These are my specs http://www.overclock.net/system.php?i=48163 and the last time i checked i can't run blood or shadow warrior to well but, my crappy ass old laptop which I downgraded from me to 98se can run shadow warrior just fine and i have yet to try blood but, i bet blood runs just fine.
witch reminds me my 98se Tower is little fooked up it locks when i try to run some dos games time to back up file and reformat and re update.

Kelly , I think the answer is very obvious . Some of us prefer the real machines instead of DOSbox and all those different emulators. Cause DB and all that jazz are EMULATORS, not the real deal. And emulators are NOT all, ask any real video game console fan, they will frown upon you asking that question. And yes emulators are fun for five minutes a time, but ultimately even the best emulators sucks in comparison to the real thing, even though I enjoy having a foot in both camps. And some emulators are still fucking awesome to play with, such as some NES emulators that kicks ass and other stuff. And since I think you are a girl(your name), then if you aren't a butchy woman who likes to get your hands dirty. Then that is the reason why I come to the conclusion how come you are asking that question.

And I think James Burgett would probably give some kind of the same answer as me.

James Burgett

http://aftermath-technologies.blogspot.com/

The answer: Emulators aren't perfect.

How can you achieve emulation of an old computer without an old computer to verify, test and research on?

And finally, the compatibility 'hole' of 96-99 Win9x games is still bad, and VirtualBox, VMWare, VPC and Qemu all suck for emulating that area still. Old systems are the best option for that.

leileilol wrote:

The answer: Emulators aren't perfect.

Although, in some cases, emulation can be better than the real thing. DOSBOX, for example, allows you to display games in interpolated resolution, which is better than the original 320x200 IMO. Also, it's easier to play around with CPU cycle setting than building a "sweet spot" machine for games like Wing Commander. And of course, you can still mix DOSBOX with "real things", like using it with a real MT-32 module.

As for myself, I tend to be "pragmatic" in my approach. I'm content with DOSBOX for low-res (320x200) games. When building legacy system, my first concern is Win9x games. Even VirtualBox is still far cry from running Win9x games the way DOSBOX does DOS games. The next is hi-res, 3D DOS games, which needs a really kickass machine to run in DOSBOX with reasonable speed. And of course, there are still 3dfx thingies to consider.

WolverineDK wrote:

And since I think you are a girl(your name)

Not all Kelly are women, though.

I keep wondering why out of deep curiosity, with DOSbox, VPC, ScummVM, VMware Player, etc., why build retro computers in the first place? I mean, doesn't the name "VOGONS" stand for "Very Old Games On New Systems"?

VOGONS was created (Thanks Snover!) out of dissatisfaction with how VDMSound's forums were setup and with the realization that there was a need to accumulate all of the knowledge for old games.

Originally VOGONS was OGONS but then someone (I think Stiletto) suggested the V (as a reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

The intent is for ALL knowledge for getting games to work to be on these forums, not just New Systems but everyone knows that MOST people are going to want to play these games on their New Systems.

Obviously a portion of the population have the knowledge and effort to build and maintain multiple computers but for most gamers they just want to play their old games without having to do anything extra.

Indeed even the latest Windows 7 OS is still HIGHLY compatible with older games but for purists, people who like an older game who want a specific experience that only an older computer can provide, for the knowlede, etc then an older computer is what works for them.

Ideally as was mentioned in the post prior a combination is the best solution. New computer, emulators, old computers, etc but obviously can be much more complex when a user just wants to play a game right now and get it to go which is why there is a Very Old Games On New Systems.

For old video game consoles, I'll admit the "emulators aren't perfect" argument makes sense, sort of.

But for PCs? Throughout most of the history of PC gaming, there's been a bazillion different PC configurations, and most games never targeted one configuration specifically. There was never a 100% ideal environment for running these games, and in a great many cases emulation is just as good - and a hell of a lot more convenient - as what you could expect from authentic hardware.

Well, it's rather like having a real steam engine as opposed to a computer simulation of one.

I would like to state at this point that i dont have any retro systems any more, i was forced to give them up when moving to a smaller place.

But i would love to see my first system again, i still remember the specification:

Compaq Prolinea 25/ts
125 MB HDD
4 MB (Later expanded to 16MB) RAM
486 SX 25mhz processor
Tseng labs Graphics (VGA only (mode, not port))
MS-DOS 6
MS Windows 3.11

Im a UK citizen, and it was a us import for the record.

I would love to find another system that sounded like that one, especially if it smelt of burnt toast every time you switched it on 🤣.

I am a hardcore collector. I use DB, but have some old PeeCees around too (starting with 486DX/33 up to AMD Sempron 2400+). Together with 8 and 16 bit computers like the good ol Acorn Beeb, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and local clones, Amiga 500&1200, Atari Mega ST.
And some game consoles (NES/Famicom clones, SEGA Megadrive, Super Nintendo and N64, several PS1 and a PS2).

Ah! the beeb, what an awesome system that was.