Playing PC games from 80s to 2008

[benderx]

What do you guys like to play PC games on a modern PC today with Windows 8.1 . Most of you are going to say DOSbox/SCUM, which is good. But what about disc games Fallout or Soul Reaver series, how would you make them playable on PC Windows 8.1? Short answer some of you say Steam or GOG.

What is your preferred choice Keyboard or controller on particular games?

[casterofdreams]

My apologies in advance if I’m not understanding your questions.

Are you asking how we play older PC games from the 80s it 2008? And if so what platform we use and if we play with a M+KB?

If that’s what you’re asking then yes from time to time I do play game from that time period. Some of the more high profile games I play is the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (2003 I think) and it’s sequel KOTOR II (2005 I think). Both form Steam. The latter game has Steam Workshop support and by far the most popular mod is the contenct restoration mod. I’ve played both games with just a mouse. Barely needed a KB. Morrowind is another game I’ve dabbled in and should play more of. Same for Fallout 1 & 2 since I’m a huge fan of the newer Bethesda series of games.

I have Windows 7 which, I believe, is a nice place to be at to play games from way back when and the newest game around.

Some issues I’ve had lately is getting my hands on games that are no longer for sale such as some of the older Need for Speed games some licensed stuff like the Simpsons. These days, it either Steam, or GOG. If it’s not on there then good luck finding that game.

[Tanooki]

I'm confused what you want as you kind of answered the question. DOSBox and/or GoG gets the job done, and you can find custom boots of that program too that'll even handle Windows 3.x easily too if you had some old 16bit game/app you wanted to toy with. Were you hoping to hear some long winded annoying set of steps to get a virtual machine hopefully running stable with some pirated OS or old bought copy that's lying around?

I use D-Fend Reloaded which fires up DOS Box, and it there or DB alone can also tap into my USB 3.5" floppy drive I got within the year so I've picked up a few original boxed games cheap along with some stragglers I found I had and put them on my computer for use.

The only annoyance I have right now is that DB+Win3X or DB+Win9X setup as I don't quite get the steps on how to set that up as it's a bit on the programmers/convoluted side of things as I have a few straggler programs I can't use anymore due to modern OS lame rules lockouts that suck. I THINK I could get around that, fairly recently I found a full install of Windows XP+SP2 on a disc for a buck, if I could find a way to install/boot that sucker that thing runs old DOS stuff with style which is the only reason I haven't sold it.

[Anapan]

I do not use Windows 8, but Windows 7 is capable of running the same emulation software. I mostly try to play DOS, or other OS PC games on original compatible hardware, but I do use Dosbox and VMWare to get games running on physical display hardware it would not easily interface with, and with emulated sound hardware I do not yet own.
For example, I have gotten a lot of my favorite DOS games to run on my CRT arcade cabinet displaying 200P, and 240P on a large flat-screen 15khz CRT display. (originally the games did run at 200 and 240p, but at 31khz, the video card line-doubled their image to a VGA monitor @ 400P and 480P. They do not look like they should, but I love how they look on the display.

Also I have interfaced some older CGA compatible games with a monochrome green screen using dosbox to achieve some effects I remember from back in elementary school when my main computer was a 4.7 Mhz Tandy 1000 machine. I do not wish to own a full sized CGA compatible computer, but the ghosting and color from over-saturation is really beautiful to me because of nostalgia.
As far as sound goes, I'm really impressed at the abilities of Dosbox and it's mods to emulate the sound hardware of say GUS and MT-32 which are not easily implemented on my current DOS systems (price + available slots).
Also impressive is that Dosbox can actually interface with original sound hardware on modern systems - if you have an ISA or Yamaha chip implemented modern Adlib card you can actually redirect the sound from games to it realtime.
I do not like the job GOG has done on many DOS games; Of course, they did not market their DOS games to people who already own the game, and know how to customize Dosbox to play that game. The tweaks necessary for low display lag and original 1:1 pixel output are not relevant to most.
Also, yes, windows 3.x is so much easier to run in Dosbox and VMWare than real hardware unless all of your PCI and ISA slots are filled with period pieces - you really have to want it and build a computer of the era to enjoy(?) it.

Keyboard - I really should get a cherry switch one, but I'm not picky. I have a collection of mushy ones and they work fine for me. I don't generally use a keyboard for gaming.
Controller - For PC games, I love the Gravis Gamepad (& Pro) for nostalgia, also sometimes a 2-button CH analog joystick, but I mostly use an Interact MakoPad PC (SV-234) on my DOS machine.
On Dosbox, I generally use whichever controls suit it most. For pick up-and-play it's often a Playstation 3 or Xbox360 I have paired, or on my arcade system it's the Sanwa arcade controller with an octogate interfaced through a Ultimac I-Pac.

Edit: didn't see your sig earlier. I love B&PC - can't wait Lazy in Space.

[Tanooki]

I've been doing more thinking on this. If you can find a really cheap copy of Windows XP Professional or Home even, you could very well dual boot a modern machine, or setup a free VM and install it under that while keeping that client OFFLINE (viruses and fun stuff) within its little space. It would have full access.

Now if you wanted to get even more period crazy right down to it, you can spend around $20 and get a USB to 15pin~(whatever it is) controller (joystick/gamepad) adapter and keep it really real for the 80s and pre-USB 90s too as those exist. Up through 2008 XP would have you covered for any screwball game that bitches and moans about Win8 and really Win10 under 64bit rules. XP still was friendly even to WinG/16bit stuff so those fun old Win3.X games people love that are entirely blocked are fair game too as are those touchy Win9X titles that make nice anymore too.

[isiolia]

Personally, I don't think XP is a great candidate for dual booting or necessarily gaming in a VM either. Natively booting it would require drivers that likely wouldn't be available unless you're actually talking about a relatively old machine. In turn, a lot of games from the XP era would shine most with hardware acceleration, not the barebones support that you'd tend to get from a VM. To me, that's the era where it starts making more sense to have a dedicated rig, and cheap to put something viable together (I have a Core2Duo machine for this purpose).

It might work with more 9X or earlier stuff, but given that it's still in the Windows NT family, not everything works like it does on DOS + Windows. I'd agree that DOSBox gets more appealing there. I have a 98 machine as well, but emulation is a lot more convenient.


The "lockout rules" usually apply more to DRM schemes that Windows 10 (particularly) blocks because they're basically malware. The lack of support for 16-bit applications stems more from general support for them being dropped in 64-bit Windows. Not Windows 8 or 10, but literally from the get-go. Server 2003 and XP x64 had the same general lack of support outside of select Installshield versions/etc that the newest versions do. Few ran XP x64 (and for good reason), and 32-bit Vista or 7 was a lot more common, so not as many people ran into it...but it's not a new thing. 32-bit Windows 10 will still run them, if that's the only issue.

[Anapan]

I built a Windows 10 VM image optimized as best I could for just that purpose. I did not get me X-box 360 emulation, but has been useful a couple of times.

[Tanooki]

Well hey, if I owned a legit copy of Win98SE I'd consider that, I still liked it a lot, perhaps still maybe a little more than XP. But I ended up walking across a copy of XP Pro all boxed up and pretty for a dollar. I was going to dump it, but it got me thinking with this thread and others around older games it would be a great tool to run old stuff I can't anymore if I could figure out how to load it in a virtual machine which I have no concept of experience setting up. Had 98SE been that box, same thing and feeling would have applied.

I just dislike having to not run a few things I own because Win 64bit craps all over the stuff as a few were old personal favorites (Sim Tower, Civilization 1 for Win, etc.) I know those runs great in XP.

[isiolia]

You can get Win98SE already set up as a VM WinWorld - not a disc copy, but at this point it's not like you can legitimately buy Windows 98 anyway (it's an abandonware site, they don't offer current/available software). You can use that with VMWare Workstation Player, which is free. You could certainly use something like VirtualBox as well for a VM to install your XP copy to try it.

[casterofdreams]

Are there risks or precautions one should take if one were to dual boot with an older copy of Windows such as XP?