Pointers on Building a DOS PC

[Veetez]

G'day folks,

I'm new here so I'm not sure exactly which forum I should post this to, but since this is a non-windows topic, I thought I might slide in.

I'm also relatively new in the PC-building world and have recently taken a genuine interest in older PCs.

 

But anyway, here's my question:

 

Can any of you folks tell me how I can build a DOS gaming PC? I'm looking to run classics like Doom, Fallout and Daggerfall. This may be a much easier thing to look for than I realise but I'm just unsure of where the first place to look would be.

 

[WereCatf]

There isn't anything special to it, just buy really old components, a CPU like e.g. i486 or a 75MHz Pentium, and slap them together. The hardest part is finding a soundcard that still works and is Sound Blaster - or Adlib - compatible, since that's pretty much all those old games support.

[MysticalGnome]

Anything that is supported by DOS 6/7 really, so a 486DX or Pentium 1 system with a sound blaster compatible sound card.

64MB of system RAM should be more than enough to run anything in DOS, a floppy drive and an IDE CD-ROM drive should also be on the list.

With that you should have everything you need.

 

You could go the easier route and get a Pentium 2/3 with Windows 98 which is essentially DOS with a GUI.

[Wild Penquin]

I don't mean to sound disencouraging, but if you need to ask this, it is worth to ask are you willing to invest the time to study what components to buy and how to configure the computer.

 

Have you used and configured DOS? Are config.sys, autoexec.bat and configuring sound, mouse and CDROM drivers an easy task for you? If you are not familiar with those, expect some frustration hunting down the right drivers and getting things to work!

 

Which era of games do you have in mind? (EDIT: I'm braindead, you mentioned Doom and Daggerfall etc.; so it is quite later era computer you ahve in mind, with VGA/SVGA components; I'll leave this chapter here since it is still correct in principle). It is a whole different matter to run EGA (or even CGA on composite) games than VGA or later SVGA games (and I'm not even going to 3dfx here),. For less hassle, the components should be roughly from the same era. Best bet is to buy a whole used computer, instead of gathering components (unless you are familiar with the HW of the era and know what you are doing, but then you would not probably be asking this question).

 

Other than that, one certain way of running into problems is to buy a computer with an PCI sound card. Those can work (if the manufacturer provided DOS drivers), but usually use some kind of TSR and/or emulation for some features. Although PCM and MIDI might be acceptable (when they work with a particular game), FM sound can be abysmally bad. And I'm not talking about the niceties / preferences of real Yamaha chip vs. Creative CQM, but really really bad emulation (as these cards are lacking a FM chip altogether). So, do buy an ISA sound card (or a computer with one). There is one exception for PCI cound cards: some use SBLink, and also require a MB which also supports it. It should be more compatible with DOS games, but I have no experience with it (in my experience MBs with SB-Link support were quite rare, or more likely the feature appered only in a very short time period).

 

Another good pointer https://www.philscomputerlab.com/. Check out his youtube videos on this subject - there's quite some to watch and will give you some idea how involved the whole process is (including the difference on running games from different time periods).

[Fleetscut]

If all you need is to run old DOS games then look up dosbox

[Veetez]

21 hours ago, WereCatf said:

There isn't anything special to it, just buy really old components, a CPU like e.g. i486 or a 75MHz Pentium, and slap them together. The hardest part is finding a soundcard that still works and is Sound Blaster - or Adlib - compatible, since that's pretty much all those old games support.

12 hours ago, MysticalGnome said:

Anything that is supported by DOS 6/7 really, so a 486DX or Pentium 1 system with a sound blaster compatible sound card.

64MB of system RAM should be more than enough to run anything in DOS, a floppy drive and an IDE CD-ROM drive should also be on the list.

With that you should have everything you need.

 

You could go the easier route and get a Pentium 2/3 with Windows 98 which is essentially DOS with a GUI.

Thanks a lot fellas. Yeah, I guess my main issue was just knowing exactly what parts I needed. I'm not as familiar with older parts so I just wasn't sure what the most compatible configuration would be.

[Veetez]

10 hours ago, Wild Penquin said:

I don't mean to sound disencouraging, but if you need to ask this, it is worth to ask are you willing to invest the time to study what components to buy and how to configure the computer.

 

Have you used and configured DOS? Are config.sys, autoexec.bat and configuring sound, mouse and CDROM drivers an easy task for you? If you are not familiar with those, expect some frustration hunting down the right drivers and getting things to work!

 

Which era of games do you have in mind? (EDIT: I'm braindead, you mentioned Doom and Daggerfall etc.; so it is quite later era computer you ahve in mind, with VGA/SVGA components; I'll leave this chapter here since it is still correct in principle). It is a whole different matter to run EGA (or even CGA on composite) games than VGA or later SVGA games (and I'm not even going to 3dfx here),. For less hassle, the components should be roughly from the same era. Best bet is to buy a whole used computer, instead of gathering components (unless you are familiar with the HW of the era and know what you are doing, but then you would not probably be asking this question).

 

Other than that, one certain way of running into problems is to buy a computer with an PCI sound card. Those can work (if the manufacturer provided DOS drivers), but usually use some kind of TSR and/or emulation for some features. Although PCM and MIDI might be acceptable (when they work with a particular game), FM sound can be abysmally bad. And I'm not talking about the niceties / preferences of real Yamaha chip vs. Creative CQM, but really really bad emulation (as these cards are lacking a FM chip altogether). So, do buy an ISA sound card (or a computer with one). There is one exception for PCI cound cards: some use SBLink, and also require a MB which also supports it. It should be more compatible with DOS games, but I have no experience with it (in my experience MBs with SB-Link support were quite rare, or more likely the feature appered only in a very short time period).

 

Another good pointer https://www.philscomputerlab.com/. Check out his youtube videos on this subject - there's quite some to watch and will give you some idea how involved the whole process is (including the difference on running games from different time periods).

No, not at all. I am willing to put in the work and learn tbh, so thanks for being real extensive. I'll keep all of this in mind. I originally thought I'd just buy a whole used one and go from there and search for missing parts. Thanks a lot my man!