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Windows 98 and XP Dream Machines
7 years ago
Over Christmas I've been watching Lazy Game Reviews, specifically rewatching his old PC build videos.
To cut a long story short, I've been considering building a retro PC. Over the years I've heard of many great old PC games. I'm talking MechWarrior 2 and 3, Earthseige 1 and 2, Starseige, Interstate 76, Shattered Steel, and even games I owned but never got around to playing like Call of Cthulhu. Most of these games will run on modern hardware, but often with tweaking and compatibility issues. eg. Call of Cthulhu apparently has a bit on a ship where distant enemies are invisible on modern hardware.
I do have a windows XP and Vista duel boot machine. It seems to have a tough time running these days, but it does what I need it to do and I like having it around for when there's a problem with my main machine.
However, I'm kind of temped to swap out the hard drives with a new one, and put a fresh install of winXP on it. Bring the machine back to life as a retro game machine.
Now, I know Steam recently dropped support for old operating systems, but I think (I hope) the older games don't use Steam DRM.
But the thing I'm really thinking about is maybe building a windows 98 machine. Nothing super amazing, but something that would be a typical gaming machine at the time. Again, to play games like Earthsiege 2 and Starseige. Windows 95/DOS could be an option as well, but having a windows machine will allow me to play those early Windows games that are hard to get running, while also allowing me to boot up DOS if needed. I do have a 1024 CRT monitor though. It came with my first computer and I used it until I pretty much had to upgrade.
The big problem is space. I don't really have anywhere to put it, and certainly nowhere I could actually set it up.
To cut a long story short, I've been considering building a retro PC. Over the years I've heard of many great old PC games. I'm talking MechWarrior 2 and 3, Earthseige 1 and 2, Starseige, Interstate 76, Shattered Steel, and even games I owned but never got around to playing like Call of Cthulhu. Most of these games will run on modern hardware, but often with tweaking and compatibility issues. eg. Call of Cthulhu apparently has a bit on a ship where distant enemies are invisible on modern hardware.
I do have a windows XP and Vista duel boot machine. It seems to have a tough time running these days, but it does what I need it to do and I like having it around for when there's a problem with my main machine.
However, I'm kind of temped to swap out the hard drives with a new one, and put a fresh install of winXP on it. Bring the machine back to life as a retro game machine.
Now, I know Steam recently dropped support for old operating systems, but I think (I hope) the older games don't use Steam DRM.
But the thing I'm really thinking about is maybe building a windows 98 machine. Nothing super amazing, but something that would be a typical gaming machine at the time. Again, to play games like Earthsiege 2 and Starseige. Windows 95/DOS could be an option as well, but having a windows machine will allow me to play those early Windows games that are hard to get running, while also allowing me to boot up DOS if needed. I do have a 1024 CRT monitor though. It came with my first computer and I used it until I pretty much had to upgrade.
The big problem is space. I don't really have anywhere to put it, and certainly nowhere I could actually set it up.
I'm curious to see if he'll ever review a very oddball game called Commander Blood. XD
All accompanied by smooth jazz.