In the context of this article, vintage refers to pre-Windows XP era.

Why build a vintage gaming PC? Because some of the best games ever made were for DOS, and the vast majority of them run smooth as silk. In addition, DOS games are cheap or free and readily available.

And for those that question why you should even bother with this, it’s because the best possible gaming experience can only be achieved on era-correct hardware. Virtual DOS gaming just isn’t the same.

Things to bear in mind when building a DOS PC

IDE Only

The hard drive you use will use an IDE ribbon connector. This is easy to figure out as it is keyed and can only be connected one way.

Even though IDE HDDs are still available (but not many), you may want to consider a USB IDE adapter. Also works with optical drives! Yes, this does mean you could use a USB stick as the primary HDD, however bear in mind it requires Windows 98 SE minimum to work because of proprietary drivers.

Is it worth it to buy a new HDD for a vintage gaming PC? Yes, because it will last a good long time.

IDE connector optical drives are also still available, both for ROM and burner. The price difference between the two is negligible, so you might as well go for the burner. You’ll probably never burn a disc with it, but hey, you never know..

Manual jumper setting for interrupt required

The sound card is most likely the only thing you’ll have to set the interrupt on manually. When I say manually I mean physically taking a pair of tweezers and setting the jumper by hand on the card.

On SoundBlaster 16 cards, the most common interrupt setting is 5, 7 or 9.

Knowledge of how to use an extended memory manager in DOS is mandatory

The program name EMM386.EXE strikes fear into even the most knowledgeable of computer nerd, because it’s not exactly easy to work with. You will be required to manually edit AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS from time to time, which is where the commands to EMM386 are given on boot of DOS.

The "cheating" way is to use MEMMAKER, a command line (as if there were any other way) utility bundled with MS-DOS 6 and above that attempts to choose what it thinks are the best settings for the extended memory manager. It has a so-so success rate at best.

Knowledge of MS-DOS itself is required

Whether you choose to use MS-DOS 6.22, MS-DOS 7 (I’ll explain that one in a moment) or FreeDOS, they all pretty much work the same way, meaning you have no Windows to fall back on. DOS is DOS. It’s all command line and only command line.

If you’ve never used DOS, you might want to read up on it first.

What’s the best PC for vintage gaming?

Just about anything from 1993 to 2000 will work fine, so you have 7 year’s worth of computers to choose from.

If you want an absolute no-brainer PC that will run all your DOS game stuff perfectly, look no further than a Pentium III or Pentium 4 powered Dell Dimension or Dimension XPS.

Dell Dimensions of this era are prize PCs because this was a time when Dell built some unbelievably fantastic boxes. What’s interesting is that the Optiplex line (mainly used in corporate offices) were junk, but the home-user Dimensions were far superior in every way. Easy to open, easy to work on and whisper-quiet operation once you add in a new PSU, HDD and optical drive.

If you use a P-III era Dimension, you’ll most likely have to deal with ISA slots. Almost all the P4s on the other hand have PCI (with a few stragglers having ISA and PCI), and that will make it much easier to find hardware for it.

RAM considerations

The most RAM you would probably ever use in DOS is 64MB. On some PCs (particularly older laptops), DOS won’t even recognize anything over 64MB. Even though that’s true, I’d still stock at least 256MB on board just in case you want to run Windows 98 or Windows XP via a FAT32 file system.

Sound card considerations

DOS gaming primarily relies on MIDI for gaming music. To get the best possible sound, you will need a sound card with a well-programmed MIDI set.

This is best shown by example. See video below. When you hear the Roland LAPC-I card, you’ll be amazed at the sound of how proper MIDI sound bank sounds. It is a highly sought-after sound card. There are even games specifically for it that sound best.

The LAPC-I is physically a ginormous sound card..

..and yes, it’s ISA, but totally worth it to get the sound it makes from MIDI.

Which DOS to use?

Given the choice between MS-DOS 6.22, MS-DOS 7 or FreeDOS, I’d go with MS-DOS 7.

The reason I would choose to go that route is because runs a little quicker and more reliably than 6. This is not to say 6 crashes, because it doesn’t, but you can throw the "heaviest" DOS game at 7 and it performs remarkably well with no stuttering/pausing.

(It is interesting that the best DOS is 7 and the best Windows is 7. Hmm..)

How do you get MS-DOS 7? There’s the easy way and the hard way.

Easy way:

Download it.

Hard way:

1. Install Windows 95 or Windows 98.
2. After installation, go to MS-DOS Mode.
3. CD \
4. MD C:\DOS
5. COPY C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\*.* C:\DOS
6. PATH=C:\DOS
7. DELTREE /Y C:\WINDOWS
8. Reboot. All you’re left with is DOS 7. You’ll very briefly see the Windows splash screen on each boot, but don’t worry, there’s no Windows left.

There may be a hidden Windows swap file in the root of C where you’ll have to do an ATTRIB -S -H -R C:\*.* to fish it out and delete it. Just look for the biggest file in the root of C after un-hiding it and that will be the swap file. If memory serves correctly it should have a .SWP file extension on it.

Also bear in mind you’ll "lose" your optical drive doing this, so you’ll have to install a DOS driver for that. If you need one, just download a boot floppy with generic optical drive driver from here.

Joysticks

Microsoft Sidewinder joystick

The model you’d be most happy with is the "Force Feedback Pro", as it does have a game port connector on it, and that’s required for a DOS gaming PC so it can plug into the sound card, which is ordinarily where the game port is located.

This is a game port (otherwise known as a DA-15 named for its 15 pins):

It’s not always yellow, by the way, but it is always 15 pins.

Alternative: Gravis Joystick

I owned one of these years ago. It is notably smaller compared to the Sidewinder but has wonderful control to it, and has a padded grip besides!

Personally I preferred this over the Sidewinder because it was easier to control while in the lap. This was a fantastic product. Very comfortable; very reliable.

The gray wheel on the bottom, if I remember correctly, is to control the stiffness of the stick. I believe it only had three settings, but hey, better than none.

Gravis Gamepad

Everybody had one of these things. It looks similar to a Super Nintendo controller, but feels different because of the way it’s shaped. This is not a required thing to have, but worth having when you want a bit of variety.

And yes, that is a hole in the D-pad. You could screw in a stick and have it act as a tiny joystick. A terrible joystick, yes, but still a joystick nonetheless.

Happy gaming!

Like what you read?

If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below: