Why would a game speed up?

[Brian Wilder]

This is not really a problem, but I wondered if anyone had an explanation.

I sometimes play an on-line card game. If I am playing music (.wma) through
Windows Media Player, the game plays noticeably faster than if I am not
using WMP. That is, flipping a card, for example is markedly faster.

My intuition would predict the opposite: that WMP would use resources and
slow the gameplay down, if there was any noticeable effect at all.

The PC is a AMD XP 2400+ on an nForce2 board, with integrated nVidia
graphics.

A friend of mine has a Win3.1 game he plays compulsively; it is a variation
on shooting aliens who march across and down the screen in neat lines. It
speeds up after being open and running for an hour or so. I confirmed the
pattern on two PCs other than my own. When you first open it, it is too
slow to play; but if you just leave it open in the background for an hour or
so, then gameplay is really fast. It doesn't seem to matter what PC you
use, as long as it is WinXP. (Didn't happen on Win9x.)

These are not really problems, just curiosities, though maybe there are
instances when the same kind of behavior would play havoc with a
productivity app.

 

[Jason]

I read a while back that some games use Windows Media Player for sound
effects and such, so if it is already running they don't have to "launch" it
in the background and the game runs faster. That could be just a wild story
someone made up though.