Post by unknownPost by MichaelYou probably need DOSBOX to get an old DOS game to run on a nowadays
operating system.
http://www.dosbox.com/
But if they haven't played before it probably isn't worth the effort.
[ in general for 20 year old games you once played ]
It used to run in probably 320x240 , maybe 640x480, maybe on a high end $500
14 inch, on a 33 MHz pc with a 80 Megabyte drive and 2M of memory and it
was magnificent , compared to anything else that was around.
in your memory The game is 7680x4320 100hz 64 bit with glowing golden
pixels
well worth the $3000 a decent PC cost back
then to run it ($7500 in todays money)
the reality gremlins must have erased it and substituted this
chunky scratchy clunky 8/16 bit dreck
The whole point of the graphics is to distract you until the mind control
locks in, then it could just as well be alpha text and stick figures. So
what will todays killer game and graphics on $3000 hardware look like in
20years? :-)
Cleaning out the junk I found some old games
Dune, WCI and III, civ, dungeonkeeper
and gave DOSBOX a try
it really is very good
with some tweaks a lot of these old favourites kinda worked.
By the time of WC2 it even had some self setting of soundcards.
Usually tuning so as not to fly off the map in 0.01ms was the major
problem , sometimes sound , sometimes mouse but mostly they were
workable and DOSBOX works fine on win 64bit.
Many had checks and the manuals long ago turned to mouse nests but a bit
of google turned up old prints and cracks.
If you hanker after the old stuff you -could- give it a go
BUT
unfortunately...apart from Hack which still runs in win64 anyway they
really are nothing like the memory
In fact most are really pretty dreadful
It isn't the graphics, it is that mostly they are just so unergonomic
click to select, click to move, minimal options, groups,waypoints,
they are pretty much straight down the rails
a zerg, a build, a case of RSI
Your memories do the games the justice they deserve for the service they
gave at the time. Trying them now puts them hopelessly out of context.
If you must then DOSBOX is useful if a bit tweaky, then again the games
used to be very tweaky on many systems anyway.
In the meantime I have been enjoying hack, at the moment I play it more
than Planetside 2, at least I last more than a minute and for all the
graphics it makes just as much sense :-)
2.5MB vs 12.5GB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetHack
There really hasn't been that much change apart from the graphics, and a
bit more ergonomic. The bags are still too tiny, but at least Hack
simulated slowing down if you tried to carry a horse in your backpack :-)