Question Looking to buy an old school lap top that runs windows 95 but doesn't have a small screen, am I out of luck?

[UsernameRequiredEmail]

Do modern laptops have a different screen ratio? Was it completely square back in 95 for desktop and laptop?

This is to play games from the 95 era without the extra hassle of things like dos box

In theory such old devices should be cheap? But will I be stuck with a tiny screen or a very weak processor ram etc? (id like to play old games like total annihilation on high settings)

 

[UsernameRequiredEmail]

Its a bit hard to play modern games on modern laptops anyway the lap top tends to get seriously hot, so making your lap top about old games doesn't seem like a bad idea.

But anyway your expert suggestions please...

 

[TerryLaze]

This is to play games from the 95 era without the extra hassle of things like dos box

A laptop from that time will be much more of a hassle than using dosbox.
Just having to install games on a super slow, for todays standards, laptop will be hard, then the hdd will be too small to make a full install so you will have to change cds every time you want to play a different game, and then you will be locked into a very small resolution.

Yes they used to be 4:3 square, old TV style, now they are 16:9 wide screen.
The cheap ones will be the weak ones that would only be capable of dos games and not windows 95-98 but also most likely would not have soundblaster support for dos, so no sound.

 

[UsernameRequiredEmail]

A laptop from that time will be much more of a hassle than using dosbox.
Just having to install games on a super slow, for todays standards, laptop will be hard, then the hdd will be too small to make a full install so you will have to change cds every time you want to play a different game, and then you will be locked into a very small resolution.

Yes they used to be 4:3 square, old TV style, now they are 16:9 wide screen.
The cheap ones will be the weak ones that would only be capable of dos games and not windows 95-98 but also most likely would not have soundblaster support for dos, so no sound.

Thanks bro! Updating. Complete. New knowledge acquired.

 

[faalin]

I run dosbox with dosshell on top of it. With dosshell you just point it to the games and it gives you an icon to click on, no more typing in commands in dosbox to run the game.

The other option would be to run a VM of windows 95. It makes it slightly harder if you want to add a joystick or something but it does work as well.

 

[Eximo]

PC EM is a decent tool as well. Can actually emulate the old hardware for stubborn dos games.

PCem

16:10 and 3:2 screens are closer to 4:3 if you want to try and locate something modern.

It was actually common in the "4:3" LCD era for screens to actually by 5:4, so that would have carried over to a lot of mid 2000s machines which is where I would start if I wanted dedicated DOS hardware.

 

[USAFRet]

Do modern laptops have a different screen ratio? Was it completely square back in 95 for desktop and laptop?

This is to play games from the 95 era without the extra hassle of things like dos box

In theory such old devices should be cheap? But will I be stuck with a tiny screen or a very weak processor ram etc? (id like to play old games like total annihilation on high settings)

In my stack of junk in the garage, I have a few laptops from mid to late 90s.

PII and PIII.
1 or 2GB hard drives.
Boot time measured in "Go get a cup of coffee"
Small screens


I don't think there is a force on the planet that could compel me to use those today.

 

[TerryLaze]

I don't think there is a force on the planet that could compel me to use those today.

I have one that I boot with a usb stick into freedos and it boots up pretty fast and plays dos games great, has soundblaster and everything.
The windows 95 install on the ancient 4Gb hdd takes a whiiiiiiile.
Still mostly use dosbox/steam.

Oh, and since that made me remember, soundblaster emulation is a thing, here is a pre made image to put on a usb/sd anything you can boot from that will try to run it, it only supports certain sound hardware.
https://github.com/crazii/SBEMU