Retro (PC) computing thread.

[fitten]

Guy finally finishes a game the company he worked for shelved 37 years ago. There's a fair amount of activity in the retro world... there are new games coming out every year for C64, Amiga, and a few others. The 8-Bit Guy has several games that have been ported to a lot of systems.

https://www.itv.com/watch/news/comp...y-finishes-game-sequel-37-years-later/rpy7w3f

 

[Doomlord_uk]

I have the physical game collection for this - PC games from 1991 to whenever they basically stopped doing physical media for PC games. A good chunk of that are 'big box' DOS games I've kept. But alas I don't have the space or budget for any original 'retro' PC builds. There is a particular model of 486 PC I keep my eye out for on eBay, but haven't seen one for sale in many years. I just like the case Tbh I'm tempted to just sell off my collection to free up more space... then if I ever did feel the need to play Heretic or Full Throttle or C&C Generals again or whatever, just get the updated Windows-compatible version. But I can see the enjoyment in putting together an orignal 90s PC system. Thread orange'd.

 

[SpocksBeer]

It a conundrum, for sure. For the casual "just have a play", I'd suggest ExoDOS, or ExoWin95. Large (hundreds of gigabytes) but essentially complete (well, ExoDOS is) ready to go collections of just about everything you can remember.

The hardware side is like any other hobby: expensive, time and space consuming.

 

[fitten]

It a conundrum, for sure. For the casual "just have a play", I'd suggest ExoDOS, or ExoWin95. Large (hundreds of gigabytes) but essentially complete (well, ExoDOS is) ready to go collections of just about everything you can remember.

Yep, I have eXoDOS set up on my Linux box... works great. I guess eventually I'll need to set up an emulator for 8-bit games.

The hardware side is like any other hobby: expensive, time and space consuming.

Yep... that's where I am. I prefer actual hardware or just use software emulation. I have little to no interest in FPGA systems. But you're right... getting the actual hardware requires a LOT of space and it can be very expensive (Atari Falcon030s go for $2500+, for example). I'd still like to get an Amiga 1200 with a good accelerator but I've put that on indefinite hold. The problem with retro hardware is that time is the enemy... there are fewer and fewer of the systems as time goes on (lost due to damage, etc.) However, there are a few projects going on that are making new motherboards and such for some systems (Atari Falcon, Amiga). The problem is that you have to scavenge some custom chips for them. There are some projects to reverse engineer some of the custom chips, too, but I haven't been following those as close.

 

[SpocksBeer]

FPGA, specifically the Mister project and it's many core are great, but personally I always find the results lacking. You don't have the original peripherals, you can't see how the emulated system interacts with an era-correct display, or the crappy in-built speaker that was common in many systems.

But maintaining the real hardware is increasingly a ball ache. I just got finishing many nights of troubleshooting video noise in a pair of Mac SE/30s, and it came down to the flyback transformers on both arcing outside their casing. Time is a cruel mistress, irreplaceable bits breakdown. Fighting entropy is the hobby, to me, but I know it's ultimately a losing battle.