I never used an Amiga, Acorn RiscPC or XT class, 386DX class systems. Things were a lot more interesting back then. I also like the challange of getting older stuff functional if something is wrong with them. It's a challange that keps the 60 plus year olds mind working. The current stuff is just boring as hell.

I'll also at least double the money that I've spent on older systems because I got them at the right time.

Thank goodness I got interested in using Linux. It's far more capable as well as more useful than MS Windows . It's more versatile as well. No waiting for updates to finish before using it and only nead to reboot after a grab or kernal update. I can test any x86 32-bit/64bit system I have to test the hardware without spending hours hunting down drivers.

@ Peter Swinkels
So why are you here then ?

Seems to me it's rather pointless to go on a forum called "Very Old Games On Newer Systems" and rant about how the old stuff sucks and we should all embrace modernity (projecting much ?)

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-02-08, 08:52:

@ Peter Swinkels
So why are you here then ?

Seems to me it's rather pointless to go on a forum called "Very Old Games On Newer Systems" and rant about how the old stuff sucks and we should all embrace modernity (projecting much ?)

You always get this type on various forums. Just contrary folk with nothing better to do really.

I usually refere to them as basement dwellers. 😉

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.

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.

hey, your opinion is valid, but this is the wrong place to post it, simple as that.
if you wanna talk about how this "e-waste" and "piece(s) of junk" are just "obsolete" and "stone-age technology" and we are "wasting our time" you can do that anywhere else really.

people here enjoy that hobby, and are happy to preserve this old junk for generations to come, no need to talk down on them and belittle their hobby, that really doesn't lead anywhere.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-08, 03:12:

I confess that, despite being a die-hard PC person in those years, I was actually jealous of some Amiga capabilities in the early 90's.

Come on, we all were. I mean: Smooth parallax scrolling? Mod music? Digitized samples? How dare you get this from a mid 80's machine! Thank god Doom finally let us off the hook.

You are probably right about me having to take my opinions about modern and old stuff somewhere else. Way back when I joined these DOSBox forums I was still much more into old software and old computers. Back then I day dreamed about buying an old computer but as I encountered newer technology sometimes because I had to no choice to move with the changing times I began to believe my dreams of buying an old computer was becoming more absurd by the day. Especially since I have had to clean my closets several times before because I have a habbit of collecting all sort of other stuff. I would have loved to keep it all but when my closet begins to overflow and the shelves in my bookcase begin to sag because of all the old books I keep around I think it's time to let go of some old stuff and ideas. And to focus more on what is current.

This.

Hahaha, the little guy used to be "meh" about letters and "yay" about an e-mail, but in his future it is the other way around. 🤣

Personally, I am glad most post is digital these days, whenever I do get an old fashioned letter I deal with it and then shred it. Unless it is a personal postcard. Those I keep in a closet, and even then I sometimes have to throw stuff out because the box would otherwise overflow.

gerry wrote on 2021-02-08, 09:55:

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.

I don't want to drag this thread too off-topic; but for most of recorded history 'now' and 'the past' were largely indistinguishable in the millennia between the invention of agriculture and the industrial revolution. Most people lived exactly as their long-dead ancestors had lived. Nostalgia is a relatively new phenomena. Future shock is even newer.

Big Pink wrote on 2021-02-08, 16:09:

gerry wrote on 2021-02-08, 09:55:

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.

I don't want to drag this thread too off-topic; but for most of recorded history 'now' and 'the past' were largely indistinguishable in the millennia between the invention of agriculture and the industrial revolution. Most people lived exactly as their long-dead ancestors had lived. Nostalgia is a relatively new phenomena. Future shock is even newer.

Exactly, while dwelling on things familiar from the past can be fun it can also make moving forward more difficult. New concepts might be scary or even shocking, but sometimes it is necessary to move on and let go of old habits.

Okay, I have dragged this thread off topic with my opinions and philosophical ramblings long enough for now. I believe this thread originally was about "Retro confessions." At the moment I can't think of any appropriate confessions. Anyone?

I confess that "sitting in front of a screen, clicking a mouse and keyboard, and having bleepy-bloopy things happen" is more or less the same basic experience now in 2021 as it was in 1991.

Some people prefer their bleepy-bloopys to be the 1991 version, some prefer the 2021 version, but ultimately we are all sitting in front of bleepy-bloopy screens and going clickety-click.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same".

I confess I use new tech to persist in decades old habits.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-02-08, 22:52:

ultimately we are all sitting in front of bleepy-bloopy screens and going clickety-click.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Big Pink wrote on 2021-02-08, 16:09:

gerry wrote on 2021-02-08, 09:55:

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.

I don't want to drag this thread too off-topic; but for most of recorded history 'now' and 'the past' were largely indistinguishable in the millennia between the invention of agriculture and the industrial revolution. Most people lived exactly as their long-dead ancestors had lived. Nostalgia is a relatively new phenomena. Future shock is even newer.

The furture doesn't exist.. It's always NOW. Still waiting for my Jetsons style hover car to turn up.

In the "things which make you feel old" category : the realisation that Duke Nukem Forever, whose ongoing failure-to-release was an endless joke for endless years... will mark it's first decade since release, later this year. :p

I long for the old mobile phones where a battery would last for a week. The new pocket computers are great and useful, but somehow it's acceptable that they last for a day and if two it's considered amazing!

As a phone only without data they last way longer.
If you use YouTube for a few hours that's a different story..
It depends on your usage.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-02-09, 10:32:

As a phone only without data they last way longer.
If you use YouTube for a few hours that's a different story..
It depends on your usage.

That's what I mean. You have FB, Tube, Whatsapp/Signal, news etc. that use check out all the time for no good reason draining your battery. I'd rather take a smaller phone with bigger battery than these mini tablets we have now. Apple mentioned releasing a small form factor phone this year and I really hope Android manufacturers will do the same. 5.5" would be the max size I'm comfortable with, so basically giving an option buying the same size that was the norm 5-10 years ago.

sf78 wrote on 2021-02-09, 10:24:

I long for the old mobile phones where a battery would last for a week. The new pocket computers are great and useful, but somehow it's acceptable that they last for a day and if two it's considered amazing!

my "mini tablet"'s battery lasts 1-2 weeks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
and if I ever open youtube on it, it's in firefox, definitely not the youtube app.

I'd rather have wider phones again, I don't ned ultra-wide (or rather tall in portrait) screens on phones, they're just not good for anything, I want to see more information and for that I need width.
also bring back bezels please, I had to add a thick case to my phone just to be able to hold it without covering the screen... this should rather go in hated trends ^^