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Very cool thread that brings back a ton of memories. Does anyone know if Mechwarrior 2 and its expansions (Ghost Bear Legacy) are available to purchase on any legitimate site like gog.com, etc? That's one game I absolutely adored as a kid and haven't been able to play since it first came out. Also kind of curious if the original Command and Conquer or C&C Red Alert are available too.
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Nov 17, 2013 10:18
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kirbysuperstar posted:MW2 isn't, no. But it's cheap and plentiful on eBay, and MechVM can get you going easy enough. C&C1, Red Alert 1 and Tiberian Sun have been released for free by EA. Wow, thanks! Had no idea EA released those for free. I almost want to like EA for doing that, but can't bring myself to that. I know it's a longshot but is there anything that helps play dosbox games on modern LCD monitors? Something like shaders that emulate the distoration, glow, etc. of CRT monitors would be awesome. edit: Oh yeah, also any suggestions for modern USB joysticks that aren't poo poo? Nothing too fancy or simulation quality--just something with a hat, trigger, and a few buttons to play Descent. I remember using a Logitech Wingman Extreme back in the day and other than the hat breaking frequently it was great. mod sassinator fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Nov 17, 2013 |
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Nov 17, 2013 23:11
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kirbysuperstar posted:RetroArch has amazing filter support and a DosBox core. It's kind of a dick to set up, though as half of Arch's hotkeys are.. well, regular keystrokes. Still, with some work you should be able to get close to what you want. Here's Doom (using the prBoom core, not DosBox, but hey) running with a CRT filter: Awesome! Yeah I played with libretro and retroarch earlier in the year and tried to setup a similar shader. It was quite fiddly and difficult to make work with everything--I'm going to have to check it out again and see how things have improved. That shader looks great and I love the TV border image. Do you have a link to that shader/filter handy? edit: Wow there's a ton more activity around shaders in the retroarch forums since I last looked. Looks like there's a lot of great stuff now. mod sassinator fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Nov 18, 2013 |
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Nov 18, 2013 00:31
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peter gabriel posted:I found myself working in a PC repair shop in the late 90s and before then I'd never had a windows PC, or PC of any kind. Oh drat--I remember ID software programmers blogging (or updating their .plan files rather) about how they could run GL quake 640x480 at a perfect 60fps with SLI voodoo cards. I was insanely jealous.
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Nov 18, 2013 23:15
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Sentinel Red posted:Going back to the days of Sir Clive for a minute, the one thing I always did like about Sinclair was its clean aesthetic. Sure, half the time it wasn't exactly practical but hey, style > substance, right? Wow that watch is really gorgeous. The EEVblog recently did a tear down on a Sinclair pocket TV--really amazing what they did to fit a CRT television in a flat package: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCJPF6Ei3Vw
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Dec 9, 2013 20:38
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I saw a review of the game Muri which is a new game made in a very faithful style of Duke Nukem and am really impressed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp-WeTNbLzM Are there any other modern games done in an old DOS game style?
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Jan 20, 2014 00:04
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Wow that Roland MT-32 stuff sounds great. How faithful is the emulated version (MUNT) to the original? Curious if it's worth trying to get the patched dosbox version working with it.
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Feb 3, 2014 21:58
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Anyone else curious about MT-32 emulation might be interested in this little bit about emulating the MT-32: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NUQpAZeAdo&t=10815s The emulation sounds good, but definitely doesn't have exactly the same character as the real thing. Stick around after it for his summary of what actual hardware to buy too. The rest of the video is a massive 3 hour treatise on all the different versions and quirks of Roland sound devices.
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Feb 4, 2014 23:31
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Check out the Mind Candy DVD's--they are top quality collections of great demos. They put a ton of work into getting the demos to transfer to DVD without issues (there are all kinds of nightmares with framerates, interlacing, etc.) and it really shows in the great quality. Looks like you can download the out of print DVDs for free now too: http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ My favorite demos are from the early PC days. Future Crew in particular did some amazing stuff like Second Reality, which basically proved the PC could be just as good and even better than the Amiga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFv7mHTf0nA I still love the soundtrack from that demo.
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Feb 24, 2014 06:16
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Pierzak posted:And after watching the original Second Reality, watch this one: Haha drat, that is pretty impressive for a C64. One thing I forgot to mention about the Mind Candy DVDs--most of the demos have commentary tracks with the original authors (including Future Crew for Second Reality) and are super fascinating. A lot of them explain how they made certain effects, how long they spent working on them, etc. Really great stuff if you're at all interested in the demo scene.
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Feb 24, 2014 06:47
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Quarex posted:As a former mildly prolific demoscener myself I feel obligated to post a link to Nectarine Demoscene Radio, as it is pretty much your one-stop shop for amazing computer-based nostalgia: Wow that's awesome--I remember listening to Nectarine back in the early 2000's. Glad to see it's still around.
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Feb 25, 2014 20:49
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Something folks here might be interested in, it looks like Monoprice is having a sale on their mechanical keyboard: http://slickdeals.net/f/6743848-monoprice-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-cherry-mx-blue-43-shipping It looks a lot like a model M and has Cherry MX blue switches so it should have a similar feel and sound as the model M. No stupid gamer stuff like backlight or x-treme!! branding. Not a bad price ($43) considering how stupidly expensive mechanical keyboards can get.
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Feb 25, 2014 21:01
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That's awesome--the CS department at college used to have some old hard drives like that tucked into some unused rooms. They made great end tables.
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Mar 2, 2014 21:41
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I just discovered the DOS nostalgia podcast and am really enjoying it--folks here will probably appreciate it too. The latest episode has an interview with Clint from Lazy Game Reviews, and earlier episodes dig into great stuff like Doom, an interview with Jim Leonard/Trixter on the history of DOS, and more.
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Mar 7, 2014 07:25
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Yep I get crazy nostalgia watching videos of old games I used to play on my 486. I love 256 color game art--the colors, dithering, and aesthetic can be really amazing. Even old ANSI graphics can be mind blowing. If anyone remembers the ASCII and ANSI art scenes from old BBS and early internet days, this video is a must watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILNs1GChGDk
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Apr 19, 2014 06:26
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If you have a IIGS you need Zany Golf. Fantastically fun game with great music and graphics for the IIGS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNISV7uLLc8
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Apr 26, 2014 08:36
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I still remember playing the Quake demo for the first time. It was a mess of pixels on my Pentium 90, but walking down a hallway and seeing a guy come up in full 3D was just mind blowing. Just looking at the architecture of the levels was great fun.
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Jun 13, 2014 10:39
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If you get a couple gamepads, OMF is a lot of fun with two people. Played the poo poo out of the game between rounds of Quake, Doom, etc. with friends back in the day.
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Jul 6, 2014 19:33
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IMHO the only reason to collect DOS games these days is for the big boxes. Almost any really good game that is still worth playing today has had a source port or cleaned up release on sites like gog.com, so there's really no reason to buy or own the physical discs. As was mentioned, floppies are probably going to be unreadable nowadays and I would bet over the next 10-20 years we'll see those old CDROMs die too. If I were to get into collecting I would do it just for the awesome big boxes and artwork.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:48
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How rare and desirable are Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2's in the US? Saw a nice looking one at a thrift store for $50 and am kind of on the fence about it.
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Aug 17, 2014 19:55
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drat, went back to the thrift store that had the Spectrum 2 yesterday and unfortunately it was gone. Oh well, I'm not sure it had any of the accessories like power adapter etc. anyways.
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Aug 20, 2014 02:55
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d0s posted:Do you live somewhere with a lot of immigrants from PAL countries or something? That's such a weird/cool thing to find at a US thrift store, and it's a shame you missed it Yeah here's a pic of it that I snapped when I first saw it--should have just pulled the trigger, oh well.  Years ago I found a really nice TI-99/4a beige in box with everything for $13 at a thrift store. Picked that one up but haven't really done much with it yet. edit: Found a slim PS2 at the same store as the Spectrum a few weeks ago for only $10. Was a bit of a gamble since it had no power adapter so I couldn't test it, but bought it anyways and got an adapter--works great! Thrift stores are a gamble but you can find some crazy deals sometimes.
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Aug 20, 2014 03:44
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A friend just turned me on to the PC Engine/Turbografx 16 and holy crap is this system awesome. Playing some schmups on an emulator and am blown away that this was a NES competitor.
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Sep 2, 2014 05:10
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Check out what my neighbor gave me, it's been sitting in his closet for years: No idea if it works yet, will have to fiddle around a bit to see if I can hook it up to a modern TV.
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Sep 11, 2014 20:24
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Just picked up a CD of Mechwarrior 2 for DOS at a thrift store for $2. It had the Ghost Bear legacy expansion CD jammed inside the case too! Woohoo, I can't wait to play this classic again. Even just listening to the music takes me back.
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Oct 7, 2014 08:43
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Does the MT-32 or SC-55 let you take new samples and replace instruments with them? Replace everything with cat meows. 
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Oct 10, 2014 18:07
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I would definitely pick that up with a bid of like $30-50. I'm still kicking myself for not picking up a ZX Spectrum I saw at a thrift store for $50--in the US!
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Aug 18, 2015 01:15
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A complete in box registered version of original Doom, the kind you had to send money to id software directly to get, is probably kinda rare and worth something to some people. I have the disks for my copy but threw out the box and manual when I was a kid.  The later CDROM releases of Doom, Doom 2, etc. from GT interactive are probably a lot easier to find and less interesting to people.
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Nov 3, 2015 19:57
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Wow that is cool! I love old ANSI graphics and that really brings back some nostalgia.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:42
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Check your local Goodwill/thrift stores too, you can sometimes find super cheap old computers. I picked up a really nice and working Pentium 90mhz Thinkpad for $20 a few months ago.
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Jan 27, 2016 09:53
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Get a tripod and it will help almost any camera take better pictures of things that stand still. You can probably find a super cheap one at a department store for like $30-40. You don't need a fancy $300 carbon fiber base plus fancier $300 fluid movement head either, just start with a simple one. Also if you can turn on the delayed shutter countdown timer (like when you take a family photo and want to jump into the picture), that will let you move your hands off the camera before it takes the picture and reduce shake & bluriness even more. Also lighting. You can never have enough lighting for good pics. Lots of light will make even a crappy camera look good. Grab some lamps and put them in the room, or even pick up some inexpensive workshop lights and point them at the objects.
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Feb 3, 2016 04:27
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Pick up Zany Golf, it's _amazing_ on IIgs. The music in particular is stellar.
mod sassinator fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 04:39
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Is it even worth buying a floppy drive in 2017? There's a finite life to the magnetic media on floppy disks and I have a feeling anything from the 90's and earlier is running on borrowed time.
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Jun 30, 2017 05:53
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I'm amazed some indie dev hasn't made a steam or twine game yet that's literally just trying to finagle autoexe.bat and config.sys drivers to fit into 640k of memory.
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Feb 17, 2019 18:56
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Dodoman posted:Hey guys, I just started getting into emulation of old windows games (DOS era to early 2000s). Any tips on VM setup? If I remember correctly 98 was the last Windows version that let you reboot to exclusive mode DOS prompt. So in theory that could run everything DOS, win 3.1, and win 95/98.
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Mar 13, 2019 20:13
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There were some huge 22" Sony trinitron monitors IIRC that could do 2100x1600 or something nutty. They literally weighed 200+ lbs. and took up an entire desk.
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Apr 17, 2019 02:27
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DirectX and COM were made to be backwards compatible, in theory you should be able to install a later DirectX. I'm sure there's a limit to how far foward you can go since at some point they presumably deprecate and remove the old unused APIs. But I have a feeling getting the last version of DX made for your OS should give you everything you need.
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Jun 10, 2020 22:37
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Oh fun I've been doing the same in a little linux VM with docker. Google search 'best text console games' and you'll find tons of good lists, like: https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+text+mode+games&oq=linux+text+mode+games There's some modern stuff like dwarf fortress, doom roguelike, etc. to explore too. If you really want some fun, look at a retro CRT emulated text console too: https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term
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Jun 18, 2020 18:27
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Yeah cool-retro-term is fantastic and super easy to install now with the appimage. There are a couple others too but IMHO CRT is the best: - Hyper terminal (cross platform): https://hyper.is/ + this postprocessing effect: https://github.com/slammayjammay/hyper-postprocessing - Cathode (mac osx only): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cathode/id499233976?mt=12 - XScreensaver's apple 2 screen emulation: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/xenial/man6/apple2.6x.html
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Jun 18, 2020 18:33
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