What's your preferred operating system/s for retro gaming?
Emulation handhelds run Linux
>>12381164I'm a System 7.6.1 kind of guy, but it's hard to argue with the comfiness of Win 3.x
Morph OS
>>12381337unbelievably based, are the iBook G4s reliable? I'd like something that's not a huge desktop to run classic Mac OS software on, even if it's in Classic mode.
>>12381164Fond memories of 3.1.I’ve been using windows 7 for retro for as long as it’s been around. I’ve found that it allows for a huge variety of eras even if some are more jank then others. Running off an i5, I’ve played everything from build engine and C&C (before the rerelease) to even getting the non retro Baldur’s Gate 3 to run briefly. It’s pretty cheap to buy a classic desktop filled w games from different time periods or I could get a powerhouse and partition parts to simulate different windows for games and DOS. Getting some money soon so I could go either way. Tl;dr For gaming, Windows 7 is my preferred flavor for retro gaming.
>>12381416incredibly reliable for 20+ year old hardware. the person i got this one from luckily kept it in amazing condition and the battery actually holds a charge better than my thinkpad from 10 years ago. I will say it's worth trying classic mac emulation under MorphOS as well as Classic mode, as MorphOS generally performs better, boots way faster than OS X and has software that's still actively maintained. it runs BasiliskII which emulates a full 7.x-8.1 environment.
>>12381164Linux, kernel 2.4 running on an iPod
>>12381164Nintendo.
>>12381451Ah interesting thanks anon. I never gave MorphOS a try when I had PPC hardware to do it.
>>12381337wasn't expecting thisThanks anon
>>12381164KERNAL with Commodore BASIC V2
>>12381164Windows 98 SE is pretty nice because it covers such a wide range from DOS games all the way to DirectX 9 games. You can run DOS games within Windows, which is a good bit easier and even allows you to use newer gamepads, and for the games that have issues with that, you can fall back to native DOS mode. And of course it has great compatibility with older Windows 3.x games as well.Of course, it's not perfect - A lot of DOS games are speed-sensitive, and the hardware you're likely to install W98 on will be too fast for those. As mentioned, some (many, even) DOS games don't work well when run within Windows, necessitating real DOS mode, and that mode is a bit difficult to set up properly if you don't know what you're doing. As for newer Windows games, while you can install DirectX 9 and it has official compatibility with GPUs all the way up to the Nvidia 6000 series (although with hacked drivers you can run the 7000 series as well), those games are probably better off running on a Windows XP machine, so the ideal cutoff point for gaming under Windows 98 is probably DirectX 7. And of course, Windows 98 SE has some stability issues that you won't have with Windows XP and later, so there's that, too.
Running 30 year old games shouldn't be a factor in choosing your OS. Any modern, widely supported OS has access to enough emulators to run any old game you want. You choose your OS based on how comfortable it is to use, what level of privacy/security you want out of it, and whether or not it can run any modern software you can't go without.Unless you're talking about running decades old PC games natively, in which case you should probably have a dedicated machine to actually run Windows 95 or whatever.
>>12381164Debian
>>12381725You didn't finish the game unless you used its native OS
>>12381337How well does mGBA run on that G4? My old Thinkpad struggled with it, and that had a third gen i5.
>>12382309Probably about 75% speed on average during most gameplay. That game for example runs at full speed at the title screen and in menus, and even some less intensive moments of normal gameplay, then will dip very suddenly when more sprites and effects come into view. GB/C on the other hand runs flawlessly.
>>12381164Fedora 43 KDE
>>12381164Without emulation involved, I'd personally have to pick Windows 98 SE. It's definitely hardware dependent, but has a huge library for most setups.>every 9x game>most later DOS games>early emulators (not great, but some games are totally playable)>huge library of software available for free on sites like internet archive>USB mass storage works natively>Will install to removable media (CF, SD, etc)The list goes on. It's a solid OS for retro gaming/computing uses.
>>12381164Artix Linux
>>12382549If you don't mind losing native DOS compatibility and some older Win16 support, Windows XP is not far off compatibility-wise compared to Windows 98 while being much more stable and having some nice usability upgrades. Of course, you need a much beefier PC to handle it, but nowadays that's actually much easier and cheaper to obtain than older, slower hardware.
Sequoia runs the important emulators flawlessly including PCSX2
>>12381164I have 2;Windows 98se runs basically everything I grew up with on PC through the early 2000s with maximal compatibility. It's a 15" square screen dell laptop with a pentium m, I can lock it into a pstate and under volt it so using it it's very quiet runs cool. If I need all 1.6 screaming ghz the cpu doesn't even reach 50c. Ac97 doesn't work under dos but I don't use dosWindows 7 32 bit. Sounds odd but through 2014 most games aren't even 64 bit. The problem most games have is large address awareness so this solves that pretty well, I haven't had a game I was interested in playing not work or not have a workaround for 7, and the newer games run fine on just 4gb ram. It's a dell 7710 with an i5 and the ultrasharp display. Nice colours. I would get a xp model but the m6x00 are ludicrously expensive and the graphics cards are significantly weaker, this does fine even with just 4 threads, everything runs well in 1080p. This can also do emulation but nothing is stopping me from just doing that on my primary system with an oled. I prefer that for tougher things like playing Xenia or other new games.
Windows 98 SE & 7. Is all you need. ME, XP & Vista = faggotry.
>>12381164XP-32>runs 16bit 3.x apps natively without coersion>runs most 9x apps better and with less issues than Win9x>obviously best for 2000s games and was their intended platform>you can run software just modern enough for it to be self-contained, including patched Firefox/Chrome builds that'll go to modern sitesinb4 no DOS>just use DOSbox lol native DOS always fucking sucked, you know it to be true ... booting with different autoexec/configs for various games + speed concerns fuck all that7-32's a decent choice too. Heavier, though and takes some compat hits here and there.
>>12382610You're of course, referring to Windows XP with SP2, yes?
>>12382685Naturally. SP2 is when XP basically became the GOAT, rivaled only by W7.
>>12382549>USB mass storage works nativelywhat? no it doesn't. you're thinking of Windows Me.
>>12382819You're right. Muh bad.
>>12382870>>12382819But USB support isn't too hard to install on 98? isn't it just a driver install?
whatever version of windows 11 that came out in 2020, because I sure as shit haven't updated it yet
>>12384552Yes it is. I have a driver install disc for 98 with it, sound blaster drivers and video card drivers on it.
>>12381164I run Debian and literally everything works on it new and old save for things using kernel level anti-cheat (Oh no! Anyway.) The real answer is whatever works for you and whatever you will use to play games. For me (again) that's Debian, if for you it's Windows 11 on your GTX4090 then so be it (I mean I'd still feel bad for you, but so be it)
Win 7 of course
>>12384809I never thought of Windows 7 as a good retro game OS. Mind you I have a lot of retro games running on a Windows 7 system, but they're mostly GoG versions.
>>1238116498SE is the sweet spot. Most games released between 1981 and 2004 will work fine on it, it supports more convenient features and advanced hardware without workarounds like USB storage, up to 512MB of RAM, and 100GB+ hard drives, and you're not giving up native DOS compatibility in the process like you would be with Me or XP.
>>12382610XP is nice but you become very dependant on older, buggier builds of DOSbox for earlier games (most of which will just work but it's still not ideal), and some early Win9X games are just shit out of luck.
>>12384892>>1238490898SE for pre-y2k, XP for post y2k
>>12381164
>>12385137More like OpenBASED
>>12381164>NT 3.1>for retro gamesvery performative thread
>>12385282I assume OP searched "windows 3.1" on google images and picked one at random without noticing the NT.
>>12385294I assume OP is retarded
>>12385282>>12385294>>12385307No, I meant Windows NT 3.1 for retro networked games
>>12385538We used WfW 3.1 or Win9x for that
>>12381210they run android
>>12385551Isn't WfW 3.11?
>>12385693There was a 3.1 version as well.
>>12385137Explain yourself.
Super Zaxxon/Angströn Linux on OpenPandora, of course. What else would I be using?
I actually prefer to use modern operating systems in the majority of cases because with the aid of patches and tools like dgvoodoo2 and dosbox nearly any old game can be made to run but with the advantage of effectively unlimited processing power which is handy for overcoming many performance woes if one was to run supported hardware on legacy operating systems. This is most impactful on the cpu side given how fast the last few generations of cpu can be (especially when only a single thread is being pushed). Plus the usual advantages of generally being able to run at higher resolutions and/or use higher levels of anti-aliasing and the like.I've always enjoyed PC gaming from the angle of pushing both software and hardware to the limit so i've never felt the need to stick to older components for gaming, though I do admit dos era sound is the fucking wild west.Pic related in a way - I played it back in the day on a ME machine that would run it at something like 800x600 and would only get 15fps on a good day - an experience I would rather not return to.
>>12386264>Midtown Madness 2Patrician taste
>>12381164Windows 95 for nostalgia
As a console baby, idk what it is about PC gaming but it just hits different. Always has throughout the eras. Anyone else get that feeling? No matter how unique a console is I just get a totally different feeling playing the pc versions or a pc game. Max Payne, Far Cry, C&C… no matter how different the engines or gameplay, PC just feels different and I love it.
>>12388336Yeah I agree, didn't even get my first computer until my teen years, old computer gaming feels surreal.
>>12385618shitty ones do. my rgb30 has arkOS installed, which is a custom linux disto.
>>12381164Dunno, what OS did Apple II use?
>>12386240Symbian
>>12389065That's pretty cool but even in 2025, that's just not obscure enough for me. I only play my retro games on Rockbox.
Windows 7 is quite good in regards of conpability across eras, Windows 8.1 is also pretty good in that regard but requires a lil extra tinkering. And there is Windows XP of course
