Re: OT: Old Computer Games (Was: Weekly Vocab #1.1.3 (repost #1))

On Thu, Sep 14, 2006 at 05:15:34AM +0200, Henrik Theiling wrote:

> But for DOS, I fear the OS and the computer hardware were already too
> complex to be emulated well enough for all those picky game engines
> that failed to run even on native DOS in most cases.  I doubt that
> many DOS or Windows games will survive the DOS/Windows time.  To save
> them, the game engines themselves will probably have to be ported,
> which is quite some work.  For some block busters, yes (e.g. ScummVM
> for Day of the Tentacle etc).  But Goblins III for example, can I play
> that?  Not the most widespread game and thus not too many enthusiasts.
> It was one of my favorites.
Actually, a lot of the stuff works just fine under DOSBox[1]. Getting
something like a Commodore 64 to run quickly under emulation's a lot harder
than getting decent emulation of an old 386 box. Although I haven't been able
to get all my old DOS games working perfectly, usually the problem comes down
to sound card emulation.

[1] http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

> I am very happy that at least Descent and Doom were ported to Linux by
> enthusiasts.
>
> Hopefully you're right and I am just too pessimistic and I will be
> able to play Goblins III under OSUnknown when I am 75. :-)
It appears to work just fine under DOSBox:

    http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/comp_list.php?showID=489&letter=G

> PS: In the unlikely case that I will still have the floppy(!) disks
>     the game was on, will I be able to find a computer that has a
>     floppy drive?  Will the floppies still work?  They never worked.
>     Did I back them up early enough?
You could always check an abandonware site. Their legality it a bit dubious,
but if you have the original discs, I see no problem.

K.

--
Keith Gaughan -- kmgaughan@eircom.net -- http://talideon.com/
Many people would sooner die than think. In fact, they do.
    -- Bertrand Russell

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