Retro PC Build

[ThatCalvineguy]

I'm planning to build a computer with circa 1999 parts to play p99. I know it's not strictly necessary, but I'm a sucker for old computers.

Naturally, I started with an appropriate processor. EQ required a Pentium MMX clocked at 166mhz as a baseline, so a Pentium 2 at 400mhz should do nicely. Not only were they available for a couple of years at that point, but they're also 5 dollars on eBay.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Pentium_II.jpg/992px-Pentium_II.jpg

Finding motherboards that accept this motherboard shouldn't be too difficult, as the giant processor slot shouldn't be hard to spot.

[Naethyn]

Pentium III or better
512 MB RAM
NVIDIA GForce 3 / ATI Radeon 8500 equivalent or greater
Direct X Compatible sound card
56k + Internet connection
16X CD-ROM
3.0 GB Hard drive space
Direct X 9.0

[Ravager]

I had an old Aptiva that I played original EQ on back in 99 on Windows 98, but ended up giving it away a while back. Wish I kept it, however, when I gave it away I remember it being very underpowered for any kind of use. Even with a fresh reformat, reinstall, etc, it just couldn't do anything useful. The old web browsers couldn't handle modern websites and the new web browsers would hang and freeze. I wouldn't expect it to run Titanium without a lot of problems.

That said, Godspeed on your quest!

[Budder]

AMD K6-3 450 I believe is what I had. Crazy thing is the game will probably run excellent like that. Seems the faster and and more powerful your system the more problems you have with lag and crashes.

[Mblake81]

Thumbs up, OP

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2965241&postcount=2

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=337491

[Savok]

Pentium III or better
512 MB RAM
NVIDIA GForce 3 / ATI Radeon 8500 equivalent or greater
Direct X Compatible sound card
56k + Internet connection
16X CD-ROM
3.0 GB Hard drive space
Direct X 9.0

This, your circa 1999 PC isn't going to play p99 or most EQ emulators.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

This, your circa 1999 PC isn't going to play p99 or most EQ emulators.

Yup. I do not believe any emulator is using a client from 2001 or earlier. This means all clients being used have newer system and driver requirements to keep up with the graphical changes and improvements they made over the timeline.

[Mblake81]

NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro (GeForce2 Ultra) graphics card, Turtle Beach Montego II Quadzilla Aureal Vortex 2 sound card

Or a Soundblaster Live! (Everquest midi had a custom soundfont it loaded onto the Live and Awe series cards, as it was written for them.)

The music for EQ started coming together as early as 1995 and was composed with the AWE32 soundcard in mind. By the late 90s most games moved away from MIDI soundtracks but EQ still supported ONLY the AWE32 and Sound Blaster Live! cards for hardware sound. From what I can tell, this is because the game client loaded a special EQ soundfont into the card which loaded instruments and drums unique to the game in addition to calling upon instruments native to the cards EMU8000 midi synth chip.

Miss that real punch. (https://twitter.com/lazygamereviews/status/1352706209913049090)

https://i.imgur.com/byJGNHL.jpg

[Mblake81]

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20020064718

Crystal River is a now a subsidiary of Aureal Semiconductor, Inc. and they together develop and market the technology, which is a 3-D (three dimensional) audio technology known commercially today as Aureal 3D (A-3D). The technology has been incorporated into video games, surround sound systems, and sound cards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_River_Engineering

Crystal River Engineering Inc. was an American technology company best known for their pioneering work in HRTF based real-time binaural, or 3D sound processing hardware and software. The company was founded in 1989 by Scott Foster after he received a contract from NASA to create the audio component of VIEW (Virtual Environment Workstation Project), a Virtual Reality based training simulator for astronauts. Crystal River Engineering was acquired by Aureal Semiconductor in 1996.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3fqE01YYWs