First post, by ElementalChaos
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I've been thinking about this over the past few days while setting up and using my newly acquired 486 and Pentium machines. What is it that draws people to real hardware? Why do I feel better playing old games on the period-correct hardware instead of DOSBox/PCem, when emulators are usually less of a pain to set up, more reliable, and near indistinguishable from the real thing to the casual observer?
CPU and RAM: These parts always work in the back stage, you never really actually "see" them. Many CPUs are flexible and can slow themselves down to the speed of older CPUs. There is no difference between a Pentium with both caches disabled and a 386-SX until you look inside the machine. Schrodinger's CPU?
Graphics cards: Some of them have unique quirks in their signal, like S3 cards having a somewhat fuzzy image at high resolutions, and the Voodoo SLI artifacting.
Sound cards: They also have many quirks. The SB16's numerous bugs and noise on some cards, filter capacitors amplifying the bass, etc.
HDD, CD and floppy drives: The noises. Oh man the noises. Early CD drives could get LOUD. With the Quantum Fireball in my 486 you can hear every individual sector as it's being read, the grinding increases in pitch the farther the head is from the center.
Perhiperals (monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers): I think these play the biggest role. CRTs really cannot be beaten when it comes to retro stuff. And a proper beige mechanical keyboard and ball mouse really make it feel more real.
Pluto, the maxed out Dell Dimension 4100: Pentium III 1400S | 256MB | GeForce4 Ti4200 + Voodoo4 4500 | SB Live! 5.1
Charon, the DOS and early Windows time machine: K6-III+ 600 | 256MB | TNT2 Ultra + Voodoo3 2000 | Audician 32 Plus