Retro PC gaming

G

gryz

Banned
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I think most people will agree that playing old console games on the original old hardware is a superior experience, but what about old PC games?

Do any of you keep old 486 PCs with a 15 inch packard bell CRT monitor around to play the finest games that 1994 had to offer? is this a thing?

is playing Tie Fighter on an old PC a different or superior experience to playing it at 1080p on dosbox?
 
Its always better to have original hardware but retro PC gaming with original hardware can get rather expensive.

VMWare and DosBox does everything you need for retro gaming on the cheap.
 
I've never thought about it, but this is actually a great idea. If I were into Retro PC gaming, I'd totally buy me one of those old sets (for a ridiculously low amount of money).
 
gryz said:
I think most people will agree that playing old console games on the original old hardware is a superior experience, but what about old PC games?

I think most people will agree that playing old console games on the original old hardware is a superior experience, but what about old PC games?
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First point is debatable. When I play old console games on an emulator I speed up aspects of the gameplay like text scrolling in RPG's. There are those who want the authentic experience and that's fine too but I'm not big on going back to trying to beat the original Mario in one playthrough or remember long passwords to continue my Megaman games.

Also, emulated console games often end up looking better on the PC anyways.


As for your main question, no. Playing old ass PC games on a modern system is always superior to booting up your Win95 machine. This is especially true for games that were notorious for having high system requirements for their time. I remember playing Quake 2 on software rendering mode on a 56K modem. There's no way anyone will ever convince me that that was a superior experience to playing at at max resolutions at 500000000 fps.
 
I gave my mum an old 386 I had kicking around about 5 or so years ago as she wanted something just to do some word processing. Surprised it still worked and speced out to boot 33Mhz CPU with VGA adapter, 1mb ram and 3,5" drive as well as a single speed cd drive complete with caddy. Thankfully she doesn't have a clue about technology and probably thinks it was still cutting edge
 
Old games look a lot better on contemporary hardware (including stuff like 15'' CRTs). Not to mention that some late '90s-early '00s games run a lot better on native Glide (Voodoo 3), rather than some sort of wrapper/emulator.

And they sound better on a proper Roland/Tandy/Soundblaster 16/ekcetra rather than a tinny approximation from a Realtek whatever.
 
GenericUserName said:
Old games look a lot better on contemporary hardware (including stuff like 15'' CRTs). Not to mention that some late '90s-early '00s games run a lot better on native Glide (Voodoo 3), rather than some sort of wrapper/emulator.

And they sound better on a proper Roland/Tandy/Soundblaster 16/ekcetra rather than a tinny approximation from a Realtek whatever.
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AWE32 was godlike
 
In general, yeah, I prefer to emulate old PC games. I guess it's the fact that the originals ran on flexible hardware in the first place that makes me less strict.
 
I feel that, as time goes on, system emulation will become more compatible with software. DOSBox is especially good at emulating plenty of older games, although...there are some that just won't run as well as on the native platform. Unfortunately, the oldest computer we still own in the household is a Compaq Presario 7594, and I personally haven't touched the thing in years. It could probably be better suited for playing ZZT, now that I think about it...I have to use something other than DOSBox to play that game well, but even then it's not complete.

I can also say, it's probably not necessarily true that playing older game on their original consoles would give the superior experience, especially if there were such problems as slowdown or graphical glitches due to too many sprites on screen. Also consider that netplay is an option when using emulation. It's true that playing on the original system will give the most authentic experience, but that isn't necessarily what people value most. It is quite subjective. (although, as a side note, I will say that it felt good playing Link to the Past on the SNES again, I had forgotten how good the controller was)
 
I think I remember reading somewhere that old MIDI synthesizers like the Roland SC-55 pretty much require an old PC to use, so if you want to play old games with a synthesizer, you will want to have an old PC.

On another note, it makes me a little sad that, even though near 30 year old PC games can run natively on current PCs, we usually have to resort to full-blown emulators like DOSBox to play them.

Dr Dogg said:
I'd love to get Model M again but the PS2 socket on my motherboard has had it. Do these work with usb adapters?
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Yes. Also, they still make the Model Ms today, but by a different company, Unicomp.

It's better to not use USB, anyway. PS/2 is better for keyboards.
 
Playing pre-2000 titles on anything other than a CRT feels so weird. Colors don't feel the same, everything is so sharp and the low res quality of textures is so apparent.
 
My parents still have our first PC at home, I like to crank it up once or twice a year and play some but it's a bit of a pain to use so I don't care about doing it more often than that. Good for nostalgia, though.
 
I don't think it would be better. There's something about consoles but PCs, I'll stick to source ports and emulation. Doom for example. It plays much better on a modern sourceport in widescreen goodness.
 
Vollume said:
The way the old hardware heat up and smell added quite a lot to the charisma, you just don't get it with modern hardware, seriously that old hardware smell.

I can't be bothered with Amiga emulation either, it's not the same, the noises from the floppy drive, the head and smell, it was all part of the experience, the Amiga 600 had a particular smell, you can't emulate that.

Also native resolution, CRT scanlines, proper chip audio, it was more than just the games.
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Nostalgia so hard right now.
 
PastorOfMuppets said:
I remember playing Quake 2 on software rendering mode on a 56K modem. There's no way anyone will ever convince me that that was a superior experience to playing at at max resolutions at 500000000 fps.
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It must have been one impressive modem to run Quake 2 :)

I ran Quake 2 on a Pentium 60 with a whopping 24MB of RAM. When I finally got to play that game on a P-II, I was disappointed. Not having to dynamically adjust my screen size took away something from that game.

TheNoblePirate said:
I can also say, it's probably not necessarily true that playing older game on their original consoles would give the superior experience, especially if there were such problems as slowdown or graphical glitches due to too many sprites on screen.
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Yeah. I know that my old SNES or 286 PC just can't match the output of the latest greatest emulators, yet I would love to have an old 286 loaded with my first computer games, simply for the nostalgia. Flaws and everything. If I got the same games remade in HD I'd probably give them a pass.

Perhaps retro gamers are just nostalgia junkies.
 
I'm sincerely ok with DOSBox and VirtualBox. Maybe some day i will buy an old PC for nostalgic purposes, but for now is too much hardware for my room.
 
Vollume said:
I can't be bothered with Amiga emulation either, it's not the same, the noises from the floppy drive, the head and smell, it was all part of the experience, the Amiga 600 had a particular smell, you can't emulate that.
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The WinUAE author has added "floppy disk noise" and "scanlines" to his emu, wouldn't be surprised if he was working on the smell :)

However the great thing about the A600 is that it's tiny. It might not work with modern HDTVs, but it's easy to put away in a box. Bit rot it probably a problem though. Console Cartridges are much more long lived that way.
 
A retro PC is essential if you want to play Windows 9x games.

DOSBOX is cool and all but I'd still rather have a DOS era PC, I'd fucking love to own an Amstrad Mega PC (could play PC games and Mega Drive games). Not sure where I'd put it mind.

PastorOfMuppets said:
Also, emulated console games often end up looking better on the PC anyways.
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Anything released before the Dreamcast looks better on the actual console.
 
if you play Strike Commander without a bunch of performance issues, are you really playing Strike Commander?
 
Gotta love hot swapping four dual sided floppy disks,
and waiting forever for towns to load !!!

I been there... and IMO there is nothing superior about it.

I can understand it being better to have the original console,
but to me sitting in front of a PC is all the same new or old.
 
Why would you do that? said:
Yes. Also, they still make the Model Ms today, but by a different company, Unicomp.

It's better to not use USB, anyway. PS/2 is better for keyboards.
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Cheers I'll have to check them out. Yeah I stupidly almost ripped the socket off the board and when I had bios and POST problems having a usb keyboard is no use at all. Really need a new CPU but being a scrooge I'm waiting for Haswell to drop so I can hopefully pick up a Sandy dirty cheap.
 
nerdy1 said:
Problem with old pc gaming is getting shit to run. XMS? Autoexec.bat? no thank you!
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What? You only needed to mod autoexec.bat and config.sys once (if you knew what you were doing) for maximum conventional memory (about 604KB, without cutting any important drivers like MSCDEX, SETBLAST or MOUSE). After that it was only a matter of switching the last emm386 parameter from "NOEMS" to "RAM" as needed.
 
I was a little too young for the golden Amiga/Atari days and got my first PC when I turned twelve or thirteen (a used 486). I still have my old Voodoo 1 powered Pentium90 with Dos 6.22 and Win95 stowed away in the attic. I get it out once or twice a year to replay some of my beloved space sims of the mid 90s, like Tachyon, Privateer 2 or the Freespaces. I just hope my Sidewinder 3D Pro never breaks down..
 
Man, GAF is feeling retro today, I like that! :D

My first PC gameplay ever was with Castle Wolfenstein, I played it at my friend's place and god that was good!

I know that Papersleeves built an old PC just to play games from the 90's, like Carmageddon.
 
Asparagus said:
A retro PC is essential if you want to play Windows 9x games.

DOSBOX is cool and all but I'd still rather have a DOS era PC, I'd fucking love to own an Amstrad Mega PC (could play PC games and Mega Drive games). Not sure where I'd put it mind.



Anything released before the Dreamcast looks better on the actual console.
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May all your games have no texture filtering.

Which reminds me, they finally got glide wrappers working for Uprising. Oh happy days. The software mode looked like ass.
 
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