Well, over the weekend I installed Windows XP on the new Athlon I got a while back. I could only barely jump through hoops to have Windows 98 recognize my Gravis Grip (sorry, they called it the GrIP) four controller hub. I'm not even going to try for Windows XP.
I had a Gravis Exterminator (sorry, they called it the X-Terminator) gamepad at one point, but I'll be damned if I can locate it. God only knows what happened to it.
Has anyone picked up a gamepad recently? I hate to say it, but the inferior styling and functionality of the PS2 controller has really "grown" on me. Anything out there like that? I'm probably OK with not getting another Gravis gamepad. Their customer support (sorry, they call it "butt fucking") has really left me a bit gunshy in giving them any more money.
Gamepads.
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Gamepads.
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Jack Straw
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Jack Straw
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I think there are USB ones, I've had plans for a parallel version for awhile.
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Roody_Yogurt
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Hmm... looks like you can get a two-port USB adapter for a PS2 joystick though this guy on eBay... link!
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!
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Jack Straw
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Hey! Looks like they have a four-port version as well. Keen.
I do hate the button layout on the PS and PS2 controllers for the right hand, but I already have four of them... I wouldn't need to get another joystick if I got the four-port USB hub.
(And, it would allow my PC to run four joysticks again, which is inexplicably very important to me. I don't know why. Oh, right, in case Mike comes over to play Front Page Sports sometime.)
I do hate the button layout on the PS and PS2 controllers for the right hand, but I already have four of them... I wouldn't need to get another joystick if I got the four-port USB hub.
(And, it would allow my PC to run four joysticks again, which is inexplicably very important to me. I don't know why. Oh, right, in case Mike comes over to play Front Page Sports sometime.)
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!
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Jack Straw
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Mike Sherwin
Front Page Sports
Yeah you goddamned psycho. You would need a four port "gaming" device just to play me in Front Page Sports Football 98. You also need 3 keyboards and two monitors just to get through a season you poor sport-temper tantrum throwing bitch.
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Re: Front Page Sports
Yes! Well, no. Admittedly. I wouldn't need it to be four ports, but dude. DUDE! We would have four ports available!Mike Sherwin wrote:Yeah you goddamned psycho. You would need a four port "gaming" device just to play me in Front Page Sports Football 98.
Think of it!
We could all crowd around my non-flatscreen monitor in the corner of my bedroom and strain to look at dudes running around at 1024x768 resolution for NHL Hockey or Basketball or something.
Good times! Not bad times. Good times!
Only when my guys don't tackle. Otherwise, I am a pleasant, engaging and altogether friendly competitor! You have to admit that's true. I was nice to Fodge and Bundy when we were running through them in NFL Street like a knife going through butter on a hot day in July, NATCH!!!You also need 3 keyboards and two monitors just to get through a season you poor sport-temper tantrum throwing bitch.
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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An exciting conclusion to this thread!
My old sound card was an ISA Sound Blaster. The Athlon motherboard I picked up supported on-board audio... and had no ISA slots.
God damn 'em.
"Ah, well. No sweat. I'll just use the free on-board audio solution," thought I. And I did! And it's not bad. It set up audio channels much better than I had for my Windows 98 system -- for instance, it used to be when I started AIM after having Winamp open, AIM wouldn't make any noise. No longer! AIM mewls and kitcalls with every fucking message I get, interrupting the "Club 977" All 80s station I have playing from Shoutcast.
(OK, an aside. I had no idea that Internet radio was so easy. Vitriola pointed me to Shoutcast and it's been commercial-free radio every night at Apartment L201 ever since. That, more than anything else, validates the net.)
There was one downside to using on-board audio, though.... no fucking gameport!
"No!" -- Everyone
"Yes!!" -- ICJ
What a bunch of penny-pinching ass mags. Don't they know you need that shit if you have a joystick that runs off a gameport? Don't they know that you kind of need that for MIDI? I had an old two-port gamecard with two DOS-compatible joystick ports that I was gonna throw on... only it's an ISA card. And my new mobo won't run it.
Anyway, I bought the four-port USB PS2-to-x86 hub. I'm going to use it to destroy Parrish in both Cyberball, Jr. Pac Man and life over the Internet once we find a Kallieria server.
(Kaillera lets you play MAME games over the Internet.... but more on that in another thread.)
My old sound card was an ISA Sound Blaster. The Athlon motherboard I picked up supported on-board audio... and had no ISA slots.
God damn 'em.
"Ah, well. No sweat. I'll just use the free on-board audio solution," thought I. And I did! And it's not bad. It set up audio channels much better than I had for my Windows 98 system -- for instance, it used to be when I started AIM after having Winamp open, AIM wouldn't make any noise. No longer! AIM mewls and kitcalls with every fucking message I get, interrupting the "Club 977" All 80s station I have playing from Shoutcast.
(OK, an aside. I had no idea that Internet radio was so easy. Vitriola pointed me to Shoutcast and it's been commercial-free radio every night at Apartment L201 ever since. That, more than anything else, validates the net.)
There was one downside to using on-board audio, though.... no fucking gameport!
"No!" -- Everyone
"Yes!!" -- ICJ
What a bunch of penny-pinching ass mags. Don't they know you need that shit if you have a joystick that runs off a gameport? Don't they know that you kind of need that for MIDI? I had an old two-port gamecard with two DOS-compatible joystick ports that I was gonna throw on... only it's an ISA card. And my new mobo won't run it.
Anyway, I bought the four-port USB PS2-to-x86 hub. I'm going to use it to destroy Parrish in both Cyberball, Jr. Pac Man and life over the Internet once we find a Kallieria server.
(Kaillera lets you play MAME games over the Internet.... but more on that in another thread.)
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!
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Jethro Q. Walrustitty
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1) MS Sidewinder is not a horrible gamepad. Any more than every gamepad is. I still long for the days of real joysticks.
2) PS2 adapters can be decent if you get the right one. Big S bought one to hook up dance pads to her laptop to play Stepmania, and it appears to work very well (after a little fiddling. Actually, I think a little toggle switch was set wrong.)
3) Onboard audio is usually quite good nowadays. In fact, my home theater PC is going to have the nVidia "Soundstorm", which is on only a few nForce 2 mbs, which dynamically encodes all audio into Dolby Digital. This means one single digital cable from PC to receiver. Otherwise, you need a bunch of analog connections. Ugh. No standalone sound card can do it, no other built-in system can do it. I also expect that my next main system will use onboard sound and I'll retire my Audigy card (or put it in the wife's computer, which, let's face it, is sort of the same thing.)
4) I downloaded the latest version of the Windows port of Duke Nukem 3D the other day. Perfect or nearly so. One less reason to worry about DOS any more. Though supposedly the LAN gaming isn't 100% finished yet... but at least a year or two ago, a Windows multiplayer-only port of Blood was basically perfect, so they should be able to handle Duke easily enough.
5) Most every motherboard with onboard sound has headers for a gameport. It's there. Some motherboards include the actual port as well. If not, you can usually pick one up for cheap. But really, unless you're in cuddly love with your old gameport-joystick, dump it and buy a shiny new USB one and be done with it.
2) PS2 adapters can be decent if you get the right one. Big S bought one to hook up dance pads to her laptop to play Stepmania, and it appears to work very well (after a little fiddling. Actually, I think a little toggle switch was set wrong.)
3) Onboard audio is usually quite good nowadays. In fact, my home theater PC is going to have the nVidia "Soundstorm", which is on only a few nForce 2 mbs, which dynamically encodes all audio into Dolby Digital. This means one single digital cable from PC to receiver. Otherwise, you need a bunch of analog connections. Ugh. No standalone sound card can do it, no other built-in system can do it. I also expect that my next main system will use onboard sound and I'll retire my Audigy card (or put it in the wife's computer, which, let's face it, is sort of the same thing.)
4) I downloaded the latest version of the Windows port of Duke Nukem 3D the other day. Perfect or nearly so. One less reason to worry about DOS any more. Though supposedly the LAN gaming isn't 100% finished yet... but at least a year or two ago, a Windows multiplayer-only port of Blood was basically perfect, so they should be able to handle Duke easily enough.
5) Most every motherboard with onboard sound has headers for a gameport. It's there. Some motherboards include the actual port as well. If not, you can usually pick one up for cheap. But really, unless you're in cuddly love with your old gameport-joystick, dump it and buy a shiny new USB one and be done with it.