Trying to get just a little more power out of my Mystic Color Classic for Leisure Suit Larry 7

[AeSix]

my thoughts, which, just random neurons firing in my thought bucket...

An FPU won't help with the game, but maybe it'd relieve some of the background processes? Probably not, IDK. I replaced my LC040 with a full 040, with a speed bump(33 to 40mhz), but haven't modded the board yet, and there's no real change between the old and new CPU (Performa 640CD)

Have you tried lowering the resolution or color bit depth? Not sure if either are possible without negating LSL7 requirements. Might be worth a shot though, if you can. There was a game back in the day ('93/94) that I loved to play, but it was horrendous on my Mac... I learned to love playing i in gray scale at home (at school, I could play it in full color... with teacher permission, of course!)

Make sure cache is turned on? My P640CD is a LOT quicker with cache turned on.

The last two things I can think of: RAM disk (to copy the game to before playing) and 60ns RAM...
I don' tknow if either of these would be helpful (I'm sure Phipli can chime in - friggen fathoms of Mac info in their head! Amazing!)

 

[joshc]

An FPU won't help with the game, but maybe it'd relieve some of the background processes? Probably not, IDK

I don't think so. Very little software uses the FPU. It was really for very specific math functions mostly.

 

[shadedream]

I haven't tried the game, but as others have said: Virtual Memory off, 256 colors and system 7.5 would probably be your best bet for pushing a little more speed out of it as is.

You can overclock the 575 board (may or may not need a faster CPU? or a heatsink at least) but it's not as simple as clock chipping some machines and you'll need faster vram to get it to 40mhz.

Eric Bylenga :: Welcome

 

[Phipli]

and 60ns RAM...

On old macs the RAM runs at a fixed speed, so faster RAM's only benefits are that it runs cooler and uses less electricity. Fitting 60ns RAM to a computer that requires 80ns RAM just means you run the 60ns RAM at 80ns.

Except if you overclock, but that isn't anything to do with the RAM (although you do want faster RAM than Apple Specified in an overclocked machine, if possible).

 

[AeSix]

On old macs the RAM runs at a fixed speed, so faster RAM's only benefits are that it runs cooler and uses less electricity. Fitting 60ns RAM to a computer that requires 80ns RAM just means you run the 60ns RAM at 80ns.

Except if you overclock, but that isn't anything to do with the RAM (although you do want faster RAM than Apple Specified in an overclocked machine, if possible).

I watched a vid some time back about RAM speeds, though it was centered more around DDR, not older stuff. The guy was saying that any memory can be utilized as a slower speed, but sometimes the modules aren't as quality as they say. So, basically, in this case using faster modules ensure there's absolutely no bottleneck from lower quality modules that might be holding back just enough to still be within spec, but enough to cause a tiny delay too...

Yeah, I know probably don't work that way with 72 pin stuff. I did test with 1333 and 1600mhz ram in a system locked to 1333... and the 1600mhz ram did score better than the 1333mhz modules. Same number of sticks, same capacity, 2x 2GBs. I'd rather underclock older components than push them to their limits anyway.

 

[Phipli]

I watched a vid some time back about RAM speeds, though it was centered more around DDR, not older stuff. The guy was saying that any memory can be utilized as a slower speed, but sometimes the modules aren't as quality as they say. So, basically, in this case using faster modules ensure there's absolutely no bottleneck from lower quality modules that might be holding back just enough to still be within spec, but enough to cause a tiny delay too...

Yeah, I know probably don't work that way with 72 pin stuff. I did test with 1333 and 1600mhz ram in a system locked to 1333... and the 1600mhz ram did score better than the 1333mhz modules. Same number of sticks, same capacity, 2x 2GBs. I'd rather underclock older components than push them to their limits anyway.

Yeah, on older machines the ram speed is fixed. The using different RAM speeds thing is a modern RAM thing.

 

[nottomhanks]

Just an interesting point: when I run Marathon on my color Classic Mystic, it skips when booting to 8.1, but runs smoothly when booting to 7.5. Also have Spicy o clock up to 49 Mhz and 60ns VRAM.