Leaderboard

Force aspect ratio correction will stretch 320x200 games to 320x240 so you get the right aspect ratio, but since 240 isn't divisible by 200 you end up with some of the original pixels being twice the height of the others. It looks a bit uneven. The pixels of 320x200 games were 1.2 times as tall as wide, or 1.2:1. They weren't square. Ideally, these games should be run at 1600x1200. 1600 / 320 = 5 and 1200 / 200 = 6 so each original pixel would be scaled up to be 5 pixels wide and 6 pixels tall. Since 6 / 5 = 1.2, they would then keep their original shape. In ScummVM, OpenGL can do this because it performs aspect ratio correction and rescaling in one pass. The problem is that the GUI doesn't allow you to specify a resolution directly. You have to resize the window manually and hope it hits on the right resolution. DOSBox lets you set the resolution directly in its config file.

Well, I wasn't planning on playing the games from the actual floppies. My plan is to copy the disks to my local hard drive or, if required, run the DOS installers in DOSBox to get a working copy of each game that I can run with ScummVM. I guess it's a sentimental thing; I wanted to play the same versions my dad had used himself.

Several of the disks can be found in the collections on Web Archive as image files that you can mount in DOSBox.

But swapping disks and hearing them be read was a joy of the era!

The WinUAE and FS-UAE Amiga emulators come with faux disk-sounds. ;

Funny, I've thought of that myself for a couple of times, but I have most my game files backed up on discs or hard drives by now. I get the nostalgic value, but isn't it easier just getting the games from GOG (or a similar service) and playing them from there? (Saves you on swapping discs too!) If you really want to play them as they were released, it might be better investing in an old pc setup (486 or something). A friend of mine still has one standing around too.

As long as they were stored in relatively stable environment, e.g. not too hot/cold or humid, they should still be readable.