Cabinet #2 - Need a little guidance

[colopioneers]

Ok kids,

I"m going to begin Cabinet #2 soon.  It's a gutted Centipede machine that I found at an arcade close to home.  The owner let me have it.  It's in rough shape, but it was free.

I want to dedicate this machine to playing the 80's classics so near and dear to my heart.

I've got an old computer to dedicate to the job.  It's a Compaq Presario, AMD K6-II, running about 533 mhz, I think.  It's got 64mb ram, 4.2 gb hd, and I have no idea what the video card is.  The machine's OS is WinME, which is simply crap.

So here's the question:  For the classics, should I run 98SE, DOS, or Linux?  And remember that I'm just a noob and have no idea regarding coding, or any of that stuff.  I can enter text at a commandline if I know what the text is.  Other than that, that's pretty much it.  I'd like to run a front end of sorts, kind of like Mamewah, but if I run Linux, what's the front end?

Sorry for the long post.  And I did find a thread talking about something like this, but it didn't really answer my question.

Thanks guys,
colopioneers

[Hoagie_one]

i think win 98 with minimal install is perfect...but dos may be better with an older version that only runs the older games...dunno about linux

[AgniTheSane]

I have a 400 mhz machine running linux and it plays all the classics, and some of the newer stuff, just fine.

The install of xmame isn't that hard, just go to freshmeat and get the rpm http://freshmeat.net/projects/xmame/

I currently use gnomame as a front end, it is pretty basic, but ti works. There are some better front ends, which I do intend to try when I get a chance, but for now it works great. If you want to find different front ends, go to www.sourceforge.net and search on xmame.

The cool thing about linux is you can download it, install, and if you don't like it all you have lost is a little time and some cds. If you are new to linux, fedora core is an easy install.

http://fedora.redhat.com/

[colopioneers]

AgniTheSane,

That's good info.  I've actually wanted to run Linux, not that I know anything about it, but it would be a good learning experience.

How much brain damage can I expect taking WinME off the computer and going to Linux?

Oh, and what is the X Window System, and do I need it?

Thanks again!

[Sylentwulf]

If you're even REMOTELY worried about having trouble putting linux on. DON'T.

That said, I would stick with linux or win98SE (whatever you're more comfortable, they'll both run classics fine)

Only other note, put SOME more RAM in there. 64mb is REALLY low. You could probably double it for $10.

[REBIRTH]

If you're even REMOTELY worried about having trouble putting linux on. DON'T.

That said, I would stick with linux or win98SE (whatever you're more comfortable, they'll both run classics fine)

Only other note, put SOME more RAM in there. 64mb is REALLY low. You could probably double it for $10.

yes, everything he just said.

[GGKoul]

If you're even REMOTELY worried about having trouble putting linux on. DON'T.

That said, I would stick with linux or win98SE (whatever you're more comfortable, they'll both run classics fine)

Only other note, put SOME more RAM in there. 64mb is REALLY low. You could probably double it for $10.

yes, everything he just said.

Yes to everything he said too  

[Tailgunner]

My first suggestion would be for DOS and Vantage, but only if you have or can find DOS drivers for the computer's hardware.

I agree with the memory suggestion, 64 megs is fine for a 486 or Pentium but I'd double that for a P2.

On the Lynux question, I'd give it a shot. I figure as long as you back up anything on the system you don't want to loose you can't cause any harm by trying it out. You need to wipe the drive anyway to replace WinME, and it'd make a good opportunity to try Lynux. If you don't like it, wipe the drive again and install Win98.

[colopioneers]

Thanks guys!!

I'm gonna give the Linux route a try.  The computer didn't cost me anything, so if I screw it up, I guess it's not that big of a deal.  I really like the idea of trying to learn Linux too.

About that memory upgrade....where would I search to find out what kind of memory I need (PC100, etc)?

Thanks again!

[Sylentwulf]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=51116&item=5102542979&rd=1

Looks like you have SDRam. Probably 66mhz, but if you get some 100mhz, it will work at any speed at or below PC100.

[colopioneers]

Sylentwulf,

Thanks, I'll go with PC100 SDRAM.

The price on that computer seems a little too good to be true...why so cheap?

[AgniTheSane]

Glad to hear you are going to give linux a try, and I agree with the people who suggest more memory. My 400 mhz speed demon has 128mb and it works fine. I like compgeeks www.compgeeks.com, but there are about a zillion places that have cheap memory.

As for ease of use. Installing the OS is easy, but software installation can be harder on linux until you get the hang of things. As for day to day use, If you install the gnome or KDE desktop (gnome installs by default on fedora) it is enough like windows that you will be fine. My 12 year old niece visited last summer, and was navigating on a linux system like a champ, checking her email on the internet, playing games, etc. She didn't even know it was a linux system until I told her.

X Windows is just a windows management system. I would install it (which on fedora means checking the "X Windows" box), but I suspect it installs by default.

Here is a thought. If you want to take a look at linux, without wiping out your old system, download knoppix http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html. It is a version of linux that runs from a bootable CD (it really needs 128 mb though). You don't need to install anything. I would not run it as my main OS, but it is great for demos or getting the feel of things.

[colopioneers]

Thanks AgniTheSane!

Great, great info....gonna get this system up and running if it kills me....

I plan on wiping WinME of the system, and just making it straight Linux.

One last question:

What is the difference between the Linux distributions?  For example, what makes RedHat different from, say, fedora, or another one?  I understand that there are many flavors of Linux, and I would like to use one that is fairly noob-friendly.

Thanks again!

[AgniTheSane]

All of the mainstream distros are good (Mandrake, Suse, Debian, Redhat, Fedora, etc).  There are a zillion and different people like different things. The differences are mostly what they install, how easy it is to install, what hardware they recognize, and how easy it is to update.

I recommended Fedora because the install is easy. You put in the CD, reboot, and answer a bunch of questions. It is all gui, and you don't really have to know linux to get the system up and running. The difference between Fedora and Redhat is that the Fedora project is sponsered by Redhat, but it is made up entirely of free software, and supported by the open-source community. While Redhat is aimed more at the business market, is not completely free, and they charge for support.

The other advantages of Fedora are that there are a lot of existing bianary rpms for Fedora/Redhat, so if you don't feel like compiling from source it makes installs easier, and the Redhat engineers do work on it, so it recognizes a lot of hardware out of the box and they update it regularly.

[colopioneers]

Outstanding!

Ok...I'm going to trust your professional opinion   and go with Fedora!

If my computer crashes, I'm suing you.  

Thanks again!

[darkcape]

I wouldn't worry about crashing your pc my uptime for my web server is now at 134 days   but that was because of a power outage.

if you want to try somethign very small try AdvancedCD pretty easy to set up if you use the readme  

http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/
(did i mkae the link work?)
I love linux :-"