Post up your DOS gaming machine!

[PC-ENGINE HELL]

You know, I actually have a ton of Super Socket 7 K6-2&3 stuff, and Soundblaster 16 and 32 sound cards and what not. Enough to build 2-3 Dos comps possibly. Also have some Slot1, Socket A, and Socket 370 stuff as well incase I wanted to do Windows 98-Me Direct X 6 and prior, or XP Direct X 7-9 stuff. I should really go though and make a inventory list....

[blue lander]

I used to use a tricked out 8 bit IBM PC XT. The hardest thing about adding devices to the original PC is that it uses 8 bit ISA cards, not the 16 bit ones. It had...

EGA graphics adapter
Adlib sound card
20 megabyte hard card (it's an ISA card with a built in hard drive)
SCSI controller with a 600 mb hard disk and CD ROM drive
768k of RAM
Floppy controller with high density 5.25 and 3.5 inch disk drives
10base2 Ethernet controller

The device drivers to run all that hardware took up almost all the available memory, so it was more of an experiment in how much hardware I could shove in one computer. I pushed it too far when I eventually put a 386 card in there that would have effectively turned the computer into a 386. After installing the card and powering up, the computer beeped SOS a few times and then never turned on again. It killed BOTH the motherboard and the power supply. I tried putting a new power supply in, wouldn't work. I tried putting the old power supply into another XT, it wouldn't work. It completely killed my machine

Now I just use DOSBOX on a Pentium III. I have it multibooting into Windows 98, XP, and NetBSD so all my bases are covered.

[PentiumMMX]

While I have a 486, my main PC (A roughky 14-year-old NEC desktop) for older games is currently setup like this:

- Pentium (75Mhz)
- S3 graphics card (PCI-based, don't remember which model)
- Sound Blaster AWE64 (ISA-based)
- A pair of USB 2.0 ports
- 40MB RAM
- 6.8GB hard drive
- 3.5 & 5.25 floppy drives, 24X CD-ROM
- Windows 98SE

I've pushed the old hardware to the limits on countless occasions; at one point I had it successfully running Windows 2000 at a surprisingly usable speed. However, I still need to find a working network adapter for it...

[phreakindee]

For my oldest DOS games:

IBM PC 5150
Intel 8088 4.77Mhz
Intel 8087 Math Co-processor
DOS 3.2
640k RAM
CGA Graphics
2x 5.25" FH 360k Floppies

For 386 to Pentium-era:

HP Vectra-based
DOS 6.22
Pentium 100Mhz
24x CD-ROM
3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Creative Sound Blaster 16
64MB RAM
10GB HDD
8MB 2D Graphics chipset

For 90's DOS/Win95 games:

Pentium II 400Mhz
Windows 95
48x CD-ROM
3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive
5.25" 1.2MB Floppy Drive
128MB RAM
20GB Hard Drive
ATI Mach64 2MB for 2D card
12MB Voodoo 2 PCI
Sound Blaster 128

Others:
Compaq All-In-One Presario 486 Overdrive
Toshiba Contura Aero 486
Random clones PCs

[NayusDante]

Very nice case there, I ought to put some 90s logos on mine. There's something appealing about having a retro system decorated to look modern.

I've always wanted a 5.25" floppy drive, but I've never found one. That's really the last piece I need for my retro PC.

[Tokimemofan]

For my oldest DOS games:

IBM PC 5150
Intel 8088 4.77Mhz
Intel 8087 Math Co-processor
DOS 3.2
640k RAM
CGA Graphics
2x 5.25" FH 360k Floppies

For 386 to Pentium-era:

HP Vectra-based
DOS 6.22
Pentium 100Mhz
24x CD-ROM
3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Creative Sound Blaster 16
64MB RAM
10GB HDD
8MB 2D Graphics chipset

For 90's DOS/Win95 games:

Pentium II 400Mhz
Windows 95
48x CD-ROM
3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive
5.25" 1.2MB Floppy Drive
128MB RAM
20GB Hard Drive
ATI Mach64 2MB for 2D card
12MB Voodoo 2 PCI
Sound Blaster 128

Others:
Compaq All-In-One Presario 486 Overdrive
Toshiba Contura Aero 486
Random clones PCs

Hahaha an IBM 5150 I can't even find a monitor for mine. Usually I'll Frankenstein one together from the 100+ CPUs 15 cases 25 Hard Drives etc. Then I'll install DOS or Windows Play the game, if there is a config I use frequently I can automate part of the software installation too.

[phreakindee]

I used to use a tricked out 8 bit IBM PC XT. The hardest thing about adding devices to the original PC is that it uses 8 bit ISA cards, not the 16 bit ones. It had...

EGA graphics adapter
Adlib sound card
20 megabyte hard card (it's an ISA card with a built in hard drive)
SCSI controller with a 600 mb hard disk and CD ROM drive
768k of RAM
Floppy controller with high density 5.25 and 3.5 inch disk drives
10base2 Ethernet controller

The device drivers to run all that hardware took up almost all the available memory, so it was more of an experiment in how much hardware I could shove in one computer. I pushed it too far when I eventually put a 386 card in there that would have effectively turned the computer into a 386. After installing the card and powering up, the computer beeped SOS a few times and then never turned on again. It killed BOTH the motherboard and the power supply. I tried putting a new power supply in, wouldn't work. I tried putting the old power supply into another XT, it wouldn't work. It completely killed my machine

Oooooh, that sucks! Sounds like an awesome machine before!

Risk of things like that happening is why I've limited myself to only upgrading video and RAM on my IBM PCs.

[Poofta!]

ive considered making one on many occasions. i am very put off by the fact that i simply dont have the space for an extra pc & monitor. i thought about getting an old laptop and i am still playing with that idea, however am very anti paying 100-200$ for an arhiac laptop that would almost never be used.

i have resorted to using dos box. however i wonder how windows 7's xp environment will handle dos games. i also considered simply running a virtual system with the specs i wanted within my current pc (i have a beast of a pc with 2 21" LCDs and 8gb ram, amongst other things - allowing me a very vast amount of multitasking)

the set up i always wanted to set up as my dos box would be a 333mhz pentium with 128 or 256 ram. 20-40gb hd with dual boot into either dos w/ Norton Commander or Windows 98SE. that would pretty much cover all my bases, i could probably run most stuff in 98SE anyway.

im generally very busy with work and ive recently decided to start going to graduate school. between all of that and my gf & other friends i have no time for this kind of hobby project. im pretty much in between going full out virtualization and setting up the above specs w/ OS on it or find a laptop. something tells me it be virtualization due to it being free and space limitations.

[Push Upstairs]

I use it mostly for DOS gaming via Win98 but here it is.

This machine started out its life as an HP Pavilion 6640c.

Specs:

AMD K6 500mhz
384mb RAM (overkill)
20 gig HD (a bottom less pit of storage for this machine)
VooDoo 3 video card
Soundblaster Live! sound card (with SB-16 emulation)

For now I have to use it with my LCD monitor. I don't have space for my CRT monitor and the LCD, but one day it will.

Much, much easier to run games on this as these components have better compatibility and drivers are easier to find than the ones that came with the computer (I found the computer re-formatted and without any driver disc).

[blue lander]

Oooooh, that sucks! Sounds like an awesome machine before!

Risk of things like that happening is why I've limited myself to only upgrading video and RAM on my IBM PCs.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have just put the hardcard, EGA card and extra memory in the thing. There's no real need for an XT to have a giant hard drive or a CD drive. What are you going to do with them? The 20 meg hard card was quite enough, and so much easier to configure than an older MFM hard drive controller. The ethernet card was nice, but the TSRs and whatnot took up almost all of the machine's memory

[aaron7]

Snapped a pic of the beast:

[PentiumMMX]

Seeing as everyone is showing off pics of their own PC, I might as well show mine. It's not hooked up at the moment (Only enough room for one monitor and keyboard at the moment, so I have to unhook my 1Ghz Pentium III desktop and setup my 75Mhz Pentium in it's place for older games).

13 years and still going strong...it was well worth the original $2,000+ price tag.

[Push Upstairs]

I don't really have a picture of my Win98 gaming system, but I can show you the case I put it in.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147112

The reason I switchted the case is that the HP case it came in was very small and not easy to work in. This case allows me access to whatever I need by simply removing one side of a case (as opposed to taking the whole computer apart). Plus I screwed up the front of the case.

A "retro" look would have been cool, but I needed to be practical. Too bad I have no way of using the sound or USB ports on the front of the case.