The Hidden Potential of Old Laptops – Windows 98 & DOS Gaming on Dell Inspiron 8100
I love playing retro video games and I have almost every system released in the US. Atari 2600 to PlayStation 5. But one platform that escapes me is Retro PC gaming. While I could make virtual machines on my modern PC that has an RTX 4090, I decided to explore period appropriate options. Desktop PCs are more popular which means that they're more expensive. That's why I decided to buy a laptop. Specifically the Dell Inspiron 8100. It's a pretty capable PC. It's powered by a Pentium 3, 128mb of ram and 16mb of dedicated NVIDIA graphics.
What can you do with a 25 year old laptop? Quite a bit actually. I go over the software, hardware and games that I used to get this thing as close as possible to the ultimate retro pc build.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
02:19 Why a laptop for retro PC gaming?
04:49 Software Upgrades
07:59 Hardware Upgrades
14:33 What games can you play?
17:03 Drawbacks of a laptop
19:35 Should you buy a laptop?
Links to products I used
Reddit Thread for Windows 98 Software suggestions
http://bit.ly/417GpTX
Ultimate DoS 7.1 Tutorial by @Henk717
• #doscember - Ultimate MS-Dos 7.1 Installat...
USB4C
http://bit.ly/4lBVapG
MPU 232 from Serdashop
https://www.serdashop.com/MPU-232
OPL3LPT from Serdashop
https://www.serdashop.com/OPL3LPT
USB 5.25 Floppy Connector
https://shop.deviceside.com/prod/FC5025