For example, Windows XP (and even 7) have a lot of issues running on newer hardware because they don’t have drivers for most of the stuff. USB 3 ports for example don’t work at all (not even at USB2 speeds) or you sometimes need PS/2 keyboards and mice.
Even though old and obsolete, and being unsafe to connect to the internet,
if you wanted to play games from a specific era, it is best to have working PC parts from that era so that you would 100% know that it will work.
Thankfully, most of the games I grew up with (Dangerous Dave, Vcop, Doom, IGI) run on dosbox or some alternatives that I can run today. Mostly because we didn’t actually get a PC until 2010s in our house, and even then it was a Core2Duo with integrated graphics.
If someone wanted to play 2000s games, the Core2Quad extreme is the highest end processor you can get. Hence the interest from @rsaeon and me!
The defining era in computing history for me is late 90s to early 2000s. I saw processors go from 100mhz to 500mhz to 1 ghz to 3ghz and I kept up with every minute architectural improvement, absolutely pouring myself into technical reviews while passing my board exams with a satisfactory 35%
It consumed so much of my interest that I was told I scored the lowest in Botany+Zoology in my entire state with 12/100 in the entrance exam after 10+2
Fortunately my family’s honor was saved with 89/100 in Chemistry+Physics, getting me a (not a very good) rank under 5 digits (we had less than 1500 merit seats in my state for medicine back then).
But it was a very exciting time, just seeing the 3D Mark demo render in real time took your breath away
So I have fond memories of those years and the games/tech of those years and these older computers are time capsules that take me back to a more innocent time
Ha no, maybe, but I want working computers, not display pieces.