5- After realizing that the house is filled with hardware and yet even more hardware, the Retrogamer discovers that DOSBox is actually pretty freakin' awesome (tm) and thus decides to ditch all the old junk (read: stuffs it in the attic)

#5 is sad, at that point you've given up and should donate your stuff to people that will enjoy it.

5- Goes back to playing games...

5- Happily grows old playing classic games from the 90's and naughties on period correct hardware with no hardware failure, power surges, etc to spoil the party.

5- goes to play 2 of the 253 steam game purchases he/she made in the past 6 months

5- Becomes disgusted with all the retro junk littering his house and puts in on eBay -- at a markup (adjusted for inflation?) -- thus enabling the habits of other retrogamers.

6- Somewhere in the world, a new retrogamer is born...

🤣 All the #5s are correct!

I've hit the DOSbox is the answer stage, with a usb midi interface of course.

Though I still have dreams of setting up a nice 286 12 or some such for accuracy. The problem mostly is space really. If I had more space I'd probably have more period machines.

To be fair I already have a fair amount, P-90 for DOS , 1GHZ Athlon for Win 98, A Core2 Duo for XP and an i7 for Win 8.

Like I said though I'd like a nice 286 to fill that gap. Preferably in the original IBM AT desktop case.

5- After paying twenty bucks plus shipping for a mint-condition boxed copy, spends five minutes playing Battle Arena Toshinden before suddenly realizing that it's a really crappy game.

6- Spends all his time posting on message boards about how awesome retro hardware is. Never plays a game again.

Shagittarius wrote:

I've hit the DOSbox is the answer stage,

,,,
Like I said though I'd like a nice 286 to fill that gap. Preferably in the original IBM AT desktop case.

I wish someone stepped up and worked on PCem for the more niche target CPU emulation 😀

or a cpu/mobo/bios branch for dosbox

7- "Playing" + "games"... what odd sounding words reflects the advanced Stage 7 Retro PC builder. Eons have passed since a game was more than loaded and test run to check the valdity of the hardware configuration. "Ah" check off one more one-off system...

Filosofia wrote:

2- Surviving the initial stage the Retrogamer discovers the joy of historically accurate builds and his collection starts to grow exponentially, mainly due to sound card dependency or graphic card obssesion, both of which can be very serious and affect the Retrogamer's perception of the real world.

leileilol wrote:

5- goes to play 2 of the 253 steam game purchases he/she made in the past 6 months

Jorpho wrote:

5- After paying twenty bucks plus shipping for a mint-condition boxed copy, spends five minutes playing Battle Arena Toshinden before suddenly realizing that it's a really crappy game.
6- Spends all his time posting on message boards about how awesome retro hardware is. Never plays a game again.

This is so true... I probably have to make an appointment with a psychiatrist.

🤣 I'm so proud of myself. I actually have played and beaten several retro games on retro hardware in the past year.

However I have also done strange things like buy a nForce4 Ultra board and a Radeon X1950XTX. I think I'm out of new old hardware ideas now though.

I mostly sit on the forum and watch new people ask old questions.

I have reached my goal of retro bliss with my two Super socket 7 and one Pentium 3 machines. They have a ton of Sound cards and MIDI modules, and it's all wired up with a KVM, audio switchers and sound mixer. Got a capture PC to record videos and sounds, everything works and I can much around with minimal fuss by just pushing a few buttons.

I have one test bench to muck around with other stuff.

What helped is that I'm only interested in a short time period (386 to 486 DOS games) and I have covered this period very well. I had a quick stint into W98 land but it simply didn't interest me that much.

I don't feel like getting more stuff, unless something breaks down. I have actually only just recently sat down on the machines and played a game (Codename Iceman), something I always planned on doing (what a crap game BTW), and it felt good to reach that point of just being able to sit down, when it's all done, and play a game.

Before that it was a constant building site with no end in sight.

So far I have played heaps more games in DOSBox. Especially in the past.

I think in the medium future I will just the odd YT video here and there and that's about it. Some small projects are still on my to do list, but it's all simple / small stuff.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I don't feel like getting more stuff, unless something breaks down. I have actually only just recently sat down on the machines and played a game (Codename Iceman), something I always planned on doing (what a crap game BTW), and it felt good to reach that point of just being able to sit down, when it's all done, and play a game.

This x100.

Except the Codename: Iceman bit. 😜

My gaming PCs are in that "complete" stage. I'm still picking up other "home computer" and games console stuff that tickles my fancy (it was in that vein that I grabbed the IBM PC), but I won't be buying 486/S7/S370 bits or sound cards/MIDI synths unless something fails.

I had 486 hardware galore years ago but I lost interest in it. My formative computing years were on 286-486s (late 80s onward), and I obsessed over learning about them, but I would much rather use DOSBOX at this point.

I would like to see an emulator of 3dfx+Win9x next. We have DOSBOX bringing Voodoo1 for DOS eventually. GOG and every other company raking in the dough off DOSBOX should fund some Win9x support methinks. 🤣

5. A human species called Malik, completed the process of evolution when he :

(Discovered - read assembled 😁)

a. Discovered the 486DX2-66 with the turbo button and the icd.exe & ice.exe files : The 486, The Turbo Button And The Internal Cache - Rudimentary Speed Analysis

b. Discovered the Pentium 133 system suited for more newer DOS based games : The Pentium P54c, the Turbo Buton and the Internal Cache. And Wing Commander I is Happy!

c. Discovered the Pentium II 400 MHz (underclockable to 200MHz) - for a more complete system suited for more advanced and resource hungry DOS games and softwares : Pentium II in Return of the Beige!

d. Then there was DOSBOX which stopped short all the evolution process like a meteor wiping out the dinos. 😁

In terms of classic PCs in modern context, the main tinkering part is in fine tuning the speed of the system to be able to play classic games on the vintage PCs properly. In this criteria, DOSBOX fills the condition very well! Like it or not, it's a real gift to us classic PC users able to play our nostalgic games perfectly in our laptops wherever we are.

Next main thing is the sound department. ISA sound cards is something that is a hit and miss even with DOSBOX, but it's the closest one can get if one does not have access to a ISA based system.

Though DOSBOX does not have the ditto MT-32 emulation yet, the latest version of the MT-32 emulator, preferably used with a CVS build of DOSBOX is the closest you can get to a real MT-32. It's not perfect but very good indeed. I'm using it in my laptop.

Secondly, DOSBOX supports the "Intelligent" mode in the MIDI department to make use of a real MT-32/CM-32/CM-64/CM-500 perfectly well with the help of USB-to-MIDI cable in new systems. If one has one of these modules, they can recreate the famous sounds of these units, period specific even in modern PCs.

Thirdly DOSBOX's speed control is excellent. You can fine-tune it's performance to mimic a 8086 XT till the later systems like 486 very well.

But even with DOSBOX and saying all that, it's still fun and interesting to play around with the Kings of Yesteryears.

When I sit in front of my 486 and shoot up a game like Realms of Arkania or Sierra's King's Quest V with MT-32 music, it still blows me away.

I prefer to use a real classic PC like my Pentium 133 and Pentium II 400 machines for later DOS games, running in SVGA and in 3D, and also for use with Windows 95 and with my dual Voodoo2 running in SLI.

5. Discovers that money is finite and life deals a blow when house burns down..... Starts recollecting and only focusing on certain builds...

rcblanke wrote:

5- After realizing that the house is filled with hardware and yet even more hardware, the Retrogamer discovers that DOSBox is actually pretty freakin' awesome (tm) and thus decides to ditch all the old junk (read: stuffs it in the attic)

... this is, unfortunately, exactly what is happening to me atm. I finished my studies and I gotta move out of my student room soon. But the problem is - its filled with retro stuff which I cant move easily. I got three retro rigs with loads of SBs, Voodoos and whatever; even a 21" Sony trinitron which would be a waste to throw away 🙁 I'm trying to find nice owners at the other retro forum, but not much luck so far. I guess I'll throw everything but one rig in the end on the fleabay for a dime, and the ditch the rest (no attic available) 🙁

...Sad thread, this is...