Computer upgrade and Myst3

Factual Questions
1

I have some questions about Myst 3 and my computer. (First let me say that I don’t know a lot about computers.) I bought this game and it didn’t work at all. Then I downloaded the patch version 1.22. Now it sort of works for about a minute or so. The New Game screen comes up, but the mouse is really slow. It asks for the second disc, and then the problems begin. The first time I tried it a movie started playing, but the sound and video were really choppy. After a few seconds, my computer crashed (I think). The sound got “stuck” like a broken record. The picture became rows of test pattern looking things. I tried the game again. This time, after popping in the second disc, black and white vertical lines appeared. A couple of times a blue screen popped up: the first one said it couldn’t read the disc. The second one said there was an error. (I don’t know which kind)

Now for the questions:
Were these problems due to a bug in the software or were the system requirements not met?
The system requirements are:
 Windows 95/98/ME
 233 MHz Pentium II or 300 MHz K6-2 or faster
 64 MB RAM
 250 MB Available Hard Disk Space
 4X CD-ROM drive or faster
 3D Acceleration Optional
 Required 8MB Video Card
 Supporting 32-bit color
 DirectX 8 compatible SoundVideo Cards

I have:
 Windows 98
 Cyrix 6x86MX, MMX, ~233MHz (how does this compare with a Pentium?)
 62 MB RAM
 187 MB free hard drive space
 I don’t know how to find the CD-ROM drive info
 I don’t think I have a video card or
 Supporting 32-bit color or
 DirectX 8 compatible SoundVideo Cards ( how do I find out)
Is it worth upgrading my computer?
My computer works fine for what I use it for, but it could perform better. I just want to play this game.

Should I buy more RAM or get another hard drive? What’s the difference?
I thought about buying a zip drive and saving a bunch of movie clips and pictures, then deleting them off of my hard drive. Is this a viable solution?

Should I by a better video card?
I think I saw one that said it had 128MB. Would that work? Also, would it improve the quality of some movie clips I downloaded?

Should I get another sound card?

Should I do all of the above?
Like I said, although my computer could run better, I only want to play this game.

Last question (OH THANK GOD!) Are these things that I can do myself?
I replaced my modem with no difficulty. Would this be the same?

I hope you can help and I appreciate anyone who read this post. It was 2 pages long on Word!

2

Your computer doesn’t come close to running Myst 3. When they say ‘minimum requirements’ they mean it. In almost all cases I’ve seen running a game on a PC that equals the minimum requirements only means the game will technically run…not be playable. Your machine doesn’t even meet those specs. I also seriously doubt your video and/or soundcard are DirectX 8 compliant.

In short…buy a new PC. Seriously. If you wish to play games like Myst 3 or anything coming out today your whole PC will need an upgrade. In order to get your machine in line you’d need a new CPU which would require a new motherboard which would most likely require new memory and you’d need a new video and soundcard. That’s 85% of your computer right there meaning buying a new system would probably be cheaper and easier than upgrading yourself (especially since you say you don’t know much about PCs).

[sub]NOTE: Your Cyrix chip is significantly slower than a PII chip at the same clock rate. [/sub]

3

Most of the upgrades you’re mentioning are not worth tossing into your machine. Not to say they won’t help a little. Memory is a cheap and easy performance enhancer. I’d recommend 128M for any of the Win9x family and 256M for WinXP/2K/NT. Your motherboard will limit what you can go to and how so some research is necessary on your part. Call Crucial (www.crucial.com) and they can tell you what you need given your make/model/etc.

Your PC is generously worth maybe $100. There’s a certain point when you should cut your losses and just buy a new PC. Shoving money and upgrades into an old PC starts to be a losing proposition pretty quickly.

For the cost of the upgrades you’ve mentioned you can get a mid-class machine that’ll still do everything you want and play newer games.

Usually, when money is to be spent on a new machine, I recommend buying the most processor you can. It’s easy to add memory later. It’s easy to add hard drive later. It’s usually darn-near impossible to boost processor later.

HTH - Belrix

4

myst3 had many problems - Mine was solver by up-ing to win xp - ymmv

5

Wow. I didn’t realize my computer was so out-of-date!
I’m glad I asked. I knew that the Dopers could help me.

Like I said, not playing the game is my only problem I have, everything else is fine so no new computer for me :frowning:

Thanks everyone. This is bad news, but it’s a relief in a way.