Building a good retro machine...

[RiverBoa999]

Fellow Racketeers, I'm thinking about constructing some sort of retrobox PC out of ebay parts and so on. I'm really looking for something that still runs DOS games, but also runs some of the earlier Windows games like 95/98 stuff. HD and that stuff won't be a problem, but I'm wanting to MAX out my video and processor potential.

I'm guessing like a Pentium 4 of some kind, any ideas on a video card?

[BRIK]

For the DOS games you could use a program called DOSBox, it will run DOS games on a newer computer.

[RiverBoa999]

I am aware of DOSBox. But for games that aren't DOS based and haven't been modified by gog.com to run, and can't be emulated properly in XP mode or otherwise, I'd like to construct a proper machine with the best compatibility. To run stuff from this supposed "Golden Age" in the 90's.

[eskil]

Ah, this is where I know my shit. You want a Pentium 166 MHz and about 16MB of RAM, maybe 32. Also try to find a Roland soundcard with decent MIDI capabilites, and you'll be set.
You can play things like Civ 2 with this, but with anything more modern, you'd need two separate PCs. I had 233MHz PC once, and experienced problems with many older DOS games, so I gave that one away and got another 166 one.

[arion]

I got a machine like that and it has worked well so far.

The specs are.

Intel Celeron 400mhz
256mb sdram
10gb hd
Sound Blaster live value
I use the onboard video card but i added a 3DFX VOODOO 2 3D accelerator.

Why voodoo well for one quite a few pc games used 3dfx glide exclusively so a video card that supported Direct 3d and OpenGL would not be able to run the game. Also early 3d games that run at these specs look pretty good when they use the voodoo 2 card.
If you do have a AGP slot you could go for something like Voodoo Banshee which is one of the earlier Video cards that used the 3dfx chipset.

The original Gta has a 3dfx mode for example. Also bethesdas Redguard has a horrible software mode but a delicious 3dfx mode. Blyebytes Incubation also has a 3dfx mode.

However if you'd rather stick with Nvidia or Ati i've had good expirience with
Geforce 4mx 64mb it should be dirt cheap and while it was a crappy card at the time and you could do better for sure it will however last forever and i had no problems runnning 3d games with it. It ran Wizards and Warriors without a hitch and that game is very picky with 3d cards.

With ati cards i'd recomend getting some of the later cards from that era nothing lower than 32mb.

As for soundblaster live not only does it deliver good midi sound but also perfect Soundblaster 16 emulation for older dos games.

Processor wise you can do a lot with specs as low as 133mhz. Bear in mind system requirements are not that high for games pre 2000 even 3d shooters and games genrally thought to be the high end of graphics at the time. A mere 400mhz celeron can run alot of games but for best results a 800mhz Pentium III processors would serve you well.

If you are short on ram you can get away with 64mb depending on the os if you setup windows 95 you can go as low as 16mb windows 98 should at least have 32mb. Both 9x os fly on 128mb and at 256 you hardly notice the loading time on startup especially with 95. I don't coun't Windows Me as a os

If you do go for a fast processor you some old dosgames may run too fast but there is a program called Moslo that can help with that.

Hope that helps if you have any further questions just pm me.

[Anapan]

I've been considering getting a Toshiba Libretto 70CT tho if I see a 110CT for the right price I'll buy it instead.
It's the size of a VHS tape, Pentium 120mhz, 640x480 screen and a Yamaha OPL3 soundcard. Just right for dos gaming!
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?p=213458
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.p ... 8&start=20

[Hatta]

Glide is a great suggestion. There are some cheap Voodoo2s on Ebay right now. They're more commonly $30-60 so use the savings and buy 2 for SLI.


If you're going to do DOS, you're going to need an ISA sound card. Which sound card is right for you is a big question. There's digital aduio, there's FM synthesis, there's several different ways to get midi, you may have to spend some time looking for the perfect audio card. But if you're not an audiophile, and don't need MIDI, then you can probably get away with any old ISA soundblaster. Certainly the most compatible solution. Just make sure your system has an ISA slot.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

For old PC games I use DOSBox but for old Mac games iMac G3s are extremely cheap and reliable. Realistically anything with a Pentium over 100mhz and 32mb of ram will do. Just be sure to have a decent sound card and a VooDoo 2.

[DinnerX]

I am aware of DOSBox. But for games that aren't DOS based and haven't been modified by gog.com to run, and can't be emulated properly in XP mode or otherwise, I'd like to construct a proper machine with the best compatibility. To run stuff from this supposed "Golden Age" in the 90's.

Have you tried using a virtual machine? If you don't have an old windows install CD around you could install a linux distro and wine http://www.winehq.org/about/ in the VM. I did this once to play an old 16-bit adventure game on 64-bit windows. I used virtualbox http://www.virtualbox.org/. Its easy to install popular versions of linux in. If the games your wanting to play work in wine (and many popular games do) this would probably be more convenient than building another computer.

[RiverBoa999]

Well, maybe to be descriptive, at base this is what I have to start on,

and old Packard Bell 133 Pentium (no MMX) 16 Meg ram, 1 gb HD, ISA Sound, no 3d acceleration of any kind.

An eMachines 500 celeron, with 512 ram and a Voodoo 3 2000 and just some cheap off market compatible 5.1 sound card.