So, you fancy getting into Actual Hardware in retro gaming on the venerable IBM Compatible PC Platform. Well....you're in luck. This is kind of like a "Primer" on IBM PC Hardware and is not a replacement for hte far more detailed, specialized Documents section of the site. Think of it as something like a "Cliffs Notes" or a quick-and-dirty section that gives you a general guide on just enough of what you need to know to get into this hobby. This page is going to be long, so might be good reading material one day when you're bored and have nothing to do, or in small spurts on the toilet....or maybe just a reference page. I dunno. I probably will veer off in more detail than I expected to, but that happens.
So what is an IBM (Compatible) PC
An IBM (Compatible) PC is the current most popular genre of computer on the planet, though we don't call them that anymore. The computer at the top of this page - the 1981 IBM Personal Computer 5150 - is the "namesake" of this series of computer.
What makes it an IBM Compatible is an intel CPU in the x86 or x64 processor range (ie 8088, 8086, 286, 386, 486, Pentium/II/III/4/D, Core 2, Core i-x, Xeon, Centrino, AMD Athlon, Duron, Sempron, Celeron, Ryzen), and the ability to run original IBM PC Software. As of about 2015 onward, what we call a PC is getting less and less compatible with it's historical pass, but also, nobody's running 40 year old software, at least not for serious, important purposes anymore. The earliest PC's ran MS-DOS as a native operating system, but Microsoft Windows started to gain foothold toward the beginning of the 1990's with Version 3.1 onward, and Windows 95 in 1995 cementing the fate of the PC as another nickname "Wintel".
Or to make it more simple, a PC is an intel powered machine that runs a Microsoft operating system, and (generally) uses a Standardized Bus.
Getting Started in Old Hardware
If you don't already have the hardware, I suggest getting started by messing with some popular Emulation and alternative engines. Here's a table below to help you get started.
Screenshot
Name
| Description
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| DOSbox
| DOSBox is an emulator that tries to accurately reproduce multiple generations of IBM Compatible PC based on how the DOSBox configuration file (usually dosbox.conf or dosbox.cfg) is configured to run the software. IT can emulate everything from an original IBM PC, to a Tandy 1000, to a 486 or early Pentium - depending on how powerful your modern machine is. It should be able to run at least 97% of all DOS games fairly well enough to not have issues, but certain stuff won't run on it (particularly old wonky software).
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| SCUMMVM
| ScummVM is a graphical adventure game engine initially designed to make use of the resource files from Lucasfilm/LucasArts graphical advneture games such as Indiana Jones, Sam & Max, Monkey Island, and Full Throtttle. IT has since grown to include support for Adventure Game Studio, Sierra AGI, Sierra SCI, Sierra VGA SCI, and some derivatives such as the Simon the Sorcerer series, and Beneath a Steel Sky.
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| Exult
| Exult is a alternative engine for playing the infamously cantankerous Ultima VII games - which came with a weird DOS memory manager known as "VooDoo" that would cause the player all kinds of headaches getting enough free base DOS Memory to get the games to run properly with sound (and don't work at all in FreeDOS). It includes some additions that actually can enhance the player experience and allow for some creativity using the game's assets as well, such as hackmover.
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| NuVIe
| Nuvie is a alternative engine for Ultima VI: The False Prophet, designed to let it run on a modern PC with some modernizations added in.
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I would suggest, before diving into hardware if you don't have any, trying these out and some DOS games. I can't legally condone or support piracy, but that's basically what goes on a lot these days as a lot of the older games are out of print, and some are not found on legit sources such as collections, or on Good Ole' Games (GOG). Despite some of these games being up to 40 years old now, some of the more popular franchises are protected by the ESRB. So obtaining copies of various titles gives you one of three options....in this exact order...
- Purchase old copies legitimatley via e-bay - If you are lookign to get into collecting, you might want to go this route. However, big box PC games are bloody EXPENSIVE. NES games are $10-15 each, but big box DOS games cost as much as $200-1000 depending on what it is, how good a condition its in, if the disks are readable, all the feelies are there, and whatnot. Sometimes you get lucky though, like the time I bought a huge haul of original Sierra games in box from a liquidation thrift shop.
- Purchase and download a copy from GoG - Good Ole' Games is a good resource to obtain older titles that are ESRB and otherwise protected still. Often times, you can take the download you got for your modern PC, which usually comes with DOSBox pre-configured, and then copy the actual game over to your VINTAGE computer later on and run it as intended. That's how I run my copy of Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist with text.
- A very heavy websearch for a download and a lot of common-sense and careful web browsing - As a last resort, you have to resort to this gray area of downloading commercial releases (as well as all shareware, shovelware, and freeware), from internet websites. Some sites are pretty reliable, like Abandonia, MyAbandonware, and Vetusware, but sometimes, you get a good hint if a title is protected, like when the only sites you can find are Russian, Chinese, German, or French, and then you click on the link and bam, it sends you on a series of horrifying redirects. You have to be careful when taking this route. However, I find you can be pretty safe to get the goods using a vintage PC and a browser like Links - because redirects don't work that way ;).
Getting into actual Hardware - Part I: What You Need
IBM PC Compatible hardware is split up in to the following generations per the table below...
| Picture
| Technicals
| Details
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| 0 Generation
| This generation includes the IBM PErsonal Computer 5150, Eagle PC-x series, Columbia Data Products MPC1, IBM PC Jr 4860, Tandy TRS-80 2000, and other early "MS-DOS" compatible computers that could run MS-DOS, but not necessarily share hardware or software 100% with the IBM PC. These machines ran on Intel 8088 or 80186 CPUs, had paltry RAM (ie less than 640K - more around 64K-128K), some had weird floppy standards (720K 5.25"s in the Tandy TRS-80 2000, 160K Single Sided 5.25"s in the original PC for it's first run of production)
| These Earliest machines did not sell as many, and mostly were bought by businessmen - rich c-suite businessmen at that - to use for things like dialing into the Stock Exchange, or connecting to the arpanet. Some nerds bought these to be cutting edge too, especially the IBM PC 5150, which was probably the most famous, popular, and useful of this entire generation being as it's the one that started it. Most of these computers were monochrome, and the ones that DID go in the home and/or play games were playing mostly ASCII ROM font attempts to recreate arcade games, or basic TExt Adventures. Most of the early companies of this era, such as Eagle and Columbia Data Products - were sued to oblivion, while more carefully curated companies, such as Compaq, were paving the way for the future by carefully crafting a computer that did not infringe on patents yet did the exact same thing, and was 100% compatible.
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| 1st Generation
| These were mostly computers based on the IBM PC and IBM PC XT and AT - known as PC/XT clones. These machines usually had an 8088 at 4.77-12MHz, up to 640K RAM, Monochrome, Hercules, CGA, or EGA graphics, internal speaker sound, standard Floppy drives (360K DSDD or 720K 3.5" DSDD), MFM/RLL ST-506/412 hard disks in capacities of 10 Megabytes to 40MB in size, and most "clones" had cases that looked like the original IBM PC or IBM PC AT in some way. Popular OEM units included the Compaq Portable and original Deskpro, Tandy 1000 series (1000, A, HD, EX, HX, SX, TX, SL), IBM PC Portable, IBM PC XT, DTK PEM 8088's, PC's Limited Turbo PC (the original Dell computer), Packard Bell PB-500, and ending with the original IBM PS/2 Model 25 and 30
| These were truly the earliest generation of PC, but still the PC was not as ubiqutous yet as a platform, instead being far more still a businessman curiosity and plaything for nerds/geeks with well meaning but misguided intentions. The early games of this era were mostly CGA or text mode games, with 4 colors max, and internal speaker sound. Some classics of this period included Sopwith, Paratrooper, Wizardry, and Digger, as well as a lot of official licensed Arcade ports of somewhat questionable quality due to the PC's orientation as being a "Business Machine". They also were greatly still expensive for the most part, so most people did not buy these for at home - they bought them for work.
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| 2nd Generation
| The Third Generation PC starts with the IBM PC AT. These machines were based on the 286 microprocessor, had anywhere from 512K RAM all the way to 3 or 4Megabytes. Hard Disks were ST-506/412 MFM/RLL in 20-80MB, but alco could use ESDI and IDE technologies as well. The 16-bit ISA Expansion bus was introduced with this generation. CGA, EGA, and early MCGA/VGA video was introduced with this generation. This was the generation where Laptops started to appear including the Zenith SuperSport series, NEC MultiSpeed and ProSpeed series, early Toshiba, and the NEC UltraLite. Popular desktops included the IBM PC AT of course, IBM PS/2 Model 25 and 30 286 + 50Z 286 and model 60 tower, the Compaq Deskpro 286 model 2551, the Portable 286 luggable, Gateway 2000 started to show up more around this time, as well as Northgate and Austin.
| The 286 Generation was short lived due to issues (initially at least) with the CPU being designed BEFORE the IBM PC was a thing. Mostly these were used as "fast XTs" and not a lot of the time were their true power really taken advantage of outside of hte office as they were still seen as a "Work Computer".
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| 3rd Generation
| The 4th Generation PC starts with the Compaq Deskpro 386, and includes 2 main CPUs, the 386 DX, the first full-fledged 32-bit x86 CPU, and the cost-reduced 386 SX that was 16-bit. It's also known as the 386 era. 386 era machines mostly had IDE based hard disks, VGA graphics, and were mostly MS-DOS only, but a lot got upgraded later to have some of the same Multimedia equipment of the 5th gen 486 machines such as dual and quad speed CD-ROM drives, sVGA graphics cards and monitors, mice, and memory beyond 8MB in size. Hard Disk capacities were between 60MB to around 328MB for some of the larger, higher end machines or 386 machines upgraded further into the 486 era.
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| 4th Generation
| The 4th Generation starts with the ALR Access 486 in 1989, and is rather distinctive in that it's the only generation that still gets manufactured today in the 2020's. 486 machines grew drastically between 1989 and 1995. The earliest 486's were basically like a 386 with a 486 cpu in it, but by the end, 486's had PCI slots like a Pentium, Plug N' Play functionality, could host high speed 3D graphics cards, wavetable synthesizers, stereo sound, high speed CD-ROM drives, and be connected to the internet via the latest dial-up modem technologies. I consider the 486 the "center point" between when the PC went from a businessman and hobbyist platform, to a true consumer platform. Popular 486 machines were mostly locally built whitebox clones. This is also when laptops started getting good with Active Matrix LCD panels, and sound cards. Popular 486 laptops included the IBM ThinkPad 300/700 series, NEC (UltraLite) Versa series, Compaq LTE and Cortura series, Dell XP series, TwinHead Slimnote, NanTan's "Baretops" sold under many brand names, and of course the Toshiba Tecra and Sattlite models which started here as well. The mid-level 486, classic 486 that is - is a 486 DX2 66MHz machine with 16MB of RAM, SVGA VESA Local Bus Video Card, a hard disk in the 500MB capacities, a 14.4K built in modem, and Windows 3.1 paired with DOS 6.22 - putting the 486's peak at about 1993 or so.
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| 5th Generation
| The 5th Generation PC was a far departure from what the 4th generation started at. Gone were turbo buttons, digital readouts, boxy beige cases, keyboards with un-branded 101 keys, serial mice started to phase out, and higher modem speeds and 3D graphics were slowly becoming In. While the Pentium processor and AMD K-5 series were both predating Windows 95 - this generation is MARKED by Windows 95 and Windows 98 - aka the Win9x era. These machines were made to run Windows 9x dedicated, and play games in Direct X, including some of the earliest internet MMO type games. Color started to change from beige to more of a eggshell parchment color, and cases became more rounded. ATX started to take over as the default standard with mATX. This was the peak of the "whitebox" system builder phenomenon. Your average Pentium had 16-32MB of RAM, a 1.2-8GB HDD, Windows 95 or 98 on it, some kind of fast 3D card at the time like a S3 Virge, 3dFX VooDoo or Banshee, ATI Rage, or at the weaker end things like the Trident and Cirrus PCI cards.
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| 6th Generation
| The 6th Generation PC includes the Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4 - ie the "686" core CPUs - which were many. It also includes the Celeron, AMD K6 and K6-II, early Athlon CPU. This was just before 64-bit, which was just around the corner. The average machine for the desk was a white, tower case, or in some cases gray, but by the time of he Pentium 4, silver, gray, pewter, and black started to take over as popular colors for laptops and desktops. These systems had ATX and mATX motherboards usually, with AC97 or late-model sOundBlaster cards in them, 3DFX/NVIDIA Graphics Cards or ATI Radeon early cards. Popular systems included Gateway (who dropped the "2000" from their name nearing the turn of the millennium), Compaq (who was later bought by HEwlett Packard, who now everyone just calls "H.P."), IBM Aptiva and NetVista, and of course, Dell's OptiPlex, Dimension, and Precision series desktops. Laptops started to become something similiar to what we have today as Trackpads replaced trackballs, some offering a trackpad AND a trackpoint (like IBM and Dell). Screen sizes increased on both counts, going from 9.4" and 10.5" on laptops to sizes nearing desktop 14-15", and desktops going up to 17", 20", or 21" CRT Monitors, and some of the first LCD panels hitting the market by the turn of the century as well. The earlier machines had Windows Me or Windows 2000 Pro on them, but Windows XP became the ubiqutious standard when it came out in 2001, and would stay a standard in the quiver of OSes in the mainstream until 13 years later in the mid 2010's when Microsoft finally dropped support.
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| 7th Generation
| The 7th Generation PC is when we start to enter into *modern* territory, as it was the era of the rise of 64-bit CPU's which included the Pentium D (dual-core pentium), AMD Athlon x64, and the Intel Core 2 series which included the Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, and even some 32-bit modern ideas like the INtel Atom used in Netbooks. Desktops by this time were largely black, with blue or even weird colored LED's, and cases far more stylized (and made of cheaper plastic) than we had seen. By this point "case modding" was in full swing. Case modded "Gamer PCs" were popular for peopel into games that required a lot of horsepower like GTA, World of Warcraft, or Call of Duty, and wanted a crazy, water cooled, overclocked, "Gaming PC" with the guts on full display through lexan side windows, and lots of fans everywhere for cooling. It was also a transitional period as traditions of the past such as floppy drives, serial ports, parallel ports, and all the other "legacy" ports including PS/2 started to dissappear, and be replaced by USBby and by large. Also, this was when the switchover to EFI began, with most PCs being able to boot in both a "Legacy Mode" compatible with older OSes such as DOS and Windows 9x, and a "EFI" or "Extendable Firmware Interface" mode that could boot modern OSes, and offered more features and capabilities, as well as faster boot times and better security. Later EFI was rebranded UEFI. This is also when se started to see tighter DRM (Digital Rights Management) through such devices as the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Chip, which would lock and drigger hard disk encryption protection measures, among other thing. Another fad at the time was the "Netbook" - tiny, lightweight, 32-bit laptops running limited versions of Windows XP or Windows 7 intended mostly for basic computer use like e-mail and internet surfing.
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| 8th Generation
| The eighth generation PC was a short lived era of Malaise in the PC industry casued by the proliferation of "Smart Phones" and "Tablets". By 2013, most people did not want to use a PC or laptop anymore, preferring ot use their smartphone or tablet device to do many of the tasks they *needed* a PC or Macintosh computer to do prior. So to counteract this, Microsoft and the PC Industry at large started working together to bring the touch-screen convertible back - something we had not seen since a failed attempt in the 4th generation in the early 90's with things like the Dauphin DTR, the NEC VErsa CP series devices, the VersaPad, and Compaq Concerto. Except now it was the Microsoft Surface, Lenovo Yoga, Dell XPS 13/15 series, HP Revolve, or Samsung's tablet that insereted into a keyboard via that torture device I recall from the time. USB docking stations started to take over, and desktops started to dissappear more and more, with the focus on portability and hitting the smartphone/tablet market where they can't hit - work productivity and gaming. This was also the start of the INtel Core i-series CPUs, named by generation and number of cores - now on it's 12th generation in 2023. As the 8th generation carries on, hardware cut more and more old-tropes, like reducing the number of expansion slots, extreme integration of originally discreet components. As we moved into the 2020's, Legacy boot started to dissappear, turning the "PC" into it's own thing, separate from it's IBM Lineage due to it's inability to run legacy operating systems like MS-DOS, Windows 95, or even some Linux distributions. The PC has officially become a "Consumer Appliance" now.
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