posted 05-25-99 12:48 PM ET        

Here I go...
Pentium 100, 24MB RAM, 2 GB HD, Original Matrox Mystique, 32xMax CD-ROM

Let me tell you, with that kind of setup, you'll understand the *true* meaning of the word S L O W ! Trust me on that one... It takes about 1'30" to 2' to get to SMAC's main menu (800x600 of course), with the movie disabled, plus another 45" or so to load a game (but that depends on map size and number of units)

Let me know what you guys are using, so that I don't feel as destitute anymore

A r e d h r a n . . .
- Not feeling *that* swift moving

posted 05-25-99 01:22 PM ET            

Now I know why it takes so long to turn around your MP turns.

But, seriously, it gives me hope that with the spare parts that I have laying around the house I might be able to put together a clunker that could be networked to my main computer and my wife's for live 3way MP. That is, if I ever make any friends.

posted 05-25-99 02:02 PM ET            

Well my computer is a P166 with 32 megs o' Ram, but it is also a Packard Bell. I don't know which meaning the acronym PB disturbs me the most.

Considering that a work I use a P.II 400 with 96 m. Ram, a 17 inch monitor, and a T1 connection I am always somewhat depressed to use my PC at home. (Though that one has SMAC loaded and this one doesn't, that at least brings a smile to my face.

posted 05-25-99 02:16 PM ET            

Pentium 75 (with busted external cache), 32Mb RAM, 13" Display, ~5Gb Storage

My new system:

Celeron 333 , 64Mb RAM, 19" Display, ~4Gb Storage, Win98 (bleh, bleh, )

SMAC loads pretty fast (~10 secs), but it is still annoying that you have to load it over and over and over again to play PBEM turns. Gripe! Gripe! Gripe!

SMAC loads real nice on a WinNT system (~3 seconds). NTFS is soooooo nice.

posted 05-25-99 02:27 PM ET            

Pentium 200.. 16 megs.. was 32, but **** happens. Generic 25 dollar video card. 32X cd rom that reads slower than my 2x on my 486 (the 2x is a SCSI, but still). 15 inch monitor with a huge ****in magnetic spot in it. That happened because my dumbass friend put my 25 pound subwoofer (just the speaker, no box) for my car down right by the fricken monitor when he took it out of the box it came in. Now all the colors are really ****ed up. the fungus is green and yellow in some areas, and its red in others. and in some spots.. it doesn't even show up. You try playing quake like that... you get killed quick cause you can't see a damn thing. Oh yeah, and I'm stuck with aol. Don't even get me started about that part.

posted 05-25-99 02:58 PM ET            

Until last weekend, my dinosaur was a 486-DX4/100. It wasn't unusual for a turn to take almost an hour in endgames.

posted 05-25-99 09:25 PM ET            

-P233 Mhz MMX
-Generic VXPro+ Motherboard
-128 MB EDO RAM
-ATX MiniTower (cracked and f*cked up)
-16 MB Diamond Monster Fusion (voodoo banshee)
-SoundBlaster Live! Value
-IBM DeskStar 8.4 GB HD
-BTX 32x CD-ROM (makes the table vibrate)
-56k X2/V.90 Modem
-Encore 10/100 PCI Ethernet Adapter
-Boston Acoustics BA-365 Sub w/ sattelites
-Cisco 650 ADSL router
-Linksys 10/100 Ethernet hub
-19" Monitor (.26 dpi), w/ USB hub

My case is ugly as hell 'cuz I took it on a greyhound bus once and it got all banged around. My monitor is brand new as of last week, I have an older 17" hanging around (anyone want it?

Let me just say that ADSL OWNS YOU! 512k/s is almost like having your own personal T1 (well, kinda). My pings in quake are damn near ~80-110 ms, I download at around 30-40k/second, and all for the great price of $60 a month. Wahoo!

posted 05-25-99 09:35 PM ET            

I've been wanting to get ADSL for months now, but it's not available in my neighborhood . And I live in the heart of Silicon Valley!

I don't wanna shell out for ISDN either, only to find out that ADSL was just around the corner. But the folks at PacBell won't give any firm estimates of when ADSL will be available!

posted 05-26-99 05:14 AM ET            

CoolWords... 486 ? I wouldn't even want to play SMAC on that in my worst nightmares !

You know, when I started this thread I just *knew* that some people were going to say something like "I have a Hectium 1500 MHz with 500 TB hard drive and 2 GB RAM" and that I would hate them for it...

So, I hate you all, with your fast machines. But someday, I'll get a faster PC than you, and then I shall rule the world, MWUAHAHAHA

posted 05-26-99 11:35 AM ET            

I also fond that it is hard to play Ironman on it, because whenever I lose a battle I automatically shake it, and thus it reboots my game.

posted 05-26-99 04:03 PM ET         

Cyrix P200+ (a pentium II knockoff at 150MHZ, but since they claimed it was as fast as a Pentium 200, they gave it this name)

64MB ram ....the system's saving grace
3GB hard drive....mostly full
4x CD rom

posted 05-26-99 10:52 PM ET            

It's an IBM Aptiva. Never, NEVER buy one. They game me a break as a student, financially and threw in tons of free software which is why I bought it. But it's not worth the agitta.

P133
1.6 Gb HD
8x CD-ROM
33.6 Mwave soundcard/modem*
32Mb RAM
No 3D anything. I think it's barely 2D...

SMAC works fine once I switched to lo-res caviar. Mmmm.. caviar.

*This piece of crap was standard issue with all Aptivas from that era (1996). It is not compatible with anything. Even with a million or so driver ugrades, the crappy thing is barely recongizable to DirectX. Even now, DirectSound is still sketchy. I had to wait almost half a year to get the upgrade while games like Diablo sat unused in their boxes.

Well, at least I have my health.

posted 05-27-99 05:31 AM ET            

No-one can beat me....

Kingston Turbochip 586/133MHz(Like a P86)... 14"monitor
1mb screencard... 36mbRAM... damn....
It won't start...
Can't even play it....

But my newest one can: AMD K6-2 475Mhz, 128MBRAM, 16MB TNT RIVA 2d/3d! SBLIVE!
Yeap, it rocccks... 17"monitor also

posted 05-27-99 06:55 AM ET            

and I got used to it, at the point that I thought IMPOSSIBLE to play at work on a:

P133
32Mb RAM
1.2 Gb HDD
NO CD-ROM drive (installed from a shared drive, US version doesn't need the CD in to play)
ATI mach64 on-board
NO sound card (well, there's a broken Mozart OAK still in the slot..)
and NT4.0 (luckily with SP4, what about DirectX otherwise?)

posted 05-27-99 08:43 AM ET            

Thinking about upgrading to a Falcon system at Christmas.......

got a Tandy 64 in the closet I would be willing to part with AREDHRAN, for the right price....

posted 05-27-99 08:55 AM ET            

I really make my work PC (100 MHz Pentium clasic) look like a speedy PC

posted 06-01-99 04:24 PM ET            

I have a printout of the SMAC source code, and I go through it line by line and take notes on granite tablets with a blunt chisel.

posted 06-02-99 06:25 AM ET            

My SMAC PC is a P-100 with 80 MB RAM (16 MB real ancient + 64 MB EDO), a 2MB Diamond Stealth card, a 15" monitor; and a 24x CDD but that's irrelevant because I'm not using the CD for fear of scratching it.

posted 06-02-99 10:41 AM ET         

Try pulling those 16 MB out of your computer. Your L2 cache is probably disabled with >64 MB of RAM. That will be slowing your computer down noticeably on anything memory intensive.

posted 06-07-99 06:32 PM ET            

In other words, my system is playable (upgraded to it from a 486 with 16 megs of ram, ouch).

posted 06-09-99 01:30 AM ET            

Micron Millenia Max 450 (how do I overclock?)
128MB RAM (gotta upgrade that already)
16 Gig HD (but will it accomodate Office2000?)
16 MB Video/Accelerator (I guess this helps)
40X CD ROM (fast setups, but no big deal)
Subwoofer, etc. (I alread blew out the subwoofer, piece of ....!)
21" Monitor (NICE! Again, I say, NICE!)

But I fire up the old 486 laptop that I used for years while saving up money just to remind myself how good life is now...it doesn't even have a CD ROM, so I hold it next to my new computer and watch the reflection on the small screen and pretend to play, imagining how slow it would be.

Now if only SMAC didn't leak memory...

Anyway, I paid my tons of money, so might as well be a bastard about it, right? Besides, it's alread out of date. P3s are out. 128MB RAM is 'standard.' They're putting 16 gig hard drives in toy Barneys. Makes me sick.

posted 06-09-99 11:40 AM ET            

p133, 32M RAM
2G hard drive but it's split 1/1
(Linux/Windoze)
12x CD with a couple personality probs
ATI Mach 64gt video card (2M, I think)
SoundBlaster Awe64.
Speakers that came with some cereal I bought, I think.

And I'm fine with the speed of SMAC, except for two times: after I've been playing a long time without a machine reboot (sometimes), and when there's mroe than 3 units on the screen, where apparently it polls each unit about 50 times per second as to what it's doing in the middle of resolving my battle.

posted 06-11-99 03:57 AM ET            

When I started this thread, I never thought it would turn out to be such a troll ! Hey, even Yin responded to it

posted 06-15-99 04:44 AM ET            

I think that is about the crappiest computer you can get SMAC to run on.

posted 06-28-99 07:29 AM ET            

Last week I was browsing the SMAC CD (something I don't usually do since I have a full install), and found that folder in there with "low-res cvr" or something of the sort.

First, I thought "what's this", then I remembered reading somewhere that these were alternate 3D models for SMAC's units, with lower resolution (duh). Anyway, I thought I'd give it a shot, and copied the contents of this directory onto my SMAC folder, replacing all the other .CVR files.

Fire up SMAC and WAOW ! It's actually *much, much faster* (even at 1024x768) . The loss in resolution is not so bad (you can see angles on a rover's armor for example), unit types are still recognizable, even weapons (with a trained, eagle eye ).