DOS Games Discussion

Dogbreath · Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 1:47 am Post subject: The Perfect DOSgaming Machine?

Today I had an interesting (if not somewhat insane and slightly stupid) idea: build a computer geared exclusively towards running DOS games. What I need to know is what is the ideal hardware (and software) for maximum compatibility? And where can I buy the parts in question?

Chances are this computer won't exist anywhere outside of my head (though I may build it this summer if I have any money left over from my car payments) but I still think it'd be fun to figure out what the ultimate DOS computer is-if only for the sake of someone else less lazy than I actually building it. Happy

Unknown_K · Way too much free time Joined: 01 Oct 2002 Posts: 559

I went down this road before and decided that there isn't one computer setup to play all the dos games. You have to remember the DOS game era stretched from the mid 80's all the way to the mid 90's and included many different processors, video cards, sound cards, etc.

So I ended up with a Tandy 1000 HX for the old CGA and Tandy games
A 386/40 for middle of the road DOS games, and a p200 for later era games. There are quite a few video and sound cards in the mix also.

You will find timing errors running real old games on newer machines (and the utils to fix this realy dont work), and without the correct soundcards the games seem flat to me.

Interon · Guest

How about somewhere between a 386 DX and a 486 SX. RAM: no limit, minimum 2 MB.

Or perhaps a 486 DX2/50 with lots of RAM.

Think somewhere along those lines. Anything above a Pentium 100 is generally too fast. Also try to avoid AMD/clones and stick with Intel CPUs.

Or a 486 DX4/100 with a dandy turbo button.

Also my Pentium mobo has an option to turn off the cache. That allows it to run lots of old games.

Robot_Maker · Guest

I used to use a CX586 processor on an IBM Aptiva with 16MB ram, and that ran pretty much any dos game I threw at it, if this helps at all.

Been meaning to ask this for ages: What did the turbo button on 486 machines actually do?

Guest · Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2004 5:02 pm Post subject:

AFAIK, the turbo button made the computer run at about half-speed.

Kazer0 · Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2004 10:44 am Post subject:

No, it made it run at full speed when pressed, 1/2 without it. Or, it might ave overclocked.

486 player · Gaming Demi-god Joined: 18 Sep 2002 Posts: 1067

Remember that?

dr_st · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 7:50 pm Post subject:

A P200.

Jeff · Experienced Member Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 51

Any computer capable of running Windows 95 (but running dos) should be pretty good.

My Dos computer is a old Compaq 120MH Pentium, 16MB Ram, and 1.51GB HD running Dr. Dos 7.03. That's sufficient enough to run any Dos game that was made in the mid to late 80s and up. If anything, it needs more memory and hard drive space.

Unknown_K · Way too much free time Joined: 01 Oct 2002 Posts: 559

Guest · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 7:05 pm Post subject:

hACman · Guest

I like a computer with a voodoo 1 or 2 card and a Soundblaster AWE 64.(the last soundblaster card with Hardware sb16 support)
With at least 64MB Memmory. (dos can't manage more)
And then a mainbord the voodoo card works on.(not to new)
I am building one now. =)

sirving · Guest

My experiance of the best dos machine would be

Asus motherboard
Pentium 133 or 200
Sound Blaster 16
96 megs ram(i had my system running that much with dos)
Ati mach 64 video card (more mem the better, 4megs i think was most you could get)
harddrive don't much matter
12x cdrom fast but not to fast

Also for those looking to build a dos machine, freedos is a great option to look at. Open source and free. Also for those looking for parts.
www.vfxweb.com

Lostuser · Guest

There are some good slowdown programs out there.

I've used slowdown.com..even in windows it works well. You just have to tinker with it to see its effects.

Guest · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 7:14 am Post subject: hacking the gibson

I'm running a 486dx2 66 with 8 megs ram, soundblaster 16, 4x cd drive, and a nice old display adapter, capable of up to 1024x786x24 bit colour.

I call it, the gibson.

the system was built in 94ish, maybe 95

anyways, it runs all the dos games I could ever want, perfectly. Not only that, but because of some of the software soundblaster packaged with the card, I can listen to loud german heavy metal while killing nazi's in wolfenstein 3d.

I want to add another 8 megs ram, which I might have in another computer kicking around.

Anyways, I have a question.

Is it possible to ghetto-rig windows 95 on top of dos 6? or at least to make a frankendos by copying over some of the utilities offered in 6 that were dropped in 7?

rhonda_lonsdale@highlands.bc.ca