Computer Question: Processor slow-down

me | 5/15/12 | Me

[Hazelwood Redneck Brain Trust]

I was wondering if anyone knows how to slow down a processor without mucking things up too badly?

I have a few older video games (D&D - Pools of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, etc...) that we used to play on an old 486 Commodore computer. I want to play them again, but my processor runs way too fast for the game, making it nearly impossible to play.

My brother once told me about some program that is supposed to bog your processor down to slow it (some kind of looping program), but that didnt work either.

So, I thought I would ask some of the smartest people I know... the members of FreeRepublic. (There are always answers to be found here.)

Thank you in advance for any help y'all can give.

[Hazelwood Redneck Brain Trust]

Yes, I know... its sad that I enjoy 25 year old video games. Dungeons and Dragons games at that. LOL.

[krb]

Do you know how to use VMWare or VirtualBox? If you run your game in a virtual machine it might work better.

[bubbacluck]

You could probably buy an older, slower computer on Craigslist for about $50. Some people will even give them away.

Just for those games that need a slower processor.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

DOS Box

[molson209]

Bing ,game emulators ,

[krb]

And there’s this:

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/dosbox_multiplatform_pc_emulator

[rawcatslyentist]

How do you get them to work?

I'm still running xp, and dosbox is just a pain.

[EnigmaticAnomaly]

I actually own those games myself, but I purchased them in a compendium of sorts and I have had no problems playing at all. I will make it a point to send you a FReepmail later once I get home from work and am able to look up the title of the compendium!

I am ADDICTED to those types of games! The classics NEVER get old!

[lefty-lie-spy]

There are many emulators available for free that will do exactly what you want to do. If you have the ROMs in a load able format that you found on the web you can play them. There are plenty of sites that have what you want. Most of the games were made by companies that don’t exist anymore and are immune to copyright issues, so I suggest you start by looking up “MAME” and go from there. You will undoubtedly find what you are looking for by following the links. I have a commodore 64 emulator on my iPhone even, so with enough schutzpah you WILL find what you are looking for.

[SERKIT]

Mo-Slo is an application used for programming of legacy microprocessors that require slower PC processing. I suggest Google or other search engine to find it.

[brandon24]

Dosbox. I use Ctrl-F11 or F12 to do this.

http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Special_Keys

[petro45acp]

If you are running windoze vista or later, install the game, right click on the executable (or the shortcut, think either will work) select properties, and find the compatibility mode tab or widget. From there, find the recommended os/processor combination that matches your game, and apply/ok/done it.

This should get your game running at the speed it was intended.

Good luck,
Go Geek!

[Hazelwood Redneck Brain Trust]

I am running XP as well.

What problems have you had w/Dosbox? It looks like it will do what I want, but doesnt look user friendly for the non-computer person.

I have an old ‘98 machine (I think its Win98 on it) that I am hoping to be running Dosbox through, as it is just an old extra computer that I have and can dedicate it to such uses.

[Hazelwood Redneck Brain Trust]

Sweeet.

Mine is from a compendium of sorts as well... called “Gamefest” “14 Forgotten Realms Classics”.

What are you running yours on? I have tried running Pools of Radiance before but it was so fast as to be unplayable.

I agree - they never get old.
When we were teenagers we had mapped the entire mines of Secret of The Silver Blades, using desktop-blotter sized sheets of graph paper. I am wanting to do that again, only starting with Pools. (New Phlan, the slums, Sokul Keep, etc...)

Would appreciate any info you have to share! Thx!

[joe fonebone]

anybody here play panzer general 2? It crashes on my windows 7, even if I change the display resolution...

[brandon24]

These days many technical computer tasks can be learned by just watching a youtube video. Here is one that shows the mounting of the C:\ drive to run your DOSBOX games. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqFQu4ueC8s

Just watch a few videos and you’ll see DOSBOX is pretty easy. All you do basically is mount your games drive, change to that directory, and run the executable for the game (e.g. game.exe). Sometimes if sound doesnt work you need to run the setup.exe or config.exe or whatever “.exe” to configure the sound. I always just choose plain Soundblaster with the defaults settings for it. Then finally if the game is too fast or slow use CTRL-F11 or F12 to adjust it.

[I still care]

We love them. We do this all the time. Right now we are playing Eye of the Beholder 2. With XP Dosbox is working just fine.

The FReeper who suggested Craigslist for an older computer is correct. Right now we have 3 old computers on there for $20 each. We can’t even give them away, but we don’t want to throw them out - seems wasteful. And you can’t ship them anywhere. Just check local Craigslist.

WINE for Linux I have found to run older (95 or 98) Windows programs very well, actually better than new Windows programs.

BTW, CommodoreUSA has a linux based operating system that has everything for linux pre-installed - we’ve been having fun playing with that. Just fun to see Commodore up again.

[WKUHilltopper]

for later

[freedomlover]

Install Windows 2000.

[backwoods-engineer]

+1 to all those who have recommended the free DOSBOX. I use it not only for games (Xargon, baby!) but also for old ham radio programs written for DOS for which there is not source code available.

Works great. Even emulates the SoundBlaster 16 and other weird old hardware.