An authentic Retro-PC? [Retro-PC series]

Paul Townsend via Flicker

It does not sound too hard to build a Retro-PC I introduces on my previous post. Not having “finished” the project, it has already turned to be quite a challenge. A hard part is to get an “authenticity” in the box. Having a “modern” PC (in a small case such as mine) and trying to pursue “authenticity” in practice means hard work installing those legacy operating systems, setting up multi-boot on a single disk, optimizing DOS memory parameters for those picky titles, getting a sound for games and so on.

Objectively speaking, there is not that much authenticity left, if you want to run ancient software or operating system on a much more modern hardware. If you want real authenticity — and less work — you should acquire hardware that was meant to run your software in the first place. For instance, Wing Commander runs well only on 386 with a soundcard installed on ISA-bus.

For the folks simply searching a way to play that game from your childhood, I highly recommend an easier route. DOSBox is a wonderful DOS-emulator and very capable of running most of the titles ever released for MS-DOS, and just having any Windows version (even something like Windows 8.1) is likely to let you play older Windows 9X games well.

I still use DOSBox (or other emulators), but like many retro-gamers and vintage computing hobbyist, you sometimes will do stuff that does not “make sense”, but you nevertheless do for pure fun. After all, those long hours spent aiming for “authenticity”, and finally seeing that lonely C: prompt can indeed be a gratifying experience.

No matter how “authentic” experience you want, you are going to need some hardware to enjoy your old games and other software.