I do it because it's a lifelong passion for me. I've been fascinated by computers and how they work since I was a little kid tweaking my 286. It's really a combination of video gaming fascination and wondering about the hardware that runs it all.

I'm into learning about game console hardware too. I've even overclocked a N64 and I've modded a few more recent consoles to do many things they weren't supposed to. 😁 I used my Xbox as a media player far more than it ever got used for games!

The old stuff is still interesting for a few reasons. For one, just because it's old and most of the world has moved on doesn't mean it isn't still useful. Old games work best on old hardware. Secondly, I sometimes get tired of tweaking the modern stuff and want to change things up by tweaking some old stuff. It powers up hibernating brain cells when you realize how many little intricacies you've forgotten. Learning about old stuff also helps you develop a better historical perspective on where we are today (and helps make you immune to hype).

Well I don't keep the hardware anymore. Requires way too much space, power and eventually the parts fail.

I keep up with the games (compatibility testing, aquiring as many games as possible) because I want to be able to play these games in the future and I like helping other people to get their games to work. (The more people playing old games the more likely that games will be fixed, re-released, or similiar games wiill be produced).

I've been gaming on computers since I was 6, got my first PC when I was 10 (and around that time stopped using consoles 😀 ) began working with PC hardware since I was 15 and started IT work when I was 18.....don't see any signs of stopping either 😀

I don't have a "nostalgia" point of view when using old games/hardware. An old game I've never played is new to me. A game I've beaten 10 yrs ago that I'm replaying is just an excellent game that I'm replaying again.

I am testing old retro hardware because

* I couldn't afford this stuff back in the day / it's super-cheap now on ebay.
* Back in the day, I didn't really understand how this stuff worked. Now's the time to find out!
* I've been hooked on video games since the Pong console game.
* It's a good hobby/challenge, and the Vogons website provides an excellent and entertaining "tech support" community!
* Old games are good games (good old games!) - they're worth (re)playing.

I mostly do it to play old games, but it has evolved into a passion. It's just awesome to try out old hardware and see what it can do.

Almost all of the above, and most of what's gonna come below! 😁

For me its about using the equipment that is sufficient for my (modest) needs and then tweaking it to work as best as possible.

While I've been into computers since a kid, the whole retro thing snowballed for me. There came a time when the current games were all a letting met down. I decided to go back and play Lords of the Realm II, something I always wanted to play but never did. When I picked up a copy, the timing of my fast rig made it unplayable (well was playable but acted like it was on crack). I had some odd parts around the house, and threw together a Socket 7 system. I fell in love with the game. Next thing you know I was always looking for more old parts to tweak my system and more old games to play on it.

total PC game count = 671
Total video card count = 130

Basically what RG100 said.

That and I'm just fascinated by the chip and other hardware architecture.
When I first started dumpster diving I was looking for Pentiums but as I also found many 486's I found the definitely older looking 486 very interesting as well!
Also I like to use hardware that's obscure (like the 2.88 floppy drive, of which I have a small lot) and generally considered obsolete (for many that means useless!).
When I told a friend of mine I had build a 486 with W95 he, at first, thought 486 means slow. Man was he surprised when my 486 DX4-100 with 1Gig harddrive would boot windows faster then his Athlon XP 2600!

When someone gifts me his old useless computer, opening it up is like christmas for me 😁

Also I've been fascinated by the question "What can I run with this particular piece of hardware". Especially having a fast 486 or a fast super 7 setup.

Basically I just think old hardware looks cool because it -used to be the best thing- since sliced bread and now is considered electronic junk.
I mean, you can see the enormous amount of efford that has gone into designing a graphics card that may be 10 years old, or older! I just think it looks awesome!

I once played the Unreal campaign TWICE on 2 different computers, just so I could feel the difference between Creative 128PCI and a Vortex2.

And the list goes on and on 🤣!

Tetrium wrote:

I once played the Unreal campaign TWICE on 2 different computers, just so I could feel the difference between Creative 128PCI and a Vortex2.

That's really interesting. What was your opinion of these two sound cards? Was one significantly better than the other?

I intend to do something similar - play the same game, but use different hardware "profiles". For example, play a game that contains many levels, and play the first half of the game using one set of components, then replace these components for an alternative set of components, and finish the game. It's just for a bit of fun really, and curiosity too.

I work with old computers a lot for the sake of old games. I much prefer how games used to be, what I played when I was younger.
Additionally I am extremely interested in old computer audio solutions. For instance, I have a large MIDI collection and always find it really interesting to hear how they are played on different cards or synthesizers. I haven't been able to dive too far into this due to money, but I wish to try picking up all kinds of sound cards, MIDI daughterboards, external boxes, etc.
Additionally, I just like playing around with stuff, and seeing what I can do with it. It's fun trying to push the limits of an old PC, or trying to make it usable for everyday work just for the fun of it (or for the simplicity of the environment to work in). Or perhaps to find an interesting use for a very old piece of hardware that I've found in an PC I received.

Im collector type of person. Been trying collecting many items like i postage stamps, bugs (live ones not virtual 😉 ), but havent money back in time at school. When i was working at mine second job (around 2003), theres been a lot of old cards heading into garbage. So i had choice, collect cpus or graphic cards. I choosed cards, since there was a lot of cpu collectors online, but none site about graphic cards. I told myself, at last i will be unique, its easy since even now you can find 5 sites on whole internet with universal graphic card collections. And im happy that i can save some computer history, because most manufacturers ended in mid 90's and these who survived have no page about their own history. They should be proud, instead of nice small article about their history, they deleting almost everything from their sites (last time i checked amd/ati pages, they deleted even 9xxx cards and almost all press articles). Shame on them. Matrox had dualhead card in 80s, one small photo will be nice, instead of it, you cant find anything older than Ultima (1993), but they doing cards since 70s. And first ATi card, again almost imposible to find.
Best is feeling when i find new card, often from manufacturer i never seen before and when i realize, that even google cant find it. Then i know im first who show this forgotten part of history to a few geeks 😁 If i wont save that card, noone else will do it instead of me. And thats sad. Very mysterious are for me proffesional cards, since they were not known even when they were selling and now you cant find even one single article about their history. Thats what im missing, since many if not even almost all technologies used in game cards were introduced on profi cards years before.

I've been a computer emulation and nostalgic buff since it was possible with Applewin (Apple II emulation) and later Connectix came out with Virtual PC. I remember Vmware when it was just a toy.

My first computer was an Apple II+ in 1982 and I moved up to PC's in the late 80's. I loved how much they could do with so little code and became impressed most of all with games that pushed the envelope, MIDI music and the like. When games became bloated (about the time of the arrival of the CD), it became obvious that game developers didn't have to try hard anymore.

But that being said, I've been a hardware buff since the early 90's and really cut my teeth on Windows 3.0. I've been working with and building PC's since then. But now I have more money. 😎

I'm also one of the freaks that got a kick out of making DOS, Windows and hardware work together more so than playing the games. My favorite game-to-date is still optimizing config.sys & autoexec.bat files.

valnar wrote:

My favorite game-to-date is still optimizing config.sys & autoexec.bat files.

Hehe yea that was a challenge back in the days...

Believe it or not, yesterday was the first time I used MEMMAKER which comes with Dos 6.22

And you know what? It worked really well! Couldn't believe it.

After it was finishes I have around 630k with EMS for Wing Commander and Sound Blaster drivers, CD driver and a working mouse...

Weird because back in the day the going was to avoid this tool. Well looks like it wasn't THAT bad after all! Saved he a lot of time in working it out for myself 😀

retro games 100 wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

I once played the Unreal campaign TWICE on 2 different computers, just so I could feel the difference between Creative 128PCI and a Vortex2.

That's really interesting. What was your opinion of these two sound cards? Was one significantly better than the other?

I intend to do something similar - play the same game, but use different hardware "profiles". For example, play a game that contains many levels, and play the first half of the game using one set of components, then replace these components for an alternative set of components, and finish the game. It's just for a bit of fun really, and curiosity too.

The soundblaster sounded more varied, every weapon had a much more distinct sound then the vortex2. Otoh, the vortex2 weapons sounded more 'powerful' with more BANG. Overall I didn't notice much difference in music quality I think.
Also I 'think' the Vortex2 made more use of sounds like dripping water etc, which was veeery nice 😀
I don't think I have a preference either way, but I do like the way the weapons sounded using the Vortex2, even though I could hear the sounds are basically the same but played faster or with different pitch etc. Atleast that's how I thought of it.

I'm not 100% sure about which cards I used though, would need to open up the cases. But one is creative and the other definately isn't!

What chip is on your SBPCI 128? The ES1370 chip plays some sample rates slightly off pitch.

swaaye wrote:

What chip is on your SBPCI 128? The ES1370 chip plays some sample rates slightly off pitch.

I'd need to open both cases for that and that'll have to wait till tomorrow at the least. Been months since I last used these 2 systems.

Will post back when I do 😉

Old Games - that is all that matters to me.
I have reduced it to a single operational machine with spare parts to keep it running for a while.

Ux-3 what games are you into at the moment?

ux-3 wrote:

Old Games - that is all that matters to me.
I have reduced it to a single operational machine with spare parts to keep it running for a while.

I don't know if I could narrow mine down to just one machine. Guess it would be a BX440 board and a pair of voodoo2s so I could hit a broader number of games. When it comes to parts I have always got lucky, it's always my newer parts fail (if you can call that lucky). 😦