Legacy PC/Mac gaming

[ptdebate1]

This evening I might be picking up a 17" Powerbook G4 on the cheap from a guy on Craigslist. Why? Well, this notebook cost $3,499 ($4400 in today's money) when it was first released in January of 2003. Today it's going to cost me $100. It's in perfect working order--amazingly--and I plan to use it mainly for distraction-free word processing (I'm sure browsing flashy web pages or streaming videos will be too much of a chore to even attempt). 

This purchase got me thinking: is there any inherent value to legacy PC hardware like there is to legacy gaming consoles? Is there a certain charm to playing old PC games on old PCs rather than patched versions (like GOG) on new hardware? What do y'all think? Anyone out there who still boots up their PPC Mac for some Marathon or their DOS PC for some old-school DOOM?

[Jon1]

I'm going to get an old computer to do that because I loved computer games back in the late 80s early 90s. I've floated around the idea of the VGC one day adding a PC section specifically to review games from that era. It would be really interesting to see reviews of PC Doom for instance.

[pacguy191]

I think that whole ensemble gets even more complete if you have a bunch of old machines with Quake and a bunch of friends to use said machines.

LAN parties sound fun.

[ptdebate1]

[QUOTE=pacguy19]I think that whole ensemble gets even more complete if you have a bunch of old machines with Quake and a bunch of friends to use said machines.

LAN parties sound fun.[/QUOTE]

Oh god--I'm so itching for a retro Quake LAN party now...

[pacguy191]

It's not directly related, but I found a cool oversight in Quake, if anyone's interested.

Even if you buy Quake off Steam like I did, it'll still expect your CD drive to have the Quake soundtrack and play whatever's on it. Since I don't have the original disc, I got experimenting and I found that Alice in Chains' Dirt works really well, almost too well (like how Rooster plays during the military base at the start).

I'm pretty sure this works for any other game that came on CD (Half-Life 1 does it too, even on the Steam copy).

[Dogtanian1]

[QUOTE=ptdebate]This purchase got me thinking: is there any inherent value to legacy PC hardware like there is to legacy gaming consoles? Is there a certain charm to playing old PC games on old PCs rather than patched versions (like GOG) on new hardware? What do y'all think? Anyone out there who still boots up their PPC Mac for some Marathon or their DOS PC for some old-school DOOM?[/QUOTE]

I would say that the short answer is no, not really. I remembered that a friend of mine had an Amstrad Mega PC (basically a 386 PC with a Megadrive/Genesis built in, you could swap between the two on the fly...pretty cool) and thought that must be worth something considering that it is a rare and rather unusual piece of hardware, but it doesn't have much value compared to consoles of a similar rarity. I'm sure there is a community for those that prefer to play old PC games on VGA monitors running DOS but I do not think that it is as popular as retro console gaming for obvious reasons. However I am planning to resurrect an old PC with an s-video out graphics card to play arcade games on my CRT.

[eraserhead1]

I agree with Dogtanian that commodity old computers aren't valuable. I believe this is because the architecture was open:

I would want a IBM PS/1, I think it looks really cool. But if you're not familiar with the model, run an image search and see if you can guess which version I mean--there are so many!

Even Apples, restricted as they were, suffered a lack of unity. Take the Macintosh, Macintosh 512k, Macintosh Plus...they look almost the same but had different capabilities. Now look at Nintendo vs Super Nintendo, or 2600 vs 5200. Drastically different in form, abilities, architecture, everything! Even the controllers and cartridges are different.

So the consoles each had years to build excitement, during which the hardware did not change. And for which it was designed very specifically. Computers evolved constantly, there were dozens of entities working on that change, and different aspects of it were not synchronized. The strength of the specificity of how Atari graphics look or how a Genesis sounds or how a Nintendo controller feels, is lost. Additionally, such a long life for a console also means there are many more of them available. They are easier to get, so the hobby can live on today and have a wide-ranging community.

The fact that computers don't just play games but are also used for office tasks may further dilute the magic contained in gaming devices.

Thus for home computers, at least in the US, the icons that do occupy pedestals in peoples' hearts and minds are fewer and weaker.

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But I still like the games! I keep an old minitower with Windows 95 around just for classic PC games. Of course I can reboot into DOS if need be. But at that point Windows was little more than a really nice shell so almost everything works great from the GUI.  And I have a KVM switch installed so it's easy to jump on from my main computer.

[SpiceWare1]

The legacy games I'm interested in I run on my Mac Pro via Boxer (dos games),
 


 Wineskin Winery (windows games),
 

as well as Parallels for some OS/2 games.

[goldenband1]

[QUOTE=ptdebate]Anyone out there who still boots up their PPC Mac for some Marathon or their DOS PC for some old-school DOOM?[/QUOTE]

I have an old PowerBook that I use for 1990s CDROM games on occasion. If I could bring my G3 back to life, I'd gladly use that too!

I also have a Mac SE that needs to be resurrected, as I've got a set of Dark Castle disks kicking around somewhere.

[PSX1]

I don't know, but I wish I had one.  There's certain classics that I'd love to play, but they either don't run at all on modern Windows operating systems or the programs that allow them to run just aren't as good as the real thing.  For example, I bought Grim Fandango a few years back.  There is a program to run it on modern computers, but it was such a hassle and I could never get it going.  I eventually gave up.  I wish I had a Windows 98 PC so I could play it with ease.  Fortunately, they're remaking it now, but that's not the case for most of those older classics.