Haven't used it yet, by now that you mention it, yes it probably is 1280x1024. Oh well, I guess a little squished is better than a lot of stretching :P

Two desktops ago, I gave away my old desktop to my mother. It got upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7, but upgrading to Windows 10 ran into an upgrade loop. Then reverting back to Windows 7 ran into driver problems and my dad decided to buy a core i3 computer for my mother.

Motivated by nostalgia and internet posts about retro stuff, I asked my dad to take the old desktop back to me and I installed Windows XP on it for retrogaming. And as by upgrading to Windows 10 when it was free to upgrade from W7, it had a license to run W10 and I decided to try a dualboot, to have a spare desktop to use when something goes wrong with my current PC. Dual-booting failed, so I opted for harddrive-swapping: plugging in a Windows XP system drive without Internet it's a retro desktop. Plugging in a W10 system drive it's a backup PC that's safe to connect to the internet.

On Windows XP I played History Channel - The Civil War and Gamergate's version of Industry Giant 2.

Then there's Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 that wouldn't run properly in native FullHD resolution on my NEW Windows 10 PC (accepting only old resolutions like 1280x900) but did run in 1920x1080 FullHD on my OLD PC when I used Windows 10 there.

Here's it's specs:

Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Radeon HD6670 (this being an upgrade from the GeForce 8500GT, I got it out of my Core i3 PC that was in between OLD and NEW PC and that I sold as a desktop with Intel HD Graphics).
4 GB DDR 2 RAM

320 GB noisy XP system HDD
or
1000 GB NOISY Windows 10 system HDD.

GOD, I mean, MATH! I do love the modern silent SSD of my later desktops.


Addendum:

My first console I bought 5 years and was a straight dive into retro-gaming as I wanted to know what console gaming was like, but didn't want to spend too much money on that experiment, so for 35 euro's I bought a second hand

PS2.

Bought in 2014 it was already retro (and I could try lots of games for bargain bin prices).

Uhmm, I use my desktop (2009) laptop (2004) and mobile (2012) in everyday tasks. They are not around for any retro reasons. I think all of them will need replacing this year though :-(

Sounds like it could be a very expensive year for you!

A hundred for a mobile, maybe €100-200 for a used laptop and €400-600 for making my desktop modern again. Only the mobile is showing signs of breaking though.

I have an Atari 8-bit computer (An XE model) and there are a lot of good quality games on it, just found a floppy disk drive and a touch tablet for it the other day.

A Soviet oil rig off the coast of Azerbaijan. The oil bux fuel my gaming habit.

You could get a cheaper desktop (that still performs well) by going the route I am and using all old/used parts and building your own "junkyard dog".

Heh. My second computer, and first that I actually owned myself. I've got a couple in the closet with a box full of game cartridges. I need to pull it out again and set it up.


So, I've been thinking about setting up a Windows XP machine for when I really want to play an older game with full compatibility - and despite my generous GoG library, I still have a couple shelves full of older games, many not on GoG like NolF 1 & 2. Ideally I could put on my desk out of the way, and share my Keyboard/Mouse/Monitor setup with

I did a little looking into building an old machine, and the specs for mid-2000s video cards and came up with an interesting idea which seems to fit my wants:

Buy a 2010 Apple Mac Mini for $150 or so and swap in an SSD Drive in places of the HDD (now that SSDs are so cheap). Put Boot Camp on it and install XP, as it was the last Mini which supported Windows XP, as well as the last one to come with a DVD drive. The Mini is so tiny, quiet, sips almost no power, and it would stay out of the way on the back of the desk.

The 320M GPU in the 2010 Mini benchmarks around the same as a nVidia 7900 / 7950 GT which was the top dog video card back in 2006, and it has HDMI & displayport and can run on my 30" Dell monitor, and share the USB Keyboard/Mouse Switch.

If I see a good price for on craigslist, I think I'll try it.

My laptop is kinda old. Lenovo Y570. That's why I just got a Surface Pro 2018. I also have a PSP.

Time to invest in windmills then. My gaming habit is fueled by windmills I'm part owner of by buying windmill certificates.

Does Windows XP count as retro at this point?
In that case, I have an XP desktop and an XP laptop. Don't know the specs off the top of my head. Desktop is laying pretty much unused under some table (still connected and can be turned on though) and I used the laptop until a few years ago (last used probably around the beginning of 2018).

Hoping to get Win 98 installed on one of those in the future.

I've upgraded my first computer (a Macintosh Performa 475 released in '92, bought in '94) from its original 150-MB HDD and (soldered-in) 4 MB RAM to a 4-GB HDD and 36 MB RAM (the soldered-in 4 MB and a 32-MB stick in the single RAM slot). I've yet to upgrade the 512 kB VRAM to 1MB

I would assume the 9500 came with 32 MB RAM, a 4-GB HDD, and a 2- or 4-MB video card - I could look it up, but I CBA. The G4 would likely come stocked with 256 or 512 MB of RAM (that was in 2003 or so, mind) and a 30 or 40 GB HDD.

I still have my Amiga 500 (upgraded to 1 MB Chip RAM) and two extra external disk drives, and an Amiga 1200 with 250 MB internal HDD.

Not sure if everyone would count it as Retro, though Microsoft EOL'd it 5+ years ago now.

I'm finding support for some of my favorite early PC games is getting worse and worse on recent hardware running both Win 7 and 10 - Especially 256 color games. Part of it I'm sure is the newer video drivers as 256 color modes have been emulated on 3d video cards since the early 2000s.

With a big monitor on my desk, it would be nice to have something old enough but not too hold, running an OS that's got better compatibility for the older games.