So dos games basically.
Main issue you will have is sound. Find a laptop you like the look of, find out what soundchip it uses and see if it has any support for dos, either pure dos or dos from within windows.
3D accelerated games like Carmageddon will either need to run in software mode or use a glide wrapper. if using a wrapper the system requirements jump but even still a P4 era will have plenty of power.
While not a fan, WinME is probably a good choice for a laptop.
It should also be mentioned that most laptops will have a 5:4 screen ratio not 4:3 but alot of people are happy with this compromise and run the same ratio on their modern desktop screens.

Being a laptop It'll probably fairly safe on the network. just connect to the wifi or plug in the Ethernet cable for that 1/2 hour or so to copy across whatever you need then disconnect it again.

Nice, that's good advice.
Yeah Pentium 4 era.
Sound chip is definitely something I've thought of but I ain't asking for much just general sound blaster stuff.
Software rendering is pretty much my nostalgia in dos, I've never used glide even though I was envious of it. In Windows general opengl or d3d should just be doable.
Too bad the laptop I had p4 era was an Alienware, I'd just get that used but I doubt that's a smart idea 🤣.

I know it's not quite what you're asking for, but if you want to run the games on a modern PC/laptop (or one from the past ten years or so), then for Duke Nukem 3D, you can use a source port such as eDuke32 (http://www.eduke32.com/) in Windows, or use the older less advanced JSDuke 3D (www.jonof.id.au/jfsw)

And in the same way, for Shadow Warrior 3D you can use either JSFW http://www.jonof.id.au/jfsw, or the newer port SWP (http://www.proasm.com/sw/swp.html) but BE WARNED, SWP version 432 and later is widely reported to have a serious bug regarding game-saving, and so you should use either version 430 or 431 (http://swcentral.weebly.com/files--links.html) I've seen both said to be free of the (introduced later) save-game bug but I've not used SWP so I can't comment personally

There are also Windows based source ports of other DOS games, such as Doom 1 and 2, Quake 1 and 2 (well Quake 2 was Windows anyway but the fan-made source ports still add great stuff) and Descent 1 and 2 if you like those games. Source ports generally improve mouse handling and screen resolutions, and add or improve other things too

There are on-line guides to getting Carmageddon 1 (and it's Splat Pack expansion) to run well on modern systems, but I just re-bought them - GOG has them cheap, and since it's GOG the games run well on any decent system and have no DRM thankfully, and if you still like Carmageddon then you might well like the recent Carmageddon: Max Damage, which is a great (but very under-rated, for some reason) modern reboot(-ish) of the game.

For Blood, there is a 99% accurate fan remake of the game called BloodGDX, from http://m210.duke4.net

Strife was re-released a short while ago as The Veteran Edition (https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Strife:_Veteran_Edition) which is also available from gog.com

Navjack27 wrote:

Here is a semi complete list of games I used to play and would like to be able to run now. […]
Show full quote

Here is a semi complete list of games I used to play and would like to be able to run now.

- Strife (with SoundBlaster)
- All the Civ games up to 4
- Carmageddon 1 & 2
- Worms
- WarCraft 1 & 2
- Duke3D & Blood & Shadow Warrior
- & more

I think you get the picture.
It's a mix of games that I don't think are that much of an ask.
I'm just wondering what OS would be ideal. I remember using Windows ME with very fond memories on my AMD K6-2 rig back in the day.
Do you think I'd be able to achieve this on a semi old laptop?
I really think an old laptop would be something I'd use way more often when I have a retro gaming itch then if I built an entire desktop.
I wouldn't want this system to be able to access the internet but if it does I can just block it from WAN on my router. SMB sharing would be a convenient plus.
I built a NAS recently that has an Intel g5600 in it running Windows 10 Pro but since it's headless my dream of using it as a Remote Desktop VM/DosBox universal retro gaming thing kinda fell flat. It almost works perfectly except audio issues in VMware and Virtualbox & Remote Desktop 3D acceleration weirdness with DosBox. I really liked the idea of a single machine that could essentially have a bunch of old games in a virtual container system that anything on my network could bring up and play. I might still explore this for academic reasons. This would be ideal since no new hardware would have to be bought.

I'd suggest a Win98 OS with a Pentium IV, and with a Geforce 2Go for graphics. which would be great with all those.