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Classic PC Games

A

atari2600a

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I got really bored & then thought "Hey, I should download some abandonware! That's anti-boring!" So...What do you guys think are some good classic PC games I should download? (I already have Sam & Max (The CD version) & Beneath a Steel Sky (Also the CD version). I know they're not too old (mid '90's), but that's all I could think of! :p).
 
Sopwith, released around 1985 for the IBM PC. Mine has it on it, cool game, look it up, most certainly online somewhere.
 
Yes, I've looked up on this one! I've heard nothing but good stuff, but I've also heard that to play it, you have to set DOSbox's (MS-DOS emulator) settings to a minimum. Do you know much about DOSbox &/or if the processor settings have to be changed?
 
...Yeah, It's too fast. What processor was this game originally designed for? 8088, 8086, 80186, etc...

(By the way, to my knowledge, Sopwith wasn't commercially sold)
 
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A few 286 chip systems could use a 186 processor, I have seen them. But it is highly unlikely, like vlad said, one was used.
Most 186s were embedded like vlad said, but some used pad arrays and could be used in 286 systems using a pad socket.
This is a pad array 186 chip image I found on the internet.
 

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The processor is not so much an issue as it is the hardware archetecture. I'm sure sopwith could possibly run on a Tandy TRS-80 2000 or some other Semi-Compatibles if it was programmed "by the rules" well enough. The 80186 was also used in a few very early portables and laptops, as well as at least one IBM Compatible model by I think Zenith, or it might have been an Amstrad. All the 80186 is is an 8086 with a few extra instructions. There's also an 80188 as well, but I can't think of a compuer with one. Those two chips were more often used on expansion cards than on an actual motherboard as a CPU, and were not used post 1984 on any systems at all.

Sopwith runs too darn fast on just about anything long of a 6Mhz 80286. I ran it on a Compaq Deskpro 386/16 once, and it was still too fast. It runs best though on a 4.77 Mhz 8088 with CGA from my experience, which I'll have eventually (I just got the boards from Terry, just got to get the floppy booting more than Microsoft Adventure and an 8-bit IDE controller, and away we go).

As for other good old games to play.......these are some of my favs.....

Tank Wars
Leisure Suit Larry 3
Scorched Earth
Adventure
Lawn Mower Simulator
ML Yahtzee

I got some stuff I need to upload, some pretty cool old shareware and freeware, and BASIC games that I have not seen anywhere else, or that are very hard to find. Once I find a decent file host that allows direct linking, I'd love to post links on my site for them. I raided my sister's old collection of old software from the days when I was first getting into computers as a 10 year old reluctant gamer geek, when she had a 386 running DOS in college.
 
I have all the Leisure Suit Larries on a CD somewhere, including the classic text-based one! (just need to find it...) Wasn't that game programmed in SCUMM? I should see if those games work with SCUMMvM...Nope! Guess I'm stuck w/ DOSbox to play them! Great games though, haven't seen P&C games as funny as them!

But Lawn Mower Sim...Doesn't sound too exciting...What's is that about?
 
Actually, LSL 1 was originally programmed in AGI, then the next 2 were done in SCI 1.0 (EGA SCI, or Sierra Creative Interpreter), then the last lot were done in later versions of SCI with VGA support and point & click interfaces. It was the Lucasfilm/Lucas Arts games that were programmed in SCUMM, like Maniac Mansion (the first), Monkey Island 1 & 2, Indiana Jones, Sam & Max and so fourth.

As for Lawn-Mower sim, the game is an ASCII text based game where you control a little X that's supposed to be a Lawn Mower. Basically, the point is to mow the whole lawn without hitting rocks, gophers, dogs, and whatever else (all represented by ASCII characters).
 
Really, SCUMM wasn't Lucas-specific. Humongous Entertainment probobly made more SCUMM games than Lucas Arts/Films! :D Plus, Revolution did Beneath a Steel Sky in SCUMM, & Westwood Studios did The Legend of Kyrandia, Etc......
 
The 80186 was also - apart from being used in embedded systems and early laptops - the choice of CPU for various school computers like the Unisys ICON (Canada), Compis (Sweden) and Nimbus (UK). However those computers most likely are incompatible inbetween, and I doubt anyone would have written commerical game software for a dedicated school computer; somehow school + playing games don't equate.
 
Are you sure? I've played plenty of games on the Mac's in my elementary school! The Golden Trail, Word Muncher, Math Blaster, this one other game, & the Jigsaw puzzle game that comes w/ OS(Forget which version it was)...

(& stangely as to how I remember,) Even Erik said his elementary school's Commodore PET had some games on it. (Well, on tapes really...)
 
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Sure, educational games. I don't think Sopwith or most of the other early CGA games qualifies as such. It is fully possible to write your own games on any computer, but still I doubt a software house would try to sell non-educational software developed for a computer only found in schools. Macintosh and PET were not exclusive school computers, even if they were used as such in some places. I know even Commodore 64's were used in some schools, and there you clearly have a lot of commerical game software to play.
 
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