One good reason to keep old equipment around- PC games. Because you’ll never know when you want to pop a 1999 compilation CD of the Best Games of the 1990s in a computer… until XP decides that you can’t do that. Now I have to figure out how to get an 8 MB file onto a 1994 IBM 486 with no network card or CD drive.
Crap, I’m gonna have to learn Windows 3.11 again… if it’ll even boot. All this for a little XCOM.
Linoge
18 Jan 10 at 10:05 AM
XCOM is totally worth it.
Dixie
18 Jan 10 at 5:02 PM
Oh yes. Which is why I’m even bothering. I wanna smash some Ethereal heads so badly right now.
Sailorcurt
18 Jan 10 at 3:34 PM
http://www.dosbox.com/
I use the Mac version and it works great.
Dixie
18 Jan 10 at 5:01 PM
Problem is that the version of XCOM I have is the “Gold” Win95 version… it’s actually the DOS version with an executable “shell.” Said shell can’t be stripped off.
So, I now have to figure out how to get a Win 3.11 IBM 486 onto my network (and the network card in it died a decade ago and is in a display at a tech school.) Anyone now where I can buy an EISA or MCA LAN card?
Sailorcurt
18 Jan 10 at 10:36 PM
I’m confused. If it’s a win 95 program, why do you need to get a win 3.11 computer onto your network? Don’t you need to get a win 95 computer onto your network?
Doesn’t matter, you don’t need to explain anything to me. Maybe I’m just confused about something.
Do you have a computer with Windows XP in it? You could try Windows Virtual PC 2004. I’ve never used that one but it supposedly allows you to run Windows 95 apps.
As far as finding a NIC for a 486 computer…I assume it’s all ISA expansion slots: Good luck with that.
I’ll check the computer graveyard in my attic, but I don’t hold out much hope. I think I got rid of all of the really old stuff a few years back (I still had a 386, 16mhz motherboard that worked fine…other than being so outdated as to be useless).
Dixie
19 Jan 10 at 2:25 PM
It’s an exe, so Win 3.11 will run it. It’s *optimized* for Win95, but it’ll work on any Windows version except XP and 7… which is what I have. (I have 98, but the old 98 machine is now a Linux firewall.) You now, I’m really starting to feel the Irish blood now. I *could* spend five bucks and make this problem go away, but noooo, I’m a-gonna’ do it on the cheap! (chuckle)