Adventure Gamers - Forums

I have tried to build a dos based computer to play older dos games and early windows adventure games. Didn’t have much success. I could find the older hardware but not the required drivers. I was wondering , does anyone know the component spec’s for the optimal rig to play adventure games of the 80’s and 90’s?

Well, probably you’ll want to choose an old OS (windows 95) and then build around that.

But really, have you tried stuff like dos box?
Theres basically nothing you cant run on newer systems with the right tinkering.

Amiga with hard disk definitely.

Even better, ScummVM will run the games with the proper midi drivers that can emulate the MT-32 or Roland Soundcanvas. (Through Munt, Fluidsynth or Bassmidi)

swt49 - 21 December 2014 01:51 PM

I have tried to build a dos based computer to play older dos games and early windows adventure games. Didn’t have much success. I could find the older hardware but not the required drivers. I was wondering , does anyone know the component spec’s for the optimal rig to play adventure games of the 80’s and 90’s?

If you’re interested in building a retro computer, check out vogons.org—especially their “Marvin” subforum, which is about old PC hardware and retro PC’s. They also have a “driver library” that might have the drivers you were looking for—http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/

There are also some YouTube videos that might help you choose parts, like this one

Thanks , for all the responses to my post. I’m still between the retro computer and dosbox. Thanks again, 

I’ve bought hundreds of games over time and have used WinXP SP3 to play 98% of them.  Compatibility mode works wonders.  I have a 2T drive with several hundred installed with some tweaked with aps like VMS, or CPUKiller to slow down games like Zork Grand Inquisitor. 

There are a few though, usually from the Win95 era such as Azrael’s Tear or Feeble Files, which are cranky and I need to use my actual IBM Win 95 computer to play, or Secrets of the Luxor which will only work for me on a Win98 Virtual drive, or on an older laptop running Win Multimedia (or whatever it’s called).

Windows 7 64 bit is pretty unusable for older games in my experience - most it won’t even install although I haven’t tried a Virtual Machine on it yet.  I hear Win 7 32 bit may be pretty good.

Dara100 - 23 December 2014 01:44 PM

I’ve bought tons of games over time (hundreds) and have used WinXP SP3 to play 98% of them.  Compatibility mode works wonders.  I have a 2T drive with several hundred installed with some tweaked with aps like VMS, or CPUKiller to slow down games like Zork Grand Inquisitor.

Huh. I’ve found compatibility mode useless in 99% of cases, even for Windows games. I wonder how many DOS games has it got working for you?

I don’t blame the guy for wanting an old make PC. For me a simple DOS or Win 95 based system was much easier than setting up all the drivers and stuff for DOSBOX every time I want to run the game. Although these days I’d just use a frontend like D-Fend Reloaded, which can be set up to run anything with a few clicks and not just a limited list of games like ScummVM. And GOG is nowhere near complete in its compendium of AGs and I don’t think it ever will be.

Zifnab, I do use DosBox and Scumm for some and I’ll agree that early Win XP SP1 was very poor at campatibility, but by SP3 they had pretty much worked out the bugs.  Win XP SP3 is a good platform for windows games and with the afore-mentioned aps works fine for most dos too.

As I said, some dos games especially are cranky and I use a Win95 computer for them.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Thought you might be interested in a log I keep for game installs.  This is my “Games With Problems in XP” folder.  Out of almost three hundred games, these were the most troublesome:

Hopeless**:

Egypt 1156** - lines across screen - [in VM cursor problems]** [Turn off acceleration? - Rt click                       Desktop/Properties/Settings/advanced/troubleshoot]

panic In Park** - general protection error**

Note:  The games that have asterisks ** have been thoroughly tested in VM, with CPU throttles, etc. and just won’t work.  They may on IBM comp.

_______________________________________________________________
Need Fixes:

King’s Quest V - no sound

Leisure Suit Larry - no sound

Relentless - can’t find CD drive [use D: in VM - crashes]

Mission Critical - wobbly sound

Orion Burger - onlt on IbM?  [Try using DosBox 0.61] in XP

QG4 Shadows of Darkness - crashes

Robot City - cursor problems

Dark Side of the Moon - no text displayed for questions [Use patch riched32 or Try Win98SP on VM]

_________________________________________________________________

Work With Fixes:

  Darkseed - no voice [see 1 Darkseed-Read This in Unzipped_[Date]/Darkseed Stuff folder]

d Angel Devoid - won’t start [use DosBox]

  Azrael’s Tear - animations too fast [not fixed yet - DosBox or CPUKiller?]

C Black Dahlia - cursor problems [run w/CPUKiller-50%-helps somewhat]

d Under a Killing Moon - cursor problems [Use DosBox]

v Mystery of the Nautilus - Crashes at startup [run in VM]
 
d Pandora - no sound - [Use DosBox]

e Stupid Invaders - Intro video hangs - Hit ESC and play game

V Time Machine - crashes after intro [use Virtual Machine]

d Riddle of Master Lu - won’t play {Use DosBox]

c Zork: Nemesis - cursor too fast [Run w/CPUKiller-80%]

C Zork: Grand Inquisitor - cursor too fast [Run w/CPUKiller-80%]

v Amber - won’t run [Use Virtual Machine]

v Secrets of the Luxor - won’t run [Use Virtual Machine]

c=CPUKiller
d=DosBox
e=escape to game
v=Virtual Machine

Games requiring VDMS are played from the Installed Games folder icons