'Gaming PC' type 2

[Sparky]

OK, throw out ideas about parallel video cards, multi-core processors, and four gigabytes of RAM. We're talking history museum technology here.

Due to limited DOS support and hardware compatibility issues, A friend and I have been kicking around the idea of making a computer specifically for playing old PC games. Here are a few games we plan to target: Another World, Flashback, various Sierra and Lucasarts adventures, Prince of Persia.

More recent possible games: Doom, Fallout, Planescape: Torment.

I know a bit about current hardware, but my knowledge of older vintages is lacking. What kind of setup would you recommend? We want to prioritize older titles, and wouldn't want to use newer hardware for more recent games at the expense of the classics. How old should we go?
OS- Windows 95?
Processor?
Sound card?
Monitor?

P.S.- Why not just use emulation? We have and love DOSBox and ScummVM, but we're looking for a less clunky, more 'authentic' experience.

[Andail]

Most of those games play on everything from 8086's with DOS to a Pentium with Win95. Of course, without any sort of emulation, certain Sierra titles will run 'fastforward' with even mediocre processors.
Just read the minimum requirements on the original packages and try not to exceed it too much.

[Radiant]

That's quite a wide range of games you've got there.

Prince of Persia - 1989
Another World - 1991
Doom - 1993
Fallout - 1997
Planescape Torment - 1999

What exactly are you aiming for? Optimal hardware for POP won't get even remotely close to running PT. The former three are DOS games, the latter two are Windows. Maybe you should think about this some more

[Da_Elf]

up untill a year ago i still had an old 386 with 4mb ram

[Nikolas]

well go for DOS then! or windows 98... but indeed Doom and POP are 2 completely different issues to try and play together...

[voh]

Doom and Fallout work perfectly under DOSbox, and Fallout (with the most recent patch) works fine under XP, even with the shitty drivers I'm forced to use for my macbook.

Planescape: Torment ran perfectly after installing it under stock windows XP.

While I understand your need for an 'authentic' experience, it's kind of redundant

But I would go for a P3-450-833, or somesuch (an AMD K6-2 500 would also be a good choice) with 64-128 megs of RAM and windows 98 would be the best option. Get a cheapass Soundblaster-compatible soundcard. As long as it's Soundblaster 16/pro/pro2 compatible (and believe me, even the macbook's soundcard is) you'll be fine.

Windows 98 is perfectly fit for a large enough hard drive (native FAT32, win95'd need a patch unless you've got OSR2, of course), has full DOS compatibility and will run most pre-XP games fine.

Hope it helps.

[blueskirt]

I tried to this once, wasted 100 bucks on an old 286 whose graphical card was so badly configurated that even if it supported 256 colors, the Sierra games couldn't run on it. Then a month later a friend of mine told me about Dosbox and the 286 mostly collected dust.

Also, you will most likely end with 2 computers, because I think the specs to run the Sierra games and Planescape: Torment as authentic as possible are mutually exclusive as anything faster than the recommanded specs with the Sierra games will give you timer related problems.

What I'd suggest is an old compy 386 or 486 (but I think it might be too fast) with DOS, Win3.1 and a 'Turbo' button in front of it to pass from 33/66mhz to 25mhz for the DOS games with timer related issues, and a second computer, that has both Win95 and Win98 on it, to play the more recent games that XP cannot run anymore.

For your DOS machine, you should get a widely recognized sound and music card like Roland, Soundblaster or Adlib because less recognized brands will more likely not be on all installation and sound setup menu. As for the games that you should try to run flawlessly:
Games that require mouse, 256 colors, or windows
Some games with timer related issues like Space Quest 4, to see if they are playable
Some heavy DOS games like 7th Guest, 11th Hour, PQ4 and Little Big Adventure, to see if they run smoothly
Some games that require CDs to play, like C&C or Red Alert

For the Win95/98 machine most likely you will have problems with DirectX as some games will require a specific DirectX, an older one won't be enough to run it and it won't recognize more recent DirectX, hence why I recommand having a machine that dual boot with Win95 and Win98. Also try to get a Voodoo graphical card that can handle glass smashing effects, I had one that couldn't and any games where such effect would happen simply crashed. As for the games to try running, I'd suggest:
Really old 256 colors games that can only run on windows, like Even More Incredible Machine (And try getting sound and music)
Games that will more likely have DirectX related issues like Little Big Adventure 2 or Dark Reign
And those games that are so beefy it seems to take 5 minutes just to load or save a game, like Thief (to make sure it doesn't take 5 minutes just to save a game)
One last thing to check is sound as I've encountered a lot of games, a lot of computers and a lot of sound cards where the sound and music were insanely choppy

It's pretty much the games I'd try running, personally. If the machines can run those games without problems, they will probably handle any kind of game you could throw at them.

However if you only want one computer and if you don't want to use Dosbox, I don't think it will be feasible. I'd probably suggest the same as voh as Win98 could run some DOS games, even sound with some tweaking, it can run Win95 and Win98 games that XP can't run anymore, and it can also run Dosbox in case you have some games that run too fast.

[deadsuperhero]

Well, you COULD give Linux a try. (I recommed Ubuntu)
With a Scumm emulator, FreeSCI (Sierra), WINE, AGS Linux, Crossover Office, and Cedega, it would be possible to play all those games, with few problems. You'd need to learn how to install all those things, but it's doable (and has less problems than Windows)
Give it a shot.

[Sparky]

Thank for all the constructive comments.

That's quite a wide range of games you've got there.

Prince of Persia - 1989
Another World - 1991
Doom - 1993
Fallout - 1997
Planescape Torment - 1999

What exactly are you aiming for?

Also, you will most likely end with 2 computers, because I think the specs to run the Sierra games and Planescape: Torment as authentic as possible are mutually exclusive as anything faster than the recommanded specs with the Sierra games will give you timer related problems.

Regarding the broad range of system requirements:
Good point. Aiming to run games like The Neverhood, Planescape: Torment and Fallout is likely throw a wrench in efforts to run older games perfectly. Speedup issues in older games are a concern, so we will probably just scrap the idea of running newer games. So let's arbitrarily draw the cutoff line around 1993 or 1994.

People here have recommended both AdLib and Soundblaster sound cards. I believe Another World has enhanced sound with AdLib hardware. Are there any other titles that will work better with a card from one vendor or the other? I know very little about old sound cards, I grew up with a Mac and only recently began using a PC. I'm particularly interested good support for sound in SCUMM titles.

up untill a year ago i still had an old 386 with 4mb ram

Neat. Did you ever run into speedup issues with older games?

[Gilbert]

For DOS machines, your best bet is to find good old AWE64 which can offer good midi output for games that supported them. (note: SB cards are compatible with Adlib)

DON'T bother to get a PCI soundcard (which also include all the onboard sound chips), though, remember, they NEVER really work in DOS (though they claimed they should with the stupid SB link jump cable). Try to find an ISA card.

[blueskirt]

People here have recommended both AdLib and Soundblaster sound cards. I believe Another World has enhanced sound with AdLib hardware. Are there any other titles that will work better with a card from one vendor or the other?

I personally have no idea. I mostly suggested this to you because I've seen a lot of people back in the days buying soundcards from really unknown brands and being owned when it was time to configure the game's sound and music and discovering their soundcards weren't in the list. Roland, Soundblaster and Adlib on the other hand were in absolutly every game's configuration menu as far as I can remember.

[voh]

For DOS machines, your best bet is to find good old AWE64 which can offer good midi output for games that supported them. (note: SB cards are compatible with Adlib)

DON'T bother to get a PCI soundcard (which also include all the onboard sound chips), though, remember, they NEVER really work in DOS (though they claimed they should with the stupid SB link jump cable). Try to find an ISA card.

Uhm, never had any problem with PCI soundcards in my old P133 system, not under DOS (before windows 95 even existed) or during the Windows 95-98 period. So either I'm a freak with a freaky old computer, or something isn't right