Peter Swinkels wrote on 2021-02-08, 08:25:
My usage of DOSBox has gotten less and less. I used to be interested in older software but have started to believe I should forget about it. I have played a few old games which I kind of liked but they completely shrivel in light of more modern stuff. I have tried converting a simple Tetris clone to GwBasic. I know the language fairly well but it is about as much fun as trying to use stone-age technology for most modern tasks. Funny at first, tediously frustrating as you realize you are wasting your time trying to get anything done with a rock when you have a modern toolbox sitting right next to you.
And as to old hardware, have you seen the lengths people go through to restore old computers? Don’t get me wrong, I loved playing games on long obsolete hardware but if anyone here thinks I am interested in buying some worn out piece of junk for a long tedious restoration so I can put it somewhere to occasionally play games I used to like long ago? I don’t know about anyone else but if I am desperate for nostalgia I just run DOSBox, which is easier and quicker than afore mentioned methods. You know what is even easier? Forgetting about all that ancient stuff and trying a game that is actually fairly recent. You get a whole lot more experience for less effort. That is what I have found out.
I doubt anyone here thinks you are interested in undertaking what you call a "long tedious restoration".
I'm a big fan of DOSBOX too, and I also go along with the idea that most (a majority, not 99%) modern things are better than most older things.
Advances throughout human history are certain taken as a whole across reasonably long timescales, but sporadic and chaotic in detail with intriguing dead ends, reverses, leaps forwards and so on. 'Now' is usually better in most ways that back then, usually (and depending individually on things you value I guess)
Your final view, " Forgetting about all that ancient stuff " is actually the mainstream central view - people now subscribe to streaming tv where as in the past they bought dvd or rented vhs, they buy new phones every couple of years, they copy whatever trend is on social media, they go along with majority views on various topics of the day and so on - its the central cultural norm of 'now'. There's always been a 'now' all through time and most people simply move along without much reflection or engagement with any aspect of their own nor their cultural past. That's the normal / average mainstream.