Old computer advice

[Octopod]

Hello,


I was wondering if anyone would help me out with some advice. As a kid in the 80's i never had a computer. Nope, we were a console only family(i was poor). However, lately ive become interested in vintage- retro- whatever- computer gaming. Not that i have been doing any but that i want to.
What i would like advice on is, what is a good system to start with? I was thinking maybe it would be cool to get an Apple iie at first but now im thinking Commodore 64 or maybe an Atari computer. What computer had good version of western RPGs and adventure games? Stuff like the gold box games and other early D&D games. What computers had good versions of Wasteland and Hell a Cyberpunk Thriller? What system is not expensive and is easy to use? lol.
I know i can just play alot of these using Dosbox but i dont want to. I want to use the actual hardware. Anyhow, thanks for any input. I seem to have trouble finding good resources on the internets for this stuff.

[tcv]

Very interesting question.

I can't offer specific advice for the mentioned genres. However, the Commodore 64 was a very long lived machine and it's very likely most of those genres were covered at some point. The Apple //e is another very good choice. I can't speak competently on any Atari models.

And don't short change your current PC. With DOSBOX, you can run an awful lot of older PC games. You may need to get a floppy drive if you wind up with original media, but that shouldn't be too difficult. Not only that, but there is an awful lot of abandoned PC games on the web.

[aclbandit]

It's worth mentioning, at least, that the TI99 had a wicked game entitled "Tunnels of Doom." Pretty nifty, or so I hear.

[Joe West]

go with the Commie 64......................

[staxx]

ZX Spectrum
Commodore Amiga
Atari ST
Amstrad CPC

[Jorpho]

What computers had good versions of Wasteland and Hell a Cyberpunk Thriller?

A glance at Mobygames indicates that Hell, at least, was only released on the 3DO and for DOS.

I know i can just play alot of these using Dosbox but i dont want to. I want to use the actual hardware.

No you don't. It is easy to forget what a nightmare it was to get a reliable DOS setup working with a large variety of games. Floppy disks alone are something that I am very pleased about no longer dealing with. DOSBox is a blessing.

Anyway, I might be inclined to suggest an Amiga, as there was a time when many DOS games were considerably inferior to the corresponding Amiga version. That time didn't necessarily last very long, though, so it kind of depends on what other games you are interested in. (Way back in the terrible days of CGA, even C64 ports might have been superior to DOS games, especially in terms of music.) As far as the Gold Box games go, another look at Mobygames doesn't seem to suggest that the DOS versions weren't at all inferior:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/hillsfar/screenshots