Wednesday 23 June 2010

Goodbye to Gettysburg

I've been sorting out a load of old computer stuff that has been accumulating in the house. Over the years I've acquired, but never got round to throwing out, several computers, keyboards, screens and a huge pile of very old computer games that have long since become defunct. Most of this stuff doesn't work any more but all of it comes with fond memories.

Foremost amongst the pile of old games are a collection of Talensoft Battleground wargames. I bought these when I still had a computer that ran Windows 95 and haven't played them in years. I tried reloading one of the games on my laptop with its Vista OS and needless to say it didn't respond well. While this is a great pity its also an opportunity for me to get out and buy a more up to date version of the game.

Battleground Gettysburg (originally released in 1995) was my first purchase in the series and was one of my favorite games for a long time. I had a trial copy that I think came on a magazine CD and liked it so much I went out and bought the full version - the only time I've ever done this.


One scenario I played time and time again was Picketts Charge. I got slaughtered pretty much every time I played the Confederates but being a computer game I could go back to the beginning and try again, changing my strategy based on earlier games. I'd like to play this with miniatures one day, just to see if I learned anything from my virtual training ground.

3 comments:

  1. Yep. I went through the same pain when I went to Win7. Recounted it on my blog.

    I decided not to toss any of my Talonsoft games. There is a ray of hope: DOSbox. I haven't tried it yet because I haven't had the time. But it just might work. Eventually I will get around to it.
    http://www.dosbox.com/

    Also, don't toss any old Lucas Arts RPG games. Besides being quite valuable, they can run great in a ScummVM box. I will also try these and post the results to my blog.
    http://www.scummvm.org/

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  2. I think Windows Vista has an emulator allowing you to play old Windows 95 / 98 games.

    The other option is to buy a very old PC (for next to nothing) and play them on that.

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  3. Its a shame Lee ... many of the older sim games like Panzer General never seemed to get upgraded to the newer op systems. Fond memories indeed .... close combat series still works on my pc ..... thank god

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