- Jul 17, 2004
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Right up front, I always go ahead and admit that while I like games, and do play them quite often, what I like most is just messing with computers. I've built most of my own for about twenty years now. The older complete systems I mostly give away or sell, but I always have some old PC components on hand anyway.
Recently, two of the gifts came back home (in one case, being replaced by something newer), since I always say about the gifted PCs, that if/ when it's not wanted, someone else may want it, and I'll be happy to find it a new home. The oldest of that nature has an AMD DX4 486- 100 CPU, and an 850 MB Hdd in it. All ISA slots, I'm pretty sure. It has the last version of Win95.
I never got around to doing anything with either Wing Commander or the Star Wars sims -- just too busy back then, I suppose. I still had unopened copies of Tie Fighter (on 3 1/2" floppies) and WC-II. Getting the two old PCs back made me wonder ablout those old space fighter sims again.
I do have newer PCs, a couple of them (the ones listed here at AT are probably long gone, since it's been no longer possible to edit the rigs for many months now). The second old PC is much newer, being an s462 system with a Duron 900 and a GF2 card in it (384 MBs of RAM). with Windows98se.
The question I have is whether DOSbox is good enough to make depending on these really old PCs a useful thing? Finding DOS drivers for the SB 16 and Sidewinder Joystick is likely to be a real chore, and if I understand correctly, all by itself, the DOS emulation functions much like Mo'Slo does, to keep fast processors from running old games so fast you can't play them.
In addition to a 100 MHz 486, and a 900 MHz Duron, I could also potentially run old games on a K6-2/450 Super Socket 7 system (ALi Aladdin Chipset).
Any DOSbox fans around? Yes? No?
Recently, two of the gifts came back home (in one case, being replaced by something newer), since I always say about the gifted PCs, that if/ when it's not wanted, someone else may want it, and I'll be happy to find it a new home. The oldest of that nature has an AMD DX4 486- 100 CPU, and an 850 MB Hdd in it. All ISA slots, I'm pretty sure. It has the last version of Win95.
I never got around to doing anything with either Wing Commander or the Star Wars sims -- just too busy back then, I suppose. I still had unopened copies of Tie Fighter (on 3 1/2" floppies) and WC-II. Getting the two old PCs back made me wonder ablout those old space fighter sims again.
I do have newer PCs, a couple of them (the ones listed here at AT are probably long gone, since it's been no longer possible to edit the rigs for many months now). The second old PC is much newer, being an s462 system with a Duron 900 and a GF2 card in it (384 MBs of RAM). with Windows98se.
The question I have is whether DOSbox is good enough to make depending on these really old PCs a useful thing? Finding DOS drivers for the SB 16 and Sidewinder Joystick is likely to be a real chore, and if I understand correctly, all by itself, the DOS emulation functions much like Mo'Slo does, to keep fast processors from running old games so fast you can't play them.
In addition to a 100 MHz 486, and a 900 MHz Duron, I could also potentially run old games on a K6-2/450 Super Socket 7 system (ALi Aladdin Chipset).
Any DOSbox fans around? Yes? No?