Just chat about old computers

[DosMan007]

Chat as in, I used to have a nice setup, DOS 6.22 OS that I upgraded to a Windows 98SE OS, 90 mhZ 486/DX2 with a Sound Blaster Pro sound card, not sure how much memory it had, but it was probably the best system I had at that time. Unfortunately I got rid of it years ago, after I had gotten my e-machine. I really wish I had hung onto it as I could natively play any DOS game flawlessly. DOSBox does the trick today, but some things just work better in true DOS.

I somehow got a 66 mhZ PC with DOS 6 or 6.22 on it, no CD drive, no sound card, just the PC speaker, but it does have working 5 1/4 " and 3 1/2" floppy drives. The CRT monitor that came with that tower I took to recycle and just hook it up to the VGA port on the back of my TV for a monitor whenever I want to use it, but it doesn't really see a whole lot of use. There's a game out there that my friend and I used to play the heck out of, Mechwarrior 2. Unfortunately in DOSBox, yea it really doesn't work so well, and the newer joystick doesn't really seem compatible. Like, if you want to play that game, you NEED a joystick, with a hat, to get the best play with that game.

On the other side of things, Privateer runs wonderfully, if you get it from GOG. I still own the original CD of Privateer, but again, that doesn't work so well in DOSBox. Combine that with the joystick and everything's a mess. Now there is a very old game that I have that was sort of like Gauntlet for the PC, called, Demon Stalkers. It was 100 levels, well anyway the sound on that game, the pitch changes in DOSBox, whereas on my actual DOS machine, the music is on point every time, so just guessing that's a limitation of DOSBox? That it can't 100% fully and properly emulate the original sounds/music?

I would love it if I could find an old DOS 6.22 PC, kind of like the one I had that would just run games with no issues. I don't think DOS is something that you could put through a VM, only because it was on 3 1/2" floppies and because I've never been able to find a download of it. And even if you could get it running in a VM, I would think that you would still need mouse drivers, CD-ROM drivers and such, because it would be a DOS machine, unless you put Windows 98 on it, which I happen to have my old Windows 98SE CD as well

Anyway just going on and on about it all, one of my main things I enjoy talking about.

[Tawmis]

Heh - my first "real computer" was a Tandy 1000 SX...

I bought that thing with my own money, and it cost over $1,000 dollars with taxes and everything at the end...

I literally saved for this thing to play Sierra games... my best friend at the time, Shawn, his father had introduced me to LSL1EGA and KQ1 (which was 4 color on his machine, and required booting from the KQ disk to work)... The Tandy 1000 SX did not support high density drives, so my friend and I would get the games, and I'd take the low density versions, or we'd have his father use a program called CopyIIPC and we'd crunch them onto low density drives... it was like 4.3Mhz or something, with a TURBO button that'd make it go 7.5Mhz... Yeah! Burning speed!

I eventually built my own 386 machine, with high density drives and the whole bit (again, to essentially play newer Sierra games that were coming out). Built my own mini 486 (that I loved), which was eventually used as my BBS (remember those days?)...

Ah.

I hate being old, but I love the memories...

[DosMan007]

YES!! Such great memories. My friend from high school, Alvin, well he used to have a Tandy 1000 also. He loves airplanes and all that, so he used to play a lot of Chuck Yeagers Flight School. I'd go over his place most times and he'd have computer magazines all over the place that I'd read while I was there. I do remember also going over other friends houses watching them play Police Quest or LSL. My 486DX/2 before was a 386. Not sure how it came around, but my dad mentioned something about upgrading, or maybe I mentioned it to him, well he found a guy who did upgrades, so my dad and I went to this guy's apartment and I remember it mostly being empty, other than he had stacks of closed up computer cases brand new, (not sure if they were empty cases or assembled PC's) and on the spot he upgraded the PC to, my choice of a SX or a DX. I wanted to play Star Trek: A Final Unity at that time, and I remember reading in a computer magazine article that the game required you to have a DX/2 math co-processor. So that was why I went with the DX/2.

My one uncle, my dad's brother who passed away last year, had a 2400 baud dial up modem, that sat on the desk and some how we obtained it. So in the area was a BBS called The Nexus, best BBS from what I can remember, but my dad hated us using the modem, so while he was away at work, we'd get it hooked up, call The Nexus a few times, and put everything away before he came home lol. I also remember a time when one of my other uncles that was my mom's brother, came over with all kinds of games. And all I remember him doing, is installing like Wolfenstein 3D, and myself freaking out that my dad would flip out seeing all the swastika's everywhere. Then he proceeds to install Spellcasting 301, Spring Break, yea if my dad would have seen that one... especially the beginning....

All in all, the memories are great. I just hooked up my old DOS 6.20 computer and have it hooked up to the TV. Just almost beat Life And Death, and the game locks up. It was weird, like I lost all mouse and keyboard control, and when the patient had died in the operating room, it didn't go to the death screen it just sat there with the PC speaker whining when the patient flat lined.

Yes, I have to agree, I hate being old, but the memories are wonderful. I also had to get an Atari, and almost have 100 cartridges. Such great memories that I love being able to go back to them and just relax... that's what I'm missing. A bean bag chair lol. Can't get anymore retro than that.

Oh I almost forgot, before the 486 DX/2 I had, we had a Vendex computer. Not sure on the specs with that one, but I do remember playing Police Quest 1 on it, and I also got Camelot: The search for the holy grail. That game took me a full year to beat. We had a place maybe 30 or 40 minutes from us called Egghead software, and at that time, that was the place to get all your games and such. It's nice being able with DOSBox to relive those memories.

[Rath Darkblade]

Heh. My first computer was one of these. (Without the screen - I used the TV screen - but I was just 5, and it was great!)

[Tawmis]

YES!! Such great memories. My friend from high school, Alvin, well he used to have a Tandy 1000 also. He loves airplanes and all that, so he used to play a lot of Chuck Yeagers Flight School. I'd go over his place most times and he'd have computer magazines all over the place that I'd read while I was there.

The magazine we all thrived off of was a local one called ComputorEdge. (This brought back some serious nostalgia thinking about it - and found that they eventually went online - and they have an archive... but from like 2009 and onward... all the super classic ones are not archived).

I do remember also going over other friends houses watching them play Police Quest or LSL. My 486DX/2 before was a 386. Not sure how it came around, but my dad mentioned something about upgrading, or maybe I mentioned it to him, well he found a guy who did upgrades, so my dad and I went to this guy's apartment and I remember it mostly being empty, other than he had stacks of closed up computer cases brand new, (not sure if they were empty cases or assembled PC's) and on the spot he upgraded the PC to, my choice of a SX or a DX. I wanted to play Star Trek: A Final Unity at that time, and I remember reading in a computer magazine article that the game required you to have a DX/2 math co-processor. So that was why I went with the DX/2.

That guy in that apartment probably made money hand over fist back then, because computers were such a big deal...

My one uncle, my dad's brother who passed away last year, had a 2400 baud dial up modem, that sat on the desk and some how we obtained it. So in the area was a BBS called The Nexus, best BBS from what I can remember, but my dad hated us using the modem, so while he was away at work, we'd get it hooked up, call The Nexus a few times, and put everything away before he came home lol.

Ummmmmm... where was this Nexus BBS located? Tennessee or San Diego by chance? Because... if so, it may have been MY BBS! My BBS was called The Nexus (named after the Deathgate Cycle books!) I talk about it more over in the "Origin of Your Handle" thread... there's just no way you were dialing into my BBS... The Nexus was probably a super common BBS name back then... just funny...

All in all, the memories are great. I just hooked up my old DOS 6.20 computer and have it hooked up to the TV. Just almost beat Life And Death, and the game locks up. It was weird, like I lost all mouse and keyboard control, and when the patient had died in the operating room, it didn't go to the death screen it just sat there with the PC speaker whining when the patient flat lined.

I have two old computers in the shed (both of them dead) - one's a Pentium like 100mhz... the other is a... 486, I think... but higher end (for 486's back in the day)... No longer have any machines that run on just DOS anymore... (for which I am super thankful for DOSBox).

Yes, I have to agree, I hate being old, but the memories are wonderful. I also had to get an Atari, and almost have 100 cartridges. Such great memories that I love being able to go back to them and just relax... that's what I'm missing. A bean bag chair lol. Can't get anymore retro than that.

Oh, I was all over the consoles, even back then... the Atari 2600 was like my original jam... had SO many games on there... probably beat about 5% of them.
And yes, Beanbags for the win... I had one, just recently, but my husky (Odin) took it over as a dog bed.

Heh. My first computer was one of these. (Without the screen - I used the TV screen - but I was just 5, and it was great!)

Heh - That's what my friend Shawn originally had too. My friend Chuck had a TSR-80 (the cassette player was the "drive" and the game played on an actual cassette!) - a game called Raakatu. It was a text adventure game, with that "You are standing in a jungle. There is a path to the (W)est and (E)ast." It was through that game I learned basic (or is that BASIC?) programming (see what I did there?) - and it would be years and years and years later, playing Colonel's Bequest, that I'd be inspired to write my own little text adventure game called Final Soul.

[DosMan007]

YES!! Such great memories. My friend from high school, Alvin, well he used to have a Tandy 1000 also. He loves airplanes and all that, so he used to play a lot of Chuck Yeagers Flight School. I'd go over his place most times and he'd have computer magazines all over the place that I'd read while I was there.

The magazine we all thrived off of was a local one called ComputorEdge. (This brought back some serious nostalgia thinking about it - and found that they eventually went online - and they have an archive... but from like 2009 and onward... all the super classic ones are not archived).

Yea not really sure on the name of the magazine, but it was mostly computers, and computer parts and seemed kind of thick, like the phone book.

That guy in that apartment probably made money hand over fist back then, because computers were such a big deal...

Yea it was literally just stacks of brown boxes with, my guess at that time, computers or empty cases, but I'd like to say probably full blown assembled towers at least.

My one uncle, my dad's brother who passed away last year, had a 2400 baud dial up modem, that sat on the desk and some how we obtained it. So in the area was a BBS called The Nexus, best BBS from what I can remember, but my dad hated us using the modem, so while he was away at work, we'd get it hooked up, call The Nexus a few times, and put everything away before he came home lol.

Ummmmmm... where was this Nexus BBS located? Tennessee or San Diego by chance? Because... if so, it may have been MY BBS! My BBS was called The Nexus (named after the Deathgate Cycle books!) I talk about it more over in the "Origin of Your Handle" thread... there's just no way you were dialing into my BBS... The Nexus was probably a super common BBS name back then... just funny...

Oh we lived in Maryland at that time, but as much as I think about that, probably was a super common BBS name though.

[Tawmis]

Ummmmmm... where was this Nexus BBS located? Tennessee or San Diego by chance? Because... if so, it may have been MY BBS! My BBS was called The Nexus (named after the Deathgate Cycle books!) I talk about it more over in the "Origin of Your Handle" thread... there's just no way you were dialing into my BBS... The Nexus was probably a super common BBS name back then... just funny...

Oh we lived in Maryland at that time, but as much as I think about that, probably was a super common BBS name though.

Heh - would have been entirely too funny if you were one of my users on my BBS and we randomly reconnected through our passion for Sierra games, here on these forums!