A windows version

[Blurz]

If you are going to get Windows 7 and plan on playing games from those time frames, you're going to need a virtual box and the software for older OS' unless you want to re-purchase most of your old games if they are popular enough to have attained a rerelease.

[Cronozilla]

Boo! Ubuntu is more user friendly than Windows. Even my mom can use it; and she has trouble with remote controls!

But if you want to play modern games, you pretty much have to have Windows past XP, and 7 is the only one you can really buy. (7 Pro OEM is only $100, by the way)

No, to be frank, PCs have never been that expensive once they hit the modern PC market. You could build one for $500-600 in 1999 and you can build one similarly now. (Though, I suppose if you count inflation that does mean it's gone down drastically, but not in abstract numbers)

Also, yes, I don't include OS, Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor all that stuff as well, because it'd be like including the price of a TV to use a console, you likely already have all the stuff from your current computer.

Now, to be honest, $1200 is quite a bit. I mean, piecing together systems (in the US ... parts are much more expensive everywhere else) you can build something that operates top of the line for under $1000. It depends on how future-proof you want it. It also depends on if you want an AMD or Intel based machine. Intel chips make custom computers EXPENSIVE. It's like $150+ more to build a machine with similar specs with an Intel base vs an AMD one. And there's really no added benefit if you're looking to play games. (Now if you want to calculate digits of Pi ... that's a different situation )

[Zing]

Get Windows 7 professional or ultimate edition. Then you will get XP mode as well.

This. Everything that worked on XP will work on it

How is this possible, unless the system literally contains a full version of Windows XP? From what I understand, Windows 7 doesn't support older Direct3d and Directsound hardware acceleration.

I see no need for Windows 7. I know from personal experience that Windows XP works perfectly on hardware up to the Core2Duo generation. You wouldn't even need that much horsepower for the type of games in question. My "current" PC is a Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz with a Geforce 7800 and it was fine until games started requiring DirectX 10.

[RCBH928]

I have made my decision early on as Win7, most people here said that whatever works with XP will work with 7. Even so, the Windows 7 professional has XP built in it.
That makes games from 90-97 able to run on DosBox(or windows7 I dunno) and 97 and later should play fine on the Windows7 copy, or the XP built in, right?

Retro gaming on PC's seems much more difficult than consoles at this point, especially with all the different OS's you need to run as some might say. Each Windows copy is damn expensive and its price only goes up as time goes by! Win98 is like $100 at amazon!


@Cronozilla
I was thinking of using Mint since its getting better reputation than Ubuntu lately but who knows

[Ivo]

Retro gaming on PC's seems much more difficult than consoles at this point (...)

Are you simply ignoring that to retro game on consoles you need to have lots of different hardware when you consider what is most difficult? You need not just the console but the controllers, possibly memory cards to save games on etc. There are a few console backward compatibilities that really works (namely Wii for Gamecube, PS2 or PS3 for PS1).

Backward compatibility modes works decently on Windows, there is also DosBox which technically is emulation (but then again so are the following two examples). These are about as good as Xbox 360 running (some) Xbox games or the PS3s (newer models) running PS2 games.

And if you consider emulation at all, then probably you can get basically everything up to PS2 on a decent PC anyway - with typically better performance and less hassle than getting a console to emulate other consoles.

Ivo.

[RCBH928]

Retro gaming on PC's seems much more difficult than consoles at this point (...)

Are you simply ignoring that to retro game on consoles you need to have lots of different hardware when you consider what is most difficult? You need not just the console but the controllers, possibly memory cards to save games on etc. There are a few console backward compatibilities that really works (namely Wii for Gamecube, PS2 or PS3 for PS1).

Backward compatibility modes works decently on Windows, there is also DosBox which technically is emulation (but then again so are the following two examples). These are about as good as Xbox 360 running (some) Xbox games or the PS3s (newer models) running PS2 games.

And if you consider emulation at all, then probably you can get basically everything up to PS2 on a decent PC anyway - with typically better performance and less hassle than getting a console to emulate other consoles.

Ivo.

What you say is quite correct, but some how I got this feeling from the guys, that I need DOS for games from 90-97 and XP for 97-2006, and Win7 for 2007 and later on. ITs pretty hard to install 3 OS's on your HDD, I mean keeping 3 around especially when the price of each one might be like the costs of 3 retro consoles.

$100 can buy N64,NES, SNES and gamecube(if you look well) So you see what is more bang for the buck? 4 consoles or a license for XP where you have Win7 too.

I am not arguing that PC retro gaming is harder than consoles, I was just saying I got the feeling about it

[Ivo]

What you say is quite correct, but some how I got this feeling from the guys, that I need DOS for games from 90-97 and XP for 97-2006, and Win7 for 2007 and later on. ITs pretty hard to install 3 OS's on your HDD, I mean keeping 3 around especially when the price of each one might be like the costs of 3 retro consoles.

Yeah, I'm glad you clarified that you really don't NEED all those licenses before buying them. Some DOS games will run directly on the compatibility modes available, and otherwise it is probably even easier to run the DOS games on DOSbox than having a genuine DOS installed on your machine, there was certain technical aspects in editing autoexec.bat and config.sys to load up just the minimum needed and have the most KBs to run some games that I'm glad are behind me.

I think most XP games will also run on compatibility modes, but maybe just the ones I tried so far.

Also, even though it may be an hassle to get a specific game running, more often than not it will be possible in some way (you may need to look for solutions in the web or something) - in contrast there is basically no way to run a Saturn game on your Dreamcast etc.

Ivo.

[MrPopo]

For me I've been able to run DOS games on Dosbox and Windows games on Windows 7. The problems I've had with Windows games usually ends up being with the installer: some older installers had poorly coded "are you on the right version of Windows" checks that fail for new versions of Windows. The only game I own that involves some trickery to get working on Windows 7 is Dark Reign: you need to kill explorer before you run it and restart explorer afterwards or the colors get screwed up (the GOG release does this automatically).

[Cronozilla]

An argument for Windows 7 as your choice in Windows platform:

DirectX 10+ is only supported by Vista and 7 and games, very soon, are going to require it. (Around the time DX12 and Windows 8 comes out)

To use more than 3GB of ram, you need a 64-bit operating system (has to do with addressable space and 32-bit addresses) There is Win XP 64 ... but it's garbage. It is LITERALLY Windows 2003 with a hacked on multimedia layer. It has almost NO driver support.

You're doing this to play video games. So it would make sense that you want the latest video card drivers ... they are not going to be offered for XP for much longer, if they even still are.

The Vista and 7 Kernels have been written to be compatible with 32-bit XP-cenric code. Almost all issues involving games built for XP running on 7 were solved when Vista was out. Developers already fixed the myriad of issues that arrived.

And there is one distinct advantage that both Vista and 7 have over XP (remember same kernel base) ... their multimedia layer is NOT in kernel space. That means that, if a multimedia driver crashes, it will not BSOD.

Now, I feel dirty for defending any version of Windows. :S Overall, the operating system is poor. But it's a necessary evil for video games. NOW, if you're not using a PC for video games, you really have no reason to use Windows. Operating systems like Ubuntu are significantly more user friendly, customizable, secure and stable, while still having the same or superior compatibility with formats and most software. (not to mention nicer music and media players)

[RCBH928]

can you run DOS on current day computers?