How well does Retro PC Games Run on PI3?

HPK-de

Hi,
they are runnig very well. I've got nearly 100 DOS-Games up and running, but it's a bit trial and error with the dosbox-configs, especially for old games which were complicated in the old days, like games from Origin (Ultima 7, Strike Commander e.g.).
The Pi ist fast enough to run nearlly every DOS-PC game, which needed normal hardware. Only the very last games of this time are not playable, because some of them are using 3D acceleration cards like the voodoo cards, which are not emulated by dosbox.
I've got several games which needs CD-ROMs, but that is easily done by mounting a virtual CD-ROM drive. The only problem is, you have to set an config file fpr every game, but that's mostly done by copy & paste ;)

herb_fargus

@hpk-de I found that some games like commander keen ran better with rpix86 or better yet commander genius. If there are ports or game engines they typically will run better than dosbox, and I've found scummvm runs much better too (at least for the point and click games I tried)

Omnija

This post is deleted!

DD-Indeed

I briefly tested Jack Jackrabbit on Dosbox, but I didn't know how to configure the controller controls, as they didn't work straight out of thebox. The game run without any issues thou.

edmaul69

@hpk-de can i ask why you are creating seperate config files? I create individual.sh files for each game. Havent found a single need for a second config file. Any changes you need to make can be done in the .sh file

RetroFreak89

@hpk-de hmm even daggerfall runs? The Elder scrolls

edmaul69

@dd-indeed you need to hook up a mouse and keyboard. Press ctrl + f1 it puts you in the controller and keyboard config. It is kinda hard to see since they made it blue on black but you have a mouse cursor. Then save and exit.

dudleydes

@dd-indeed @edmaul69 If you enable dispmanx for DOSBox in the Configuration/Tools menu of the RetroPie setup script, then the keymapper will appear in black and white.

Edit: spelling of dispmanx

edmaul69

@dudleydes are there any advantages/ disadvantages to using dispmanx in dosbox?

dudleydes

@edmaul69 Personally I don't use dispmanx in DOSBox as I see no advantage. I believe dispmanx messed up the video output for Albion.

I created and tested the mapper files on my desktop and then transferred them to my Pi so I had no need for enabling dispmanx. I only discovered the fix while following this issue.

edmaul69

@dudleydes i just verified that i have dispmanx enabled and i get a blue and black config screen.

dudleydes

@edmaul69 Just tested now myself and I get black and white. In the file /opt/retropie/configs/all/dispmanx.cfg, I have the line dosbox="1".

edmaul69

Just verified it is the same setting for me. But still blue not white

DD-Indeed

@edmaul69 said in How well does Retro PC Games Run on PI3?:

@dd-indeed you need to hook up a mouse and keyboard. Press ctrl + f1 it puts you in the controller and keyboard config. It is kinda hard to see since they made it blue on black but you have a mouse cursor. Then save and exit.

Thanks, I'll look into it again at some point.

muehltime

Every C64 I have tried so far runs very smoothly. Sometimes you have to figure out if you have to press space, tab, or figure out what the run/stop button translates to on a modern keyboard....

but once running it's great. A man, are those characters way more responsive to an Xbox controller than the old C64 joystick....

muehltime

Vice also has a Warp mode to make load times go by faster.

MayK

You can probably run Secret Agent 3 pretty well.

drake999

@retrofreak89 I have some input as far as DosBox is concerned, as I have tinkered with this a bit. DosBox distributed with RetroPie has dynamic recompilation enabled by default, and trust me that's what you want (i didn't realize this was possible on a non-x86 CPU at first). With this feature enabled, and if you max out the CPU cycles in the config file you get performance in the area of a 100 MHz x86 CPU, somewhere between a 486 and a Pentium. I've run old DOS games like Blood and Shadow Warrior on the Pi3 and they work well as long as you keep the default low resolution (320 x 200) I believe. Start raising the resolution, and the games quickly start becoming unplayable. I was also able to install Windows 3.1 under DosBox and run the old strategy game Outpost, which was a favorite of mine as a kid. Outpost ran well under Windows 3.1 (after some arm wrestling with the installer) with no sound stutter or other serious issues. Anything more advanced though would likely have issues however, such as War Craft 2 (which I have not tested, but would be delighted to find out it works well).