The tide of retro-gaming mini-consoles continues, and washing up on the shore next summer will be a little box that is designed for playing old DOS games on your TV. The PC Classic from Unit-E Technologies looks almost ready for prime time, and the maker says that it will be launching on a crowdfunding platform later this month or next. Maryland-based Unit-E is a small outfit but has experience in arcade and mobile games production.
Nostalgically styled, with ye olde 80s beige PC in mind, there are of course modern accoutrements. The front includes a shrunken 5.25-inch style slot for SD cards and beneath that there is a pair of USB ports to connect controllers or input peripherals. A power button resides in the centre of the front panel (sadly no turbo button) and there are 'cooling vents' dominating the right side. Round the back there is another USB port, an HDMI connector and a composite video out. Lastly there will be Bluetooth connectivity possibilities.
The PC Classic homepage contains an overview video showing off a functional prototype device, and a pleasingly thorough Q&A section. In the video, embedded below, you can see a few games running, like DOOM, Quake 2, Commander Keen and more. In the video descriptive text it highlights that these are just being shown for demo purposes right now – it isn’t claimed that these games will be included with the console.
In terms of games, the PC Classic will come with approx 30 licensed games at launch, say the makers. Games bundled will be pre-configured, licensed, and easy to run on the system – just like a console. It is planned that users will be able to add 'new' games via SD card. Bundled games will work with the single joypad supplied with the system but will work with the keyboard/mouse as appropriate if you wish. There is a possibility that a mini-keyboard and mouse will be bundled with the finished console. Other things that will be added during crowdfunding include at least one colour alternative (not everyone likes nicotine-beige).
Lastly, Unit-E smacks-down the idea that technophiles wielding a Raspberry Pi with DOSBox and a 3D printer could build a similarly capable system for less...
Is the PC Classic an attractive proposition to HEXUS readers? If so what would be your essential DOS games to play on your TV?
