I was wondering about getting some small unit for playing the old DOS and Windows 9x games, like Terminator: Future Shock. I have found this interesting small computer from Germany and I wanted to know your opinions on it. http://www.ebay.com/itm/MINI-COMPUT...D-SSD-512MB-RS-232-VGA-PARALLEL-/222068710858 http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-MINI-COM...800MHZ-64MB-SSD-RS-232-PARALLEL-/322056130967
Not much info on the sound chip, that'd be nice to know more about especially for DOS gaming. And I can't say much about the SIS graphics either, may or may not work well - but you won't be running any 3DFX stuff with it like you could with a "normal" PC you can just stick a Voodoo card in. Not an issue if you're mostly into 2D games or ones with software rendering, or if you find a Glide wrapper that works for you (afaik those work for Windows titles only though, and you might have to boot into WinXP). If space is an issue, and you're OK with the sound possibly being a bit off, and some issues that may crop up not being fixable that due to the fixed hardware, sure, go for it. Then again for the asking price you could probably get a decent used desktop machine, with swappable parts.
Nice compact computer, but then you will have a separate computer that needs booting just to play the older games. Plus having to share a monitor though a PVM Switch helps here. DOS BOX and Windows Virtual PC For Windows XP you can use Microsoft Virtual PC in your modern PC. When I had a DOS/Windows Workgroups 3.11 PC, I setup a CHOICE Menu in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEX.BAT files which would set the memory parameters such as EMMS or just HIMEM or no Memory Management depending on what each game required. A reboot of the PC would be required for the different memory configurations. DOS Box a much better route which has great compatibility. It boots up with EMMS/HIMEM/CLEAN BOOT all automatic to support each game particular memory requirement and has multilple Soundcard brand support all "built in". Run Soundblaster or Gravis or Adlib, DOSBox already setup for all with no need of rebooting. Fortunately I had backed up all the older DOS games to CDRs, an easy transfer to the newer Win 7 64bit PC running DOS Box. DOS Box runs Windows Workgroups 3.11, games and ALL the Creative Soundblaster demo programs including the Talking Parrot, proof of great soundcard compatibility!
I keep running into games that don't work with DOSBox (last one was just a week ago), but for 95% of the stuff you throw at it it's great. It's also well known by now, so I assumed Colek has a reason for wanting a dedicated machine.
DOS games may require a SoundBlaster-compatible card. What's bad about SIS? I've never owned one, so I have no idea.
Sorry if that came across as knocking SIS. I meant I have no idea if they're good or not, but that this might warrant further investigation. About the sound, you might get by with just a SB but might want e.g. an AWE32 and/or any of the various MIDI cards at some point since they all sound different (with the SB being the lowest common denominator).
Thanks for your help guys, I guess I'll just go ahead and use DosBox for my gaming That MIDI soundfont sounds amazing btw -
Yup, the Roland devices - specifically the SCC-1 I believe - are what the game was developed on. So it makes sense that this sounds good.
There's a device specifically to what your looking for here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Toshiba-Lib...312010?hash=item36056dbd8a:g:ARwAAOSwGXtXgoBf
