Sounds like you had a very similar begrudging acceptance of the necessity of a retro build to myself. I think my failed experiments with PCem/86Box were the final straw. I wanted to play my original install CDs, and the performance with those in PCem was atrocious. Images worked much better, but …

Start This build was not borne of joy or nostalgia. No....this build was borne of the frustration of a lack of ubiquitous ways of getting Windows 9x games running well on modern hardware/OS. In fact I tried everything I could to avoid building this computer: Emulation: I got nowhere with DOSBOX-X. …

I was lucky enough to pick up one of these before they went out of stock on ebay and I have to say, the sound blaster compatibility is fantastic! My problem now is with PC speaker only games...is there any way to route a motherboard PC speaker to this card? None of the headers on the card jump out …

@dionb, that's very nice writeup, thank you! I'd add that if you're unsure, maybe spend some time reading badcaps.net to see what you're up against (they have some hints about tools etc there). What is the history of the board? If you know it was working before, maybe it will work for another 5 …

The motherboard for my overkill 98 SE rig came in yesterday (ECS P4M800PRO-M 2.0). Overall it's in very good condition, but unfortunately 3 of the 4 large VRM caps appear to be bulging slightly. I'm not experienced with this type of thing at all. Is it ok to at least put in a few hours of install …

I have agonized over and purchased most of the components for my overkill Windows 98 SE build (socket 775). As I understand Windows 98 SE supports installing directly from CD, so I don't think I need a floppy drive. I will need a CD/DVD drive for OS installation, loading drivers, and of course games …

1990 is early dos gaming. Consider 1994 to be the start of late dos gaming with the launch of DOOM. Games before DOOM were not CPU or graphics demanding at all. Post doom you are getting into dos games that require a Pentium to run well. Maybe you just have your dates mixed up but if you really …

Greetings vogons! I'm ready to attempt my first retro build to relive my prime Win 9X gaming years as a kid. But unlike the thift store hardware I ran at the time, I'd like to go overkill and run games at glorious 1600 x 1200 resolution (where possible). I've done a bit of research but I'd like …