Even if you'd attempted to describe what you want to do with this pure true DOS box, the answer is always "it depends" 😀

Mostly old games, not really sure what games I even have anymore, guess I'll have to check GoG or something to get more. I have a few laying around I like but don't have titles in hand atm.

List the DOS games that you have on hand. Based on what you wrote so far anything from a 386 to a Pentium based PC will do the job.

Easiest bet would just to set up a Pentium machine. Less of a hassle than a 486.

I agree, start with a Pentium, Pentium II or Pentium III. They are easy to work with 😀

My first retro box was a simple P1 233 MMX. Mainly it was a way to keep my SB16 and wavetable card running, but it became a bit more than that as I started to work out how to get GOG games to work on it and started exploring some of the DOS stuff I missed out on at the time - plus it has a parallel port so I use the machine to write data to my Commodore machines as well. Today it runs a K6-2 400 and even plays some earlier 3D games OKish with a V3.

I also have 286 and 386 motherboards around and recently ordered a 486 (5x86) board as well to play around with purely for nostalgia's sake. I had a VLB setup back in the day but I went for a PCI 486 board because I don't see myself re-buying VLB cards (I sold my Cirrus Logic VLB VGA when I upgraded to that P1 machine). Also the PCI 486 boards usually have onboard IO - so no need to find IO boards - and the built-in IO on PCI boards usually includes two IDE ports while most ISA IO boards I've seen only have 1. I can't remember if the IDE VLB board I had back in the day had 1 or 2 ports but it's just easier to use the built-in stuff.

The biggest problem these days (at least for me) is finding an AT case - so you might be better off finding an early ATX board with ISA slots - but it depends on what you have on hand.

Like everyone is saying it really depends on what era games you want to play. I'd also list what you got lying around and may work just as well, quick example is say a fast CD drive with a slowdown util

If you wanna cover a large period of games go with Socket 7. A K6-III+ will clock without issues up to 500MHz for the most demanding games and you can get it to run as low as a 386DX-25 at least. You might get it to run even slower but that depends of the motherboard.

You can choose a motherboard with 4 ISA and 4 PCI slots, which is flexible enough if you want to go fast and slow with this machine.

Both Zaxxon and Quake are DOS games. The first one is unplayable even in a 386DX40, while the second one happily use a Pentium III. If you realy need to cover a big range of games, you might try Phil's approach:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcAqRbFFQPU

In any case, defining a manageable range is always a good idea. My DOS box is a Pentium MMX 233, but I'm not interested in anything pre 1990-1991, and to cover anything later than 1995, I use my Tualatin machine.

An ISA machine built with hardware that is 100% compatible with each other. Simple enough?

Seriously though, compatibility and stability are the key word here. Stay away from things like VLB, but if you consider a Pentium to be the natural choice, that's not an issue. The CPU choice is almost by-the-by unless you consider what the most recent high-performance DOS game was and build a system around that (Quake? Unreal?). But if you want to vary the speed of your machine for older games, you're going to have to consider things like on-CPU cache, caching method, motherboard cache, turbo switch and FSB speed. But that's nothing compared to the brainache video and audio will give you:

- Some would argue you need a Voodoo 2, because that leaves you with a 2D card to fall back on for games that don't need 3D but are fussy about chipset compatibility.
- Some would argue that an S3 chipset is the most compatible.
- Some would argue you need a Gravis Ultrasound, an OPL3, an OPL2, a SoundBlaster and an MT-32 or Sound Canvas to achieve anything near compatibility with every game.

etc, etc.

I am yet to decide on my pure DOS machine, so I will be following this keenly (and I'm surprised no one has posted a 'this has been discussed before' reply) 😉

Sounds like you're aiming towards Pentium territory to me. 😉 In my experience, Pentium 1 is probably the most compatible with DOS games made between 1990 and 1997. Not only that, they're easier to work with as compared to something like a 486 as has been mentioned already. Another approach is using a super socket 7 system, i.e. K6-2 or K6-III, and slowing down the CPU and/or disabling cache to get 386 class performance. As far as things like sound and video, I'd say go through what you have and decide on what's the best option.

Ok, for a start I have a board or two for Socket 7, will need to look them up but I don't think they are the top notch stuff. I do have a functioning 286 Packard Bell Legend VI for the early years, Packard Bell Legend VI (Issues now). Got it running after a bit of help here and finding a decent 405MB hard drive, Parting it into a 200 / 205 setup, still need to do the CF thing 🤣. I should say I am not looking for the top of the pile, king of the hill type setup, just a decent all rounder for DOS. I have some towers with systems in them so I will need to write them all down, along with going thru other hardware and such to make a full list. Will try to post the list as I get thru some stuff. Doubt it will be a huge respectable list of hardware but I think it will be sufficient. Will try to keep items in the range you all have suggested, won't add in any "newer" items unless asked for.

Do they have a "look at what I have" section to list what we avid collectors actually own? I think they should 🤣. Thanks for all the vintage input, I shall use it wisely.

If you have the freedom of choice, I'd go for phil's super socket 7 build - it looks like a very neat way of handling multiple games.

I've gone for a pentium ii 300MHz, mostly because it's almost silent - the only fan is in the PSU. Other factors were the fact it was donated to me, faster than the (noisy) Cyrix MII 300 system I used previously, and well built.

The rationale is :

2 ISA slots (one shared PCI/ISA).
Fast enough to run practically all DOS games
S3 Savage 4 - compatible with most DOS games
AWE64 - sound, MIDI interface for external modules
NIC for LAN connectivity
Voodoo 2

The motherboard has an AGP slot, but most of the AGP cards are not as compatible with DOS games, especially stuff like Commander Keen.
The Voodoo2 isn't actually very useful. It's needed to run the first Tomb Raider in its original state, and Screamer. Practically everything else works fine on a modern system with a 3D card, there's a high resolution mod to the first Tomb Raider, and that requires a glide emulator and a modern card.

Likewise, Duke Nukem runs really well in high resolution, but I'm not sure if it's worth the bother given the excellent eDuke32. Sound Canvas support might be an advantage, maybe.

It's too fast to run Sam and Max properly, with external MIDI, and probably too fast for the Ultima series too. So, I'm going to use a 486 for that - and yes, they're a pain in the arse.

I do have a few toys for it - an hxc floppy emulator, which is excellent, and a semi enterprise SSD (80GB Intel, DC3500) linked to an IDE to SATA converter. 80GB is way more than I need, and cost wise there weren't any half decent SSDs any cheaper at the time. Using both of those makes the system extremely quiet.

I like Phil's 4 in 1 but I won't be running W9* anything, might throw 3.11 on it but its mainly going to be DOS 6.22.

Bullmecha wrote:

Mostly old games, not really sure what games I even have anymore, guess I'll have to check GoG or something to get more. I have a few laying around I like but don't have titles in hand atm.

Many of the games offered on GOG, while they were originally made a long time ago, have been re-coded for modern day systems. Their system requirements are very high, compared to the originals, in some cases. Be aware of that. A game that might have originally worked on a Pentium 133Mhz with 32MB RAM back in the day might require a much higher spec for the GOG version. It's always better to find abandonware images or downloads if you can, or use the original CD's / Floppies.

I guess many of the very old games on GOG actually come with DosBox in the package and simply work from there with a custom .cfg file, so those should be fine. Just copy the game content from the installed folder and use them directly on your DOS rig.

There is a little bit more to getting GOG DOSBox based games working on a real DOS machines.

Many games use folders, but a lot use CD images, either in ISO or BIN/CUE format. Sometimes you need to burn a CD as well as copy folders and edit some config files that have paths linked. I've documented the various types of games you run across on my website if anyone is interested.

Think I may have the system I want to use in a case already. Specs are as follows.....
Asus P55T2P4 motherboard ( jumper settings all over )
AMD K6-2 333 ( might have to save up some pennies for a 2+ )
64mb RAM ( EDO I believe )
6GB Maxtor drive ( will be parted down or maybe a 2GB CF)
SB CT3600 ( I have other SB models laying around i believe )
ATI Rage 128 32MB PCI ( overkill? )
D-Link DFE-530TX Ethernet card
and some CDRW drive

Also I found one of my Socket 7 boards but can't get a real ID on it. From what I have found on the webz it's an OEM board for an Acer V50S, but no manuals yet. It does go 50, 60, and 66 FSB though. Will get a pic or two later on and post it.
I should be able to do ISO images on CD and just drop them in and go. If i need a DVDR then I think I can find one of those as well. I was going to try the Abandonware site but I heard mixed results about it. GoG seems to have a decent reputation on the web so I may need to adjust for that if I need to.
Keep the info coming & thanks.

Never really played with AMD systems but I say go for it! if the hardware is just lying around. You'll get an idea of what works and what doesn't and can adjust accordingly for minimal cost.

Game wise I like using non GOG games but applying no-cd patches. Takes some searching but I think 95% of my games are no cd now

chinny22 wrote:

Never really played with AMD systems but I say go for it! if the hardware is just lying around. You'll get an idea of what works and what doesn't and can adjust accordingly for minimal cost.

Completely agree. And I think you also should better go with Asus P55T2P4, If you don't have any reservations for having an AT system (I always prefer ATX, very much easy to work with - PSUs, cases, etc.). This board was an almost legendary one during the times.

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.