If you’re struggling to source a Pi, or don’t want to do retro gaming on one, you’ll be pleased to hear that all of the emulators and platforms we mention here are available for your PC, too. Emulating newer platforms, such as high-end Amigas and PlayStation, will perform better there too.
If you have an old PC lying around, then you might want to skip the emulation part and run some DOS classics natively. You don’t even need a dubiously obtained copy of MS-DOS: the open-source FreeDOS project (https:// freedos.org) saw a new release in February 2022. That might seem like a while ago, but it’s been feature complete for many years and doesn’t have the security (or breakage) concerns of modern software. Alternatively, you can run them on modern Linux via DosBox. You’ll find a list of open-source games at https://hellricer.github. io/2020/11/01/opensourcemsdos-games.html.
Many classic games have been reworked for modern platforms. Check out Widelands (a port of the classic The Settlers), OpenMW (Morrowind), ET: Legacy (Wolfenstein), OpenRA (Red Alert, C&C, et al), OpenLara (Tomb Raider), and, of course, ScummVM (classic Lucasfilm games including the Monkey Island series. These days, it supports a huge number of non-SCUMM games too—see https://scummvm.org). The id Software classics Doom and Quake (and sequels) were open-sourced a while ago, but more eye-candy is available through ports such as Doomsday Engine,
PrBoom+-RT, and RTXQuake (the last two with glorious ray tracing). If you’re a fan of the 1980s, look out for
Thatcher’s Techbase, a Doom 2 add-on (https://thatchers-techbase. github.io).
Thatcher’s Techbase is a Doom 2 mod dedicated to the former British Prime Minister of the 1980s.
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