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Geek Culture / What spec would be the most compatable for older games?

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AutoBot
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 00:46
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I'm looking into a PC that can handle some older games (80's - 2002), I'm probably going to have a DOS-95-XP config on it, if I ever do build it. I just don't want my games/software to freak out on me. What was the most popular/stable hardware to manufacturers at the time?


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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 05:34
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Have you tried DosBOX ?


Hmm, I wonder what's coming in 2011?
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AutoBot
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 16:24
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I've tangled around with it a little, seems like a cool emulator. Haven't installed any games on it yet, though. VMware runs some games, but not all of them. I'm hoping that with the right hardware (that was the most well known to developers at the time) will allow me to install tons of old stuff without much trouble.


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Van B
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 16:36
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It depends really, DosBOX on XP is what I would do - as you at least have control over everything that way, and can make neat shortcuts etc. Maybe just buy an XP laptop for £100 or so, instead of building a PC, it is tougher and tougher to get old components.

Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 16:49
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from my experience, the best computer i ever used to play old dos games are notebooks with pentium 133/166 mmx or at least up to 300-400mhz pentium II 32-64 mb of ram and windows 98 SE. Anything higher than this makes the games more studdery and buggy. While dosbox is a good way to play old games, its a drag to configure it so it plays a game on the best configurations without studdering on optimal speed etc. With Windows 98SE its just easier to play them.

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 17:12
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Alright, 98 seems to be a good midway point. Too bad 98's one of the few I don't have. I might just get some kind of build from ebay that has good specs to play as many older games as possible.

Now I'm also thinking I may need two separite PCs, one for older DOS games and another for late 90's - 2000 type games, which are slightly more demanding.

I may not embark on this journy straight away.


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charger bandit
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 18:00
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I have an old PC at home so I can play old games,Duron 800,Geforce 2 GTS,256mb RAM,40gb HDD,I run Win98 and I can play most games.


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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 19:19
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Quote: "Now I'm also thinking I may need two separite PCs, one for older DOS games and another for late 90's - 2000 type games, which are slightly more demanding."


a pentium 1/2 with win 98 is good for dos games. Older 90s//early 2000 games will run on any pentium 4 mashine with windows xp or win 2000. Both of thesse are realativley cheap. depending on where you live, you might even find these mashines at your local dump or recycling center. i found my first p133 laptop in my local dump when i lived in the states. i found tons of comuter crap even pentium 4s at a local dump in US.

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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