First post, by Holograph
Specs for my retrogaming machine:
. Pentium 166 (non-MMX)
. AOpen AP5T mobo (430TX, 2xDIMM+4xSIMM, 512kb o/b L2, 3 PCI and 4 ISA)
. Currently 64mb 50ns EDO RAM installed, 256mb SDRAM upcoming
. 3.5" floppy drive installed, 5.25" to be installed when I actually need it
. 4gb Seagate drive to be replaced with 13gb Maxtor
. x50 unbranded CD-ROM (probably Cyberdrive)
So far those are the basics. Now for the cool stuff:
. PCI ATI Rage II+ video card with 4gb memory (BIOS supports VBE2.0 out of the box) -- Tseng Labs E6000, Diamond Stealth 64 VRAM on standby for problematic games. Voodoo 2 to be added as soon as I get it back
. Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold
. Gravis Ultrasound classic w/1mb mem.
. Roland MT-32 connected to game port
. Logitech optical mouse connected to a USB->PS/2 convertor straight to computer's PS/2 port (USB upcoming, not sure if properly supported under DOS)
. Microsoft Natural Elite PS/2 keyboard
Installed OS include Windows 2000 (for occasional internet browsing or testing my software on older machines), Windows 98 (useful for certain games, plus what's mentioned above) and of course DOS 6.22. DOS configurations include clean boot, HIMEM only (useful for demos and various games), EMM386 (for games that don't get along with QEMM) and QEMM386. All relevant configurations with or without SmartDrive.
Everything is hooked up to a CTX VL950SL monitor, and to my stereo which consists of an Akai AA-R30 analogue receiver and JMR Twin Mk2 speakers.
This machine runs pretty much anything, though I'm still working out the kinks in certain games; I've got an IBM PC, 286, 386 and 486 on standby if necessary. Other machines include Amiga 500+ and 1000, a yet dysfunctional C64, fully functional Apple III. It was a lot of hassle getting most of this hardware, as esoteric hardware (anything other than run-of-the-mill PCs and Sound Blasters) is almost impossible to come by in Israel; the AWE64 Gold, MT-32, GUS and Amigas had to be bought off eBay over the course of several years (dreadful shipping costs). Plus I had to make a lot of hardware hacks and patches (RTC on the A1000, MIDI cable for the MT-32) because you just can't get that stuff here.
I'd welcome any suggestions as to hardware, software and other stuff I may find useful (scan doubler for the Amiga, for example, seems a must).