PC Classic Console With '80s, '90s Games Starts Crowdfunding Soon

[Guest]

Unit-e developed "an adorable DOS game console for your TV" in the form of the PC Classic, which is expected to ship with 30 games from the '80s and '90s.

PC Classic Console With '80s, '90s Games Starts Crowdfunding Soon : Read more

 

[Dyseman]

Will it play Wing Commander and hook up my analog joystick and hook my EGA monitor to it for that 64 Color goodness? I mean, I'd hate to play on a CGA monitor. Does it achieve the 640K DOS barrier?

Hopefully it will have Windows 3.11 as a GUI or do we have to CD to the directory to play the game?

This is cheaper than my Tandy 1000HX though...

 

[stdragon]

Where's the turbo button?

 

[rantoc]

Wing Commander, Xcom Ufo Defence, Xwing.. and god darn you name it... if its there... sign me up!

 

[spentshells]

Hyperspin

 

[Giroro]

"PC" can mean a lot of things when talking about old hardware, and a lot of those games haven't exactly aged well. The nostalgia factor has a far wider spread than most consoles and 30 games isn't a nearly wide enough net. Will this be x86? Power PC? Will the games run on PC hardware or is it a some kind of skinned DOS box running on ARM? Not to mention how many classic games are still easily available and have modern re-releases. I feel like it would have been a little smarter to target a specific popular classic branded computer like a commodore 64 or something because if you can get deals to license the games then surely you can license the nostalgic hardware.

Otherwise what kind of classic games are we talking about? Will it play Cosmo? God of Thunder? Earth Siege 2? Army Men II? Warcraft 2? (I guess I'm pretty nostalgic about sequels) Include a 100-in-1 "galaxy of games" shareware disc? Ahem ... can it play doom ... 2

 

[Peter Martin]

Lol. No. I couldn’t wait to leave those days behind

 

[vern72]

I bet Flight Simulator would run really slow on that!

 

[alextheblue]

I love DOSBox but a machine that runs DOSBox isn't anything special. I should have known this was just a cashgrab.

I was hoping this was running some cheap x86 chip with a custom BIOS (able to neuter clocks / limit RAM) that would give us an authentic DOS experience without DOSBox. PS/2 and serial ports might be nice too. You could include an optional DOS-based UI too, I suppose. It's not really necessary for anyone that actually would be interested.

Hmm, maybe Analogue will produce an adjustable-configuration low-level-accurate FPGA-powered PC system in the same vein as the Mega Sg. I can dream.

 

[mihen]

I hope it requires you to use DOS commands.

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

I'm assuming it will be a mini x86 machine with some kind of DosBox skinned launcher. If so I'm not sure I'd be interested. I'd rather go and rescue a 486 and build it out to be a retro gaming machine. I do miss the old days of command line interface, clunky GUIs, and Windows 3.1, but not enough to spend money on a less than authentic experience. Mini keyboard? Nope. Model M or bust.

All that said it is a neat idea and I hope it gets more people interested in older computer games. I desperately want to see more people rediscover the entire PC retro gaming scene. Sure, everyone remembers the Id titles, but Commander Keen, Cosmo, Crystal Caves, Blake Stone, Biohazard, Duke Nukem (the platformers, not the 3d stuff), Raptor, and so many others were great games I'd love to see more people play. I'd even like to see people get into the roots of current games, like Warcraft and Tomb Raider... and I just talked myself into looking for an old project PC.

 

[cknobman]

Will it play Wing Commander and hook up my analog joystick and hook my EGA monitor to it for that 64 Color goodness? I mean, I'd hate to play on a CGA monitor. Does it achieve the 640K DOS barrier?

Hopefully it will have Windows 3.11 as a GUI or do we have to CD to the directory to play the game?

This is cheaper than my Tandy 1000HX though...

Wing Commander, Xcom Ufo Defence, Xwing.. and god darn you name it... if its there... sign me up!

Wing Commander one or my favorite games ever!!!!!

 

[WoWFishmonger]

PSA lots of classic DOS games are playable for free on the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/
Simcity is one of my favorites. https://archive.org/details/msdos_SimCity_1989