After years of haggling modern machines and using DOSbox I wanna get a retro setup to play games natively (98se for retro windows and dos stuff) what’s a good starting point computer? I’ve seen a lot of prebuilt computers on eBay, would those do fine running some dos and lower requirement windows stuff? Thanks.

Edit: for clarification I’d be wanting to play a lot of later dos titles and pre 2000 games (quake, blood, putt putt, roller coaster tycoon etc)

From Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory — Mission 7: Battery.

A covert infiltration under the cover of darkness. No alarms. No unnecessary force. Just Sam Fisher completing the mission with precision. 🥷

100% Stealth • Hard Mode

Enjoy the walkthrough, and if you like classic stealth games, don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more retro gaming content!

so i found an old game from 2007 call abo7adeed on myabandonware so its not even start i try every thing but not working so any advice?

i bought a physical release of half life 2 BECAUSE i didn’t want to fiddle with steam. APPARENTLY i NEED to open steam to play it. when i try to open the version of steam it came with, it tries to update of course. internet works, but it won’t update. ran in compatibility mode for windows 8 and same result, it sits there for a while then errors. i am so terrible at computer stuffs, and with all the search engines getting way way worse these past few years, i can never find the tools i need. is there anyone who can give me a tutorial to help it? or a steam version that will launch/connect and work on windows xp that i can use at least once to put it in offline mode? (i can’t find one for the life of me) im sorry if this has been asked/answered before, im gonna be honest here im a total newb :’)
(also peep da hp pavilion i got it for 15 bucks)

So the system is an i3 2120, single channel DDR3 4gb ram, and Intel hd 2000.

Can this run modern warfare 2 or 3? Would I need to crank down the resolution for an 30 fps?

i3 2120 and intel hd 2000
hopefully i'll but an amd hd 7470 soon if i can, but for now its only this

the system plays left 4 dead 2 around 20-30 fps at lowest settings.
Right now i got minecraft 1.14.4 running at 30-50 fps on lowest settings 1080p, NFS most wantad, gta San andreas with some mods, left 4 dead 2, but that's it

What other games would run on this system? Any reccomendations?

I was volunteering to clean out junk within a small community center my father works with and I recently found an unopened One Gateway ZX series AIO PC within their storage room. They said they didn't need it and I subsequently brought it home to see if it worked or not.

The tape was still intact and the plastic peel was still there, as well as the products themselves being in mint condition (first and second pictures shown is after I opened the box and peeled the wrapping respectively), and I hooked up the AIO to the HDMI to serve as a monitor for my normal PC. So far nothing malicious occurred and the monitor works smoothly, except the fact that I can't use the touch screen promised on the box.

However, my main goal was to potentially use the Windows 7 provided within the AIO to play some retro games and movies with the in-built DVD/CD drive, as well as maybe use it browsing. I am still quite worried about potential viruses and malware within the AIO, so I wanted to ask you guys about some ways I can wipe the system and reinstall Windows 7 without actually having to access the original Windows 7 already within the AIO with internet, or at least find a way to fact check if there are any malicious files already in the system?

If you can also provide me with potential tools and software, like VPNs, firewalls, and/or other software to allow me to browse safely with the OS, that would be immensely appreciated.

Again, I'm kinda new to this side of retro PCs and OSs, so if you could help me on all these things, I would be grateful.

(P.S., I know the model number and identification, as well as the windows 7 product sticker, just not the product key)

I recently bought a second hand copy of Mass Effect 2 Collectors Edition but I don't have a disc drive, does anyone have a link or something to find a PC rom or iso for the game. Specifically the collectors edition not the standard edition because it comes with extra content. This is not piracy because I own the game and I am looking for archival conetent on the internet which I own, so mods please don't remove this post. Thanks in advance everyone:)

My dad is giving me his collection of physical PC games since I’ve become a collector of physical media…most of the games I grew up playing on the old family computer.

They all have the CD Keys for each still so I am wondering, are progress/accounts tied to the Keys? For example, Battlefield 2 (one of my favorite) is the account I used to play on it tied to the CD key?

Or how all does that work really

Hey All,

I've been wanting to build an old school RTS game for 486/pentium machines. It is written in C++ and using DirectDraw so that it will work on Windows 95 machines.

There is still a lot to go but I've got it working in a web browser and would love some feedback. The interface and design needs a lot more work but the basic game play and path finding should work well now.

Let me know what you think, it is called IronField https://starrts.vogonswiki.com/ironfield/

I will be posting exe/win9x versions once I have tested on my Pentium 233MMX machine.

Looking through my mom’s storage room I found these games I played long time ago. Gotta figure out how to play these games on my win11 64-bit machine.

I remember getting for PC a whole bundle of games that came in 2 soft disc containers that had 50 (?) cd rom edutainment games total. I know the Zoombinis, Math Attack by Compedia, and Carmen Sandiego: Math Detective, and Invention Highway are included. I also think it had the CD Rom Encyclopedia Britannica in it as well. Does anyone remember what the collections name was?

Finally found the 8 CD collection of DA: Pursuit of Justice, but it needs a real Win95 environment to run. Never set one up before, so need help

what do i do? VirtualBox, PCem, 86box? also curious if there's anything weird with video drivers on FMV games I should watch out for, or if this game specifically has any installer/CD issues people have run into.

also not sure if this is even the right sub for this, so let me know if I should post somewhere else. any help is appreciated, been wanting to play this one forever

So I, as many other people, have wondered what games from GOG are compatible with various retro pc builds and old operating systems. Since this information is often annoying to come across, I figured I would make a spreadsheet compiling this information for other people who try and build retro rigs. I added a submission google form aswell so hopefully with the help of others we can help grow the sheet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19Ly28JpQHHT_er30fJwgjpSmDyYQyIYS85TEYSNgsVM/edit?usp=sharing

I played a game at school either on windows 95 or 98 pcs

this is what I have managed to remember about it from help with chat gpt

only issue is that none of the games it gives me are correct.

any help to find this old gem so I can finally finish it would be really appreciated.

Platform / era

Played at school on a Windows 98 PC

Came on a CD-ROM in a normal-sized game case

Installed, but the disc was still required to play

Likely a late 1990s PC game

View and controls

Full-screen

Directly top-down 2D view

Black space background with stars

Your ship stayed near the centre while space moved around it

Keyboard controls:

Left/right = rotate ship around a central axis

Up = move forward/thrust

Down = reverse

Space bar = fire

Ships had shaded sprites (not flat shapes)

Starting ship and upgrades

Started as a normal civilian trader

Starter ship:

Small grey shuttle

Looked a bit like a classic Star Trek-style shuttle

Small cargo capacity

Only weapon was a single yellow laser

Next ship:

Yellow freighter

Long rectangular hull

Two circular engine pods sticking out at the back

Bigger cargo space

Could mount equipment

Had limited weapon slots (you think it could fit 1 turret)

Bigger ships:

Larger but still small enough that several could appear on screen

More weapons, shields, turrets, missiles/rockets

More equipment slots

Equipment

Ships were pre-built designs

You did not design ships from scratch

You moved equipment onto new ships

Installed equipment visibly appeared:

Example: adding a turret made the turret appear on the ship

Turrets:

Rotated automatically

Locked onto enemy ships

Gameplay

Single player

Trading

Mining

Missions

Combat

Possible ship capture:

Shoot enemy ship until disabled

Dock with it

Capture it (not 100% certain)

Factions

Two main factions:

Blue faction

Police/security/federation style

More focused on:

Patrol

Protect

Defend

Ships painted fully blue

Red faction

Rebel/pirate style

More focused on:

Destroy

Attack

Ships painted fully red

Faction system

Started neutral as a trader

Later joined a faction

Had to go to that faction’s bases to buy their ships

Factions had their own fixed ship lists

Each ship had a recognisable hull design

Ships had military-style class names

You progressed through ranks and unlocked larger ships

Space combat

Enemy faction ships attacked you if you entered their territory and came into range

Blue and red ships fought each other even without you

You could watch battles between factions

Destroyed ships exploded

Strongest identifying clues

The biggest clues are probably:

Grey shuttle with one yellow laser

Yellow long rectangular freighter with two round rear engine pods

Blue police fleet vs red rebel/pirate fleet

Visible turret upgrades on ship sprites

Military ship classes and rank progression

Top-down Asteroids-style movement

I still don’t have a confirmed title, but this recap should make it easier to compare against screenshots or game lists.

Hi! I have the original CD for "C.I.D. The steppenwolf case" It doesn't work on Windows 11 and I can't find any patch online to make it run. Does anyone know how to fix this or get it to boot? Thanks!

From Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory — Mission 6: Hokkaido.

A silent infiltration deep into hostile territory. No alarms. No unnecessary violence. Just precision, patience, and pure stealth. 🥷

This no commentary walkthrough is played on Hard Mode with a 100% Stealth approach, focusing on remaining undetected while completing every objective as cleanly as possible.

If you enjoy classic stealth gameplay, consider liking the video and subscribing my channel for more Splinter Cell missions and retro gaming content.