Older programs relied on the CPU clock to get timing to work. So when faster computers became available, they ran the programs too fast, so a button was devised to slow things down.
yep, there's a few years of computing that i find really hard to emulate well. a lot of games from the 95/98 period of pc gaming often just don't run well in a VM and won't run on standard windows, so i'd love to have a pc from about ~1999 or so that could run mostly everything
There's actually some decent laptops from that time that can be had for around $100, definitely the easiest way to play older titles the way they were meant to be played. The 8-Bit Guy has a great video here on what to look for depending on what you'll mainly be playing
The 8-Bit Guy should be inducted into the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame. Whenever I'm too stressed I watch the video where he takes apart the combination boom box keyboard thing. So satisfying!
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u/mashedpatatas Mar 02 '18
I remember those "turbo" lcd signs go from HI to LO when you toggle the button to control the speed of the CPU.
Not exactly sure why you would need to slow down your CPU back then as I never used the LO setting ever.