In which I get a Windows XP machine

Intro Link to heading

Recently, I recieved an old Windows XP machine. I was pretty excited to use it, but I will admit that it sat around in my garage for a week or two before I brought it inside. I wasn’t too sure what I could do with an old machine like that, but I figured I could have some fun with it. I decided that, if nothing else, I could at least play some games on it.

But can it play DOOM? Link to heading

Yes. As connecting to the internet would probably be a particularly foolhardy move (even for me), I decided to copy the .iso files from the Internet Archive onto a usb and then connect them to the XP computer. This worked surpisingly well, and I played through the first few levels before deciding to install some more software. I was a bit annoyed, though, because there didn’t appear to be any music. I think it was due to some hardware issues.

We rip a few DVDs Link to heading

Since my computer does have a DVD-ROM port, I figured it would be interesting to watch a few old DVDs I had lying around. I picked up Cosmos from a garage sale last year, so I figured I should start watching it at some point. I installed DVD Decrypter and Handbrake and ripped the first disk. Unfortunately, I had issues with the second disk, but I’ll figure it out sometime or another.

Halo and Half Life Link to heading

I went back onto the internet archive, and I installed a lot more pieces of software and games. In particular, I grabbed Morrowind, Half Life 1, and Halo. I also installed old versions of Autodesk Animator, Inventor, and Autocad, and Microsoft Paint. I keep looking through the archive and installing random programs I find interesting, so it’s likely I’ll update this later with other random things I find. I’m not too worried that I’ll get a virus, because I figure that I can always just reinstall windows again.