New Member Intro

[InnateGamer]

I'm quite new too, both here and my blog. I'm not new to the Civ series though, I've pretty much been a Sid Meier fan ever since the stuff began back in the day. The AI has always been bad though.

[ScottBoy]

Hey Guys,

New member to the forums, but have lurked around for some time.

I have recently been doing a lot of travel by train and rediscovered CIV 1 via DOSBOX. The simplicity has me hooked again. Originally shown Civ by a friend who had CIVNET. I found CIV dos version in a bargin bin at my local Tandy store around 1996 and have been playing ever since.

[Tatopari]

Hi everybody,

I'm new in forums, too.but playing Civ Dos from 90's and never give up since then. Although I played the other versions for shorttime, I still like CivI most!

[Mike_1968]

Hi,

My name is Mike & I just joined the forum.

I played Civilization and Colonization years ago.

However, I just obtained a copy of Civilization, from "FleaBay"
on 3.5" floppies and installed it on my "DOS Legacy" computer.

Talk about bring back old memories.

"DOS Legacy" computer Specs:

Asus P5A ATX Motherboard
Pentium 233mHz MMX CPU
256MB PC100 SDRAM (2x 128MB)
64 MB 3DfX Voodoo5 5500 (AGP)
3Com 10/100 Ethernet Card (PCI)
USRobotics 56K (ISA)
Creative Labs Awe 64 (ISA)
A: 3.5" Floppy
B: 5.25" Floppy
Drive 0- Western Digital 10GB
Drive 1- Western Digital 10GB
Drive 2- Western Digital 20GB
Drive 3- Creative Labs 8x CD-ROM
Desktop Case
300 Watt PSU

System Commander Dual Boot Setup

DOS & WIN 3.11 BOOT (DRIVE 0 & 3)
----------------------
C: 2GB partition
D: 2GB partition
E: 2GB partition
F: 2GB partition
G: 2GB partition
H: Creative Labs 8x CD-ROM

WIN98SE BOOT (DRIVE 1, 2 & 3)
-----------------------------
C: 10GB partition
D: 20GB partition
E: Creative Labs 8x CD-ROM

[Whelkman]

Interesting setup. I assume there's a reason for the Pentium I over a K6 II or III. Otherwise that's about as good as it gets for a Super 7. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't only 64-128 MB RAM actually cached?

[Mike_1968]

Originally Posted by Whelkman

Interesting setup. I assume there's a reason for the Pentium I over a K6 II or III. Otherwise that's about as good as it gets for a Super 7.

It's just what I had laying around at the time I built this legacy box last year.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't only 64-128 MB RAM actually cached?

64MB is the limit for DOS, and I'm not sure about windows 3.11. I rarely use it, it's just on the system for nostalgic purposes.

Win 98 has a limit of 2 GB of useable memory, however there is a bug with the memory managenment and problems may occour (BSoD's) when you install more than 512 MB of RAM.

[Whelkman]

I meant RAM cacheable by machine. Until the Pentium II, which had an integrated cache controller, it was common for motherboard manufacturers to cache less than the full potential amount to save a little money on components (specifically, something called Tag RAM). Looking up your board, it does appear to exhibit this problem, though at 128 MB rather than the more common 64 MB:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/116

Unfortunately, the current design of the ALi Aladdin V Chipset only allows for the first 128MB of RAM to be cached, meaning anything above that would end up slowing you down more than it could possible speed you up.

This would mean that you could increase performance by removing memory. A common workaround back in the day was to create a RAM drive in the uncached region and use it as swap.

[Mike_1968]

Originally Posted by Whelkman

I meant RAM cacheable by machine. Until the Pentium II, which had an integrated cache controller, it was common for motherboard manufacturers to cache less than the full potential amount to save a little money on components (specifically, something called Tag RAM). Looking up your board, it does appear to exhibit this problem, though at 128 MB rather than the more common 64 MB:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/116

This would mean that you could increase performance by removing memory. A common workaround back in the day was to create a RAM drive in the uncached region and use it as swap.

Well I removed 1 128MB stick of RAM and it seems to run a bit better when I boot to Windows 89SE, I really haven't noticed any performance gains when playing Civ in DOS.

I did however bid on, and win, a brand new, sealed in retail box, AMD K6-2 500mHz CPU from Ebay.

[Whelkman]

Originally Posted by Mike_1968

Well I removed 1 128MB stick of RAM and it seems to run a bit better when I boot to Windows 89SE

Understandable, cache helps a lot in Windows, even 3.x

Originally Posted by Mike_1968

I really haven't noticed any performance gains when playing Civ in DOS.

Also understandable as Civ was designed around the 8088 through 386, which were cachless, and cache isn't huge in games in general.

Originally Posted by Mike_1968

I did however bid on, and win, a brand new, sealed in retail box, AMD K6-2 500mHz CPU from Ebay.

LOL, I've got you buying components. I should have offered to mail you a K6. I'm pretty sure I have a K6-II 450 or something lying around here somewhere.

I'm pretty sure this is the memory manager that loads a ramdrive into the "cacheless" region:

http://johnson.tmfc.net/dos/driver.html

[wujinlong]

Hi everybody

[Aumo]

Civ I is by far the best !

[kassuper]

Heya thought I'd go ahead and introduce myself here as well, long time fan of civ1. Usually play on king difficulty because emperor (although doable) gets a bit frustrating at times lol.

[Dark_Nephi]

Dark_Nephi = Guy
Im originally from Texas but currently reside in Utah
studied Bio-Environmental Science at Texas A&M
Married for a year now.. baby on the way and we have a super cute puppy named Kila (toy aussie)
work as a microbiologist
been playing civilization since it was released in the 90's but mostly play battlefield 3 and 2, art of war, age of empires 2, and GTA 4.

[ILikeOldCiv]

I played Civ 1 on the Amiga 500.

Had no clue what I was doing at first, but I knew it was a lot of fun.

[Lao]

I am. Lao. I'm. New here.
I. comefrom Lao
I. Like. Civ1
Hello. Verybody