WDStudios wrote on 2021-06-22, 23:56:

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-22, 23:38:

the games can just be had from GoG for less price than the postage of the physical media would be.

Last time I checked, GOG was not physical media.

guess what? I am perfectly aware of this and you know that and the context of this sentence makes that clear, doesn't it?
So why the petty answer?

But yes, let's see, how do you want to bring the retro experience of installing the games to your device?
Say you do have the game on floppy disks but USB floppy drives are notoriously a hit and miss, mostly a miss. And there are no 5.25" USB drives ;(
Yet again limit the range of playable games to CD-Rom releases?

WDStudios wrote on 2021-06-19, 07:06:

So... I have this idea. A small, low-cost, low-power computer, like the Raspberry Pi, but 100% compatible with Windows 98 and heavily optimized for parallel floating-point operations. Like... imagine that I talked to AMD and convinced them to make fresh chips that combined a single Athlon 64 core, a Radeon 9800 core (or several), and an SB400 or SB450 southbridge all on a single piece of silicon. And let's say that I then incorporated that into either a bare board (like the Pi) or a somewhat more complete system with an optical drive, hard drive, and possibly even integrated 4:3 fullscreen monitor (like ye olde iMac). How many of you would buy something like that?

Whats the point, it's not a retro experience. My guess the only people interested in such a thing are the same people that like finding a dos compatible thin client and dos gaming on it.

What could be a thing however is doing what apple does. Apple as a company has never really invented anything "opinion" they are more like a recipe company. They take a bunch of ideas that someone else invented and mash them together into a recipe like how we got an iphone.

Personally what I would much rather have is a handheld console that had a custom dosbox frontend that worked with the handheld controls fully preconfigured and loaded with games. This could actually be something maybe.

like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wINKqvWou5w

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-23, 04:56:

USB floppy drives are notoriously a hit and miss, mostly a miss.

I was thinking about getting one of those. Thanks for the warning.

Warlord wrote on 2021-06-23, 06:02:

Whats the point, it's not a retro experience.

🤣 yes it is. It's playing retro games on a legacy OS they are natively compatible with, on hardware that was designed for (or otherwise compatible with) that OS.

Warlord wrote on 2021-06-23, 06:02:

Personally what I would much rather have is a handheld console that had a custom dosbox frontend that worked with the handheld controls fully preconfigured and loaded with games. This could actually be something maybe.

like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wINKqvWou5w

You want something that plays DOS games... without a keyboard and mouse? I think you're part of a very small market even by retro gaming standards.

I haven't had trouble with USB floppy drives. The Dell floppy drives that are for laptop and have a USB port work fine as do the straight up Dell USB floppy drives. The one I like the most so far is the SmartDisk 2x speed floppy drive. That same drive is sold under a bunch of different brands.

It uses a TEAC FD-05PUW

There are also parallel floppy drives and the controller in them supports 2 drives at the same time. 5.25" and 3.5".

WDStudios wrote on 2021-06-23, 06:26:

Warlord wrote on 2021-06-23, 06:02:

Whats the point, it's not a retro experience.

🤣 yes it is. It's playing retro games on a legacy OS they are natively compatible with, on hardware that was designed for (or otherwise compatible with) that OS.

Theres more criteria to the retro experience than that. You can run dos on just about anything that will run x86code and assuming you can slow it down enough to run your games, get sound output that all fits your listed criteria but its still not a retro experience. As example phil has made videos of running dos on a thin client, thats fits all of your criteria but its not a retro experience. Its not vintage hardware, and its not the same as a real computer from 1993.

Vintage and retro aren't the same thing.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-06-23, 06:44:

I haven't had trouble with USB floppy drives. The Dell floppy drives that are for laptop and have a USB port work fine as do the straight up Dell USB floppy drives. The one I like the most so far is the SmartDisk 2x speed floppy drive. That same drive is sold under a bunch of different brands.

It uses a TEAC FD-05PUW

There are also parallel floppy drives and the controller in them supports 2 drives at the same time. 5.25" and 3.5".

Good to know about the dells. Can you link to such a parallel floppy drive?

The two USB floppy drives were both horrible (don't know the brand anymore). Stopping a read in between and then often disappearing unless I plugged them in another port (on two different machines). The floppies were eventually imaged fine with a Kryoflux.

Backpack 5.25" Floppy Drive for PC?

Ah, parallel port (I somehow assumed parallel as in both working at the same time).
Unfortunately parallel port is far from useable these days (I have no machine with that anymore).

What this thread has taught me is that even among retro gamers who aren't satisfied with current "solutions", there are a lot of diametrically opposed preferences about what a good solution would be. Some people think collecting vintage hardware is half of the fun and wouldn't accept a modern clone; others don't give a damn about native hardware support at all and think virtualization or emulation is enough. Some don't care about physical media at all or owning their own games and would prefer a subscription/streaming service; others insist on having not just physical media but the very firstest releases evar. The problem isn't that this is a small or niche market; the problem is that it's a severely Balkanized one, and no product or service, no matter how well-conceived or well-executed, would be considered by a majority of retro gamers to be superior to their individual obsessions and current preferred ways of doing things.

So, thanks for all the constructive feedback and insane rants, but I think I have my answer.

WDStudios wrote:

I've never seen a game that required Glide. The closest I've seen is Diablo II, which supports DirectX but ran better with Glide.

Then why every single one of my PC builds include a 3DFX Voodoo card ?!

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-06-23, 08:34:

Then why every single one of my PC builds include a 3DFX Voodoo card ?!

Because you like Diablo 2 very much? 🤣

Ah, I wasn't aware of that, but now I do !

And also playing DOS games without sound... This thread is so funny.

WDStudios wrote on 2021-06-23, 08:09:

So, thanks for all the constructive feedback and insane rants, but I think I have my answer.

So, I guess we should rather close this thread?

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-23, 09:37:

So, I guess we should rather close this thread?

But...

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-22, 18:05:

I'm curios what will happen on page 10.

😉

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-23, 07:08:

Ah, parallel port (I somehow assumed parallel as in both working at the same time).
Unfortunately parallel port is far from useable these days (I have no machine with that anymore).

There are PCI and PCIe parallel port cards.

You can also hook up two drives to the same controller.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-06-23, 10:28:

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-23, 07:08:

Ah, parallel port (I somehow assumed parallel as in both working at the same time).
Unfortunately parallel port is far from useable these days (I have no machine with that anymore).

There are PCI and PCIe parallel port cards.

You can also hook up two drives to the same controller.

I don't have a machine anymore that has pci/e slots 😀

Doornkaat wrote on 2021-06-23, 10:04:

But... […]
Show full quote

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-23, 09:37:

So, I guess we should rather close this thread?

But...

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-22, 18:05:

I'm curios what will happen on page 10.

😉

Aaaaaaaaahhhhh

Hi OP - to answer your original question: yes, of course - I would love a raspberry pi-type box that could run DOS/games etc.

Maybe something like Retro Pi, eg HDMI out, USB ports (for wireless mouse/keyboard), SD Card, sound.

I'm not hardcore like some of the guys here, but I'm sure many outside of this forum would be keen too (look at the lengths people go to run Doom on ATMs, PSPs, cameras etc).

Look at the price of a 486 laptop on ebay. Then you need to deal with floppies, terrible LCD screens, lack of USB/mass storage, spinning disks. Many people have made raspberry pi laptops with off the shelf parts.

Perhaps you can "settle" on an era/spec that provides support for many well known games (instead of trying to please everyone). Eg 1994, plays Doom. Even if that rules out other buyers, I think you'd have no trouble selling that "experience".

I love retro hardware (see my profile pic), but anything that could bring it into the 21st century is welcome in my books. Keep us posted!

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-23, 10:45:

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-06-23, 10:28:

Dominus wrote on 2021-06-23, 07:08:

Ah, parallel port (I somehow assumed parallel as in both working at the same time).
Unfortunately parallel port is far from useable these days (I have no machine with that anymore).

There are PCI and PCIe parallel port cards.

You can also hook up two drives to the same controller.

I don't have a machine anymore that has pci/e slots 😀

Ah, only laptops then.

You could always get a Magma PCI expansion chassis if you have something with a PCMCIA or Express slot.

You can also do a PCIe expansion chassis over Thunderbolt.