was as much about being part of the online community as it was an information tool.

[KedViper]

@iris030380 What was it like playing games and using the internet back then?

[kinmanyuen]

ahhh good ol times

[iris030380]

I have my parts together for a retro build - Athlon T-bird 1Ghz, 256 SD Ram, 2 new Voodoo 2's and a TNT2 Ultra, Sonic Vortex Aureal 2.0... excited about all that. Also today I bought some cool plastikoat aerosols (midnight blue and red). Gonna spray and neon up the case, Dremel "VOODOO 2 SLI" out one side and spray a giant red Q3 symbol on the other. I'll post a vid to youtube when it's done.

First game I'm gonna install on it? .... System Shock 2! :D