Please help! SC2 so slow even with DOSBox! :(

[Niffiwan]

For a while now, the only SC game I've been able to play on my computer is SC3.  Whenever I tried to run SC2, it would run alright... but about 100 times slower than it's actual speed.  And that included the sound; I could only hear kind-of "clicking" noises.
I was quite happy to discover DOSBox recently, and I followed all the instructions on this site's DOSBox page down to the last point... but it still ran slow.  Not nearly as slow as it used to, to be sure, but still very slow.

I tried changing the setting for the amount of cycles/loop higher than 4000, but it only made it slower... then I got a flash of inspiration and changed it back to 1800.  The game actually ran faster!  But still not fast enough; each sound effect "echoed" itself about 3-4 times.  
I tried setting it to 800; it was faster and each sound only "echoed" 2 times.  However, the load time for graphics was exceptionally long; the music came faster than the graphics.  I tried setting it to 400, but it crashed.

I noticed at the bottom of DOSBox's readme it said that at least a Pentium 400 is required to run it; my computer is only 200 Mhz.  I'm guessing that this is the cause of this...

Is there any way at all that I could somehow make it work, though?  At all?

Thanks in advance!   :-/

[Scott_Irving]

You can get a 400Mhz for about $200 (including shipping at least the shipping I pay, canadian funds..) whole system, rom,hd,soundcard,vid card etc... could get it cheaper if yaa just wanted the motherboard and cpu and whatever else. but that's not the point lol anyway.. I shut up now

[Chad]

Hi Niffiwan,

The only thing I can offer is...just to make sure... have you tried these two options...

In each conf, change the option "fullscreen=false" to "fullscreen=true"

In each conf, change "keepsmall=false" to "keepsmall=true"

Good luck.

[Niffiwan]

Thanks... but that didn't do it.
What does "keepsmall" do, anyway?

I think I'll buy a new computer in a few weeks... :-/

But meanwhile, are there any freeware x86 PC emulators that function at lower than 400Mhz?

Thanks, guys.

[Eth]

  You know, you could probably get an old 486 for a lot less than that, and just run DOS on it.  

[Scott_Irving]

Indeed, that's what I did, thus my post "the ultimate solution" hehe, i have uh 2 or 3 386's and 2 or 486's and 3 low end pentiums (120-166)

I know a few places you can get them for cheap..

[Peter Veenstra]

Increase the frameskip

see the readme of dosbox for details

[Niffiwan]

I tried it, but no cigar.
It made it choppier, but not faster.

Also, the reason I don't want to get a 486 is because:
1. I don't have enough space for 2 computers
2. I need a new PC anyway
3. I prefer all-in-one machines

Also, I found that DOSBox really is the best and fastest x86 emulator out there, so I guess I have no choice now but to wait.