Retro Gaming Thread

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Retro Gaming Thread

Post Post #0 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:57 am

Post by CooLDoG »

It simply is about time to have one of these in my opinion. We have a mega video game thread and a bunch of isolated threads for specific modern games, but we don't have a thread for the classics.

I consider a retro game to be any game that is part of the 5th generation of video games or earlier. Meaning that the gamecube, xbox, dreamcast, and playstation 1 games are off limits. The definition is most certainly up for debate, but try to keep this thread away from modern games (no call of duty please).

Running old games:
Running retro games can range from very simple to very hard. I consider myself to be more or less proficient in the use of DOSBOX (an expert by no means), however, I know very little about other emulators and can't proved any help. Here is a very brief tutorial on running old dos/windows games on modern systems.

Running DOS games:

I suggest DOSBOX: http://www.dosbox.com/
Create a file on your hard drive in a location other than program files (in windows vista and above) called oldgames.
Unzip/install dosbox into that folder preferably in its own file (C:/oldgames/Dosbox)

linux users can just install the pre-packeaged repository (sudo apt-get install dosbox) or a variation of that depending on your distro. mac users :roll: I don't know.

Spoiler: from game files
Now if you have all of the game files on your hard drive then the process is rather simple just place them in their own folder under old games, for example, C:/oldgames/AOD. Launch DOSBOX and type
mount c c:/oldgames/AOD
C:
Game.exe

Where c:/oldgames/AOD is the path to the game
and Game.exe is the executable of the game with a extension of .exe, .com, or .bat

You might have to tweak some setting for optimal performance. It is best to look on the dosbox wiki (http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Main_Page) for specific game settings. You might also have to run the game's sound setup in order to hear sound when you play.


Spoiler: from cd/floppy
If your game is on a CD/floppy it gets more complicated...
Mount c c:/oldgames -freesize 2000
Mount (d/a) (drive letter for cd/floppy):/ -t (cdrom/floppy) -label (the label that the cd/floppy has. Can be found by looking at in your file manager)

Where use d for cdrom mounts and a for floppy mounts in (d/a)
Substitute the drive letter of your floppy or CD rom drive you want to mount (usually d for a cdrom drive and a for a floppy drive)

next type d: or a: depending if it is on a floppy or cd
install.exe (or the instillation program on the cd/floppy)
Follow the instruction, however, when it asks you for the install directory just direct it to C:/gamename. It will actually install to C:/oldgames/gamename on your actual hard drive, but the game doesn't know that :wink:

Once the install is finished you can type:

C:/
cd gamename
play.exe (or whatever your game's executable is)

In order to play again you will have to remount the CD just as you did to install it except that you don't have to run the install program. You can eventually create a .conf file for dosbox that will automatically do this for you, but that is a discussion for another day.

Spoiler: Problems Running a Game?
1) Check to make sure dosbox supports it: http://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?letter=a

2) check dosbox wiki for answers: http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Main_Page

3) check to make sure that your dosbox options match up with your game settings. This mostly has to do with sound settings which can, ironically enough, lead to full game crashes.
I would suggest running the "Setup" or "sound set" utility that most games come with and setting the sound card to soundblaster or soundblaster16 if available. leave the IRQs/channels at their default and see what happens. If it doesn't work, go into you dosbox configuration file (~/.dosbox in Linux, Your installation directory (if I remember correctly) in windows) and makes ure that all of the sound related options match the settings in the game (or vice versa). MAKE SURE THAT THE "gus" SETTINGS ARE CORRECT!!!

Also make sure that the game supports the selected graphics card (listed under "machine" in dosbox settings). I have a few funny stories about selecting different graphics cards!

I would also suggest upping the "memsize" from 16 to 32. Especially if you are playing an older dosgame (duke nukem 3d, carmagedon, blood, etc.)

4) Check for a source port for your game. Doom, for example, doesn't run very well at all in dosbox. Instead, for the full dos feel, you should try running it in chocolate doom (but if you prefer a more modern feeling doom game try zdoom). I have also ran into trouble running duke nukem 3d in dosbox, so I found a great source port called eduke32 (might even have a 64 version now ) that runs flawlessly.

5) Still having problems? It might be time to try to virtualize. Read below how to vivtualize windows 3.1 without dosbox. YOu could also try directly virtualizing DOS using the same method.

6) That doesn't work for you? Well, you can always try original hardware. That will never fail :wink:


Spoiler: a few config changes that might help
In your dosbox config file (can be found from your start menu, or ~/.dosbox in Linux) change the default setting to the following:

output= ddraw (or opengl on Linux and mac. This will basically let you use directx to render the game. Or OpenGL...)
machine= svga_3 (if not already. This basically sets the emulated graphics card to be a good one...)
memsize= 24 or 32 (24 for will under all games. Use 32 for newer games that want to hog memory. Older games might not like 32 MB of memory)


a great video with the above tricks and more: http://www.pixelships.com/adg/epf003.html



Running windows games:


Spoiler: In XP or earlier
XP and early windows version (2000, 98, 95, etc.) are very much compatible with many, but not all, older windows games. All that you have to do is right click on the .exe file that you want to run, click properties, compatibility, run in compatibility mode, and select windows 3.1 or windows 95. It may also help to run it in 256 colors and at a lower more "classic" resolution. Some versions of windows (win 2000) have this properties tab disabled, in order to enable it just follow the instructions here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279792

This method works perfectly for me 90% of the time.

Spoiler: for the 10% of the time or windows vista and beyond
You need to boot windows 3.1 in dosbox. Actually this is pretty simple now that we have pre built instillations that work like a charm. Simply create a folder C:/Oldgames/Windows
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT RUN THE PROGRAM FROM YOUR ROOT DIRECTORY (normally C:/)!!!!!!!!
Unzip this: http://files.abandonia.com/extras/Progr ... DOSBox.rar into the C:/oldgames/windows folder. You will need 7-zip or winrar in order to do this (the default arcive manager in most linux distributions will have rar compatibility by default, Mac users ????). So you should have something like this:

C:/Oldgames/Windows/A bunch of files and a windows.bat file

Now simply drop the unzipped/copied off cd into the windows directory. If you have your game on a cd/floppy I would recommend coppying off all of the files into a folder, or mounting the cd drive along with windows and seeing how that turn out.

Now simply go to dosbox and type the following (amending depending on your hard drive structure as always)
Mount c c:/oldgames/windows
c:
windows.bat

Now navigate in side of windows an click "main". After that "file manager" and then you should see the folder for your game right there (if not, navigate to the root directory in windows). Double click on it and find the .exe file that you want to run and enjoy. If you need to install a game then just keep in mind that if you enter "C:/" as the install path it will actually install to "C:/oldgames/windows" on your actual hard drive.

If you have sound problems simply unzip this: http://files.abandonia.com/extras/Progr ... %20fix.rar

into your windows 3.1 directory. Enjoy!


Spoiler: For people who hate DOSBox with a passion
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how-to ... virtual_pc
Will work for you. Just follow that guide. It might even work better than DOSBox.


Running Apple ][ games:


vitrual apple ][ website


Running commodore games:

http://c64s.com/
( I would love for someone to contribute to this)


Old consoles:


Some sort of emulator...
Personal favorite site for emulators:
http://www.emulator-zone.com/


Enjoy :nerd:
Last edited by CooLDoG on Sat Dec 22, 2012 1:00 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Post Post #1 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:29 am

Post by GreyICE »

They may finally be updating X-COM: UFO Defense for the modern era.

Not that the game is unplayable or something (I still love it), but it was shipped on 3 3.5" floppies, and that's... over time that has started to show, a little.

I've got a lot of hope in Xenonauts.

(If someone wants to play a really good game, X-COM is available on Steam for a song)
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Post Post #2 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:47 am

Post by BS2000 »

I like my SNES. Do I belong in here?
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Post Post #3 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:52 am

Post by CooLDoG »

Yes you do belong here.

ADG did a review of X-COM last Saturday: http://www.pixelships.com/adg/ep0098.html

If you name a soldier after yourself, he will be the first one to die in XCOM. Never fails.
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Post Post #4 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:03 am

Post by saulres »

Those games you link to -- they all have multi-color. And real graphics.

Not retro enough!
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Post Post #5 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:07 am

Post by CooLDoG »

I consider VGA/SVGA to be retro enough. But if you hate graphics...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry:_ ... d_Overlord

You can't go wrong with classic crpgs.
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Post Post #6 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:09 am

Post by saulres »

Nah, I'm just messing with you (and showing my age).

I'm kind of partial to my N64 myself.
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Post Post #7 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:11 am

Post by CooLDoG »

Best n64 game: Perfect Dark.
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Post Post #8 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:13 am

Post by saulres »

I prefer platform games myself. But that's why they make so many different kinds of games.
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Post Post #9 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:16 am

Post by gorckat »

My favorite old school games are Pirates!, Wing Commander IV and Silent Service 2. Also a little bit of PT 109, but the campaign mode glitched a bit.

Sooooo many weekends at my grandparents staying up till 4 am playing those 3 games.
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Post Post #10 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:18 am

Post by Kublai Khan »

Occasionally intellectually honest

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Post Post #11 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:28 am

Post by BBmolla »

Been playing tons of Warcraft 2 recently. Not /exactly/ retro, but that's been my recent not-new-games activity.

Holy jesus X-Com looks complicated.
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Post Post #12 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:31 am

Post by Timeater »

Best 64 game is Ogre Battle 64 sorry

Stop saying retro it makes me feel old I grew up going to blockbuster and renting games like chrono trigger ;-;
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Post Post #13 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:32 am

Post by Kublai Khan »

X-Com isn't complicated. It's awesome.

Ogre Battle 64 is awesome.

Khan 2: Clan of the Grey Wolf is awesome.

Third World War on Sega CD is awesome.
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Post Post #14 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:34 am

Post by CooLDoG »

X-com isn't incredibly complicated once you get the hang of it. You must read the manual though:
http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/776 ... manual.pdf

@gorchat, I prefer aces of the deep for my subsim fix.
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Post Post #15 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:37 am

Post by Isa »

Super Smash Bros to the 64 is great. I compete in the Gamecube follow-up, but that wasn't retro enough. =p
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Post Post #16 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:43 am

Post by gorckat »

In post 14, CooLDoG wrote:@gorchat, I prefer aces of the deep for my subsim fix.


I've got Silent Hunter II in my GOG wishlist. Will probably snag it soon, since I'm getting an itch for it thinking about Silent Service.
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Post Post #17 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:45 am

Post by Zachrulez »

I was really into the original Silent Service for the NES. It's one of the few games that doesn't seem to emulate well on an NES emulator. Never managed to figure out how to play the 2nd one.
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Post Post #18 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:56 am

Post by inspiratieloos »

In post 3, CooLDoG wrote:If you name a soldier after yourself, he will be the first one to die in XCOM. Never fails.

I never rename soldiers.... Still know their names and rage when they die though.
Also: So much fun reading this to someone who knows the game point by point and see them wince again and again.

I've been slowly playing through Apocalypse the last few months, the endgame sucks.
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Post Post #19 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:17 am

Post by gorckat »

My daughter stopped playing Kinectamals when the gazelle bearing her name (randomly spawned) was eaten by a lion.

So many tears.
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Post Post #20 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:32 am

Post by GreyICE »

In post 11, BBmolla wrote:Holy jesus X-Com looks complicated.


It kind of does, but actually everything is fairly self-explanatory. It's just they didn't do layouts very well back in the bad old days, so it's a bit of a mess.

-The green bar is time units (the game is turn based, which makes it a lot less complex). The costs are usually fairly easy (4 to move through easy terrain, 6 or 8 through tough terrain, click on weapon to see how much it is to fire)
-The red bar is health (not surprising)
-The yellow bar is irrelevant (really)
-The purple bar is morale, and goes down if your troops are getting killed, and up if aliens are dying.

The two slots on the side are hand slots for weapons, grenades, medkits, the like.

The buttons are, in order:

-Unit up/down (for elevators)
- Level up/down (technology limit, it did "3d" in layers)
- Map View / Stand/crouch
- View Unit Stats / Center on unit (for when you reposition the map)
- Next unit / Next unit + Boot from Next Unit queue (queue won't consider people who have 0 TU or have been booted from the Next Unit queue)
- Layer icon / Help
- Abort Mission / Escape mission


There's some learning curve, it's not super simple, but it's not Dwarf Fortress or anything.
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Post Post #21 (ISO) » Thu Aug 30, 2012 2:37 pm

Post by forehead7 »

Bought Alex Kidd in Miracle World off of the PSN store a couple weeks back. It's still amazing! (it was our default game on the Master System). The fact you can save it is just amazing!
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Post Post #22 (ISO) » Fri Aug 31, 2012 1:24 am

Post by CooLDoG »

In post 18, inspiratieloos wrote:
In post 3, CooLDoG wrote:If you name a soldier after yourself, he will be the first one to die in XCOM. Never fails.

I never rename soldiers.... Still know their names and rage when they die though.
Also: So much fun reading this to someone who knows the game point by point and see them wince again and again.

I've been slowly playing through Apocalypse the last few months, the endgame sucks.

Everything from that link is 100% true. I rename soldiers in order to tell their strengths. Like if a guy has high accuracy I will add an "S" to the end of his name. If he has high strength I will put a "H" at the end of his name. Just stuff like that so I can load out my soldiers quicker and so I don't have to read over stats in battle.

Also, if a soldier has 10 moral, fire him immediately.
In post 16, gorckat wrote:
In post 14, CooLDoG wrote:@gorchat, I prefer aces of the deep for my subsim fix.


I've got Silent Hunter II in my GOG wishlist. Will probably snag it soon, since I'm getting an itch for it thinking about Silent Service.

AOD is better in my opinion. New silent hunter games have nothing on AOD. Not sure about SH2 though.
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Post Post #23 (ISO) » Fri Aug 31, 2012 1:27 am

Post by CooLDoG »

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Post Post #24 (ISO) » Fri Aug 31, 2012 1:34 am

Post by Om of the Nom »

Super Mario World is an awesome game and I wish I had an actual SNES to play it on instead of an emulator.
I played Alone in the Dark (1992 version) on DOSBox, now me and my sister have a running joke about how the female character's breasts are shaped like pyramids. I also played a few other games I used to play on Floppy Disks.
I remember one time I went to a friend's house and I played Banjo Kazooie on their N64.
I've been using Virtual PC to play old games I used to play that only run on XP, and a few games for Windows 98.
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