I hope FreeDOS gets further development due to the sweet new popularity
Very pricey though. But cool nonetheless.
It's expensive, but I mean, this whole hobby has gotten kinda absurd.
It's not that much more than buying, say, a 1ghz p3 system, a decent sound card, a gotek, a working cd-rom, and a sd->IDE adapter at this point. (You need to skip out on the fancy metal case and such, but still: that's not a functional option, just cosmetic.)
And, bonus, you're not dealing with 25 year old hardware, with all the gonna-end-up-breaking that comes along with that.
I mean, I have two "primary" gaming computers: a 7700x with a 3080, and a 1ghz P3 dell with a Voodoo 5 and a proper (8830) Vortex 2.
.....the retro PC is the more valuable one these days, which strikes me as just bizarre.
100% behind anyone who is going to make usable retro computers that don't involve having to spend usable retro computer money on decades old stuff that may or may not be working in a couple of years.
Oh, I'm all for it. I prefer hardware to emulation any day. But old hardware of around those specs are still pretty easy to find at least in my area for 200 euros for a full system. Perks are that you can upgrade it, and change it.
Repair is an issue though. Although working on small electronics and soldering is my actual job, so not so much a problem for me.
I agree that the value has skyrocketed the past few years. So we'll see what the future brings for the hobby. Maybe in the near future this project will be more financially viable, and that's great. But we're not there yet.
For sure, these are way out of my budget, and as Clint mentions, it's more of a luxury item at that price than it is a practical alternative for most, but it's interesting to see new old stock parts be repurposed like that. Personally, I've fully embraced emulation, especially with how good Dosbox Staging has become.
