[VIDEO] Sportstation - Blitz/Showtime HDD vs CF card Comparison

TerryMasters

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[VIDEO] Sportstation - Blitz/Showtime HDD vs CF card Comparison

I've made a video that compares the difference between a hard drive and a CompactFlash card when used to run the Sportstation software (ver. 3.0). You can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXEjciEjbB0

Based on the information I've received from the previous thread (found here: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=95492 ), I had anticipated different results. It's my understanding that other hard drive-based games do achieve performance gains, but I also believe those games have a much smaller disk image. I am still looking into what could have caused this outcome as well as why the Vegas hardware seems to be ignoring the, "Boot Game" dipswitch. While not a major issue as the games are playable, I am still running tests to try to resolve these problems.
 
Sheesh, Terry -- 20+ min of video -- edit that monstrosity down!

A few simple points:

DMA mode does not appear to be active with your CF adapter so your access speeds will be much slower.

If you look at the DMA mode active for the hard drive it shows 4. If you look when the CF is used it shows 0. I believe that means that you are not using DMA.

Also, here is a comment from the Newegg customer feedback on the particular CF card you chose to install:

> Cons: Truly really horribly slow. As in slow to the point of uselessness. Think slow and then subtract alot more speed.

:)

In spite of being very interested in your issue (I'll be doing the same in a Gauntlet Legends before too long), I couldn't handle the entire length of your videos! Brevity, man, brevity!

Take some pics of the disk benchmarks with HD and CF and post here along with comments and questions...
 
Last edited:
Well here's the thing:

Originally Posted by mattosborn
A faster hard drive would just be a waste. The system uses a National Semiconductor PC87415 IDE controller, which has a maximum data transfer rate of 16.7 MB/s (PIO 4 transfer mode).

I see what you mean about DMA mode not being enabled, but considering that the drive is reading at near-DMA speeds but writing at much slower speeds it leads me to believe that DMA mode is not the problem. In other words, even if DMA mode is not being used, PIO modes do not have high read speeds paired with such drastically low write speeds.

Also the video was not to ask for help with the problems, although appreciated, it was more for documentation purposes, hence the length. :)
 
I watched the majority of it because I have been contemplating the switch to a CF card. Compared to how mine loads, Blitz looked noticeably faster. I think the menu transitions seemed faster, but loading the actual game was a wash. My game crashes too, but once in a blue moon. Probably time to make the switch before the drive fails completely. Thanks for the comparison--Blitz/Showtime is a game that caters to the arcade newbie and stuff like this is useful to such people.
 
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