Bullmecha wrote:

just a decent all rounder for DOS

P166, S3, SB Pro compatible. If you also want Win9x games then look to P3 600, Geforce, AWE 64.

tayyare wrote:

For playing GOG games on old/real hardware... Well, I personally find this a bit pointless. If I have a decent copy of an old game that I can run in my daily/modern machine, I just run it on that machine.

Of course 😀

But if you don't a game, and it's on GOG, and can make things easier. Either way, see it as another alternative / source for old games. Not for everyone, but handy in certain cases.

philscomputerlab wrote:

tayyare wrote:

For playing GOG games on old/real hardware... Well, I personally find this a bit pointless. If I have a decent copy of an old game that I can run in my daily/modern machine, I just run it on that machine.

Of course 😀

But if you don't a game, and it's on GOG, and can make things easier. Either way, see it as another alternative / source for old games. Not for everyone, but handy in certain cases.

Ah, what I meant by that was

"If I already have a decent enough GOG version of a game (and yes almost all of them are pretty decent - I'm not a nitpicker on sound/MIDI), I just play GOG version in my daily rig, and never mind even playing its old physical copy in a retro computer, let alone fiddling with GOG versions to make them playable in my retro rigs."

My retro PCs (an Athlon 64 XP box, a PIII W98 rig and an MMX DOS machine) are only for the games I physically own (CDs, DVDs, etc) but have no GOG/Steam copies of.

Yeah , if I don't own it then I will GoG it or actually try to buy it. I just want a real DOS box since I have around 14 towers setup here but haven't really used them for anything other than "hey its working". Will have to get on that list of mine and get it on here soon for the best possible combo I can make.

I have a couple of K6-III CPU's (new) lying around if you are interested. I believe they are 400Mhz but easily go to 550Mhz (if you require).

Hmmm, I wouldn't mind trying one of those out. I was hoping to tryout a 2+ 500mhz at 83mhz FSB on that Asus board, but I have yet to find one at a decent price.

I presume there's a packet driver for the ethernet card? mTCP and ftpserv is very handy for getting files onto the DOS PC without playing around with the Microsoft network client, or worse.

GOG do some splendid work, and for 95% of people it's invaluable that with the payment of only a few pounds, a creaky old game will be successfully running in under a couple of minutes. However, it's not always the same. The MIDI emulation just isn't as good if you're running genuine Roland sound modules, and the performance of certain games is poor - I tried running Privateer under DOSBox and it sucked on my (quite old) Core2Quad system.

There are limits; although I've got the Commander Keen games running on real hardware, I don't think I can tell the difference with it under DOSBox. Likewise, GOG's Legend of Kyrandia runs through SCUMMVM and I can't be bothered finding the original executable, so all it needs is a USB to MIDI converter and a couple of SCUMMVM options to use the real MT32.

Back to this build, as real life as had me busy.
I have found a Slot P3 450 on a Biostar M6ZTA in my collection of towers. I think this may be the build to start with as it is ATX, easier for parts as mentioned before. Will I have to skip the AGP slot for pure DOS? Going to find a small drive and start the installs on it later tonight. Will get shots and some details posted when I can.

Bullmecha wrote:

Will I have to skip the AGP slot for pure DOS?

If the motherboard has an AGP slot, use it. DOS won't know the difference, neither would something like Windows 3.11. In fact, Voodoo3, Nvidia TNT, S3 Savage4 and a lot of Matrox stuff have drivers for Windows 3.11. And except for Matrox cards, those I mentioned are pretty compatible with DOS stuff.

Think its a TNT2 32MB in the system now so that will stay, now to find a SB card in my stash somewhere.

Hmmm just found my single PPro dell tower. Might have to rethink 🤣. Edit 1

Found my Dell Slot P2 266 now also..another choice.. EDIT 2