Old dos games

[Demorve]

I was wondering how many people are playing old dos games?

Since I got two monitor I discovered that I could play my old dos games in dosbox and still watch college football. Which is why I wanted two monitors in the first place. I have to change the resolution on my secondary monitor to 640 x 480 to be able to see what I'm doing. I tried playing some of the newer games while watching tv, but they required a large amout of cpu cycles or at least the games do on my computer (Athlon XP 2600).

Back to the original question, I would be interested in finding out how many still play old dos games and why.

[Kitsune]

I do! I do!

The only computer I have is a rather rickety laptop (I have to lay it against something so the screen will stay up, it won't do so independently anymore, wish I could fix it).

WHAT do I play? Mostly old adventure games. Right now, I'm currently enjoying Rise of the Dragon by Dynamix. It is very nice. I like any game that lets you undress the main character so I can be naughty.

I'm also trying to decide whether to start Bloodstone or The Magic Candle 3 first. I absolutely love The Magic Candle, which I also played in DOS relatively recently on my laptop. I have a huge program that organizes all my DOSBOX games so I can access them at a click of the button.

I'm also currently trying to decide whether to continue with Warcraft or go onto Warcraft II. I'm at the mission right after you have to save the people in the cave.

I think I'll play Betrayal at Krondor again, because I've been pining it for it lately. I love those puzzle boxes and the SRPG like block movement.

I just procured Ravenloft, so I'll be playing that soon.

Mostly I'm trying to build up a history of PC gaming so I've played all the greats and perhaps not-so-greats-but-I-like-ems in the genres I personally care for. Settlers 2 and Transport Tycoon took a huge chunk of my time earlier this year when I introduced myself to them. I've still got another 250 games or so to go through, so I'm not going to be running anytime soon, which is why I'm not in any hurry to upgrade. Seriously, why bother when there are so many greats I still haven't played?

I've also been trying all year to get The Riddle of Master Lu working as well, now I've got it working but with no sound and I can't get subtitles to appear (are there any?). :( Anytime I try to install the right sound settings, it konks out on me. Boo the hoo to the riddily hiddily hoo.

I do want a computer that can play Anachronox at a better framerate, really, really badly though.

-Kitsune

[Incendiary Lemon]

Anachronox

What did you think of it?

[Gordon Cameron]

I absolutely love The Magic Candle, which I also played in DOS relatively recently on my laptop.

Oh good! I can once again trot out one of my summary statements:

The Magic Candle was the best 8 bit CRPG that was not an Ultima. At least among those I have played.

I have had some fun with DosBox lately. I have old boxed copies of Ultima 6, Martian Dreams and Savage Empire and did some playing of them all recently through DosBox. Didn't get very far, unfortunately, but they were fun to noodle around with.

Also briefly checked out Frontier, which has to be the most fantastically ambitious space sim ever made. At least, apart from Derek Smart's oeuvre. :wink:

[Demorve]

I'm currently trying to get the original Pool of Radiance to work. I keep getting a Insert disk 3 in drive d: message. Since I bought the "Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Collecter's Edition" on cd from Wizard Works some years ago I don't have disk three. Just a cd with nine best selling games.

I did get Phantasie 1 and 3 to work, however I am a little embarrassed to admit that my party keeps getting killed. Maybe I'll replay Baldur's Gate 2 since it seems easier.

I don't have as many dos games as Kitsune , but I probably have aroud 50, which include Civ 1, MOO1, MOM 1 on floppies, Darklands and the original Zork trilogy.

I'm finding that just getting them to work can be as much fun as playing them. Except Phantise 1 because I keep getting killed.

[JD]

Back to the original question, I would be interested in finding out how many still play old dos games and why.

Several reasons. Sometimes it's simple nostalgia and I tend to play through Monkey Island I&II at least once a year. (Yesh, despite knowing all the puzzles offhand.) And sometimes it's simply because there hasn't been a worthwhile remake or sequel of a game so far, e.g. M.U.D.S., Mad TV, X-COM (I'm aware of the fan projects) or Syndicate. And until like two years ago Pirates! Gold was still the best Pirates! experience available.

Btw., if you also have some old adventures, especially Lucasfilm Games titles, around, you should try out SCUMM VM (http://www.scummvm.org) (server down right now) rather than DOSBox. If you haven't done that yet.

-Julian

[GMicek]

I recently got my 'oldschool' box up and running again. It's a 486 66mhz something or other with Dos 5 running on it. I've been playing Killing Cloud and The Lost Files Of Sherlock Holmes (Serrated Scalpel one, not that FMV bullshit) since I never beat them. I also try and play Buzz Aldrins Race Into Space as often as possible because I just love that friggin game!

Anyway, I play the games because I like replay old games I enjoyed back in the day. Also I have a respectable collection of oldschool games that I've purchased off Ebay through the years and want to beat the ones I never finished, or play the ones I always heard were great but never had a chance to try (X-Com for example). I was stuck with a 286 from 1992 until 1998 or so, so I have a lot of catching up.

[Brian Rubin]

I play old DOS games all the time. Permanent residents on my hard drive include Darklands, Starflight 1 and 2 (of course), Ascendancy, Master of Magic, M.A.X., Cavewars, and more.

[Dave Weinstein]

I bought a Toshiba Libretto on eBay, largely so that I could play Master of Orion on airplanes, and only to a lesser extent so that I could check my email (even a chicklet keyboard is easier to use than a european keyboard).

--Dave

[Kitsune]

Anachronox

What did you think of it?

I liked it so much from the first bare few minutes that I continue to pine away at the fact that I can't properly enjoy it yet. Same with Syberia and Neverwinter Nights. :( Incidentally, I've heard claims that the creators were aiming for a console RPG style, but I didn't see it in the admittedly short exposure I had to the game. It just seemed like another creative PC RPG to me.


I did get Phantasie 1 and 3 to work, however I am a little embarrassed to admit that my party keeps getting killed.

My dad used to play these and I once did that thing that people on this forum may have experienced with their kids: got on to try it, completely did not understand what I was doing and erased/fucked up his savegames. Of course, I was much smaller then. (I had to stand on my tippy toes to find the keyboard keys!)

Also I didn't list that I had so many games to brag, I was just given them in exchange for a favor.


I'm currently trying to get the original Pool of Radiance to work.

I've had similar problems, except that I can never get it to go the right speed. I never was able to fully and accurately play the game until Underdogs released it as abandonware on their site recently. While I might still physically own the game, I only use their version which all spiffy for hard drives, because the manuals and such are the only important part so you don't have to Alt+Tab out of DOSBox and can reference them in your hot little hands.

As far as I know, the version on Underdogs is exactly the same as the disk version is, so I recommend that if you're having problems. After all, there's no real moral quandary since we both own the game, right? Think of it as finding the no-cd hack to get past Starforce for an older game. :P

Great, now its going to seem like those DOS games I mentioned I all got through abandonware. Oh well. ^_^

-Kitsune

[Mike Hussey]

I'm currently trying to get the original Pool of Radiance to work.

I've had similar problems, except that I can never get it to go the right speed.

I''ve been olaying the version from the collectors' edition succesfully in DOSbox, I found on a Pentium IV 3.2, dropping the number of cycles in DOSbox to around 1000 seems to do the trick. I've had no problem with it asking for a disk though, it doesn't even need the CD in the drive.

I've also been using DOSbox to play Betrayal at Krondor, Master of Magic, the SSI Buck Rogers games and UFO:Enemy Unknown, although the latter is a bit flakey. Steel Panthers:MBT also appears to work better in DOSbox, although that's more recent.

[mutt]

Has anyone ever gotten Crusader: No Remorse to run under Windows? If not, that'd be another good reason to set up a DOS box.

[Dave Long]

Crusader works fine in DOSbox. It just needs a hefty machine to run it.

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net

--Dave

[Sander]

I have a huge program that organizes all my DOSBOX games so I can access them at a click of the button.


And what would that be? Everytime I get the emu bug the chore of organizing old games with boot disks and all becomes a bit much. I wish it was all like Mame.

[Jamm0r]

Darklands

Hear hear!

[GuildBoss]

I absolutely love The Magic Candle, which I also played in DOS relatively recently on my laptop.

Oh good! I can once again trot out one of my summary statements:

The Magic Candle was the best 8 bit CRPG that was not an Ultima. At least among those I have played.



Count me among the Magic Candle lovin' crowd. Easily my favorite CRPG. I still put Magic Candle 1 on every new system I build for myself.

I'm planning on getting an old Win95/DOS laptop just to fill up with the old classics rather than keep messing around with them on my new builds.

[Peter Olafson]

All the time (though not so much for the last few months). Mainly for a book I've been working on for the last few years. I can't be bothered with all the finessing required under Windows, so I have a 286, 386 and 486s for just this purpose. :)

Peter

[Dave Long]

I have a huge program that organizes all my DOSBOX games so I can access them at a click of the button.


And what would that be? Everytime I get the emu bug the chore of organizing old games with boot disks and all becomes a bit much. I wish it was all like Mame.

Why use the bootdisks? Click the link above. You don't really need to do that kind of thing anymore. DOSbox, the software emulation program, removes the need for that kind of thing.

--Dave

[dannimal]

Demovore, have you looked at the CD with POR via Windows Explorer at all? I have the Forgotten Realms Anniversary Collection, and on the Pool disc (which I think also has the two sequels on it), there are folders in the Pool area that are named "Disk 1" "Disk 2", and so on. You might be able to make a disk three, or point the requester at the disk 3 folder.

If I ever get my office organized again, I've got my old school box all ready to go.

[Demorve]

The Collectors Edition doesn't have disk 1, 2 or 3. However I did get Pool of Radiance working. It was so obvious. I kept looking at the configuration file and thinking that it was correct. I kept having a nagging feeling that it wasn't. Well that nagging feeling was correct. I had Dosbox mount my d:\wizworx folder as drive d:. The configuration file kept telling the game to look in wizworx\poolrad folder. When I removed the wizworx folder from the config file it started working. A word of advice to those reading this, look at any path in your config files carefully, it just might be telling the game to look someplace that doesn't exist.

[Sander]

Why use the bootdisks? Click the link above. You don't really need to do that kind of thing anymore. DOSbox, the software emulation program, removes the need for that kind of thing.

It seems everytime I've tried programs like this in the past they're required setups that involve setting up partitions and such, but looking at the sourceforge site there's links to a couple of front ends and such so I'll have to give this one a whirl.

Thanks

[scharmers]

It seems everytime I've tried programs like this in the past they're required setups that involve setting up partitions and such, but looking at the sourceforge site there's links to a couple of front ends and such so I'll have to give this one a whirl.

Thanks

THEM THAR DOSBOX SETUP SHORE IS TRICKY!

Well, no. DOSBox is much easier than partitions and such -- hell, it's easier to set up than VPC, which has a GUI. We're talking ten or so minutes of staring at a help file, and you're off. Seriously good software for truly ancient (i.e. 386 and slow 486) games.

--scharmers

[ExecutionerFive]

Just got done playing some Red Storm Rising on DOSBOX--it's still the best naval game around :).

[Rimbo]

Add me to the list of people who think that DOSBOX R00LZ M4H NADZORZ!!@#$@!#$!@

*ahem*

Anyway, I've got Wasteland, Starflight, and Betrayal at Krondor set up on my iBook. There's something wonderfully perverse about playing these on a big-endian Macintosh. It's also nice having them with me wherever I do go...

[Brian Rubin]

Just got done playing some Red Storm Rising on DOSBOX--it's still the best naval game around :).
Yup, it sure is. DOSBOX is just amazing in allowing us to keep playing those games we love.

[awdougherty]

Bard's Tale III
Ultima 5
Syndicate
Darklands (Love this one)
Wasteland

Don't play them often, but they all have a spot on my drive

[Wobbo]

Tyrian
SimCity2000
Syndicate Wars and original

[Methedrine]

Just got done playing some Red Storm Rising on DOSBOX--it's still the best naval game around :).
Yup, it sure is. DOSBOX is just amazing in allowing us to keep playing those games we love.

RSR should be played in the amiga version, much better sound and gfx. Animation still sucks tho.