Oh. You mean Retro Gaming boxes.

I have an old Compaq Presario Win98SE machine, P350 Mz, Diamond Monster Voodoo II card in perfect working order for old Myst-like games as well as the original Unreal

A piecemeal-built old Pentium 4, 2.8 Mz (?-how fast I forgot, really), BFG nVidia 6800GT 256 AGP, runs XP SP2, plays the more 3D graphics-heavy Adventure games from the 2000's (i.e., Aura, Mysterious Journey I & II, Chuthulu: Dark Corners, Penumbra, etc.)

... and a vile netbook which is only good for email, posts like this one, casual games and some business-y stuff

Dang! I need me a new desktop computer that will play anything thrown at it (like I used to have when I had the time to play more games)

Sigh. I'm gonna have to resurrect my old topic "What Are You Playing *On*?" so I can find out the latest-greatest gaming computer, save up my lunch money and get one.

Originally Posted By SirDave (2 AUG 2012 10:48pm)

It is not uncommon for techno-nerds to assign slang names for items of equipment that are a major part of hobby or special interest. There are those of us who have built our own computers for several years and subscribed to 'specialty' magazines such as MaximumPC where, for instance, various enclosures or for computers are rated and discussed. So, one might decide to build a tower or mini-tower etc. It's easy to see why a term like 'box' became associated with a computer in an enclosure. It's just easier to say when one is referring to them with others who have the same interest.

 

This assignment of terms is rampant in the audio/video world just as it is in the computer world. Thus, headphones are 'cans', turntables are 'decks' and so on.

 

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately ??) we are not **ALL** TECHNO_NERDS.

Some of us are just humble computer game players !!

So you must forgive our abysmal ignoranance

Originally Posted By SirDave (2 AUG 2012 10:48pm)

It is not uncommon for techno-nerds to assign slang names for items of equipment that are a major part of hobby or special interest. There are those of us who have built our own computers for several years and subscribed to 'specialty' magazines such as MaximumPC where, for instance, various enclosures or for computers are rated and discussed. So, one might decide to build a tower or mini-tower etc. It's easy to see why a term like 'box' became associated with a computer in an enclosure. It's just easier to say when one is referring to them with others who have the same interest.

Hahaha Finally!

@ Mark: great game box pics. Over the years space constraints forced me to save only box tops, but I regret that I couldn't save them all. Held on to some of the choice ones, but have recently bought back cheaply on eBay..

Yes i have five older computers to run older games for research including the first Apple made.

Originally Posted By colpet (31 JUL 2012 6:22am)

I'm not sure what you mean by boxes, but I have 3 desktop towers - Win95, Win98, and my Windows 7. All are connected to my 22" CRT and keyboard.

Colpet, it means a "computer system" that you're using to run/play old games.

Originally Posted By tincup2 (1 AUG 2012 5:18pm)

...many people hold onto their old computers so that they can continue to run their old games on them. Or some people such as myself like to build 'retro' or 'oldskool' computers from saved or scavenged original parts to accomplish the same. I know several on this formu that do and I was curious what kind of response this threat would get. That's all.

These days the only reason I hang on to old computers is to take them apart, ressemble them and use them to practice my tech skills on doing hands-on stuff from my computer books on DOS, Win 3.11, and Win 98.

As for the old games, I go virtual machine on my several laptops. VM's work beautifully for me.

I've kept my pre-Intel Macs for playing older games.  My little Chiclet (laptop) has the oldest OS, 9.1.  This is pre-carbon and will run games as far back as OS7.0, circa 1995.  My other laptop and old iMac both have OS 10.3.9, which was the last system for Classic 9.  The majority of my CD games will run on these.

The most primative legacy box I have has a 3.3gb hard drive dedicated to IBM PC DOS 6.3. A few days ago I re-partitioned and formated the old drive and installed DOS, all 4 floppy disks of it.. hardly took 5 minutes. It's phenominal to re-experience a perfectly functional OS that weighs less than a typical SaveGame file these days!

Getting reaquainted with the 'joys' of setting up ISA sound cards is something of a shock - the arcane lore of hand editing autoexec.bat/config.sys files come flooding back - fascinating in an almost nigmarish way. Frequent trips over to Vogons for inspirsation and assistance is mandatory. Let's face it, configuring an older PC ranks up there with the challenging AGs of our time

Funny that you raise this question.

About 3 days ago the wifey was complaining about all the computers I have stuck in this one out of the way closet. Some of the older rigs are stashed in the original box. And this is very convenient because it list the rig's specs. One is an E-machine but the other are mostly HP's.  One of them is a Win 95, unfortunately I sold my Dos machine looooooong ago.

I'm seriously thinking of resurrecting one of those older machines just to replay SINKHA, that runs on Marcomedia/Quicktime 2 

Oh yes Quicktime... what a very frustrating app that could be as new releases were often not reverse compatible so you might have  several games that each needed a particular iteration of QTW. Having a few retro rigs geared to particular gaming periods helps - my 3 each have a seperate version.

Originally Posted By Dajjer (2 SEP 2012 4:50pm)

 One of them is a Win 95, unfortunately I sold my Dos machine looooooong ago.

Well, a Win95 machine is a DOS machine.

Originally Posted By SirDave (3 SEP 2012 12:13am)

Originally Posted By Dajjer (2 SEP 2012 4:50pm)

 One of them is a Win 95, unfortunately I sold my Dos machine looooooong ago.

 

Well, a Win95 machine is a DOS machine.

 

 

Quite right. Though my IBM PC DOS 6.3 resides on it's own hard drive I confess I hardly ever boot off it  - easier to just run dos games in a Win95 dos box or the occasional Exit to Dos if a real dos session is absolutely necessary.

None the less it's fun to fiddle with the old command line stuff, and the IBM release has a rudimentry mouse driven interface [sorta] called DosShell - a forebearer of the later Win3.1..

My own experience with PCs really didn't start until Win95 and I don't have a strong nostalgia for Dos. What I do have is an sense of respect and even amazement at just how functional such a very small and lean little OS it is.

Originally Posted By tincup2 (4 SEP 2012 8:40pm)

Originally Posted By SirDave (3 SEP 2012 12:13am)

Originally Posted By Dajjer (2 SEP 2012 4:50pm)

 One of them is a Win 95, unfortunately I sold my Dos machine looooooong ago.

 

Well, a Win95 machine is a DOS machine.

 

 

Quite right. Though my IBM PC DOS 6.3 resides on it's own hard drive I confess I hardly ever boot off it  - easier to just run dos games in a Win95 dos box or the occasional Exit to Dos if a real dos session is absolutely necessary.

 

None the less it's fun to fiddle with the old command line stuff, and the IBM release has a rudimentry mouse driven interface [sorta] called DosShell - a forebearer of the later Win3.1..

My own experience with PCs really didn't start until Win95 and I don't have a strong nostalgia for Dos. What I do have is an sense of respect and even amazement at just how functional such a very small and lean little OS it is.

 

 

Well, I was there. And the end result was that finally configuring the game and getting it to run properly was a reward itself. For me, it made me stick with a game longer just because of all the work I put into installation. OTH, hard drives were so small back then that you typically had to uninstall a game so you could fit in the next one. And don't get me started about memory config, ah man, I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it, and then there was the sound card 

I am so glad GOG exist - I check their inventory about once a month to see what old school game they have. I have purchased a number of game for GOG that I already have the disk and manual for.

thanks all, for the suggestions

If you are not familiar with the XP/W7 dos emulator DosBox get it, and the Defender frontend user interface. Makes running most old dos games really simple - those daunting conventional memory and sound card setup issues vanish.

It takes a few minutes to understand how to setup a game using DosBox but the Wizard is pretty straightforward and default settings are usually work good. Forum support is solid as it the premier dos emulator.

Originally Posted By tincup2 (5 SEP 2012 9:46am)

If you are not familiar with the XP/W7 dos emulator DosBox get it, and the Defender frontend user interface. Makes running most old dos games really simple - those daunting conventional memory and sound card setup issues vanish.

 

It takes a few minutes to understand how to setup a game using DosBox but the Wizard is pretty straightforward and default settings are usually work good. Forum support is solid as it the premier dos emulator.

Imagine if you will.

I am at a train station. Someone I loved dearly a long time ago came by for a short visit and now she is on her way back home. She (or he???) gets on the train but before she does we kiss. It's not a kiss of wanting but more of memories gone by. A bittersweet kiss. She hops on the train and there's a tear in my eye for the good old days. As the train pulls away I run after it waving. I yell out, I love you . . I love you . . . I LOVED you. . . . . . . . .

That train is Dos

and its destination is ba bye