Recommend a utility to play my old classic DOS PC games?

[Djfinny]

I've still got tons of classic games (Master of Magic, Ultima Underworld, Star Commander, Ancient Art of War, etc) that I cannot get to either install or run on my Win XP system. Is there some kind of utility or application that I can get that will allow me to play these games again?

Thanks for the help!

DJ

[Cantaloup]

I think what you want is DosBox (dosbox.sourceforge.net) (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/).

[Mr. Smashy]

I just use old computers. ;)

[-hellvin-]

I think what you want is DosBox (dosbox.sourceforge.net) (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/).

Nice looking emulator, thanks for the link.

[Raedon]

Call up business' in your area and ask for the tech. staff then ask if they have any old PC's for donation to charity. Even in the small town of Longview, TX I always hear, "we have a few old 486's and a P1.. plus.. 5 14" monitors (in Texas you can't throw a Monitor or TV in a dump.)

Find someone with a P1 133 or so like a Dell with integrated sound etc and you've got a good DOS system for all your old needs.

[Kamino]

i trip over old DOS boxes in the streets.
As for playing dos pc games on a new machine, my verdict is: IT'S FREAKIN IMPOSSIBLE.
I tried fighting that inevitable fact for nearly two years before i gave up and bought a dos box.(i later gave up on the dos games entirely and sold the box to another dos gamer.;) )

Dos boxes are cheap. Tweaking them is pretty cheap too. PCI tv out cards can be had for low prices; 16 bit ISA sound blasters (creative labs only kthx)
are all cheap. It's fun to tweak out a box...

[Kai]

My solution for playing the DOS games on my XP computer was this:

I needed a second hard drive, and after I bought it I decided to install WIN98 on it and set up a dual boot system, which I had heard of some people doing in order to play the older games. However, I found out that my WIN98 cd would only install on an Acer computer (I now have a Dell), so.... I dug out my Dad's old Win 3.1 disks from our original computer, and installed it on the second drive, and it works great for playing the DOS games.

Some programs, (such as the After Dark screensaver I found at a garage sale, won't work with XP) I don't even have to reboot to use, since I can access the drive from inside XP, and set the compatilbility mode to 256 colors and they will launch just fine.

[Vigilante]

My personal opinion is to build a dos box. I tried getting older stuff to play in XP and I threw in the towel. I put together a compaq deskpro p2 350 and it runs a duel boot dos/win98 setup. Stuff works great, plus it doesn't corrupt my XP box (obviously).

[XxMe2NiKxX]

I've got a 98/XP dual boot. Works fine.

[MegaDrive20XX]

I just use old computers. ;)

Same here, I find an old PC that has Windows 98 or lower on it dirt cheap at a Flea Market, fix it up and there ya go

[YoshiM]

If you don't have the space or not a lot of outlets, DOSbox does a great job. It can run picky games like National Lampoon's Chess Maniac 5 Billion and One without a hitch. Some games may need some tweakage to get the speed right, but that only takes a few key hits until everything "feels" right. Even then some may not be "perfect". It all depends on what you want.

[sniperCCJVQ]

I just use old computers. ;)

Same here, I find an old PC that has Windows 98 or lower on it dirt cheap at a Flea Market, fix it up and there ya go

Same here, got a fully loaded P2 Celeron 300 for free. I just reinstall Win98 then make a sharing between the Celeron and my main computer (Athlon XP). And with the KVM I bought, I have 1 monitor-keyboard-mouse for the entire setup.

Time to kick alien asses with Duke Nukem 8-)

[MegaDrive20XX]

I just use old computers. ;)

Same here, I find an old PC that has Windows 98 or lower on it dirt cheap at a Flea Market, fix it up and there ya go

Same here, got a fully loaded P2 Celeron 300 for free. I just reinstall Win98 then make a sharing between the Celeron and my main computer (Athlon XP). And with the KVM I bought, I have 1 monitor-keyboard-mouse for the entire setup.

Time to kick alien asses with Duke Nukem 8-)

Hell yeah, I got the entire DOOM series (Ultimate DOOM, DOOM 2, and Final DOOM) and Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition always ready to go lol

Time to kick ass and chew bubble gum...and I'm all outta gum....

[JR]

plz replace bubble gum with beer. That was a kickass line in dazed and cnfused. No need to cheese it up!


Its time to drink beers and kick some ass, and Im almost out of beer!

As to have an old win 98 computer would kill me to go through the every 3 months reinstalling that POS OS! Memory leaks causing reboots every day. Hell XP sucked when I first came out and I had to get that running on my machines! I will never install an older os on any of my computers other than I run win 2k AS and 2k pro on my server and another computer. Three other comps I only run XP.

Oh the nightmares of shit Windows OS's

[tritium]

I think the bubblegum comment is a Bruce Cambell from Evil dead comment. Also done in DUke Nukem 3d.

As for DOS games... I gave up and started playing consoles. DOS games LOVE to crash.

-Tritium

[brykasch]

Dos box seems well so far, but some won't run in a normal win98 enviornment, ultima's etc are prime examples, they run way to fast on newer pc's. I got a 120 pentium given to me, I jsut need to get me a 5 1/4 drive and a new power supply and I am all set. I may be in the process of getting some actual old games (kq etc). Plus elder scrolls arena runs well in dos box also.

[YoshiM]

I think the bubblegum comment is a Bruce Cambell from Evil dead comment. Also done in DUke Nukem 3d.

As for DOS games... I gave up and started playing consoles. DOS games LOVE to crash.

-Tritium

Which if I'm not mistaken originally came from Roddy Piper's character in the movie They Live.

[tritium]

If we keep this up we'll be moved to the halloween forum

-Tritium