It’s been just over seven years since Microsoft officially ended support for Windows XP. Most people have moved on to Vista, 7, 8, and 10 since long before then. Hell, crazy people like me have even moved over to Linux, and there are those Mac people too. That’s not even to mention the amount of time and stuff done on phones and tablets now.
But there are still a lot of old Windows XP computers out there, and there are industrious people looking to sell them. I bring this up because with the chip shortage going on right now, it may be a little hard to get the PC you want.
If you take a look at ebay, and search for something like “windows xp desktop computer”, you can see a decent offering of PCs to buy that will emulate every 8-bit and 16-bit console and computer you could want. Some of these are even powerful enough to handle the 32-bit consoles and the 64-bit ones too.
I personally bought a used HP Z200 workstation a few years ago, and paid only a couple hundred bucks for it. Those things sold for thousands of dollars new, and were pretty damn powerful office computers when they came out. I popped an old graphics card in mine, and it’s currently the most powerful XP computer I’ve ever owned.
But even a basic Dell Optiplex with integrated graphics will run dozens of emulators. I know because I’ve set a few up for friends after getting them used and discarded off a company I worked for.
So if you need a spare gaming PC and just want to play some SNES or Genesis, then you can pick a PC up cheap from a seller on ebay, or another online seller. You can get a spare gaming PC for the kids too this way.
There are, however, some caveats.
First of these is finding a controller. Searching for game controllers that still support Windows XP on Amazon lists plenty of results, but whether or not these controllers actually do support XP is another issue. Moreover, the older emulators you will need to use support “DirectInput” and not “Xinput”. Finding suitable controllers that use DirectInput is essential.
You can also buy used controllers, but that’s another crapshoot. I personally have enough Logitech Dual Action controllers – which I recommend acquiring – but these are discontinued, and any you find online may not be in the best condition.
UPDATE: The Logitech F310 gamepads work with Windows XP right out of the box, as long as they are switched to Direct Input Mode.
UPDATE: I can now report that game controllers from 8BitDo that have a “Direct Input” mode will work perfectly in Windows XP. They can thus be configured in any of these older emulators without a hitch.
The second concern is the display. If you’re getting a laptop, then you’ll be using that display. But if you’re getting a desktop PC, then you should try to seek out a monitor with a 4:3 aspect ratio. And making things more difficult is that there are 5:4 aspect ratio monitors being sold as 4:3 aspect ratio monitors.
The reason why it’s better to get the right monitor is that most of the older emulators from the Windows XP days don’t support maintaining that correct 4:3 aspect ratio. If you try to play them on a widescreen monitor, they will look stretched out and incorrect.
And lastly, if you’re going to use old-ass emulators on an old-ass operating system, you shouldn’t expect every game to work properly, or even at all. If you need to have a bug-free or up-to-date emulation experience, than this isn’t the way to do it.
But if you’re covered as far as controllers and a monitor are concerned, and you have an old Windows XP computer, then you can start loading that computer up with emulators.
Oh, and don’t connect that thing to the internet. There’s no need.
For the links to these emulators, I’ll direct you to the indefatigable Zophar’s Domain and the Emulation General Wiki. Check Zophar’s Domain first for older emulators. If you can’t find it there, DuckDuckGo should do you right. These are what still tend to work on Windows XP. Version numbers listed here are what I run on my Windows XP machines.
Atari 2600
Z26, version 3.02
Odyssey²
O2EM, with the O2EM launcher
Intellivision
Nostalgia
ColecoVision
ColEm, version 3.4
Arcadia 2001
WinArcadia, version 17.6
Vectrex
ParaJVE (requires Java)
Atari 5200
Altirra 32-bit version 2.70 (or Atari800Win PLus)
Sega SG-1000
TwoMbit version (or MEKA version .073)
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nestopia version 1.40
Sega Master System
TwoMbit version (or MEKA version .073)
Atari 7800
BupSystem version 0.9.6.3
TurboGrafx 16
MagicEngine or Turbo Engine
Sega Genesis
Kega Fusion
TurboGrafx CD
MagicEngine (requires virtual disc-mounting software) or Turbo Engine
Game Boy
BGB version 1.4.1
Atari Lynx
Handy
Neo Geo
Neo-RAGEx
Sega Game Gear
TwoMbit version (or MEKA version .073)
Super Nintendo
ZMZ (Snes9X 1.53 with the ZSNES interface lol) or Snes9X 1.53.
Sega CD
Kega Fusion or Gens
Atari Jaguar
Project Tempest
Sega 32X
Kega Fusion
Sega Saturn
SSF (requires virtual disc-mounting software)
PlayStation
NO$PSX, ePSXe, or pSX
Virtual Boy
VBjin (and a pair of anaglyph 3D glasses)
Nintendo 64
Project64 version 1.6
Game Boy Color
BGB version 1.4.1
Neo Geo Pocket
NeoPop or NeoGPC
Bandai WonderSwan
Oswan
Game Boy Advance
NO$GBA version 2.7b
Game Cube
Dolphin up to around version 3.5-2263
Nintendo DS
DeSmuME version 0.9.11
Sony PSP
PPSSPP version 1.8.0
(Update to add old versions of Game Cube, Nintendo DS, and PSP emulators.)
That should theoretically keep you busy for the rest of your life, if you have the games and the interest to play them all. And if you want to emulate some arcade games in Windows XP, then you can look for MAME version .078. There are plenty of 8-bit and 16-bit computer emulators that work great on such an old OS as Windows XP too. You can emulate the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, Amiga, and others if you dig deep and do some searching.
So remember that 2nd “R” in the three “R”s – re-use. Get that old Windows XP computer back up and running to play some classic video games. Or get someone else’s old XP computer to do it! Save it from the landfill today.