The Giants game I actually have and have never played before. Way back in the early 2000's I found a bunch of video games at the Dollar Tree store. Most were two games per package for a $1 each package so I purchased all they had. Well, one of each kind. Anyway, I just went and checked and your system seems to meet the system requirements as long as the video card has 8 megs of video ram. Something tells me the poor performance is the CPU not being fully utilized. I didn't notice you changing the FSB and as for the BIOS version, many, and I mean many, motherboards were shipped on the very 1st stable BIOS versions back then. I literally would update the BIOS in any new PC I built when customers ordered a new PC. I can't count how often the version that shipped wouldn't be listed on the manufacturers website because they would release a new BIOS version that was more stable. Actual Intel made MB's it was far rarer as they shipped boards out that were generally up to date. I recently recreated my first gaming PC build, a Win98 P2 350mhz with a Voodoo 2 3DFX card and 64MB ram. I will install the Giants game and see how it performs on my system. My Win98 PC meets the requirements so maybe I will have different results. Be an interesting test.
@@NerdyForge yes your right he cpu is not being utilized completely cause it's a 1 GHz running at 750 MHz. So I do need to update the bios. The only problem while searching for the program to flash the bios I found one but I don't feel confident on using it on this system and simply ruin it. So I'm looking for a way to copy the original bios and try to install the new bios... I might get a rom to do so. Definitely let me know how your system handles that game I know back in the day I had a lot of problems playing it on my brother-in-law's computer which was a Pentium 3, 650 MHz and 512 MB of RAM and ATI rage card and it ran very poorly. It's a really fun game and very addictive when it wasn't slowing down. Usually a boss battle or when a lot of enemies are after you.
@@theObsoleteTechie For the BIOS updating, the update software should require a bootable floppy, a file to update the BIOS, and a BIOS file. The updater should have an option to backup the original BIOS in the menu. Then you are also presented with an option to update the BIOS. Keep in mind, there are tools to attach directly to the BIOS chip and grant the ability to read, write, and backup the BIOS as well. I will test out the game and report back my findings but based on you PC specs, it should of had no problems running.
The best you can upgrade a Pentium 3 is a Tualatin. Which there are converters for slot and socket. I converted a slot 840 Rambus board. You can go a step further with Pentium 4, and buy a PCIe adapter with a low profile video card. You only need NX bit support for Windows 10. The Pentium 3 maxes out with a x800 Radeon. Pentium 4 can do dx12. I prefer the Radeon 8500 AIW on a Pentium 3. If you are running Windows 98, there is KernelEx to run XP software. People used to claim you could run Linux on older CPUs, but NO THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE, as Linux has required a minimum of Pentium 4 and Vulkan support to be even vaguely useable. So it's only useful to run old Windows. You also have the best support on Windows for hardware and software. People are no longer helpful and respectful of running old hardware online. Polaris video cards do not support Windows 7 32 bit, which I believe is an artificial limitation, but NOBODY respects the attempt to get it working. This is only a problem for old Pentium 4s without NX bit support, newer Pentium 4s support NX. You would think Linux is better than Windows 7, but it has the SAME limitations with worse performance and driver support. Firefox ESR on Linux with no hardware video codec support, or steam. Windows 7 or 10 is literally the best you can run on Pentium 4, while 98 and XP for Pentium 3. If you want a sound card, the BEST for 98 is a Vortex 2, creative for XP. Vortex 2 has raytraced audio, and no MIDI bug for Roland support. I would recommend those MIDI addon boards. You can also install a voodoo2 along side any AGP card.
Thank you for your insight. I would definitely love to try something like that but I know I lack the knowledge on how to do this... I might be tempted to try though. lol...thank you for your comment.
Good point... I'll have to check the bios but I do remember the original memory stick is pc100 and the new ones I installed are pc133. I can't recall changing the fsb on the bios I might have messed with the settings because I was trying to figure why the new processor was not being detected at its full speed. I do remember that the integrated GPU would benefit on the fsb change but I'll definitely look into that. I just can't remember what settings I changed.
The Giants game I actually have and have never played before. Way back in the early 2000's I found a bunch of video games at the Dollar Tree store. Most were two games per package for a $1 each package so I purchased all they had. Well, one of each kind. Anyway, I just went and checked and your system seems to meet the system requirements as long as the video card has 8 megs of video ram.
Something tells me the poor performance is the CPU not being fully utilized. I didn't notice you changing the FSB and as for the BIOS version, many, and I mean many, motherboards were shipped on the very 1st stable BIOS versions back then. I literally would update the BIOS in any new PC I built when customers ordered a new PC. I can't count how often the version that shipped wouldn't be listed on the manufacturers website because they would release a new BIOS version that was more stable. Actual Intel made MB's it was far rarer as they shipped boards out that were generally up to date.
I recently recreated my first gaming PC build, a Win98 P2 350mhz with a Voodoo 2 3DFX card and 64MB ram. I will install the Giants game and see how it performs on my system. My Win98 PC meets the requirements so maybe I will have different results. Be an interesting test.
@@NerdyForge yes your right he cpu is not being utilized completely cause it's a 1 GHz running at 750 MHz. So I do need to update the bios. The only problem while searching for the program to flash the bios I found one but I don't feel confident on using it on this system and simply ruin it. So I'm looking for a way to copy the original bios and try to install the new bios... I might get a rom to do so. Definitely let me know how your system handles that game I know back in the day I had a lot of problems playing it on my brother-in-law's computer which was a Pentium 3, 650 MHz and 512 MB of RAM and ATI rage card and it ran very poorly. It's a really fun game and very addictive when it wasn't slowing down. Usually a boss battle or when a lot of enemies are after you.
@@theObsoleteTechie For the BIOS updating, the update software should require a bootable floppy, a file to update the BIOS, and a BIOS file. The updater should have an option to backup the original BIOS in the menu. Then you are also presented with an option to update the BIOS.
Keep in mind, there are tools to attach directly to the BIOS chip and grant the ability to read, write, and backup the BIOS as well. I will test out the game and report back my findings but based on you PC specs, it should of had no problems running.
The best you can upgrade a Pentium 3 is a Tualatin. Which there are converters for slot and socket. I converted a slot 840 Rambus board. You can go a step further with Pentium 4, and buy a PCIe adapter with a low profile video card. You only need NX bit support for Windows 10. The Pentium 3 maxes out with a x800 Radeon. Pentium 4 can do dx12. I prefer the Radeon 8500 AIW on a Pentium 3. If you are running Windows 98, there is KernelEx to run XP software. People used to claim you could run Linux on older CPUs, but NO THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE, as Linux has required a minimum of Pentium 4 and Vulkan support to be even vaguely useable. So it's only useful to run old Windows. You also have the best support on Windows for hardware and software. People are no longer helpful and respectful of running old hardware online. Polaris video cards do not support Windows 7 32 bit, which I believe is an artificial limitation, but NOBODY respects the attempt to get it working. This is only a problem for old Pentium 4s without NX bit support, newer Pentium 4s support NX. You would think Linux is better than Windows 7, but it has the SAME limitations with worse performance and driver support. Firefox ESR on Linux with no hardware video codec support, or steam. Windows 7 or 10 is literally the best you can run on Pentium 4, while 98 and XP for Pentium 3. If you want a sound card, the BEST for 98 is a Vortex 2, creative for XP. Vortex 2 has raytraced audio, and no MIDI bug for Roland support. I would recommend those MIDI addon boards. You can also install a voodoo2 along side any AGP card.
Thank you for your insight. I would definitely love to try something like that but I know I lack the knowledge on how to do this... I might be tempted to try though. lol...thank you for your comment.
Like! Wasn't it possible to set the FSB from the bios from 100 to 133 ?
Good point... I'll have to check the bios but I do remember the original memory stick is pc100 and the new ones I installed are pc133. I can't recall changing the fsb on the bios I might have messed with the settings because I was trying to figure why the new processor was not being detected at its full speed. I do remember that the integrated GPU would benefit on the fsb change but I'll definitely look into that. I just can't remember what settings I changed.