According to this submission, JPC-RR shouldn't exceed the default speed of 50. In this case it was referencing specifically to CD-Man, but I think it should be the general guideline as well.
I understand that perspective, but what about games that were released after processor speeds in excess of 20MHz were available.
So while I do agree that there should be a default speed for DOSbox games, it is not realistic for this speed to be capped at 20 MHz for all of them. However: almost all PC games from the nineties link the gamespeed either to real-world time or to the monitor refresh rate. This was basically required because in the early nineties, CPU speed varied a lot between PCs. As a result, these games will not go faster if the CPU is set arbitrarily high. However they will go slower if the CPU is set very low (e.g. at 20 MHz), because of lag.
Conversely, both the game Fog mentions (CD-Man) and the one currently under discussion (Space Quest 3) do not tie their gamespeed to either the clock or the vsync. This was possible in the late eighties because at that point, CPU speed did not vary a lot between PCs (e.g. the difference between a 16 MHz and a 20 MHz CPU is comparable to that between a 50 Hz and a 60 Hz monitor, and at that point many developers just ignored the difference; a few years later a common difference was between 33 MHz and 200 MHz, and that's much more of a big deal).
So arguably it makes sense to have a 20 MHz cap for games that run arbitrarily fast without a cap, and probably all those games are old enough that they run fine on a 20 MHz CPU. Conversely, games that cap themselves (e.g. by monitor rate) arguably do not need a 20 MHz cap, and many of these games simply cannot run on a 20 MHz CPU anyway....almost all PC games from the nineties link the game speed either to real-world time or to the monitor refresh rate. This was basically required because in the early nineties, CPU speed varied a lot between PCs. As a result, these games will not go faster if the CPU is set arbitrarily high. However they will go slower if the CPU is set very low (e.g. at 20 MHz), because of lag... So arguably it makes sense to have a 20 MHz cap for games that run arbitrarily fast without a cap, and probably all those games are old enough that they run fine on a 20 MHz CPU. Conversely, games that cap themselves (e.g. by monitor rate) arguably do not need a 20 MHz cap, and many of these games simply cannot run on a 20 MHz CPU anyway.
Would it then be a valid option to max out the CPU speed in JPC-rr to 1 GHz for games that tie to real-world time or screen refresh rate? If so, would the following generalized rules be acceptable: 1)Games with speeds restricted to real-world time or screen refresh rate can be run at maximum CPU speed in JPC-rr (setting the CPU frequency divider to 1) as it should theoretically only impact the startup time (and possibly load-screen times), not game-play itself. 2)Games with speeds only limited by CPU frequency are limited to the default JPC-rr (20 Hz) unless it can be proven by the runner that the game was released for faster systems. The CPU frequency setting can then be modified to mimic an appropriate era real-world system.
DOS movies (JPC-rr) CPU frequency restrictions CPU frequency settings may be restricted or not, depending on the game. • If a game's speed is limited to real-world time or screen refresh, CPU frequency may be maximized by setting CPU frequency divider to 1 (emulating a 1GHz CPU). • If a game's speed is limited only by CPU frequency or clock speed, CPU frequency may be set no faster than JPC-rr's default of 50 (emulating a 20MHz CPU). In other words, the CPU frequency divider settings may not be set any lower than 50. This limit may be stretched if proof can be provided that the game was designed to run on faster systems than the 20MHz default. In other words, if increasing the CPU clock speed affects and speeds up all normal gameplay, it must be capped at most to the emulator's default setting, or to a frequency the game is proven to be designed for. If increasing the CPU clock speed only affects lag or loading times and does not otherwise speed up gameplay to any significant extent, it may be set to the emulator's maximum.
Ok, throwing another wrench into the discussion.... What about total memory settings? They shouldn't affect speeds other than loading/lag, correct?
