Need Some Basic Hardware Advice....

[Zebraegg]

:help:

Hello i have just found this great site and started playing all the great games
of my youth again.

And beacause there are so many problems with playing games on my XP i have decided to buy some old crappy PC to easier be able to play dos games. (or is it easier).....

1 What specs do you recomend on an oldschool DOS pc

2 what OS is most compatible with old games (DOS or win 98 maybe something else??)

3 these are the games i REALLY wanna experience again and have not gotten to work in xp (coz im a total noob) : Albion, x-com 3 and Jagged alliance.

4 anything else i need to know buying an old computer??

THANKS
:blink:

[Rogue]

You can create gaming computer (like I did) or you can play most of those in XP by using DOSBox.

Real thing is still much better, but you have to know a bit about computer to be able to play all DOS games.

I use Win98 SE, and I play DOS game in DOS mode (there is topic here - Win98 memory, where I've explained how to set up DOS mode) and I had no DOS game that I was not able to play. Even games I was not able to play before, as I was using 'Shutdown in DOS mode' option instead of shortcuts.

To spec our computer, you need to know what you like to play on it. I would go for something between 90 and 233 MHz, with 32-64MB of memory and SB audio card.

Hope this helps.

[Zebraegg]

Oh thanks for the quick reply:)

i have alreadyursed dosbox for a little while and gotten some games to work.. BUT my big problem is that i cant get the sound to work in most of the games. will this be a problem if i run in DOS mode on a win98 OS?

[Rogue]

It all depends on sound card. If you lucky and find SB or SB Pro or SB16, sound will work fine on most of the games.

I did not find any problem with DOSBox sound. (it is easier to set up then real thing, as you can tweak settings)

You sure you have tested all settings in DOSBox?

NOTE: Some games, such as JA do not have all sounds that are on original CD, as they would be way to big for this site to hold.

[Ioncannon]

with os, I always go with the DOS 6.22/Win 3.11 mix :ok:

[The Fifth Horseman]

100 Mhz, 24 MB RAM, 800+ MB HDD, Win 9x/Dos 6.22. Sound Blaster or a compatibile card (like ESS 1688), 1 MB graphics card if you are only running DOS games, 8 MB if you're running Windoze ones with animated intros/cutscenes (1 Mb will also work there but you will experience a lot of annoying trouble then)

[dr_st]

1 What specs do you recomend on an oldschool DOS pc

CPU: Pentium 200MHz
RAM: 16-64MB
Video card: doesn't really matter, as long as its old enough for DOS games to run properly on it. Old 1MB Cirrus Logics, ATIs, even some of the early Voodoos will do.
Sound card: ISA only! Preferably one of the Creative PnPs (SBPro, SB16, AWE32 or AWE64), but something like ESS will also do.

2 what OS is most compatible with old games (DOS or win 98 maybe something else??)

DOS 6.x and DOS 7.x (Win95/Win98) should be pretty equal here. Win98 (DOS 7.10) has the advantage of supporting FAT32 and large hard disks, but you may not need it. In any case, on a PC with the above specs, running Win98 will not be pleasant, and if you intend to play DOS games only, you may as well stick with DOS 6.22.

[Omuletzu]

Stick to Dos 7.10 i say, because it has a comprehensive help system, which in 90% of the cases will help through any problems you might encounter.As a processor, i recommend something like P1 @ 133 or 166.As a soundcard, a sound blaster, or a SB compatible card is A MUST.You won't need more than 8 Mb of Ram, and more than 1 Mb of video memory(ie a 1 Mb video card is enough).Good luck :ok:

[dr_st]

Up to 64MB of RAM can be helpful for some DOS games.