About Vintage486.nl
My journey into computing started in the late 1980s with my father's machine — an 80286 running at 12 MHz, complete with a turbo button that clocked it down to 8 MHz for software that couldn't cope with the speed. It was on that machine that I wrote my first programs, discovering GW-BASIC and later Turbo Pascal. Programming felt like magic: you typed words, pressed enter, and the computer did things. It wasn't my first computer though. I had had a ZX Spectrum before - but this was my first serious computer.
Not long after, I got my own machine: an 80286 @ 16 MHz with 1 MB of RAM and a VGA board. My first real game on it was Leisure Suit Larry 5, which a friend installed on it. It opened a door I never closed. The combination of hand-drawn VGA graphics, PC Speaker sound, and clever puzzle design felt like nothing else at the time — and frankly, still does. Combined with Al Lowe's humor and a bit of naughy-ness, the game was perfect for a 12 year old growing up.
The first major upgrade was a Sound Blaster Pro 2.0. The jump from PC speaker beeps to actual sampled audio was staggering. Suddenly games had voices. Music had depth. It changed everything. I remember buying it new, from Dixons in Leidschenhage (now: The Mall of the Netherlands) for 299 guilders. It included two games: Lemmings and Indianapolis 500. Oddly enough, neither feautured digitale audio but the music track of Lemmings was addictive!
From there, the upgrades kept coming: an 80386SX/33 for better performance, 4MB of RAM, a 100MB harddisk and eventually — the machine this site is named after — an 80486SX/25 mainboard, acquired specifically to run DOOM at a somewhat playable framerate. I got the mainboard from the father of a friend who had upgraded to a 80486DX2/66 and bought it for cheap. I was 16/17 at the time and remember connecting it for the first time to my PSU misplacing the power connector and shorting the board. Luckily, it wasn't damaged and I could still use. Remember, black against black when connecting an old-style AT power connector to a mainboard. The board worked. Glorious 486! Mission accomplished.
Years passed, but the passion never left. I started seeking out the original Big Box editions of classic DOS games — the large cardboard boxes with thick manuals, reference cards, and sometimes feelies. There is something deeply satisfying about holding a complete, original box for a game you played as a child on a floppy disk. You actually own a physical copy. Most of my games when I was a child were illegal pirated copies, but some I had bought and kept over the years. I slowly started adding more titles.
Today the collection numbers 150+ Big Box games, 10+ vintage computers, and a range of period hardware — sound cards, graphics cards, input devices, and more. This site is my attempt to properly document all of it.
My particular soft spot is for the adventure game genre, especially the output of Sierra On-Line (Space Quest, King's Quest, Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry) and LucasArts (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max). I consider these among the finest creative work ever produced in the software industry.
But let's not forget some other titles as well that captured me. Dune and Dune II, Civilization, Doom and Doom 2, Command & Conquer (often while playing with a friend), One Must Fall 2097, Star Control II, SimCity, etc. etc. etc.
Vintage486.nl is a personal project with several goals: cataloguing my collection, sharing walkthroughs and technical tips, and providing a small archive of useful files for people still running period-correct hardware and software.
I also run a YouTube channel featuring game playthroughs, hardware teardowns, and setup videos. The channel name contains "XGA" — a nod to the display technology that defined the era. The channel is still work in progress.
If you share the passion for classic DOS hardware and software, feel free to get in touch. Always happy to talk shop.