classic computer question

[cpages2]

So I am looking to buy a vintage computer to load and play sierra classics on. What would be the best to find?

A) Tandy 1000/1200 system complete
B) Any genaric 286/386 PC with DOS loaded
C) Other....


Let me know what you think.


- Mike

[QuestCollector]

I always wanted to get myself a 486/66 DX2 and hookup a Roland MT-32 to it. Never got around to doing it though.

I'm not real sure which one to tell you to get. My parents had a Tandy 1000 for years. At least through the late 80's early 90's. The last thing I can remember my dad playing on it was the original Civilization. I think our Tandy was the 8088 and it would never have been able to run some of the later games like QFGIV. It's been so long ago and I was so young then that I'm just not sure anymore. I should research it.

Edit: BTW I don't think I've ever heard of a Tandy 1200.

[Tawmis]

QuestCollector is correct. I had the Tandy 1000SX as my very first own computer (my father bought me). I think the last game I could play was KQIV AGI on that thing.

I'd go with what QC suggested and get a 486/66Mhz.

[Collector]

I used to want a dinosaur to play old games, but no longer. With the state of DOSBox and modern host machines these days, I don't see the point, at least for DOS/Win3x games. There is very little, if anything, of this era that DOSBox can't easily handle. In fact, there are far more games that one can play in DOSBox than any one physical old PC.

I am sure that many of us encountered some problematic game back then that refused to run properly. With different hardware, drivers and other configurations, some games would run without issue on one machine, but not another. And that same PC that had issues with the one game would have no problems with other games that the 2nd PC would stumble on. Given the highly configurable design of DOSBox, it is like having many PCs one.

That said, there are still a couple of valid reasons to setup a dinosaur. What machine to build depends on what is most important to you.

Tandy - Just to play games DOSBox is the way to fly. Copying files from Tandy formatted disks on a modern PC is nearly impossible, so an old Tandy would be great to recover these files. The same might be said of the pre PC computers, such as Commodore, Apple, etc.

286-386 - I can see no valid reason for most to have either of these. The only possible thing might be just to compare behavior between a real DOS machine vs DOSBox to isolate between game quirks and something not right with DOSBox. This might be of some use to a DOSBox dev or someone like myself working on solutions for the old games, but not just a gamer.

Win9x Era PC - A later 486/Pentium/Pentium II makes the most sense for a classic gamer for the 9x games that will not run right or not at all on XP and later PCs. Additionally, many, if not most users with Windows 7 seem to be going with 64-bit, so any 9x games that are or are in part, 16-bit are out of the equation.

It is another thing if you simply like the old hardware or just want the pleasure of owning a machine with hardware that you were only able to dream about owning back in the day. If this is the case, your decision about what to get is already made.

[cpages2]

Collector its more of a feeling of playing on an old system. I know DOSBox will run everything I want, I have a PC dedicated to that now, also being an IT Engineer I have no technical issues that keep me from getting games working.

Its the face that I miss booting up an old PC, listening to the noise floppy drives made. I have the room in my office to dedicate the space for it, also its a work of art and conversation piece.

- Mike

[Collector]

Collector its more of a feeling of playing on an old system. I know DOSBox will run everything I want, I have a PC dedicated to that now, also being an IT Engineer I have no technical issues that keep me from getting games working.

Its the face that I miss booting up an old PC, listening to the noise floppy drives made. I have the room in my office to dedicate the space for it, also its a work of art and conversation piece.

- Mike

Hence my last paragraph.

[Qbix]

Collector its more of a feeling of playing on an old system. I know DOSBox will run everything I want, I have a PC dedicated to that now, also being an IT Engineer I have no technical issues that keep me from getting games working.

Its the face that I miss booting up an old PC, listening to the noise floppy drives made. I have the room in my office to dedicate the space for it, also its a work of art and conversation piece.

- Mike

if you want to play around for nostalgias sake, I'd suggest to get the oldest thing you can get.