People these days don't know the struggle of setting jumpers, manually setting IRQ and DMA channels and making boot disks to get just one game to run.

@jimmyfallon1890

Ай бұрын

Failed floppy disks during installation, cd-rom drive not fast enough...man the list go's on.

@RealDocBobo77

Ай бұрын

Not to forget XMS and EMS RAM profiles^^

@noelht1

Ай бұрын

Colliding IRQs. Nightmare of nightmares

@MannyCalavera87

Ай бұрын

I still remember the joy the first time I didn't nave to manually config evrtything...

@flatmoontheory

Ай бұрын

I remember the heartbreak when our 2x CDROM was too slow to run the game Silent Steel (needed at least a 4X).

Younger people cant imagine, we spent more time getting a game to run than play it in those DOS days. Getting those pesky last 4000 bytes of lower ram together with needed drivers was exhausting. Many ended up with boot scripts for desired combinations of EMS, XMS and selected drivers.

@John.Doe.2025

2 ай бұрын

Younger people can't ever imagine how to make cloth by loom. They just buy it in shops, and it made automatically on factories.

@user-tz2ch1im3r

2 ай бұрын

yeah sometimes it took you 30 min to install with 6 disks like 15MB now you could install 15 MB of files in 1 second

@Eddy0042

2 ай бұрын

And all that effort is how we learned about computers. But you tell the young ones that today, and, they won't believe you!

@Ommadon-Red

2 ай бұрын

Yep. Editing my autoexec.bat and config.sys files for almost every game... Imagine that nowadays. I also had lots of fun with IRQ conflicts too... the things I learnt back in the day. Despite the never-ending pain.. I kinda miss it in a disturbing sorta way.

@t.a.169

2 ай бұрын

Yes. Writing and re-writing batch files for the BIOS . Man ... That was fun !

Those sweet 486 days are still fresh in my mind.I think i was like 12 (in 93) when my dad bought an Ambra Sprinta 486 and the Soundblaster, and even a modem. It was so badass back then! Many cool games (lots of demos too), fun programs, and the dawn of websites, they looked so creative back then. Great memories!

@vishy

Ай бұрын

Peasant, I have a Pentium

@Vestu

15 күн бұрын

@@vishy not in 1993

I remember, my first PC I bought in 1993 (which was a 486/DX33), I ordered not only a Soundblaster card, but also a single-speed CD-Rom (and I payed a fortune for this). Took me so much effort to get the mouse, the Soundblaster and also the CD-Rom running in parallel, but after a lot of attempts, studying the DOS 5.0 "handbook" (in fact it was more like a tome), I did it and I was soooo happy. For other games like Ultima VII, I created boot scripts in order to choose the best combination right from the beginning. Thank you for uploading this video 😊

@jordanw8382

5 күн бұрын

We're from the same era. My system was the same as yours. The single speed CD-ROM had a tray. It came with an entire encyclopedia on one CD, which was really something. And I could finally play Police Quest 3 and King's Quest 5 which my old 8088 with 640k RAM wasn't able to handle.

Oh CRAP you are totally bringing me back. After my 486DX2 from Packard Bell which was extremely expensive and became severely outdated in a year, I became a computer builder and started setting up ISDN networks so me and my friends could play Doom2, Hexan, Duke Nukem and other 1st Player shooters. This was the age of cyber cafes and gaming tournaments. Age of the Empires was another game I got into and Microsoft launched its Gaming Zone so that people could connect and play multiplayer games. Those were the days man! Loved it 🥰

This reminds me of the day when I got sound on my PC for the first time, a 486 too. It was like hearing for the very first time after having been deaf for years. More than 25 years ago...

I’m not much of a gamer and really didn’t play that many games as a kid, but my family did a lot. As soon as the intro to IndyCar started playing, I got transported right back to 1995. My dad played that game so much. He had a stroke back in 2008 and is basically unrecognizable from his former self (the stroke left him paralyzed on his right side and completely changed every aspect of his personality, even the sound of his voice is different) so things that remind me of him before the stroke are pretty special to me. Thank you for triggering some memories of better times.

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

Sorry to hear about your dad. Can only imagine how difficult this must be. Glad to hear this video brought back some good memories. Stay strong, healthy and take good care of one another !

I was glued to the screen and wondered how the lemmings' mission would end 🤣

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

No lemmings got hurt during the mission.

@mho...

16 күн бұрын

"we all fall down" sums it up ;)

When you watch an awesome video, then get excited about part 2, because it's the internet and everything is instant... just to realize he published this 52 minutes ago, and you need to wait for part two 😆

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

Just imagine you’re in 1993 :)

@ThrivingInLife

2 ай бұрын

I remember it! I really liked game JeFighter 2 How I could just fly by buildings super fast =) @@RetroSpector78

@Blackadder75

2 ай бұрын

yeah, that should be forbidden.....

@Ramdileo_sys

Ай бұрын

@@RetroSpector78 Dave At 1:38.. the PC_SPK heather is for connect the speaker heather of the motherboard.... _(Not the PC speaker)_ ........ you use a 4 pin to 2 pin cable...... and then you have the bip's of the PC speaker coming out from the Sound Blaster Output........ Inside windows have his own volume and balance control in the SondBlaster Mixer....... is perfect for have the sound effects of games like..Commander Keen of Crystal Caves.. coming out of the SB16 Speakers 😁..... you should try it..... is a feature that got lost in Awe 32 forward.. 😮‍💨

@Vestu

15 күн бұрын

@@RetroSpector78 The part 2 will be sent via mail on 128 disks

Omg sound blaster 😭 so much memories

It's probably what you meant but in case it wasn't or other people misunderstood: The PC Speaker header isn't for the PC speaker, it's to connect to the PC speaker header on the motherboard so that the audio from that is routed through the system speakers via the sound card internal mixing.

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for clarifying. It is indeed what I meant but sometimes it doesn't always come out this way.

The name of the publisher behind Dracula is Psygnosis.. They were huge in the old Amiga/Atari era of UK game development/Publishing. :)

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

Goddamnit ... thought I double-checked everything. Thanks for clearing that up. I think the spelling checker kicked in for some reason.

@anumeon

2 ай бұрын

@@RetroSpector78 Nothing to be bothered about really. Stuff happens and all that. :)

@pipp33

2 ай бұрын

Came here to say the same :-)

@dokols

2 ай бұрын

Was looking for this comment. Couldnt let that slip by 😄

@JohnSmith-iu8cj

2 ай бұрын

Now I have a Psychosis because Psygnosis wasn’t spelled correctly.

I was so hooked on F1 gp. It was such a groundbreaking game, couldn't get enough of it. It also came with the best manual ever, so descriptive, going into history of every team, explaining various setups in detail, driving lines in detail etc. Oh the memories

Nice hearing the sounds of setting up a sound card. Really takes me back to the ms dos days. ❤

Crazy times back then... glade for been present.

Dude .... The sound when you kill someone in Dracula .... Awesome .... Hahaha damn !!!!!

I had the exact SB card back in 1994. This video surely brings back memory to me.

I have the same Cambridge SoundWorks speakers, right in front of me, playing your video for me right now 😄.

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

Haha ! Super cool.

Great compilation! It has given me some good ideas on what to load on my 486. Glad to see you got Dune2 on there. Can't wait for part 2!

Had me cleaning my screen about half way through the video 😆

Soundblaster!!! Holy chit man. This brought back memories.....WOW!

Ich vermisse das wunderschöne Nikotin Gelb dieser alten Computer sehr. :-)

Jools, Jops and Stu. Still remember the names some 30 years later. Thanks for the vid.

@Blackadder75

2 ай бұрын

R.I.P. Jools

Some real bangers in there! Gotta admit, that PsygnosisPsychosis mixup was pretty funny 😂

That flight game looks awesome!

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

yep. fun to revisit them. But we have been spoiled with videogames lately. Becomes harder to get impressed. But in 1993 this would have blown you away for sure.

nice enjoyable video!! thanks! I love the retro dose computers and the great games....and you make this all come alive in this fun video! thanks again mr.spector!!

So many fab memories

That F1 game blew my grandpa (Ayrton Senna fan) away! He was amazed that i could drive a F1 on the pc! Good times! And Jurassic Park is a effin hard game! I never finished it!

The people who started Creative Labs also brought us Commodore Computers, which had revolutionary sound on the C64 and Amiga's. They had audio in their DNA. The also went on to purchase Emulator, who made some of the first affordable sampling keyboards used by Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode and a zillion other top 10 bands back in the day.

This is an awesome part 1! The libraries of the school district I went to used those Compaq's as the "librarian terminals" for the card catalog system they bought. The schools were 95% mac and I was the only "PC guy" on the student IT staff, so I got to work on them. They were well built and easy to service. Have a bit of fondness for the simplicity of them back then. I was a doofus and put Windows 95 on them at the request of the librarians, man did that run dog slow. Didn't bother them though, they liked using 95 more than Windows 3.11 or DOS.

Sentinel Worlds (Future Magic) was my game. I’ll never forget discovering the space yacht….

I can smell the PC aroma, blitzing CRT monitor, back in those day I played games without any sound coz I coudnt afford buy soundcard, until Im in highschool in 99, im amazed that I can enjoy music mp3 without buying cassette.. thanks for making this video

This is great, love seeing all those games, deciding which ones I still have to try

I had one of those. It was sooo big, like a cruiser :) It was an AWE 32 by SoundBlaster. It was incredible experience that days. For "free'ing" memory I used a QEMM program.

omg cannon fodder, dune, f15, f1, indycar!

Great video! Really enjoyed the games showcased 🙂

Thank you so much for your vidoes. Brings back the memories alot.

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

Happy you enjoy them !

1993 was the year I started using PC. For us, having sound card was a luxury we couldn't afford yet. I eventually upgraded for CDROM first then eventually got my own sound card which was Yamaha OPL3-SA

This brings back memories, this was my second sound card my first one being an adlib sound card.

Holy crap, this takes me back!

I love that early 90s era when people were more concerned with the quality of their sound card than with graphics

@itce6043

Ай бұрын

I was the one there.

Oh man. The flashbacks!

Aahhhhh, some classoc DOS gaming, including setup which could be quite time consuming.

I remember how excited I was to install my SoundBlaster 16!

Boy, this was a lot of fun seeing games that I hadn't seen in 30 years! Thanks for doing this!

I enjoyed this. Thanks for the video!

I so remember setting these up with customers over the phone when I started working in user facing computer support at the end of the 90's!

Your sound card works perfectly!!

I probably had the same 1993 Compaq 486, first PC I bought myself, and bought X-Wing along with it. Eventually I added a CD Rom, additional RAM, and an Intel OverDrive and a Creative Labs sound card plus a pair of Soundblaster speakers. Was never really a PC gamer, I can remember almost every game I had for it, just a few mid-90's standards like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D shareware, Lemmings, Tie Fighter, Dark Forces, King's Quest, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Descent, and CD Rom games 7th Guest, Myst, and Rebel Assault. Stopped playing PC games once the PlayStation released in 1995.

Warcraft and Warcraft 2 would be nice too to test.

love seeing the Compaq logo, my first new computer purchased when i started working was a Compaq, they built some nice computers back in the day, shame they are gone.

Cool game showcase for me who isnt familiar with games from this era

oh, those times of my childhood. My first sound card for my Am386DX40 was the ess488 "audio magician", sound blaster 2.0/adlib compatible - 8bit mono. It wasnt such a shiny SB16 but gave me so much pleasure! Anyway it was much better than PC speaker. Thanks for Cannon Fodder and Dune moments - memories, memories... Also it was time for proprietary interfaces for CD-ROMs on sound card - i must tell it's not IDE interfaces there. At least Matsushita (Panasonic) interface may look as IDE and use the same cable but it wasnt IDE-compatible. That's why it was on sound card and not on usual IDE/FDD/COM/LPT-controller board.

Great stuff! Those machines back then really taught you patience.

just when i was thinking if u would test on Dune, then the opening scene appeared! Thumbs!!👍👍

Woohoo...great video..can't wait for part 2 :-)

Huh, I never knew Dune 2 had speech in it, at least I don't remember hearing speech when I played it back in the day. We had a Media Vision Pro AudioSpectrum 16 sound card, and I only remember hearing the music and sound effects, so perhaps we never set up the game sound correctly for our sound card. Perhaps one day when I get around to setting up a proper vintage test machine, I'll try Dune 2 with both a SB 16 and PAS 16 cards, and see if I get the speech on both.

Wow, i did play many of these games back in the day. I also had the same setup sound wise, that is SB16 and speakers. Had also to install the card myself, as i did back then with all my computers.

the good old days xD Dune2 & X-Wing where my first pc games ever, what a time to be alife (ran on Pentium1 133Mhz & ATIRage 3dPro)

Exact rig me and my family had in the early 90's, Prolinea 4/25s. ill never forget when my dad finally got a multimedia upgrade kit from Creative, 2x CD, SB16, and speakers bundled together. Took a few days to get it all working in the Compaq, the system was so very fickle as to how it needed everything connected and configured. It was glorious to me with the encyclopedia software running videos and getting actual sound from my games. Little upgrades felt far far more impressive to me back then.

I still remember my jaw hitting the floor when I saw the intro of Dune 2... that digitized speech! Excellent game as well. Set the standard for RTS games that remains relevant to this day. Really the only thing that was missing was click-and-drag multi-unit selection.

I used to play Indy 500 and 688 Attack Sub using the Personal Netware network software and network cards in my and my friends computer and our soundblaster 16s. I remember those being around or just before DOOM came out and we started doing LAN parties.😍

I knew you'd have a driving game and @13:34 one of my favorites (anything by Geoff Crammond) didn't disappoint! I don't even want to think how much time I may have played this and the sequels. And then IndyCar racing at @15:45 another favorite! Papyrus did some great racing games too!

I remember hearing a voice on a game and being totally stoked about it.

Omg, those speakers! I have the very same, and totally coincidentally, someone found the exact same pair at work.

Underappreciated channel

first time i see ken's labyrinth, nice game

Dune II was great. I was trash at the game as a kid but I always loved it.

@kito1san

Ай бұрын

Dune is a good game before age of empires 2

gee wiz i remember playing that game in 1993 as well Alien Carnage that was the only and last time i played it... 31 years ago and your brain can still remember it so easily

OMG Lemmings! My wife and I loved that game!

I remember the day I bought this Sound Blaster 16 ASP, I believe I paid $279 for it from a place called Brand Smart in my area. As much as a pain in the rear that it was to configure the IRQs and DMA channels you didn't feel it cause you would be so excited about having it in your system and enjoying your games. I also remember running MEMM386 software to get all those above the 640K boundary. This was first in my 486SX25 and then moved it to a new 486DX100.

Im wearing a Psygnosis (not psychosis)T shirt as I watch! Used to support the boys in their London studio! Their cool logo was designed by Yes' album cover artist Roger Dean.

When beige was fab! It was an exciting time in PCs. Incremental advances in processor, sound and vga technologies. Painful to the pocket, but awesome. Now this kind of tech can be done onboard, but back in the day,it was totally awesome.

I grew up with that card, and no other sb care, awe 32 or whatever, will ever change my mind

I had a Novell Netware 4.1 server running on a 486 DX-66 for my Fidonet node system. Aahh the good old times of MS-DOS 6.22, 4Dos and DOS4GW

I loved Indy Car Racing, the graphics at the time blew me away

Had a 486DX with a Sounblaster. Fave game back then was DUNE Battle for Arrakis.

You're really good at World Circuit, and on the keyboard as well! I was not expecting that! :-)

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

Muscle memory :) was obsessed with this game when I was a kid. Never really liked steering wheels or even joysticks.

Man brings back memories.... had all the same gear...lol

god i feel old now.. i remember my 486 dx2 66 with my sound blaster card playing Jill of the jungle

No CCPway ads - instant like!

I can remember getting the original WOLF3D game going on my 486 it was tons of fun

Looking forward to R. I think i already know what game that will be. One of favourite DOS games.

Lazy Game Review on KZread would love this computer. Ooh that clicky start button!

DOS Terminator Future Shock Soundblastet setup "HMI module alpha humena on approach to space station Mercury" always sticks in my mind.

walcome back tuan , lama gak nongol, kirain kemana...😁

OMG, I've done all these waaaaaaaaay back then, throughout the 90's. Installing hardware and configuring and countless reconfiguring Autoexec.bat and Config,sys files to play games on DOS. I had a 486DX2 back then. And a Soundblaster card 16 bit as well. I don't remember what VGA card I had back then, but I do remember tinkering and replacing that a LOT.

yeah, that an video we need ;-)

Nice Compaq system. I have exactly the same. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands

@RetroSpector78

2 ай бұрын

Zijn leuke machines inderdaad. Heb ook de 33MHz variant. Alsook nog een hele hoop andere compaqs :)

@jasmijndekkers

2 ай бұрын

@@RetroSpector78 Oude systemen zijn leuk en interessant om mee te spelen en te knutselen. Ik heb jaren gewerkt voor IBM, dus ik heb ook een heleboel IBM's. Ik werk nu aan de 5170. Deze heeft harddisk issues.

I work with all this tech it was not fun lol😢that sound blaster could give you a headache, but when you heard that wave sound you say yes I got you 😂 good old days

Such memories! Who remembers playing with Dr. Sbaitso? Who remembers the pain of installing ISA cards? Having to really push hard to get the card into the ISA slot and then having your hands get ripped up by the neighbouring cards pins sticking out?

CT2230 and CT2290 are some of the best SB16s, you will rarely encounter the hanging note bug on them. I have never heard it yet on those models.

11:29 ooh shit! Epic Pinball! I used to love it

Awesome!

Some much nostelgia!!

The test successes at 4:48 actually triggered an uncontrollable feeling of uphoria at the hope that Im about to play the damn game with working audio, when I realised it's 25 years too late and I'm watching a video in bed at 2 in the afternoon. Grrrrrr...

I am so glad I lived these days. Everything was a huge step forward. Before Sound Blaster, I remember using a DAC converter attached to a printer port. Some music SW supported that as well as a few games, like Goblins or Simon the Sorcerer :D Then SB was made, SB AWE32 (Doom, System Shock), and so on. First GPU accelerator, new and new game genres... Sweet times. PS: Made in Singapore. My first RC Formula car was also made in Singapore. Today everything is made in China :)

@mikko8574

Ай бұрын

And then there was adlib which was the cheaper sound card.

Blast from the past.

something very cool and relaxing playing those older games rather than the brain burn out games of today

I remember the excitement of getting a long awaited new game and the disappointment when I realized my computer needs an expensive upgrade to run it. I however miss those days.