Matrix Games Forums

Here is a neat trick to give you better control of the VCR playback feature in ANW on fast PCs. The issue is that FastForward and Rewind run so fast that they are practically useless.

Assumption:

(1) You have either a dual or quad core processor and XP or Vista (might work with hyperthreading too).

Setup:

(1) Modify Harpoon3.exe to run on processor #4. (You can do this by searching for a Microsoft utility, ImageCfg.exe. Back up the original image before doing this. This sets the processor affinity.)

(2) Locate a free CPU slowdown program on the Net call Turbo.exe. Modify its image (EXE) to run on processor #4.

Usage:

(1) Launch Harpoon3.

(2) Launch Turbo. By default, it gives over 100% of the CPU.

(3) Set the Turbo CPU value to 5, 10, or 15%. This means that Turbo will consume 95% of your CPU leaving only 5% for Harpoon's VCR. However, since you set the processor affinity for both processor #4. This will only slow down Harpoon running at top speed like in VCR FastForward or Rewind mode. It should not affect other programs which you are running like email or web browser, since they will be assigned to a different processor or you can manually do that.

(4) Voila - you can tune exactly how fast FastForward and Rewind actually run.

By the way, this trick is useful for those with multi-processors to slow down old games as needed. Usually, I would use an application like Mo'Slo. But certain copy protected games will see Mo'Slo as a disassembler or debugger and refuse to load. However, this technique will easily work with such copy protected games that might be running too fast.

[Deleted by Admins]

I just want to be clear.

I don't think there is a bug in the VCR. I believe it is working as designed. I think FF and RW were implemented to give max CPU cycles to their respective functions. Of course, that means that the speed they operate at is directly proportional to the hardware speed of the CPU and the current cycles available.

My tip basically allows players to adjust the available CPU and thus the FF/RW speed for themselves (while not bringing their entire system indiscriminately to a crawl). On my OC'ed QX6700 (3.2GHz), an hour can fly by within seconds using FF and RW. This is effectively too fast for practical use. With this tip, you can make an hour take 15, 30, 45, ... seconds; as you like.

So, the real development issue here is not a bug (there is none), but a possible enhancement. The enhancement would be for a variable speed FF/RW functionality as was found on VHS VCRs of the past and HD DVRs of today.

Thanks.