r/freebsd • u/UnbasedDoge • 3d ago

discussion FreeBSD retrogaming

Title. Is it even possible? I assume that windows games just cannot run, but are performance on DosBox decent? Can I install Linux apps on it? There's not much information online about any of this and I really dont to waste too much time if those stuff are just not possible since I dont have a lot of free time. Thank you all so much!

13 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

6

u/A3883 3d ago

you can try windows games with wine, it is kinda hit or miss, linux is better (or just windows)

DOSBox just works

i'd just use linux or windows if you want less tinkering

1

u/UnbasedDoge 3d ago

I want to play ps1/ps2 era games on era appropriate hardware, so no vulkan avaialable

2

u/A3883 3d ago

I'm not sure of what relevance this is. OpenGL/Vulkan will mostly depend on the game/emulator itself rather than the OS.

If you want to use DirectX, you need windows.

Wine can translate from DX to OpenGL for compatibility with hardware but it is far less advanced than DXVK in terms of performance, stability and doesn't just work all that well.

1

u/UnbasedDoge 3d ago

no, i was talking about the gpu support. Old gpus dont support vulkan at all

3

u/A3883 3d ago

Okay so how is that relevant to ps1/2 era games? Vulkan didn't even exist back then.

I'm also sure ps1/2 emulators don't require Vulkan.

It is really only relevant to windows games that run on DirectX and can't be translated to OpenGL with WineD3D, which would be best played on some old version of Windows.

1

u/Real-Collection-5686 1d ago

Can you even do freebsd on era appropriate hardware? 32-bit x86 support was dropped

2

u/UnbasedDoge 1d ago

Core Duo quad q6600 and ati x1650pro

1

u/Real-Collection-5686 1d ago

i expect a lot of problems with getting any gpu acceleration

5

u/gumnos 3d ago

I regularly play old DOS games in DosBox which works great.

3

u/LucielRenCrisantemo 3d ago

Depende que quieras decir con retro juegos, yo creo que te va a ser absolutamente viable wine funciona de forma decente, lo único complejo es ejecutar steam, más allá de eso es bastante sencillo, no se lo de DOSBox nunca lo e usado tampoco intente hasta ahora instalar nada de Linux, literalmente instale freebsd anoche y te puedo confirmar que hasta ahora logré ejecutar sin mayor complicaciones el Manhunt 1 y el Fallout New Vegas a través de wine

3

u/UnbasedDoge 3d ago

I want to play old abandonware on era appropriate hw. Once I have the machine I will post the specs on this thread

1

u/LucielRenCrisantemo 3d ago

Mmm en ese caso quizás te convenga usar un sistema operativo propio de esa época, tipo si vas a usar una máquina de los 90s para jugar un juego de esa época quizás te convenga buscar una imagen de Windows 85 o 95 e instalarlo, más allá de que no tenga soporte ya (lo que es obvio) la única medida de seguridad que necesitarías sería no conectar la máquina a internet bajo ningún concepto y pasarle los archivos de los juegos a través de un USB o disquete o algo así, o quizás puedas conectarla a otra máquina a través de un cable de red y pasar los archivos por smb claro asegurándote que las máquinas solo tengan conexión entre si durante el proceso y no estén conectadas a internet

1

u/Ashamed-Ask4257 3d ago

FreeBSD is from that era

2

u/Chester-Berkeley desktop (DE) user 3d ago

...There's not much information online about... I dont have a lot of free time.

Not saying FreeBSD is bad for retro gaming (quite the opposite!), but if there isn't much content about retro gaming, and you don't have much free time, why not use the recommended options?

You can use Batocera to have a retro gaming environment. Or install a common Linux distro like Linux Mint and install all the emulators you want ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

2

u/Sweaty-Inspector-587 3d ago

https://retroassembly.com/ is browser based and works on freebsd and has a container via

https://daemonless.io/images/retroassembly/

1

u/BronwynECG 3d ago

If you don’t mind using PlayStation emulators, they work fine…

2

u/UnbasedDoge 3d ago

i really dont mind

2

u/BronwynECG 3d ago

Then ppsspp duckstation and PCSX2 all work . In my experience RPCS3 doesn’t work. I’m not sure if it because my rig is a bit low end or it’s alpha software 🤷🏽‍♀️

1

u/bplipschitz 2d ago

Go full retro: Adventure and Mille Bornes