I just paid a guy on eBay five hundred bucks to custom restore / build me a baller gaming computer from the early 2000s; the description made it clear he was an enthusiast who put some love and work into these things and they weren’t just old stock sitting around.

Plus I found a Dell M782 17" CRT on eBay a couple of weeks ago, so I’m ALL SET.

I’ve already got a dream 4090 system for modern shit, but there’s nothing quite like cozying up to janky ass Windows 98 and firing up some Hexen, or Duke Nukem 3D, or the real forbidden fruit to my poor younger self - CD ROM adventure games. I can’t wait to replay the King’s Quest ones especially and the *real* Curse of Monkey Island - not whatever the hell that recent remake was.

Anyone else rocking a retro battle station? You can even find new CRT monitors sometimes from suppliers, which is a limited time offer because once they’re gone - they’re gone. I’m even considering buying one or two and just keeping them new and pristine for decades to come when CRTs will be even more impossible to find.

>>11841834 (OP)
Yo, I would NOT mind finding this guy and in the future when I have more disposable income doing the same. Congrats OP, I’ve seen a lot of posts recently trying to get this exact thing done and endless arguments over what to do not to do. So, unless it was a schizophrenic talking to himself other anons should be interested. Any chance u can hook a nukka up w his info? I get it’s 4chinz but I definitely would do what u did for 500 easy just to have someone else set it all up so it all just werks? And no I don’t want to suffer through individually figuring it out myself or have any interest in “doing the work” since I lived it as a kid and it was never fun. It did teach me a lot about windows OS because I had no console at the time but I’m good w never going through it again.

>>11841834 (OP)
Also what do u mean by suppliers? I’m dumb, but if I have names of actual business that do this and are trying to get rid of crts I’d snatch up one… maybe 2 as a back up if I have said “suppliers” in my area. I’m just north of Atlanta and the south in general seems to be way behind the curve which is a good thing. I still find shit like Mario sunshine for a dollar or another specific example for 120 someone gave me 3 ps3 lights a ps2 fat and a ps2 slim all working w a few controllers. So, the south is probably 10-15 years behind in tech and realizations then most of the rest of the states.

>>11841834 (OP)
Aight one last question for now: does it run ut99? Sorry im excited for you but also super interested in this service.

>>11841840
Yeah it is a pain in the ass to find someone who actually takes love and care into building these, and they weren’t fucking easy to build back in the day either. There were more gotchas, and now if you have an incompatibility or something else goes wrong it’s even more of a nightmare to troubleshoot since it’s decades old parts, with some new ones mixed in. Anyway, hoping not to get nuked for sounding like a shill but the phrase “ATX Legacy” might get you somewhere.

Thanks for chiming in; I feel exactly like you do. Too many years in the early 2000s of reaaalllly snobby PC Gaming nerds who treated you like shit if you didn’t “ZOMG BUILD IT YERSELF”.

>>11841845
Ahhh it was a Canadian company actually I found and I was shocked they were selling new. You can still find some new stock on eBay of crt monitors, but as you said - shipping is a bitch for these things . What I did was put in my zip code into eBay and did “local pickup only” and got lucky as fuck that someone was selling a new crt in my city in the box and everything. He said it was old stock from his job and his boss told him to throw it in the dumpster and he sold it instead.

So I’d try that. Since you’re in the Deep South, Facebook marketplace might also be a great option.

I’m excited for you too man; I think this is the next frontier for retro gaming nostalgia but people haven’t realized it yet. Back to a simpler time when the PC was a thing you *went* to and sat down at.

Part of me wonders if there’s some program that would simulate an archive.org dump for a taste of turn of the millennium internet! (You obviously CANNOT take these boxes online; I shudder to think what modern internet would do to a windows 98 machine)

>>11841848
I would think this one runs UT99, but that would be a function of graphics cards versus hardware. If it was a beefy PC from 2003 or so, running windows XP or earlier, I would think so? But I don’t know that game well. Outside my ability to predict but I want that experience for you!

>>11841862
Thanks for the responses! That’s some good advice I’ll look into it. I may come into some money soon and honestly would like to get 4-5 of these and set up a small lan room so when friends come over it’s just sit down boot it up and easily can connect some ut99 specifically but other games from that era. Maybe some counter-strike that sort of thing and maybe shit I can’t even remember right now. If u get a chance can u install UT99 and see if it runs smoothly? It’s freeware now I believe epic recently just let it out for free probably after all the crying from the delisting?

>>11841857
Funnily enough, Windows 98 is old enough that modern malware doesn't even know what to do with it, and neither do script kiddies scanning ports for something to hack into.
>>11841848
>>11841862
That GPU is pretty weak even for the build it's been inserted into. My VERY modest 2002 P4 1.6 GHz PC had a 64MB Radeon 7000, which could run Medal of Honor more or less OK, but hardly ideal. In 2004, I built a 2.8 GHz Northwood P4, paired with a Radeon 9600 Pro. That's more along the lines of what such a CPU should be paired with.

>>11841894
I appreciate the wizard take, it’s clear you know what you’re talking about. but eh, let’s be real - if it’s any game beyond 2003, I’m just gonna run it on a real PC. This thing doesn’t need to be actually beefy, just be capable of running basic 3D games like Hexen 2, Tomb Raider, etc, and CD ROM adventure games like Myst 3 and shit.

I’m mostly hyped about mid and late 90s games, so that card will be plenty when it comes down to it. One game I’m looking forward to is this creepy weird title I had as a kid and never quite beat. Maybe you could play it on modern steam but I just don’t think it’d be the same without the crt aesthetic.

I also am trying to track down Sanitarium - that’s another one that I never got to play more than the demo back in the day and it looked so cool!

>>11841894
Im reminded of the Kit video where he acts the fool and lets the Indian scammers into his machine, but it’s a windows 3.1 machine and they don’t know what to do with it lol

>I’m mostly hyped about mid and late 90s games
Oh, well, in that case, yeah, you'll be fine, though I'm not so sure about UT99 running as well as it could, but I suppose it should run OK enough, so long as you don't expect high framerates at high resolution at max settings+AA.

>>11841862
I think I ran ut99 on a gateway from 2000 but yeah, I’d have to upgrade the graphics card for me personally because I’d have to have ut99. So if u get a chance def run it. Let me see if I can find a link for free download.

What’s the weird little game that u mentioned ur hoping to run on it? Don’t think I saw the name of the game in ur post

>>11841948
Yea unreal tournament is all freeware now

>>11841948
Never mind it’s in your pic lol. I’ll have to look that one up I’ve never heard of it

>>11841903
Holy shit this game looks amazing. This is why I love /vr im always finding new stuff I missed as a kid.
https://youtu.be/PD6y-uR5ldw?si=LS8Vxg1AQ1FnMIh5

Was hoping for some more engagement since this topic has been coming up a lot recently. I’m not OP but bump! I won’t bump again if no one is interested in the topic

Recently made a PC for win98 and early XP gaming.
Basically want to run games that support both directx 7 and 8.

My specs:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 2.93 GHz Dual-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI MS-7592 G41M4
Memory: Crucial CT25664AA800 2 GB (1 x 2 GB) DDR2-800 CL6 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Graphics Card: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT 256MB GDDR3

Case: Beige Pentium-Era ATX Case

PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply

Operating Systems:
Microsoft Windows 98 32-bit
Microsoft Windows XP 32-bit

Keyboard: Microsoft Internet Keyboard
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Classic


Waddayathink?

>>11843731
How does it run on both OSes? Have you run into any games that ran better on one OS than the other?

>>11843731
Yea I was going to ask the same thing as anon above, do you choose which windows to load up when you boot up the computer or can u just log in and out at a screen once it’s booted up to switch? I feel like that’s a pretty good solution for pc gaming being able to switch on the fly.

>>11843731
That graphics card will take u to 2007 for gaming. My other question I guess is, when in win 98 mode do you have any issues w compatibility w that card for older games?

>>11843758
NTA but I know one potential issue he'll have with that card is that Nvidia dropped support for 8-bit paletted textures and table fog from the 6 series up, so any games that use those features will have some missing effects. Nothing really game breaking, but it's not nothing either.

>>11843747
>>11843753
I haven’t started playing anything yet as I’m waiting on my sound card. Only thing I ran was 3dmark99, 2000, and 3dmark03 benchmark software, which had no issues whatsoever. Regarding the operating systems, I installed windows 98 first (on a FAT32 partition) then used the XP setup to create an NTFS partition using its built-in partition manager and have that installed. XP creates a boot menu which allows you to switch between systems. I also have a samba share connected to my main PC which allows you to send files between conputers such as ROMs, wallpapers, etc.

>>11841834 (OP)
I hope this thread is as successful as your Nintendo Power thread was a week or two ago.

>>11843773
Don’t know how possible this is but couldn’t u throw another graphics card in there so that when ur using the xp partition it uses the more modern card and when ur using win 98 it switches gpus? I honestly don’t know if that’s a thing but seems like it could solve any issues w switching.

>>11843731
You can also install Windows 7 to broaden game compatibility.

>>11843791
Let us know when u get the sound card and boot that shit up. Probably going to feel real good!

If you guys search specific model numbers on ebay you can find new old stock CRTs. I'm probably ruining this by posting it though.

>>11841834 (OP)
Did he at least recap the parts?

>>11843881
Yes you can, he could also throw a voodoo 2 in there which would be even easier. Games that need 9x and have issues on XP will run fine on one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDaxE2I_o8U

looks like the scalpers have run out of AGP cards to jack up the prices on and are coming for PCIe now.

>period computers
Enjoy your exploding capacitors

>I just paid a guy on eBay five hundred bucks to custom restore / build me a baller gaming computer from the early 2000s
And you already have a modern PC that will play all of that shit? It’s your money to waste. This is mental illness.

>>11844569
No constantly berating people for spending any money on retro on a retro forum for old video games is mental illness. Do you have to shit up every thread where someone spent any kind of money?

>>11844569
>doesn't have $500 to blow on dumb shit
europoor spotted

>>11844989
Yup and this fag is shitting up another thread w schizo claims. I’m just going to start all my posts w I spent x on y just to see this dude erupt every. Single. Time.

>>11844557
I’ve never encountered this w any of my retro computers. And I’ve never taken care of them either, years without cleaning before just upgrading to play shit my computer could no longer handle. Now days I’d clean it once a month and take much better care. Not saying it doesn’t happen but I’ve never run into this just like disc rot and I live in the humidity capital of America

>>11841834 (OP)
Honestly after having a Windows 98 / XP computer that a friend of mine helped me build, I would honestly say building an XP era computer is easy and worth it since the process is so fucking simple.

98 on the other hand... Do the install once in PCEm. Then try it for real. If you aren't discouraged after potential blue screens or hunting for drivers or using crazy Nvidia workarounds by editing config files directly like I had to for a Nvidia Quadro FX card, then go for it.

I would recommend trying to go on the 86Box discord and fucking around with the prepared configs from the configs channel.

It'll run just fine in most cases of your computer is strong enough for emulating a Pentium MMX CPU.

That's my suggestion though. It is pretty cool to have though so I don't wanna spoil the fun with real hardware. I just know personally if mine ever breaks in terms of the hard drive, I have a backup .img file of that drive so I'm good. Past that, I ain't fucking with that again. I'd rather just build a super computer that can emulate anything.

>>11841840
I refuse to believe a human being wrote this post.