New Computer input sought

[Grandpa Troll]

I have a lot of respect for the tech gurus here at Apolyton, so here goes..............

I have a lot of games that I enjoyed on WIN98 and XP.

Is it even possible to get a functioning PC with XP nowadays?

Im not talking a high end either, just some minimal RAM, small HD and decent graphics card.

Any input as to downfalls/pitfalls to watch out for?

Thanks

Grandpa Troll

[Thorn]

Yeah most of them, there are few that don't have dosbox ports, and seem to have random series crashes that make them unfinnishable but for the most part yes.

[Thorn]

Linux using wine, or MacOSX can run some games that XP can't run and vice versa, however linux is still not user friendly for non techies, and requires a decent amount of knowledge to set it up properly.

[Sava]

win 7 64 can run everything you want to play

dosbox for dos games
compatibility mode fixes for older win versions
at worst, you might have to jerry rig some virtual machine to get a particularly troublesome game working

but chances are, people on other forums have already gotten those games working
solutions are easy to find

depending on your budget, you can get a very decent system
mid to mid-high range performance hardware is in a good sweet spot

tomshardware is a good site if you don't want to think or shop/research for yourself
go to the forums, post your budget, and obsessive people will pick your parts and get you a great system

[Spaced Cowboy]

It is jury rig:

Jerry-built, meaning to temporary or shoddy construction, dates to 1869. The OED2 hazards a guess that it may derive from the name of a builder who was notorious for poor construction. An 1884 source (unconfirmed) says that the phrase is in reference to a particular construction project on the Mersey River in Britain.

From Etymonline.com :

jerry-built
1869, Eng. dial. jerry "bad, defective," a pejorative use of the male nickname Jerry (a popular form of Jeremy), or from naut. slang jury "temporary," which came to be used of all sorts of makeshift and inferior objects (see jury (adj.)).

However, we should not confuse "jerry-built" with "jury rigged". While they sound similar, their meanings are DIFFERENT.

According to WordOrigins.org:

Jury rig, while similar sounding, has a slightly different meaning, emphasizing the temporary nature of the solution and can imply an ingenious solution done with materials at hand. Jerry-built, on the other hand, is often used for a permanent, but poorly built, construction and has no positive connotation.

The origin of jury rig is nautical and dates to 1788. It is from the nautical term jury mast. This term dates to at least 1616 and refers to a temporary mast erected to hold sail when the normal mast has been lost due to storm or battle. It is commonly thought that this sense of the word is a clipped form of injury mast, but no evidence of this longer term has been found. This form of jury is etymologically unrelated to the jury that sits in judgment at a trial.

[SlowwHand]

I know that you know what rigging was called here at one time. I don't know if his name was Jerry or not.

[Grandpa Troll]

Thanks for posting, got a used machine that works fine.

@ Sava, while this may be true, no one, and I have posted a dozen websites and been looking for over a year and a half, could get a few games working on my Alienware machine.

WIN 7 and 64Bit

The problem with one of my favorite games, The Ages of Empire II The Conquerors, would not play. The AOEII worked fine, but for some reason, The Conquerors expansion pack..has a "Direct Draw" conflict. From memory, the explanation was it is used perhaps in rendering some older obsolete graphics. I went to AMD, Radeon and other sites.

In have tried Virtual XP Machine, to no avail.

I had a few downloadable scripts that were supposedlyn work around, to no avail.

If you have a work around,I would be grateful, but have tried many so "sure fire fixes" I am currently dead in water.


Another issue, another oldie favorite is Call To Power.

The issue with Vista and WIN 7 is I would go into a lobby, start a MP game but have dynamic join on, as always, and select certain units to exclude.

When I would save, no problem, but reload would have an error "No Scenario Found" but works fine without Vista (XP or 98)

If you have a work around, would love to hear it.

Thanks

Grandpa Troll