One PC that will run most or all Wing Commander games without little or no issues

NikkiNightGZ

Spaceman
Ok I want to know if anyone has any ideas on what the best computer sytem would be the best at running Wing Commander 1 through Prophecy without any or very little issues at all. I posted here a couple years ago when I ahd an Epox AMD Athlon XP system with the BForce 2 chipset and it sucked,because it wouldn't run my Wing Commander games at all using Windows 98SE or Windwos ME. In the past I ahve sued VIA based motherboards and things ran without hassle. Today though like msot people my sytems are Penitum 4's or Athlon 64;s running XP and or Vista and they are too fast to use the old DOS based games on. I have tried DOS Box on the Athlon XP system I sue to ahve and it played the first Wing Commander game ok,but that was using Windwos 2000 abd XP. However when it came to trying to run Wing Commander II on cd I ahd problems trying to mount the drive and make the game run at all. So I want to build or find a system that will work using Windows 98SE or ME,can run all of my Wing Commander games without requiring DOS Box and also one that's not so fast I can't play the game or too slwo to make it unenjoyable. Thanks.
 
Well, I had dosbox all set up on my modern machine until I encountered the blue screen of death. Now, with my drives wiped, I will have to find my old posts on the tech support forum and start from scratch getting the 'ol games back up and running. (See how considerate I am? I could have just re-posted the old questions :rolleyes:)

My lifeline is my old Zeos 486 - it's just not up here in MA. Whenever I'm back in NY at the old crib, however, I can chill with a few peeps and bust a few runs off the 'Claw or the Concordia whenever I want DOS style. That computer plays all of my old games with no difficulties.

The only issue I ever had with that computer, actually, was replacing the CMOS battery. That was a royal pain.
 
So pretty much anything older than a Pentium 4 or a Athlo 64 should run them then. Nothing super fast. I have one system that will play WCIII,but I have tried any other games on fearing it's too fast for say WCI and WCII.
 
Anything faster than a 486 will be too fast for WC1 and 2 - at least some versions of those lack a frame rate limiter. However, DOSbox can run both games well enough that it doesnt matter, check the tech support pages from the CIC main page for help in setting it up.
 
Like Andrewas said, pretty much every modern computer will run WC2 (and all the other DOS WC games) in DOSBox. We have step-by-step instructions in the CIC Tech Support section if you had trouble figuring out what to mount. A powerful XP or Vista system should be able to run all DOS games this way, plus the Windows games. Alternately, a powerful Mac would also be able to run DOSBox and the Mac games, and possibly the Windows one through some emulator/dual boot.
 
Hmm ok thanks. I am considering something like maybe an old dual PIII Slot 1 motherboard or a dual socket 370 motherboard. So hopefully that way I can run Win98SE or ME(dread doing that) and also be able to run XP. I have an old Athlon 500Mhhz that I use to paly WC3 on, but I kind of want somethign different a bit more up to date. I know that PIII's are obsolete and a 486 everyone charges too mcuh for them. My fear is the FICSD11 board I'm suing will craok one day after I;ve vested a lot of time into it. Remeber the Compaq Presario 5000 series? My wife had oen and she had nothign but problems with and that's the same board sued in those,but I ahven't had any problems so far. I jsut want soemthing that will run DosBox,and has components available for the actual system that's not too old and outdated and that nobody will charge me an arm and a leg for. ~~~ eBay has 486 machines,but for what the sellers are askingfor them I could build an Athlon XP,P3 system for that if not less.
 
I am considering something like maybe an old dual PIII Slot 1 motherboard or a dual socket 370 motherboard.

Oo, go for a socket 370 that supports the Tualatin processors. Then you could get two 1.4Ghz Pentium 3-Ses and increase the FSB to 150Mhz equalling in 1.8Ghz. :D That’s like having a dual Pentium 4 2.4Ghz machine. Good as a server too. :D Alternatively you could just go for the 1.13Ghz Pentium 3-Ses.

The good thing with that setup is that you can easily put in an old school 533Mhz Celeron if need be. :D
 
Best PC for WC

Is probably the most screaming fast box you can find, core 2 duo for sure, get dosbox on there. I don't know if it's upto handling privateer yet I was getting severe slowdowns in dogfights with my dualcore AMD X2 cpu. I would suggest a voodoo 2 if you want to be really compatible. for an older system something along the lines of a p1 133-166 mhz p2 333 is too fast for priv2 I found, max ram and voodoo 2/3/highest voodoo made. with a 3do blaster, a dvd drive creative 3do cdrom drive, and a dxr2 card. soundblaster audio of course. so that's 4 expansion cards and 2 disc drives, and will let you play super wing commander 1,2,3,4,prophecy, academy, armada, all addons, privateer, privateer 2. I think that's the entire series right there.
 
Well I do have an Asus M2N32 Vista Premium mobo and running Vista Home Prem 32 bit. It's a Janky system. I've looked around for an older mobo or 486,but man they're asking a ton for 486's these days. A dual PIII at least a dual socket 370 has no AGP. Seems only dual Slot 1's have an aGP slot. I know PCI cards are decent,but I want to be able to run 98SE as well as say XP Pro on one system. So something not too fast and not too slow. I'm going to keep looking.
 
Well I do have an Asus M2N32 Vista Premium mobo and running Vista Home Prem 32 bit. It's a Janky system. I've looked around for an older mobo or 486,but man they're asking a ton for 486's these days. A dual PIII at least a dual socket 370 has no AGP. Seems only dual Slot 1's have an aGP slot. I know PCI cards are decent,but I want to be able to run 98SE as well as say XP Pro on one system. So something not too fast and not too slow. I'm going to keep looking.

That sucks about the no AGP. I think the best Geforce you can get is a 256MB GeForce FX 5200. I know you can get a PCI Radion X1300 or similar.

You could try underclocking a Pentium Pro. :D
 
I'd strongly suggest to avoid any GeForce 5 / GeForce FX series cards. That one was a lackluster generation for Nvidia and is much slower then the ATI cards of the same generation.
 
I'd strongly suggest to avoid any GeForce 5 / GeForce FX series cards. That one was a lackluster generation for Nvidia and is much slower then the ATI cards of the same generation.

I've had both a GeforceFX and various ATI cards. I've always had better experiences with the nVidia cards. Since speed isn't much of a factor here, I wouldn't have any problems recommending a Geforce FX.
 
I've had both a GeforceFX and various ATI cards. I've always had better experiences with the nVidia cards. Since speed isn't much of a factor here, I wouldn't have any problems recommending a Geforce FX.

What I always loved about ATI is the bumpmapping they have. Man, tiles look awesome in every game You play! But i still have more love to NVIDIA.
 
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