RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2026-07-21, 19:41:

Yes, I agree with you there. I plan to use each machine with a fairly strict start and and year. Of course most games can be played more smoothly on a faster machine. But if I do that then the slower machines will never be used.

True, it depends on what experience you are going for. If you're going for a period correct experience then there will usually be a performance trade-off.

Also, just because a game appears to work, doesn't mean it's not subtly broken due to being run on faster hardware than existed when it released. Sometimes physics is broken for example. For the most part I am not patching games. I install from original disk(s) and play.

Speed sensitive games are what led me down the rabbit hole of building systems that could cover a broad range of years. And specifically what led me to experimenting with industrial motherboards /w ISA slots and Pentium 4 systems. Since the Pentium 4 is a highly throttleable platform it's pretty ideal for dealing with speed sensitive titles in my experience.