Buy an old gaming laptop for old DOS games

[fcuco]

If you really want to experience retro gaming as it should be played you should probably stay away from emulators and go for the real thing: a period DOS PC.

First of all, don't go for a Desktop because they used to be huge and you still need to find an appropriate VGA monitor that's also is going to be bulky and probably looks terrible by now.

So, your best bet is to go with an old laptop. You are going to be able to find some fine vintage 486 laptops on ebay for as low as 25$, and most of the games are abandonware by now so finding them it's going to be pretty easy with a few Internet searches.

Just make sure to pick up a laptop with a SoundBlaster compatible card if you are lucky, but most computers of those days lack sound cards. If you are really into very old games this shouldn't be a problem since most of these old games use the internal speaker for sound anyway. If you really need the audio consider buying something like the Disney Sound Source but that's much more difficult to come by.

You should probably stay clear of DSTN displays too since those are horrible for gaming, research a laptop with a nice TFT type display.

Have fun!

 

[MLF]

Just curious but why wouldn't you just use DOS Box? While it technically is an emulator, I find that much more pleasurable so you don't have to fumble around with trying to get the games to run. For those of us that lived through that era, that was one of the major pains in the rear because you often had to customize settings for every game, fight with crashes, etc.

With DOS Box, they've already taken that work out of the equation, it can run on hardware you already have and you can spend more time actually gaming instead of pounding your fist and head in frustration. Here are some links to get you started:

https://www.dosbox.com/
https://www.classicdosgames.com/
http://www.myabandonware.com/

 

[WarVet]

Yeah what's the point? I used to play Full Throttle on mine all the time and it ran just as it used to. Plus with an older laptop you might run into many compatibility issues. I'd stick to DOS Box it's a wonderful program.

 

[overcast]

You can run old DOS based games on Windows 10. Download DOSBOX. And then make sure to download the emulator under which those games can be played. And after that you can find the support for the DOS based games properly on the Windows. I have seen that DOSBOX community has favored windows 10. So it's surely one good option for you instead of buying old PC.

 

[sima061]

That's a nice idea and I don't think it's too much of an investment for someone who actually really enjoys old games. For someone who doesn't care that much, an emulator is probably still okay.

 

[JaiGuru]

I know it's been said a million times but I have to chime in with my two cents for the "dosbox" option. Legacy hardware is very problematic, and that goes double when you're talking about a product that's not going to have any aftermarket parts for the inevitable breakdown. You just cannot expect older laptops to run without maintenance.