Need Advice on Raspberry Pi

Me | 1/13/19 | Me

[The Louiswu]

I am starting research into using a Raspberry Pi to run some only DOS and XP games and I was hoping to pick up some good advice, tips and tricks before I go spending money on this project. Thanks in advance.

[SpaceBar]

It’s often a good idea to specify where exactly you’re going. Mainstream applications for special purpose raspberry’s tend towards control of home entertainment systems, handling the enormous data throughput in real time, and presenting an interface to control it all. Something suited to a full blown microprocessor + OS, but sometimes less is more, which is why Arduino, mentioned upthread, a simple lightweight programmable microcontroller with an open source architecture is so popular. It’s ideal for experimentalists.

[\/\/ayne]

You can pick up a cigar box at Total Wine or a local cigar shop which makes a great case.

[GingisK]

T’aint because of Linux. The CPU on the Pi is an ARM.

[bigbob]

Right, I should have said “natively”. Never tried an emulator but it would perhaps be faster than the original.

[dayglored]

If the games really were written for MSDOS and/or WinXP, they've compiled for Intel x86 CPU (PC), not ARM (that's what's in a RaspberryPI).

Microsoft has said they're thinking of compiling Windows to run on ARM but it ain't real yet, and in any case the chances of it supporting an x86-compiled game from decades ago are slim.

Think about grabbing yourself a cheap used PC.

RaspberryPi is a great little machine, I've got two... but it's not a direct MSDOS/WinXP platform.

[dayglored]

As someone upthread mentioned, there is a Windows (Internet-of-Things-Edition) but I doubt it would support your games. And your games programs are still x86 until you either find an ARM port, or port them yourself. Seems like a lot of work, but probably a lot of fun to try.

[minnesota_bound]

Get the Cherry PI upgrade....

[dgbrown]

I use these for my music players.

[tjblair]

i know for sure that you can run some dos games on dosbox on raspberry pi

[McGruff]

Can’t you just use a virtual machine on Windows?

Also I still have an old Windows XP PC that I recently reinstalled Windows XP from scratch. I was surprised it worked.

[freeandfreezing]

If your goal is to play old DOS or XP games, the simple solution is to either get an older refurbished PC (which could get you an XP license) or buy one of the x86 based compute sticks. Intel and others make them, and they are small PCs that plug directly into an HDMI port on a monitor or TV.

Most are inexpensive, and you only need the smallest of them to run DOS games at blinding speed. You can get FreeDOS to run the DOS games, for XP you will need an old XP CD and/or license.

[posterchild]

Linux on a Raspberry Pi is understandable. Why Windows?

[chuckles]

ping for later study.

[chuckles]

Some of the small laptops use ARM cpu's. They run windows 10 on 1 gig memory. I think the Pi won't boot on anything but a microsd formatted to fat 32. Most windows OS is NTFS. Also the graphics chip has the so called "bios" on it that sorta keeps it Linux. The config.txt gives a little latitude, but still Linux. There is one distro that you can make look and act like windows called Xandros, but you would have to find it somewhere as they don't make it anymore, I think.

One project I just read about was making a PI into "Alexa". Google it.

[markomalley]

If you’re looking into buying an SBC to run old DOS or WinXP games, I would look at getting a different SBC than a Raspberry PI.

While I know of a number of people who use a Raspberry PI to run versions of old console games (e.g., Pacman), I don’t know of anybody who has gotten one to run MS DOS or WinXP. As others have said, it’s the ARM architecture versus X86.

There may be a couple of workarounds, though:

There is a DOS emulator out there for Linux, called “DOSBOX”. Here’s a writeup: https://www.ostechnix.com/how-to-run-ms-dos-games-and-programs-in-linux/ — don’t know how well it works myself.

Also, as far as WinXP games, you could see if they’ve been successfully installed under Wine. Wine has got its limitations, but with the older games, somebody else may have figured out how to do it. A probably unnecessary caution: even apps that can be successfully installed using Wine don’t act 100% the same as they do in a Windows environment (font rendering is the biggest thing I’ve personally seen).

This is where the suggestion to look at another board than the Raspberry PI for your purposes. DOSBOX or Wine both both come with a bit of overhead. 1GB of RAM can be hit fairly quickly. If you find a SBC with 2GB or more of RAM, you are likely to have a better result.

For example:
- ASUS Tinkerboard S — 8 core processor and 2GB of RAM as well as 16GB of onboard eMMC memory and integrated WiFi and Bluetooth. $91. https://www.amazon.com/Tinker-board-RK3288-1-8GHz-Mali-T764/dp/B00FS83U42/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547458972&sr=8-1&keywords=tinkerboard&th=1

- ODROID XU4 — 8 core processor and 2GB of RAM and an integrated active cooler. (No integrated WiFi or Bluetooth. Needs eMMC module for OS). $89. https://www.amazon.com/ODROID-active-cooler-power-supply/dp/B0761YJY27/ref=pd_day0_hl_147_1/133-0018981-0378178?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0761YJY27&pd_rd_r=66811708-17e0-11e9-aefc-7df63d5d44a8&pd_rd_w=iKnsz&pd_rd_wg=zXI41&pf_rd_p=ad07871c-e646-4161-82c7-5ed0d4c85b07&pf_rd_r=XXRVJEK05Q8Z7S88ZZFC&psc=1&refRID=XXRVJEK05Q8Z7S88ZZFC

A pro tip for you: make certain that when you buy an SD card get as fast a card as your project budget will allow for. At least a Class 10. If you get a cheap one (like from the bin in Microcenter), you will be frustrated. Trust me — I have experience with that specific mistake.

[GingisK]

Simply masochism.

[Hot Tabasco]

Pi are not square....