configuring a PC to play old school games

[ApolloBoy]

DOSBox is alright, but there's nothing quite like having a PC made from old parts running actual MS-DOS. I built a DOS PC a few months ago and I haven't regretted it one bit.

[pakopako]

DOSBox is alright, but there's nothing quite like having a PC made from old parts running actual MS-DOS. I built a DOS PC a few months ago and I haven't regretted it one bit.

Out of curiosity, what sound card do you have for that?

[ApolloBoy]

DOSBox is alright, but there's nothing quite like having a PC made from old parts running actual MS-DOS. I built a DOS PC a few months ago and I haven't regretted it one bit.

Out of curiosity, what sound card do you have for that?

I used to have a Sound Blaster Pro 2 in my setup but now I use an older Sound Blaster 16 for better compatibility.

[Dude]

For DOS games download D-Fend reloaded, it's easy to use, free and it's very customizable.

For Windows 95/98/2000 download Windows XP mode.

So XP plays 95-2000 games? Isn't there a compatability issue with one of Window's Service Pack's?

[Hobie-wan]

So XP plays 95-2000 games? Isn't there a compatability issue with one of Window's Service Pack's?

Not that I remember. Just issues with some things that didn't like XP because it was NT based such as some copy protection schemes.

[fastbilly1]

If it runs in XP pro, it will run in Win7 pro. Win7 pro has a full XP pro install, that it runs alongside 7 if you need to run a program in XP. If not you can also run visualization or an emulator.

The Windows XP mode that some variants of 7 include is VirtualPC with a barebones XP image that you have to download from MS. It's actually much less suited to playing games than other modern virtual machines. It doesn't even try to provide Direct3D support (at least), for example.

True, but using the XP mode to run programs that have trouble on 7, ie VDMsound, is, atleast I feel, superior to doing a standard virtual machine. Apparently VDMsound was updated to work on 7 now, but when it came out it did not.

[isiolia]

If it runs in XP pro, it will run in Win7 pro. Win7 pro has a full XP pro install, that it runs alongside 7 if you need to run a program in XP. If not you can also run visualization or an emulator.

The Windows XP mode that some variants of 7 include is VirtualPC with a barebones XP image that you have to download from MS. It's actually much less suited to playing games than other modern virtual machines. It doesn't even try to provide Direct3D support (at least), for example.

True, but using the XP mode to run programs that have trouble on 7, ie VDMsound, is, atleast I feel, superior to doing a standard virtual machine. Apparently VDMsound was updated to work on 7 now, but when it came out it did not.

It is a standard VM though. All they did was restrict which version of the OS VIrtualPC will install on (whereas they offered VirtualPC for free download on XP/Vista, albeit with no OS image), and provide the XP image. You can create a Win7 VM with it too, but nothing prior to XP.

It can feel a bit more integrated into the OS, but really it's fairly barebones even compared to other free options like VirtualBox (and I've seen some horrendous performance issues with it to boot, though to be fair that was with Win7 VMs).

[pakopako]

I used to have a Sound Blaster Pro 2 in my setup but now I use an older Sound Blaster 16 for better compatibility.

Aw. I was hoping for a tale about a Roland MT.
I don't think anything emulates those these days.

[Hatta]

There is an MT-32 emulator by the name of MUNT. It's developed over on the VOGONS forum. Apparently it works, but it's poorly documented so I haven't figured out how to do anything with it.

[ApolloBoy]

I used to have a Sound Blaster Pro 2 in my setup but now I use an older Sound Blaster 16 for better compatibility.

Aw. I was hoping for a tale about a Roland MT.
I don't think anything emulates those these days.

I'm hoping to come across an LAPC-1 once of these days but I think the chances of that are almost nil.