Retro PC Gaming... Anyone into it?

T

Totempole

New member
I've recently built a "Retro PC" to play all my old PC games from 1989-2000.
I'm pretty sure I'll never succeed in getting all of the old games working on
1 PC, since there will be compatibility issues with some games.

Anyway, the reason for this post was to ask if there was anyone else doing
this sort of thing. If yes, do you have a dedicated Retro-PC? And what
hardware did you opt to use?
 
Totempole said:
I've recently built a "Retro PC" to play all my old PC games from 1989-2000.
I'm pretty sure I'll never succeed in getting all of the old games working on
1 PC, since there will be compatibility issues with some games.

Anyway, the reason for this post was to ask if there was anyone else doing
this sort of thing. If yes, do you have a dedicated Retro-PC? And what
hardware did you opt to use?
Click to expand...

Nah dude I just do what bloodhound does.
 
GoG Games are awesome, but you have to wait for them to "mod" the games for newer OS's.
The problem is, there are loads of games which GoG wouldn't even consider converting.

DOSBox (Which many GoG games use) is an amazing emulator for DOS games, but still, it's
far from perfect. There are many DOS games which won't work on DOSBox yet.

Virtual PC, Virtual Box, VMWare etc. are great if you want to run games for Win95/98
that don't need DirectDraw or Direct3D, since these features are unavailable or very
buggy in Virtual PC's Running Win9x. That limits Virtual PC's to about 20% of all Win9x
Games. Not to mention the fact that modern day CPU's are way too fast (even on 1
core) to run games which haven't implemented framerate limiters.

Moslo: Great at slowing down a CPU for DOS, but terrible at slowing down a CPU in
Windows. In Windows the CPU slowdown will be inconsistant, as with all other CPU
slowdown Apps.

So, this is why I got sick of trying to "emulate" a suitable environment for the games
I like, and instead made the real thing. It's not perfect, but it's 95% there.
 
I have a dedicated Retro PC for all my oldies!

Pentium II 350
128MB SD Ram
40GB HDD
3DFX VoodooII 8MB

All my older dos and windows based games are epic, specially the 3DFX ones :D
 
Maplassie said:
I have a dedicated Retro PC for all my oldies!

Pentium II 350
128MB SD Ram
40GB HDD
3DFX VoodooII 8MB

All my older dos and windows based games are epic, specially the 3DFX ones :D
Click to expand...

Nice! I wanted a Voodoo 3 3500 for mine, but I like to buy cards in pairs, so if one fails
I have a spare. I've ruled out 3DFX as an option for me, because they're too rare and
expensive to replace. :(

My one's a P2 400MHz,
256MB PC133 SDRAM
2x 80GB Hard Drives
1x 500GB Hard Drive
32MB RivaTNT2

I have an exact "clone" of the above PC as a spare. :D
 
I really like DOSBOX and SCUMMVM for playing older games, but the only problem I still have is GLIDE support for two or three old games. Independence War, and King's Quest 8. (To be honest, I could skip KQ8, but I'd really like to replay I-War again). Both of them are available on GOG.com, but getting GLIDE working is still a pain.

Eventually that old hardware is going to conk out: to be a TRUE retro gamer, you need to get an old CRT monitor, and a really crappy keyboard and mouse!
 
jangutter said:
Eventually that old hardware is going to conk out: to be a TRUE retro gamer, you need to get an old CRT monitor, and a really crappy keyboard and mouse!
Click to expand...

My Pentium II machine has a Phillips 17" CRT, Ibm beige / brown keyboard and MS trackball mouse :)
 
I like old games, but the most effort I'm willing to do is Dosbox or VMWare (running WinXP). That combination runs most games.

If there were any games on Gog.com that I wanted, I would probably buy them though.
 
I used to be into retro gaming, but I have become shallow and need something pretty to play...

That being said I did try to play The Elder Scrolls games again before Skyrim came out, but due to control and mouse issues with the first 2 games, I had to quit. I played Deus Ex and the second piece of crap one last year, just before Human revolution, Deus Ex still as good as ever!
 
I was in retro gaming long ago, but my old computer died for age reasons (or something like that).

Here are stats:
Pentium Celeron 1600
512MB RAM
80GB HDD - It was huge back then...
32MB ATI Rage 128 (AGP x2) - It is stated on back of box of graphic cards supported!
PCI Sound Maker Value 5.1 - Specially purchased for sound in MS-DOS (It had MS-DOS). Still keeping it.

Now, DOSBox is used for those DOS games, but problem still persists with win 95/98 games...
 
I used to be into retro gaming, but I have become shallow and need something pretty to play...
Click to expand...

They were great... back in the days but now I get bore rather easily. I like my processed explosions on Unreal Engine 3.
Click to expand...

and that's why we will continue to get shallow pwetty games year after year. I still play Contra on a weekly basis with the SO. Gameplay over graphics.

It takes determination to beat retro games, today's games is so scared of the difficulty being to high that it will be an accomplishment not to be able to beat the game :p
 
I got the command and conquer first decade. I just couldn't play the old ones; I'm so used to the new modern RTS conventions that it makes the old RTS impossible to play. But I don't mind old RPG like chrono trigger and FF. P.S Does tetris count as retro game?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top