I've gotten really interested in old Computers since I got my Commodore PET 2 months ago, so to play some good ol MS Train Simulator and Stronghold 2, I got this massive beauty. Here is a little size comparison between it and my main PC
this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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The turbo button slows your computer down!
It spends it up, but old games would then run faster.
So like, a 50% gain in performance just made the AI move 50% faster.
I always hit "turbo" when playing a game because I thought it would just increase framerate or something.
I dunno, I just found out a while ago on Lemmy what it really did, so maybe I still don't understand it right.
Turbo being activated makes your computer slower. Many games relied on clock speed for timing and were unplayable on newer computers because they ran way too fast. The turbo button slowed them down so you could actually play them.
https://www.howtogeek.com/678617/why-did-the-turbo-button-slow-down-your-pc-in-the-90s/
So, you're right, that's how it was supposed to work.
But it wasn't hardwired. You could switch so "turbo" actually made "turbo" instead of slowing it down.
Even the clock display wasn't accurate, you used jumpers to set what speed you wanted displayed regardless of what was going on.
So I guess there was no way to tell what the turbo button did without some kind of testing or being the one who built the computer.
My uncle built my old desktop with a turbo back in the day, and he was 100% the type of guy to do it the "right" way instead of a standard that meant the opposite.
But I definitely can't remember, maybe I was just shit at SF2 and Star Craft lol
The "turbo" button switches the cpu speed from its native speed to half of it but it wont boost speeds beyond what it was originally intended.
https://www.howtogeek.com/678617/why-did-the-turbo-button-slow-down-your-pc-in-the-90s/
That's how it was supposed to work.
But apparently you could wire it either way, so some people made turbo actually mean "turbo" instead of "slow".
Which I think was going on with mine since it got louder, but it's been literally decades
You can wire it that way, I do, but it doesnt mean you are making the cpu go faster than what the label says. You are still switching between normal speed and half speed, it just feels better.