Windows 3.1

madtownidiot · 03 Nov 2010

Darician said:

Oh, and in regard to the mechanic thing ... isn't it ironic that the man who can fix cars often himself rides in some old beat up junker that needs to be started up in a special way? This is probably not all mechanics but I've seen quite a few where this is the case.

It's usually a testament to the mechanics' (or an old hackers') skill to have some old beat up junker that has to be started in some special way.. nobody else would know how to keep it running.. combined with a lifetime of being underpaid for his work.

Night Hawk · 03 Nov 2010

Aww geee... I have the latest version of Windows on here running a Phenom II X4 and 8gb of ram but still have to have a look at some of the old memorable moments!

sygnus21 · 03 Nov 2010

Night Hawk said:

98 will have problems on any system with more the 512mb of memory installed.

Not a problem. I'll just stick with 512. It's not like the machine will be for primary use anyway, just something to play with. Plus it will be nice to throw some of those old games on it.

Night Hawk said:

For 98 the driver support dropped off about 6-7yrs. ago on just about everything. It's day had come! In fact the last time other then on a VM I saw 98 running was on an old Socket A case with a pair of 512s and a 128mb AGP card. Once the newer boards came out 98 was lost in the shuffle.

At least one thing is for sure. If you have an old system still running you may be fortunate enough to find device drivers for those classic oldies and be able to run them there.

Since I'm a pack rat I pretty much have all the hardware to put a 98 machine together - MB, CPU (P4 1.8gig), RAM, GPU (3dfx Voodoo 5500), SC (Creative AWE64 Gold), HD (80gig).

I've even got old copies of programs like Office, Adobe, and IE6. As for drivers, again, this is where being a pack rate comes in handy

As for why do this??? Because it can be done... and it's fun

madtownidiot · 03 Nov 2010

I still have a working copy of doom 95.. but nothing that can play it

Night Hawk · 03 Nov 2010

DOSBox and some DB supported alternate versions of the same games can be found and bought. There's a few sites that archive the old titles. Those tend to have made deals with the original manufacturers and take a small portion of any purchase to maintain the site.

The option for DOSBox itself isn't the same as seen for VMs on the other simply being a dos emulator not a full virtual machine to start with.

For a "blast from the past" you have to laugh when first hearing an old 8bit dos game coming through your new build's surround sound setup when you originally only had sound through a tiny speaker on the main board back in those days! The best part of two decades has already passed by at this point.

Trucidation · 04 Nov 2010

madtownidiot said:

Darician said:

Oh, and in regard to the mechanic thing ... isn't it ironic that the man who can fix cars often himself rides in some old beat up junker that needs to be started up in a special way? This is probably not all mechanics but I've seen quite a few where this is the case.

It's usually a testament to the mechanics' (or an old hackers') skill to have some old beat up junker that has to be started in some special way.. nobody else would know how to keep it running.. combined with a lifetime of being underpaid for his work.

Yeah, it seems to be a combination of skill + underpaid. I'm all thumbs when it comes to cars but even I notice that most mechanics I've come across drive fixer-uppers. But just because the exterior looks like crap doesn't mean the parts inside are too.

DeaconFrost · 04 Nov 2010

Darician said:

Oh, and in regard to the mechanic thing ... isn't it ironic that the man who can fix cars often himself rides in some old beat up junker that needs to be started up in a special way? This is probably not all mechanics but I've seen quite a few where this is the case.

Yes, definitely. My wife has a 2007 Subaru Legacy, and most of the shop guys all drive modded Imprezas or regular versions of their cars. I have a 2005 BMW 325xi, and if any of their shops guys have BMWs, they are usually older ones, but quite well maintained I would think. I guess it is somewhat like IT folks. My computer at home will put to shame the one I use everyday in the office, but that goes back to what I was saying to the OP...that part of the job of any IT staffer is to know, be familiar with, and endorse newer technologies. How could I listen to someone justify new system upgrades when they don't even keep their home system within a decade of being current?

Night Hawk · 04 Nov 2010

Just because someone decides to keep an old museum piece running doesn't mean they don't have the latest on their main system. I have a few old tankers here but just finished up with the second of two entirely new builds.

I'm interested in finding out some of the system specs on the old 3.1 system there in fact. That would tend to show who was making some of the better hardwares at the time.

madtownidiot · 04 Nov 2010

Last computer I had with 3.1 cost $2000 for 4 MB RAM, an i486 overdrive, and a 120 MB HDD

Night Hawk · 04 Nov 2010

You had that large a drive!

The old 386 only saw 50mb on that one!

At least I was able to swap out the 500mb for a 1.4gb on the Packard Bell 486 that came along afterwards but mainly saw 95 there. Later I set up a triple boot of 3.1, 95, and 98SE on one of the early custom cases having a 95 upgrade disk along with the full version 98SE and 6 floppies for 3.1 now having a problem with Floppy #1.