Convincing old gear to play a modern game
Every hobby has a version. Extreme hobby. Wherein you push the limits of your game, or try to do things that the original game did not include. In my case, I spend a lot of (paid) time keeping other people’s computers “running”, so it only makes sense that my free time is spent pushing my limits. For example, the fun of taking an older computer and upgrading it to something more recent.
Over the last couple of evenings, I’ve been upgrading an old Toughbook. No particular reason. After the hardware fixes (more memory, larger hard drive), I attacked the idea of moving this machine from XP to W7. And I succeeded. There’s no easy path here; even trial and error can be considered scientific (in the absence of a simpler methodology).
I’ll concur; the operating systems do a pretty good job of detecting the commonplace components. I had video and networking immediately, sound after a first round of downloads. But there’s always the exceptional. The bright yellow exclamation point is a sign that the task is not finished, yet.
Remember, old hardware, new software. The names change. Often, the only clue is something like “MAT0019”. And then you seek out like minded strangers, via Google and related forums. It took several hours, but the little box now doubles as a touchscreen tablet, and its (intended) role as controller for a series of radios is only hours away. Not tonight, but maybe by the weekend. There’s some keen interest in my new toy around here, so I might have to “share the wealth”.
