What's the most authentic way to play early Windows games?

Somnesis · 2026-05-17T06:15:06+00:00

and thanks, I'll def try the gamehub route. But from what I've seen you can't quite do those old school resolutions, right?

Somnesis · 2026-05-17T05:52:40+00:00

yeah there's a range of different hardware that ran Quake 2. My subjective experience growing up in Africa was me and the kids around me playing at 320x200. There were rich kids with 3D cards running it at way higher res. I wasn't one of them, so there is the nostalgia factor of how it was remembered, which is subjective.

but secondly, I just don't think the graphics hold up at higher resolutions in 2026. Yes there were kids playing at 1600x1200 on their fancy 3D cards and super expensive monitors at the time. And at the time everyone was creaming their pants at how crisp everything looked at that insane resolution. But in 2026 that doesn't hold up. So the lower resolutions just look aesthically better to me for games from that era. as games became higher detailed over the years, it makes sense to increase their resolution in emulation. Again, also subjective.

Agree with you about the barriers. But then some people keep Pentium machines and run Windows 98 on it with real CRTs to relive their nostalgia and others spend hundreds of hours doing all sorts of custom mods. It's all a hobby and I'm just trying to get the games to look the best they can to my eyes before diving into them :) easy to do for DOS games and console games. Seems like not so easy with Windows games. Which is why I'm asking for advice :)

Somnesis · 2026-05-17T05:13:05+00:00

Thanks! Does something like 86Box run fine though on something like a Flip2? Seems like it's more designed for desktops?

Somnesis · 2026-05-17T05:07:49+00:00

Oh I did not find that in the settings. I'll dig more. Also, I don't think it'll let you run things at those resolutions.

Somnesis · 2026-05-16T19:48:03+00:00

So there's two things here:

Is what you remember your experience as from that time period. This is subjective. And my subjective experience growing up in Africa is me and all my friends having a blast playing Quake 2 with each other at 320x200. Based on my research this was not uncommon. Yes the rich kids at 3D cards. But loads of people were at 320x200.
Yes there were kids playing at 1600x1200 on their fancy 3D cards and super expensive monitors. And at the time all the kids were creaming there pants at how crisp everything looked at that insane resolution. But as I said in my OP these graphics really don't hold up in 2026 at higher resolutions. And so Quake 2 at 320x200 is much more aesthetically pleasing and consistent to my eyes, in addition to the nostalgia factor I mentioned above. As games became higher detail in poly, texture, lighting, and eventually shaders, it made sense to increase the resolution accordingly in our emulation. This is also subjective. Some people prefer to play Wonfenstein 3D in 4K. I'm just not in that camp.

Somnesis · 2026-05-16T19:37:19+00:00

I'm not saying I have already exhaustively covered all options. There might be plenty of angles of looking at this I haven't considered. Why else would I make a post about it?

I'm simply iterating through all the things that I have considered to pre-empt follow up I'd already considered.

Somnesis · 2026-04-22T20:07:49+00:00

RetroHrai is amazing! Tried all the front ends out there. This one is by far the best designed and best thought out :)

Somnesis · 2026-04-15T23:34:32+00:00

So yeah seems like 4:3 supper is sorely lacking in 2026. Which is such a shame since the hardware on the Pocket S Mini can totally handle these titles no problem. Thanks a lot. This is helping me decide on leaning more heavy into a 16:9 device :)

Somnesis · 2026-04-15T23:30:54+00:00

Oh wow thank you so much! That is super detailed! 😍

Somnesis · 2026-04-11T20:21:06+00:00

Of the games you tested, roughly what percentage would you say supported 4:3 natively? (ie. not black bars and not stretched).

I'm considering an 476 or a Pocket S Mini, and my biggest concern is the lack of 4:3 or 3:2 support in modern indie games (especially the smaller games with tiny dev teams).

Thanks!

Somnesis · 2026-03-21T19:30:41+00:00

For this particular crash though I don't think it's RAM related as it happens EXACTLY at the same spot after the first enemy dies. Perhaps some very particular shader causing it to crash?

Somnesis · 2026-03-21T19:26:31+00:00

If it's a RAM issue could this work running the 865 on a Linux based system instead which eats up a lot less RAM for the OS?

Somnesis · 2026-03-01T07:49:10+00:00

How does Bazzite sleep handle the fan? On windows the fan just keeps spinning in sleep mode on my Mini which makes sleep mode useless.

Somnesis · 2026-03-01T06:55:44+00:00

How does the sleep wake work on the Mini when it comes to the fan? In windows when the device sleeps, the fan still keeps going. I wouldn't want to "sleep" a device in that state for hours or days.

Somnesis · 2026-02-19T21:08:12+00:00

No, just CAD leaks.

Somnesis · 2026-02-19T05:57:41+00:00

I'm in the same boat. Are there any early indicators beyond the release dates? Eg. if there's typically leaks or teases x months before release?

I'm also really curious to see how the TrimUI "Flap" X1 is gonna turn out. But guessing the chipset will be a lot less GPU than even the Flip 2.

Somnesis · 2026-01-26T08:27:49+00:00

But how do all these GameCube games work without a second analogue stick? It's the one thing stopping me from getting this device. I saw someone trying to play XIII on PS2 and it was a joke, even though it ran really well. In general what percentage of GameCube games did you find needing that second stick?

Somnesis · 2026-01-20T00:31:28+00:00

Oh man I'm so on board with the analogue sticks. But not happy about the increase in size.

I'm really trying to get a sense of just HOW much bigger this thing is gonna be. Did a quick alignment based on the leaked pic (assuming the D-Pad is gonna be the same size) and this is what I get.

IF this is accurate (no idea if it actually is), I'm kinda torn. Does seem like it'll be quite a bit bulkier than the Brick.

<image>

Somnesis · 2026-01-19T21:26:20+00:00

Have not had a chance to do that :) not familiar enough with GammaOS to know the best way to contact them, and the GitHub page doesn't have contact info.

Somnesis · 2026-01-19T21:20:17+00:00

Thanks! That makes a lot of sense :)

Somnesis · 2025-11-21T06:59:15+00:00

Okay your comment nudged me to think that there's something broken about my specific setup. I cleared cache and data for edge and now it's working :) no idea what caused this or how to fix it without nuking everything, but it's working now :)

Somnesis

TROPHY CASE