Hands on: HTC Evo 3D review
Once a passing gimmick, 3D seems to be here to stay. HTC is heralding the move from the cinema screen to the handheld with the launch of the HTC Evo 3D, sacrificing svelte light-footedness for a dual-camera wielding chunk of a handset.
HTC's first 3D phone is also its first Evo-branded handset to reach the UK's fair shores; we got up close and personal to see if the extra dimension is worth all the fuss.
It's certainly not the lightest smartphone on the block; all that extra heft required for the dual-cameras and 3D-capable screens means a bit of extra weight. The Evo 3D is noticeably heavier in the hand than the iPhone 4, for example.
There's also more to get your mitts around, with the Evo 3D chassis coming in slightly longer and chunkier than its HTC stablemate, the Sensation.
At first glance, the HTC Evo 3D is just another black, rectangular handset, but flip it on its back and you'll see the two 5MP cameras that capture that all-important 3D video.
The bronze styling and rectangular housing of the two cameras and dual-LED flash give it a retro cassette-tape look.
The back is also covered in an easy-grip plastic, which gives the handset a more rugged feel, no doubt intended for intrepid mountain-ranging photographers as well as butterfingers on a boozy night out.
HTC was obviously hoping to evoke a camera-esque feel on the Evo 3D, too, with a gigantic silver shutter button sitting on the side of the phone, with a handy 2D to 3D slider so you can easily switch between deeper and flatter image capture.
The regular HTC Android touch-buttons sit below the 4.3-inch touchscreen, with home, back, menu and search functions all covered off.
Also on the side of the handset are the volume slider and a microUSB port for charging, USB connection or to output via HDMI.
On top, the simple headphone socket (3.5mm, natch) and the power/standby button.
Like the Sensation before it, the HTC Evo 3D is running Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) with HTC's Sense 3.0 overlay, complete with 3D scrolling – although not quite as 3D as you'd expect from a 3D-capable phone; HTC hasn't updated this to genuine 3D.
With a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon processor on board, operation is smooth and fluid, with no lag that we noticed. Apps were quick to load and snappy to use.
That 4.3-inch qHD screen is as lovely as the HTC Sensation's, although we'd anticipate those pesky bright-sunlight issues to continue on the Evo 3D.
It's wonderfully responsive – although we'd expect nothing less from HTC at this point – quickly scrolling and swiping between screens, reacting to even the lightest of presses on buttons and generally causing us no pain whatsoever.
There's not much new to report on the interface front, with the menus, home screens, messaging and other core functions remaining unchanged from those of the HTC Sensation.
Internet browsing, although a little slow on a native O2 connection, was perfect once a page had loaded, with the pinch-to-zoom offering crisp rendering at acceptable speeds.
HTC is keen to push the Evo 3D as a camera phone, which is wise, considering they've given it three to play with.
On the front, there's a 1.3MP camera for all your video calling needs, and it's nice to see the company stepping up its front-mounted snapper given the increasing interest in face displaying calls.
Whichever of the two 5MP cameras on the back takes the 2D images, it offers crisp, bright shots using the familiar Sense camera interface.
HTC has increased the aperture width to f2.2 (as opposed to the Sensation's f2.8), so it should make for a good low-light camera as well.
The shutter button, which launches the camera on a long press, doesn't act as bouncily as a regular camera's; you're looking at a standard press and release, which, given its looks, is a little bit of a shame.
When it comes to 3D photography, we were very impressed with the cameras' performance; all of our video came out with a nice depth while the foreground was sharp and crisp.
It's hard to get a feel for the 3D imaging in the picture below, but the grid-lines make it easier to line up your shot, while giving you a passable preview of the 3D photo.
3D stills weren't quite as professional-looking, with a few jagged edges giving photos a slightly pixellated look. It is better in the flesh than in the photo below, though.
The gallery gives you a handy overview of what's in 2D and which photos and videos are in 3D.
Watching 3D video on the handset does require finding a bit of a sweet spot, but not to the extent that we found with the LG Optimus 3D or the Nintendo 3DS, both of which require you to stay in one precise place or lose the 3D effect. We could jiggle the handset around a little (say, simulating the motion of a train or a car) and still enjoy fairly high quality 3D.
While a valiant effort, it's still not perfect 3D though, and may leave some users feeling frustrated.
We can't vouch for the Evo 3D's battery life in practice, but 1730 mAh battery on board, HTC promises up to 465 minutes of talk time, although how much the 3D will deplete that remains to be seen.
What will make or break the 3D-ability of the Evo 3D, however, is professional 3D movie content; HTC has deals with studios in the works, but it needs to have these up and running before the handset hits the shops or risk a bit of apathy – the odd home-3D-movie is okay, but to make the most of the tech you'll really want proper Hollywood video.
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How Windows 8 touch relies on IE10
Is the full-screen touch interface for Windows 8 'just a shell' on top of Windows?
Not really; there isn't an application running like Media Center that you could shut down and it isn't just a browser – this is another mode for the interface that you can switch in and out of. But it is the browser that powers it.
Apps for the immersive Windows 8 interface are written in HTML5, JavaScript and CSS (and presumably, Silverlight – this is the IE10 engine and there's no reason for it not to run plug-ins) and packaged up in an AppX container.
In fact, if you dig into the web standards support that Microsoft has added to IE10, it's clear to see that despite the resemblance to the Silverlight-powered Windows Phone 7 'Metro' interface, the layout of this new user interface is the biggest reason for adding those standards now.
One standard that Microsoft added to IE9, Media Queries, is always suggested as a way to have one web page display appropriately on different-sized screens – not just shrinking the page but reflowing the layout and adding or removing extra details to fit.
IE9: Media Queries change the layout of the page as you resize it
The IE Test Drive demo for Media Queries shows a page of pictures optimised for a smartphone, a netbook and a notebook or desktop: the images change size, lose the headline and caption and switch from a grid layout to a stack.
That's exactly the same change you see in the News application in the Windows 8 touch demo: when the app is full screen, you get large thumbnails with captions underneath them and the heading for each section has several links.
The layout is the same when another app takes up a slice of the screen, but when you slide the News app over so it takes up a smaller area, you only get one image and heading in each section and the images turn into small thumbnails to make room for the caption.
It's the same with the video player; as the window gets smaller the video doesn't just get resized – the layout changes with the title appearing underneath it, along with the playlist. That's exactly what you'd expect from an interface based on Media Queries.
WINDOWS 8: When the News app is full screen, you get a page of large images…
Incidentally, Media Queries let you change the layout of a page based on the orientation as well as the size. So far we've only seen the Windows 8 immersive user interface in landscape format, but we've also only seen it on a breadboxed ARM system that would be pretty hard to pick up and rotate, so it's still entirely possible that there will be a portrait version of the interface.
NEW LAYOUT: Drag the video player to take most of the screen and the News layout changes completely
Media Queries retrieve different layouts and views of the page from the server depending on the window size but getting a flexible layout in the first place takes a combination of three web standards only introduced in IE10 – including one that Microsoft came up with and only proposed to the W3C group that standardises HTML in April.
VIDEO THUMBNAIL: Give the News app more room and the video player changes layout instead
That's the Grid Layout standard, which "allows us to align content and create regions within an app," according to Markus Mielke, a senior lead program manager on the IE team – and IE10 is the first browser to include Grid Layout.
HOW GRIDS WORK: This IE10 tutorial shows how an app can be divided into regions that align and stretch…
Grids can have headers, footers, main sections and gutters to divide areas. You can define the proportions of the areas as fractions of the page and use layers and alignment to position content inside the grid rather than counting pixels. "If you're familiar with the WPF grid [for laying out applications], some concepts should sound familiar," Mielke points out and grid is ideal for web apps – including the Windows 8 user interface.
START GRID: The Start screen layout uses a grid of tiles…
Look at the way the tiles in the Windows 8 Start screen are laid out in grids, with three columns that can have one or two tiles in each cell of the grid, with a gutter between them to mark the edge of a 'page' (like the panoramas in Windows Phone 7 that means you can always see that there's more content than fits on screen). The Photo Feedr app has the same kind of grid layout, with different sized pictures arranged to fit into the grid.
PHOTO GRID: …and the Photo Feedr app has a grid layout of thumbnails
Within the grid layout the elements of an app don't have to all resize or stretch in the same way; that's handled by the flexible box standard (flexbox for short). And when there's content arranged in columns that you want to reflow as the window changes size, that's done by the multi-column standard.
STRETCH: As you make the window larger, flexbox stretches the layout but keeps the boxes aligned.
The flexbox standard is "in flux," Mielke says and it's only just entering the working draft stage, which is about stable enough to fit the IE team's maxim of only implementing standards that are ready for developers to work with. But the multi-column standard he calls "super stable"; it hasn't changed since the end of 2009, so it could easily have been in IE9 on that basis. It's most useful when you have flexbox and grid layout as well and our guess is that the IE team waited until it could work on them all together in IE10 – so the Windows team could use them to build their interface.
RELATIVE: Set the proportions for flexible boxes and different content areas get more of the space in a larger window
MULTISIZE: This IE10 demo app gets different layouts and content details depending on the window size – exactly the same principles you see in the Windows 8 touch apps
Another new standard implemented in IE10 is CSS3 transitions; the new HTML5 SkyDrive photo view uses this to rearrange image thumbnails using subtle animations as you resize your browser window – so the images flow into place rather than jumping. That looks very like the way the tiles on the Start screen flow into place as you scroll sideways.
HTML5 SKYDRIVE:Animated transitions rearrange your photos and SkyDrive keeps the aspect ratio (like flexbox)
"If you think small you should not forget big as well," Mielke says of web apps; "it's not just about small devices, it's also about scaling up." Similarly the Windows 8 immersive interface isn't just for tablets; we're expecting a variant for big screen systems – perhaps one you can control with Kinect.
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Microsoft to trial 'white space' Wi-Fi
Microsoft is set to trial a new type of Wi-Fi this week, which uses the white space spectrum to bolster wireless connectivity for smartphones.
The computing company will use frequencies within the 470MHz to 790MHz range – a spectrum which was initially given to digital TV companies but has so far not been used.
The trial will see if pushing a Wi-Fi signal through a spectrum so close to digital TV will harm television signals and is being seen as an alternative to both LTE and current Wi-Fi.
The idea that white space could help with mobile broadband was first proposed by Ofcom back in 2009 and is something the US has been pondering since 2008.
Super Wi-Fi
The trials are taking place in Cambridge this Wednesday and will be closely watched by a consortium that includes the BBC, BSkyB and BT.
"Spectrum is a finite natural resource. We can't make more and we must use it efficiently and wisely," said Microsoft's Dan Reed to the FT.
"The TV white spaces offer tremendous potential to extend the benefits of wireless connectivity to many more people, in more locations, through the creation of super Wi-Fi networks."
Even if the trials are a success, it is not thought that the white space spectrum will be used on a mass scale, but more for rural areas and selected towns and cities.
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Report: Microsoft seeking free-to-play Xbox Live games
Microsoft is reportedly set to try out a free-to-play service for its Xbox Live service which will be funded through the use of micro-transactions.
Develop is quoting Microsoft sources who suggest that discussions have been opened with developers who are willing to open their games out to the masses and take a chance on micro-transactions in the hope that small payments from a much larger potential audience will increase profits.
It's a model that has proven to be a massive success in the apps world, where games developers have cashed in on creating a fan base and then giving the opportunity to invest in a game later on.
TF2
And the PC and Mac gaming world has just been told that one of the most popular online shooters, Valve's Team Fortress 2, has gone free to play, with micro transactions allowing players to deck out their character in hats and enhanced options.
Micro-transactions have also become a popular way of funding MMOs, where players can improve things like armour and weapons in a game that costs nothing to play at a basic level by paying small amounts.
There is talk that the popular Kinect for Xbox 360 could feature heavily in any move from Microsoft to open out Xbox Live.
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HTC Evo 3D unveiled for UK
HTC has finally deigned to reveal its UK version of the HTC Evo 3D, a dual-camera-toting Android 2.3 media superphone.
The handset has been designed to put the camera back into cameraphone, with a big unmissable shutter button and handy 2D to 3D slider on top of the sizable chassis.
On the back sit the two 5MP cameras for photographing and videoing in 2D and 3D, with dual LED flashes joining the photographic party.
The cameras are slightly better quality than the HTC Sensation's lone snapper – with f/2.2 aperture they should perform pretty niftily in low-light conditions.
Watch it
As well as capturing 3D video, HTC is making plans for Hollywood's 3D fare to make its way to the Evo 3D by way of HTC Watch, the company's video service.
The company couldn't yet say whether any 3D content was tied down for the service, nor whether it would cost more than regular old 2D movies; but the Evo 3D will be coming bundled with The Green Lantern in 3D in some countries; again, no word on whether the UK is one of those countries yet.
Similarly, it's not yet clear from HTC whether or not users will be able to upload 3D video direct from the handset.
Heavy load
Because of the extra screen and camera tech, the HTC Evo 3D isn't the lightest of cameras, weighing in at 170g – around the same weight as the LG Optimus 3D.
The glasses-free 3D is shown off on the 4.3-inch qHD screen, with stereo surround sound.
Powering all this 3D goodness is a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor running Android Gingerbread (2.3) with the HTC Sense overlay.
It is, essentially, the HTC Sensation with added 3D; meant for added media enjoyment rather than just the regular smartphone oomph.
The HTC Evo 3D UK release date is scheduled for some time in July 2011; no news on the UK pricing front yet, but we'd expect it to be around the same levels as the HTC Sensation (currently around £35 per month on contract or £450 SIM-free).
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Review: eMachines G627-202G25Mi
Californian company eMachines was taken over last decade by Acer, but the brand is still used for entry-level laptops. The eMachines G627-202G25Mi has some strong points, such as an excellent screen, but performance and portability lag far behind the competition.
With a massive 17.3-inch screen and a hulking chassis that's 44mm thick, this is a big laptop, thicker than the 17.3-inch Toshiba Satellite C670D. At 2.8kg, it's also heavy, and best left on a desk at home.
That said, the eMachines G627-202G25Mi is a decent-looking laptop and solidly built, except for a little flex around the palmrests.
The keyboard is a good size, despite not stretching the width of the chassis, and the firm typing action makes it comfortable to work on all day. We expected a larger touchpad, but at least it's responsive and features a scrollbar for quick navigation.
The extra screen space makes this an excellent laptop for consuming your media. Films and photos look fantastic on the large Super-TFT panel, and this is an impressively bright and colourful screen. Viewing angles are reasonably wide and the display tilts all the way back.
Benchmarks
Battery life: 185 minutes
MobileMark 2007: 76
3DMark 2003: 2232
Poor processing
The eMachines G627-202G25Mi features an AMD processor, known for its cheap budget performance. Sadly, it produced low benchmark scores, proving itself capable of only the most basic tasks, such as browsing the web and word processing.
Graphical performance is also restricted to viewing photos and watching DVDs. HD video stutters constantly and even basic games struggle. If you want a laptop to edit your media, the Acer Aspire 5741z is a much better option.
Three hours of battery life is also a mediocre result, but as previously stated, we wouldn't want to travel far with the eMachines G627-202G25Mi anyway.
You have enough space for thousands of photos and songs on the 250GB hard drive, which is standard for a laptop of this price.
Other features are, unfortunately, a disappointment. For a start, wireless networking is a little slow, with no support for the speedy 802.11n standard.
The only ports you get are a VGA connection for hooking up external monitors and a measly two USB ports for attaching peripherals such as mice and external hard drives.
Verdict
If you want a cheap home machine for enjoying DVDs and browsing the web, the eMachines G627-202G25Mi is a good option thanks to its large, vibrant display. However, rivals easily beat its performance and portability.
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Review: Acer Aspire 5741Z
Acer is one of the most prolific laptop manufacturers and its Aspire range boasts everything from budget portables to the most powerful multimedia monsters. The Aspire 5741Z is the former, a smart and surprisingly powerful entry-level laptop.
Budget machines make some tough compromises to cut costs, and one of the first casualties is often performance. However, while the Acer's Pentium P6000 processor has been around a while, it's extremely powerful. We found we could browse the web, play music and run various applications all at once, with only the occasional slowdown.
The Acer Aspire 5741Z also scored highly in our graphical benchmark tests. There's no dedicated graphics card, with the processor handling images instead, but we were highly impressed to find we could watch Full HD video and run complex photo editing suites. At this price point, that's quite a feat.
We also like the Acer's design, which is undoubtedly smarter than rivals such as the HP Compaq Presario CQ62-220SA and eMachines G627-202G25Mi. The brushed metal interior is resistant to fingerprints and belies the low cost, although we did notice some flex when you press on the palmrests.
You can comfortably carry the slim 2.5kg chassis if you need something to occupy you on commutes or long trips, while 250 minutes of battery life between charges is an impressive result.
An important feature that should never be compromised, no matter what the price, is usability. Thankfully, the Acer Aspire 5741Z's keyboard is typically excellent.
The board fills the chassis with well-sized keys, although not everyone will like the flat design and it's easy for crumbs to slip between the gaps. A separate numeric keypad can be used to enter data.
Benchmarks
Battery life: 250 minutes
Mobilemark 2007: 195
3Dmark 2003: 3200
Responsive touchpad
The Acer's touchpad is smooth and sensitive, with a scrollbar along the right edge that allows you to skip through documents and web pages. Unfortunately, we kept brushing it while typing.
While the 15.6-inch screen isn't as bright as some, we found our photos were colourfully reproduced. Bear in mind that the Super-TFT finish makes the panel reflective, so you'll struggle to see anything when outdoors. You also get an HDMI port to attach external monitors.
Other laptops at this price point, such as the HP Compaq Presario CQ62-220SA and eMachines G627-202G25Mi, come with 250GB of storage, but the Acer Aspire 5741Z has a 320GB hard drive, adding extra value. However, you'll still struggle for space if you have a large collection of music and movies.
If you want to get online, the Acer's networking abilities are fantastic.
Verdict
If your budget is slender, but you need a powerful and portable machine, the Aspire 5741Z is your best option by far.
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Review: Advent Zuni
With tablets taking over the world, the humble netbook has been kicked aside like an unpopular Christmas present. This isn't to say that they're obsolete, as they're still a cheap and portable means of accessing the internet and your Office applications, but the Advent Zuni stumbles at a vital hurdle.
The main problem is battery life. We've tested a lot of netbooks in our time, and models such as the Dell Inspiron Mini make us expect them to run for at least five hours between charges – preferably longer. However, the Advent Zuni gave up after just 103 minutes of use. That's worse than most high-powered gaming laptops.
It's a real shame, as the slim and light build is easily transportable. The red chassis won't win any design awards, but it's tough enough to take a few knocks. However, we did notice the left edge and rear got surprisingly hot during use.
This is particularly unusual as netbooks are lacking in power. The Advent Zuni is no exception, powered by the budget Intel Atom processor.
If you want a portable for browsing the web and consuming your music and photos, this will certainly do the job. However, if you want to edit your holiday photos or home videos, watch high-definition movies or play anything more complex than Solitaire, then you'll need to look elsewhere.
With 200GB of storage on board, you can carry a large collection of photos and music around with you. An SD card reader allows you to expand this space.
Ports are typically limited, with a VGA port for hooking up external monitors and three USB ports for peripherals. You also get a basic 0.3MP camera for webchats.
While the 10-inch display is compact, with a wide border around the screen, it's also bright and reasonably crisp. Websites are well presented and photos look sharp and vibrant. At this budget price, we were quite impressed.
Netbooks have to make a special effort when it comes to usability, as a cramped keyboard will be uncomfortable to type on for even short periods. Thankfully the Advent Zuni's board is well spaced and fills the whole chassis. Keys are isolated from each other, and we found we never hit the wrong one by accident.
The touchpad is understandably crushed on the narrow palmrests, but sensitive enough for it not to matter.
Benchmarks
Battery life: 103 minutes
Mobile Mark 2007: 68
3DMark 2003: 720
Verdict
The Advent Zuni is well put together – despite possible thermal issues – and has a strong screen and a great keyboard. However, you'll need to drag your charger wherever you go, and if you find yourself stuck somewhere without a plug socket, you'll be counting down the minutes until it dies.
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Michael Bay: Please watch new Transformers in 3D
Michael Bay has urged moviegoers to watch his latest movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 3D, insisting that he is glad that legendary directors Steven Spielberg and Jim Cameron convinced him to film using the latest technology.
Hollywood is currently going through a good deal of soul searching on 3D films, and whether the technology really constitutes the future for their industry.
Director Bay has joined a list of major luminaries, including Spielberg and Cameron as well as the likes of George Lucas and Peter Jackson, who insist that the technology is worth pursuing.
Technically challenging
"Dark of the Moon has some of the most technically challenging sequences ever shot. And shot in 3D," explains Michael Bay on his blog.
"I must urge you to find the very best theatre and see this movie in that format. 3D was a forethought, not an afterthought in this movie.
"I'm glad Jim Cameron and Steven Spielberg really convinced me to shoot in this new technology. We used and invented many new techniques to make the 3D sharper, brighter and more colour contrast.
Dim the bulbs
"I think theatre owners heard their audience that they need to respect the specs of the projectors and not dim the bulbs to save money," he added.
The last comment is in reference to the news that cinemas are deliberately turning down the brightness of their 3D projectors in order to preserve then for longer.
This is severely impacting on people's 3D experience according to many within the movie industry, who are insisting that the extra cost of the bulbs must be swallowed in order to improve the experience.
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Competition: WIN! An Xbox 360 slim and new MLG Vault
TechRadar has teamed up with Calibur11 to give away a fantastic Xbox 360 Slim and four cool MLG Vault cases.
Calibur11 has been creating gaming cases for the Xbox 360 for a while now and the MLG Vault range of console cases are built to enhance your gaming experience and improve the efficiency of your humble Xbox 360 Slim.
And the best thing about the cases is that they are customisable. When you plug in the MLG vault you are given the power to light it up, or play it low key. The future-optimised accessories allow for proper placement of your professional gaming equipment.
Case closed
An MLG Vault is specifically designed to entice the novice and thrill the pro.They also help with keeping your gaming machine maintained as the chassis helps stabilise the Xbox 360S while giving it lift to provide better airflow.
The Vault also brings your gaming to a new level with LEDs in unique places and in game interaction.
TechRadar is giving away an Xbox 360 Slim and an MLG Vault to one winner and three runners-up will get a MLG Vault.
To be in with a chance of winning, go to our competition page.
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Please note that this competition is only open to UK residents over 18 years of age.
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LulzSec calls it a day
After creating 50 days of havoc and panic across the internet, the infamous hacking group LulzSec has gone into retirement.
Following a widespread hacking spree which targeted the likes of Sony, Nintendo, the CIA and the UK's organised crime website, the group says it is disbanding.
The announcement comes following the arrest of a British teenager believed to be involved with the group and as a rival group revealed the purported identities of its members.
In an eloquently-worded-call-to-humanity of a statement, the six-member group says that they were never doing it for fame, but just because they could.
Thrill of anarchy
"For the past 50 days we've been disrupting and exposing corporations, governments, often the general population itself, and quite possibly everything in between, just because we could," the statement reads.
"All to selflessly entertain others - vanity, fame, recognition, all of these things are shadowed by our desire for that which we all love. The raw, uninterrupted, chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy.
"It's what we all crave, even the seemingly lifeless politicians and emotionless, middle-aged self-titled failures.
"You are not failures. You have not blown away. You can get what you want and you are worth having it, believe in yourself."
AntiSec lives on
However, despite 'sailing into the sunset' the group says the AntiSec movement which it, along with Anonymous, resurrected will live on.
"Again, behind the mask, behind the insanity and mayhem, we truly believe in the AntiSec movement.
"We believe in it so strongly that we brought it back, much to the dismay of those looking for more anarchic lulz.
"We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement manifests itself into a revolution that can continue on without us.
"The support we've gathered for it in such a short space of time is truly overwhelming, and not to mention humbling.
"Please don't stop. Together, united, we can stomp down our common oppressors and imbue ourselves with the power and freedom we deserve."
The A-Team strikes
LulzSec's retirement comes as a rival group The A-Team offered the group a little of its own medicine, publishing the purported names and locations of LulzSec's members and their families.
Claiming that LulzSec simply lacked the ability to continue its reign of terror, and that it was simply "not very good at hacking" The A-Team has decided to expose the members.
"The problem with Lulzsec/gn0sis's "Hacktivist" mantra is that they lack the skills to keep it going. As such after SONY they couldn't get into anything.
"So they switched their focus to just releasing random crap that didn't mean anything."
So is the LulzSec retirement just a coincidence or a direct result of The A-Team's revelation?
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Tutorial: How to hack your wireless router firmware
Everyone likes being in control - we don't want to be told that we aren't allowed to do something with our own hardware. In this world of locked-down operating systems, proprietary software and rights-removed content, anything that gives us control over our hardware is a good thing.
One such area is the world of wireless router hacking. You might not have come across it before, but it's a well-established niche that provides fresh, Linux-powered firmware for a wide range of wireless routers, which wouldn't necessarily get updated otherwise.
It's something you should be interested in: it gives you total control over your wireless routers, and it's fun.
Suitably scared
Before you dip a toe into these murky waters, you should be aware of the potential dangers. Router hacking isn't without its risks - if you try to flash a router with the wrong firmware, you'll brick it and end up with something that's about as useful as a concrete kite. Because of this, we strongly recommend that you don't try it if you only have one router to hand.
However, if you have a suitable old one lying around, you'll be able to revitalise it with a raft of new features that might even push your current router into the background.
The idea here is simple: you circumvent the firmware upgrade process of an existing router to inject and run your own feature-packed software.
Over the years, certain manufacturers have made this job easier by making their router firmware and chipset software open source, thereby making it easier to implement third-party versions. This has led to the creation of a number of router-hacking projects. We'll be looking at the benefits of some of the most common ones, because they tend to cater for different segments of the market.
WRT or WRT?
In the world of router hacking, the main branches of firmware code are OpenWRT and DD-WRT.
For our walkthrough, we're going to concentrate on DD-WRT, which tends to be more end-user orientated. Its main aim is to provide a working firmware that you can actually install.
OpenWRT takes a slightly more high-brow approach, wanting to provide framework and source code support for embedded devices that also happen to be gateways and wireless routers. Having said that, many devices have ready-compiled OpenWRT firmware, with comprehensive installation guides provided.
Going back to DD-WRT, the first and most important step is to identify your router's make and model. Make sure you've got the exact one - there may be several with similar model numbers and designs. Doing this will provide you with the correct firmware and tell you exactly how it should be installed.
It's important that you follow the installation instructions to the letter - if you're told to do a power cycle or reset, do it. These instructions are linked to clearing the NVRAM that stores tables and other settings. If these aren't cleared, they can play havoc with the new firmware, and cause you headaches trying to work out the source of the problem.
Failure state
Oddly, it can be quicker to come from the other direction and check if you have an incompatible router. There's a list of known incompatible devices here.
There are some quick rules that can quickly eliminate certain models from your search. For the UK, it's important to note that routers with a built-in ADSL modem won't work for DD-WRT. Don't despair, though - owners of ADSL routers can try www.routertech.org, which supports various models that use the Texas Instrument AR7WRD platform. There's a list of compatible devices here. It isn't exhaustive, but it's worth a look.
If your model isn't listed as incompatible, don't get your hopes up just yet. The list also includes technical limitations for devices: less than 4MB of flash or less than 16MB RAM means you're out of luck unless it's a Broadcom device. Texas Instruments, Marvel, Ubicom, Realtek and Freescale chipsets are also incompatible.
To find out which chipset your router uses, look on the back of the unit for its FCC ID number, then search for this on http://fcc.gov. This is a US database of electronic devices bound by law to submit to radio regulation.
The device's FCC entry will include photos of its internals, from which you can identify the manufacturer of the main IC and flash IC. If that doesn't work then you can always crack that hardware open and have a look inside for yourself.
By this point you should have either eliminated your router or confirmed that it's supported, but there's still a grey area of partially supported, or work-in-progress status devices. For routers in this bracket, forums are the best places to monitor progress.
Unto the breach
Let's assume we've had good news and our router is compatible. We've dug up an old Linksys WRT54GS v6 for this project, because its firmware installation process is relatively involved.
Installing the firmware can be a simple update process, or a multi-stage affair that requires the use of a 'kill' app to terminate the old software, with the new software transferred via a TFTP utility. If you've found your router on the list of compatible devices, or found a suitable forum post that outlines the installation process, then you're ready to go.
With DD-WRT, you'll find a host of builds and variants of the firmware. Many routers require a specific or later revision to be installed. This should be easy enough. The other element is based on the amount of VRAM and RAM a router has. Routers with sub-4MB VRAM are restricted to the 'micro' builds rather than OpenVPN, STD, 'big' or 'mega' builds.
This shouldn't make much difference, especially if you're just trying it out, but you might want to add more features at a later date. For instance, the mini build has specific variants that add hotspot, USB and NAS support. Having said that, even the base micro version provides most of the features you're likely to need, including repeater features, QoS, SPI firewall, UPnP, WPA1/2 support, bandwidth monitoring and more.
Changing firmware
Give your old router a new lease of life with a software upgrade
1. Router revisions
The first step is to identify your router. Go to www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database and search for the make and model. It's not always straightforward - we had a Netgear WG602, which initially looked like it might be compatible. However, closer examination showed that it was an original v1 revision. The compatible v3 and v4 versions are white.
2. Identify your model
An alternative way to identify the model is to look at the huge list of routers hosted on this page. You need to find the manufacturer and scan down the list of FCC ID codes. You also need to double-check the hardware-specific list here, which will let you know if your particular router needs its own unique install.
3. Reset cycle
Before installing, do a 30-30-30 reset cycle. This is an important step, which involves powering the unit up and pressing the reset switch for 30 seconds. While pressing reset, disconnect the power and hold for 30 more seconds. Still holding the reset button, reconnect the power and hold for 30 more seconds. This is often accompanied by all the LEDs flashing.
4. Set the IP
Once the router has been reset, you're ready to connect your router to the PC you're using via a wired Ethernet cable. Ideally, you need to set your PC's IP to a static one, which helps to eliminate another area of potential issues. You should set it to either 192.168.0.11 or 192.168.1.11, depending on its base range (usually the latter).
5. Flash time
For a number of routers, at this stage you can use the standard web-based interface to install the DD-WRT firmware provided by the database. Wait for it to install (up to five minutes), perform a hard reset and you're done. For our Linksys model, we also needed to use pre-install firmware, which sets the stage for the full firmware update.
6. The scary bit
The final DD-WRT firmware is installed using a TFTP tool - a Windows GUI version is provided. Enter the 192.168.1.1 address, a blank password and choose the correct firmware. Power cycle the router, wait two seconds and click 'Upgrade'. Wait five minutes. If you can now access the router on 192.168.1.1, do a power cycle and a final 30-30-30 reset.
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Review: Fujitsu Lifebook P701
The Fujitsu Lifebook P701 is the latest addition to Fujitsu's P-Series ultra-portable range and runs on an Intel Core i3 2301M processor.
Aimed at the business user, the Lifebook P701 comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Professional and Microsoft Office. A fingerprint scanner ensures your business documents remain private.
The Lifebook P701 has an unassuming black and silver design that suits the office environment well. The 12.1-inch TFT screen has a matt finish, meaning no irritating reflections when working in bright light conditions.
The smaller screen, low weight and briefcase-friendly dimensions (283 x 229 x 33mm) mean hours spent on the train can be put to good use.
Small keyboard
The compact keyboard might be a little cramped for anyone with large hands, but we found it only took a matter of minutes to get comfortable typing on it.
Five small buttons sit above the keyboard between the speakers, controlling access to a variety of features, such as wireless networks, system diagnostics, power saving settings, Windows Mobility Centre and log off.
The touchpad, marked out on the chassis by dimples on the palmrest, was comfortable to use and reassuringly responsive.
The onboard Sandy Bridge technology, in the form of the Intel Core i3 processor, is supplemented by 2GB of RAM. Storage is impressive at 320GB, which will appeal to any business user who isn't quite sold on the idea of cloud computing just yet.
Being an ultra-portable, the Fujitsu Lifebook P701 doesn't have an optical disc drive, so programs must be installed either through a flash drive or downloaded from the internet.
Fujitsu has countered this by packing the P701 full of connectivity. The 802.1n wireless connection is the fastest currently available, and is supplemented by a Gigabit Ethernet port for a hardwire internet connection.
Fujitsu has also packed in Bluetooth connectivity for adding remote devices or mobile phones. There are three USB ports for peripherals, an ExpressCard slot, a DisplayPort connector and VGA Out socket for hooking the laptop up to a secondary monitor.
Benchmarks
Battery life: 449 minutesMobileMark 2007: 227
3DMark 2003: 7277
The Fujitsu Lifebook P701 performed well in our benchmark tests, with the standout result being the battery life of more than twice that of the average machine. When coupled with the robust design, this is a great choice for a business user.
Verdict
Fujitsu has focused on what a high-end user would want from an ultra-portable – great battery life, a comfortable keyboard and enough connectivity to provide a wealth of options.
It won't take the crown from the likes of the Sony VAIO VPC-Z13M9E/B or the Apple MacBook Air, but at half the price, we're not complaining.
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Explained: How SSDs work
From reading the advertising copy, you could be forgiven for thinking that SSDs have no downsides. Much faster than traditional spinning hard drives, far more resilient to being dropped, ultra quiet, it seems the only negative anyone can point to is the price.
In reality, there are a couple of issues you should be aware of when using SSDs, and why the operating system you use is suddenly very important.
When you use a PC day in, day out, you get used to how the machine as a whole runs with your particular mix of applications. Some of these applications could be compute-bound - that is, the bottleneck in using the app is determined purely by how quickly the CPU is able to run.
A great example of this is converting video from one format to another - from DVD to MP4 to play on your iPod Touch, for example. No matter what you do, the speed of the conversion is entirely down to the CPU; the disk sub-systems are well able to cope reading and writing data.
Some applications are different - they're I/O-bound. Your perception of the application's speed is governed by how quickly the disk subsystems read and write. An example of this is an application you don't really think of as such: booting up your PC.
When you boot your PC, the boot manager has to load various disparate drivers and applications into memory from your boot disk and set them all running. Modern OSes use hundreds of these programs, drivers, and services and applications that try to help you speed up your boot times often just concentrate on minimising what gets loaded during the boot process as a whole.
Disk delays
Standard disk drives don't do brilliantly at I/O-bound applications. The reasons are essentially two-fold.
The first is that the head has to be positioned to the right track on the correct platter, ready for the correct sector to rotate round under the head. This is the seek time. Once positioned, the head has to wait for the right sector to appear (the rotational delay) so that it can read the data requested.
Another delay might be caused by the disk having to be spun up, because many systems - especially laptops running on batteries - stop the platters rotating after a period of no activity to conserve energy.
The first delay was significant in the early days of disk drives when it was in the order of half a second or so, but the seek time has been continually refined so that it's now around 10ms for standard desktop or mobile drives.
The second delay is directly proportional to the rotational speed of the platters. Over the years, the speed of drives has slowly increased, with standard mobile drives running at 5,400rpm and desktop drives at 7,200rpm - although high-end laptops (except, significantly, Apple's) tend to have 7,200rpm drives as standard these days. You can buy 10,000rpm drives for desktops, and some recommend using them for your boot drives.
For comparison, the drives found in iPod Classics are 4,200rpm drives (other current iPods just use Flash memory).
Another factor in the overall speed of disk drives is how quickly you can read data from the platter and get it into RAM. Here, coupled with the move to SATA interfaces from the older PATA interfaces, the rate is proportional to the density of data on the platter, with the density slowly but surely increasing annually.
Nevertheless, the speed of hard drive technology is bound by physics and mechanics. Yes, more data is being stuffed into smaller spaces, but the overall speed of the drive is still governed by the speed of the spinning platter.
In order to get more speed, manufacturers moved to different technology: flash memory.
The birth of the SSD
It had to happen at some point after flash memory became reliable and cheap enough: stuff as many flash memory chips as possible in a hard drive enclosure, add a controller and you remove the mechanical performance issues in one fell swoop. Enter the modern SSD.
The flash memory in an SSD is known as NAND-flash. There are two types: SLC (single-level cell) and MLC (multi-level cell).
In SLC, each cell of memory stores one bit, and in MLC, it usually stores two bits. MLC is generally cheaper to manufacture than SLC (each cell holds double the information, so the same number of cells will hold more data), and that's what we usually find in retail SSDs.
The value of the cell is obtained by testing the cell with some voltage. The SLC cell will respond to a certain voltage: at one level, the cell is assumed to hold 0; at another level the cell is assumed to hold 1. With MLC, the cell will respond to one of four different levels of voltage, which we can denote as 00, 01, 10, and 11.
Notice what this means: with MLC memory, to read a cell you have four times the number of tests to make, which takes longer. Nevertheless, we're talking orders of magnitude faster reads than the fastest disk drives can manage.
Except it's not that simple. The issue is that setting a cell to hold a value involves two different voltages too. There's the programming voltage, which essentially sets the cell to 0, and there's the higher erasure voltage, which sets the cell to 1.
The programming and erasure voltages are higher than the read test voltages because they need to force electrons to tunnel over an oxide substrate between two gates.
FIGURE 1: Idealised structure of a flash cell. The floating gate stores the charge denoting 'on' or 'off '
Imagine the following scenario, which illustrates how these gates work: you have two jars of water connected by a pipe. The pipe has a tap and one jar is lower than the other. Fill the top jar. When the top jar is full, the system is assumed to store a 1. If you now open the tap (this doesn't take much work at all), the water drains down to the bottom jar (in SLC terms, this is programming the system). The system is now assumed to store a 0.
Now consider what you must do to set the system back to 1: you have to force the water back uphill and close off the tap, which is a lot of work (this is erasing the system in SLC terms).
In essence, when talking about NAND cells, programming is easy and erasing is hard.
Not only that, forcing electrons back and forth over the substrate causes the material to deteriorate. Eventually it deteriorates so much that the electrons do pretty much what they want to and the cell breaks down, no longer able to store a definable state.
For an SLC cell that takes around 100,000 programming/erasure cycles, but then again it only has to store two states. For an MLC cell, which stores four possible states, the rate of breakdown is much faster at about 10,000 cycles.
In reality, cells aren't programmed or erased singly. They are programmed (and read) in pages of 4KB and erased in blocks of typically 128 pages (or 512KB). Doing it like this simplifies the circuitry and the controller immensely, and file systems typically read and write in 4KB blocks anyway.
Given that erasing is more destructive to a cell than programming it, this means that erasing is done less often than programming. However, there's a catch. If you think about it, this discrepancy between programming and erasing means that a page is only writable once.
Writing a page will set some of the bits in that page to 0, and the only way to get them back to 1 again is to erase them. So, before you can write to a page again, you have to erase the whole block containing the page.
Actually, to be more specific, you have to read all the active pages in the block (except the one you want to overwrite), erase the block, and then write all the active pages back, followed by the new version of the page you wanted to write in the first place.
FIGURE 2: Diagram of how an SLC cell responds to increasing voltage. An MLC cell will have four peaks
As you can imagine, this read-erase-write process takes a long time compared to writing a page for the first time. In fact, it's comparable to writing to a traditional hard disk.
Overwriting data
So what happens when you want to overwrite a page with some new data? The answer is that the original page is marked as 'invalid' and the new version of the page's data is written in another page entirely (making sure the links to the data's position are updated). Want to update that data again? Mark the old page as invalid, write the data to a new empty page.
If you like, a page has three states: empty (it's erased), used (it contains data) and invalid (it used to contain data, but that data is now out of date and can be discarded the next time the block containing the page is erased).
You might think this is a ridiculous way of using storage efficiently, but consider it from this angle: a block can only be erased 10,000 times before it can no longer be used. It turns out that the benefits of using NAND flash (fast, tough, silent) outweigh the problem of only having 10,000 shots at using some memory.
Consider it from the level of the whole disk drive. Many people never fill up their drive. There's always plenty of room on it. An SSD controller can take advantage of that fact by writing to every page on the SSD before taking the drastic step of erasing a block.
This, incidentally, is the reason for the observations in the early days that a brand new SSD was always faster than an SSD that had been used for a while: the new drive had plenty of empty pages, and so writes happened at full speed. After a while, every page on the drive had been used, so some writes went through the read-erase-write cycle and slowed the overall speed of the drive drastically.
However, there is another wrinkle to the whole SSD story. A drive controller doesn't know anything about a file system - that's the operating system's job. The OS thinks of the drive as a linear array of pages, with the page indexes known as LBAs (logical block addresses). It then builds a hierarchical file system over that array by having files as a sequence of pages (for example, LBA 17, followed by 42, then 167, then 23) and folders as special files that contain an array of 'file entries', with each entry containing a file name and the starting LBA.
The SSD controller is in charge of maintaining the mapping between an LBA number and the actual page of flash memory in the SSD. It seems simple enough, except that when you delete a file, the OS just marks it as deleted in the file system. That's why file undelete tools work - the file hasn't been physically deleted, the data is still on the drive. It's fast because no data gets written to the SSD.
If the file had just one flash page, that page wouldn't be marked as invalid. As far as the SSD is concerned, the page is still being used.
At some later time the OS will reuse a page that it knows has deleted data and write to it. At that point the SSD will do its usual work and mark the page as invalid and use another empty page.
This is where TRIM comes in. Solid state drive manufacturers recognized the problems of deleted files and having deleted pages hanging around. They came up with an API, known as TRIM, that allowed the OS to tell the drive that a file had been deleted and that such and such LBAs are now invalid and can be reused. The drive could then, at the time of the file delete operation, mark all affected pages as invalid and then perform a read-erase-rewrite operation on the blocks concerned.
Maybe not every time, but only if the proportion of invalid pages in the block reached a certain critical threshold. This would mean that file deletions would take longer, but this extra work would help during file write operations, which is where the user would prefer the speed.
Currently Windows 7 supports TRIM, whereas Mac OS X only does for certain Apple-badged drives.
Idle garbage collection
Another option that some SSDs support is known as idle garbage collection. In essence, what happens is that during moments of little to no drive activity, the controller goes through the blocks on the SSD and performs the read-erase-rewrite cycle on sufficiently 'dirty' ones (again, provided that the number of invalid pages in a block has reached some threshold value).
Since this happens during idle times, the SSD is, in essence, cleaning up the drive ready for those times that you really need lots of empty pages ready to use. It's believed that Apple MacBooks use this system in some form or other (apart from those that now support TRIM, of course).
As you've seen, SSDs are as fascinating as they are fast. By all means, get an SSD, but we would recommend making sure you're using Windows 7 first. That way, you know you're using the drive to its best advantage.
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Review: HP Pavilion dm1-3100sa
For many people searching for their perfect laptop, portability is a key factor. If you need something to entertain or keep you productive on the daily commute, you'll want a machine that's slim, light and has a great battery life. The HP Pavilion dm1-3100sa, at £349, ticks all three boxes, and comes highly recommended.
At just 1.6kg, this is an ultra-portable laptop that can be effortlessly carried around all day. The 30mm chassis is also slender and compact, so will fit in almost any bag or briefcase with ease – making it perfect for regular travellers.
You might be travelling without access to a plug socket, but we browsed the web while listening to music for five hours before the battery finally died.
The brushed metal chassis feels solid enough to absorb any knocks it might take, which is another good feature for any machine that spends lots of time on the road.
We also liked the dark patterned design on the HP Pavilion dm1-3100sa's lid, although it's a dust magnet – if you're a regular passenger on grimy British trains, be sure to pack a cloth.
We loved this ultra-portable's screen, which is compact at 11.6 inches, but still suitable for browsing the web and similar tasks. It's a bright and vibrant panel that folds all the way back to horizontal, so viewing angles aren't a problem.
Images are amazingly sharp, making this a great laptop for enjoying your home photos, although you can't watch DVDs thanks to the lack of an optical drive. If you wish to install software from a disc, you'll need an external USB drive.
Smooth operator
One of AMD's latest processors powers this laptop, backed up with 3GB of memory. We found that Office applications ran perfectly and browsing the web was a smooth experience, helped by the 802.11n wireless networking support.
However, anyone hoping to play games or watch or edit HD movies will have to look elsewhere, as this laptop's multimedia potential is limited. This is down to the lack of dedicated graphics, with image rendering handled by the processor instead. This meant that HD videos skipped, ruining enjoyment. It will play standard-definition video, which is great for travelling or commuting, but the screen is too small to really enjoy movies anywhere but on public transport.
A built-in webcam is a little grainy compared to some of the HD cameras we've seen lately, but it focuses perfectly with minimal motion blur.
Other features are minimal, although you have 320GB of storage for carrying your files around, which isn't bad considering the compact chassis. This is enough room for thousands of photos and songs, and a huge amount of software.
Great keyboard
If you're bashing out a novel, you'll enjoy this laptop's keyboard, which spans the width of the chassis.
Keys are well sized and nicely separated, using the popular isolation-style design. This is where each key protrudes through an individual hole cut into the chassis, so they're kept apart from their neighbours. The lack of gaps also means that crumbs and dust can't infiltrate your laptop's innards.
Unfortunately, the touchpad is terrible. Our problem is with the mouse buttons, which are integrated into the pad itself. You have to push down the corners of the pad to simulate a left or right mouse click, and doing so often causes the cursor to skip about the screen.
This is particularly annoying when you're trying to select tiny menu options in Windows. We lost count of how many times we selected the wrong option and gave up in the end and used a USB mouse instead. While it's something regular users would eventually get used to, our blood pressure soon hit the ceiling.
Benchmarks
3DMark 2003: 5725
Verdict
Aside from the ropey touchpad, the HP Pavilion dm1-3100sa is a great ultra-portable laptop. At £349, it offers superb value for money, if you don't need bags of power for resource-hungry tasks such as video editing.
The screen is particularly impressive, making it perfect for life on the move. If you need a portable pal for keeping you entertained while travelling, the HP Pavilion DM1-3100sa is a fantastic option.
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Review: Velodyne DD18+
OK, who of you reading this are hooligans? Admit it. I do. You might well be a grownup hooligan, who likes seriously clean, tight bass to make the whole cinematic experience more visceral. But a hooligan nonetheless.
And there's nothing wrong with that. In a home cinema system, we get music and explosions, too. Even planet-splitting earthquakes and Tsunami – and in No Country for Old Men, true-live recordings of distant thunder that will challenge any mere loudspeaker to reproduce it correctly.
That's why sometimes you need a product like Velodyne's DD-18+. The very biggest and latest piece of technology-dripping active subwoofer from the US brand.
The DD-18+ is not just a bit of an animal – it's an entire, sweating Brahma bull, peeing on your carpet and breaking your furniture. This product created effects and happenings in my humble home, the like of which have only ever happened inside cars.
It's a simple issue of SPL, or Sound Pressure Level. This is measured in decibels, but that's a dry explanation – SPL is different at different frequencies. High SPL of treble will hurt and deafen. Huge SPL of low frequencies will excite you, make you fearful, help your digestion, risk incontinence and break things in your house.
When I cranked the DD18+, bits fell off the balsa wood banana tree we bought in Barbados on honeymoon, and when running a 5.1 music CD through it, the deck was facing the cone and jumped like it was a car unit struggling in a 150dB+ sound pressure environment. So yes, this is the most absurdly loud, air-shifting window-pumper I have yet had in my home. And I've had a few…
Handsome hulk
The DD18+ looks as good as an 18-inch sub can. It has such a handsome cabinet that I had fearful feelings regarding the finish. Mine was described as ebony (I hope it's a small 'e', as proper Ebony isn't exactly a sustainable source).
The grille is a serious affair on legs, with a simple cloth over a beefy frame. This is mounted on flanges, as the 18-inch driver has a massive to-and-fro capability and needs the space.
Hysterically, the DD18+, I am assured, meets the 0.5W standby environmental requirement for electronics. Yet when you switch it on and it goes boom, you will be making 3,000W. The continuous, all-the-time-all-day rating is 1,250W, which is around five times more power than is considered 'reasonable' by any sane person.
It's tech-savvy too. Buyers get a whole manual about the software. As well as state-of the art auto equalisation and a damn fine set of kit to do it with, the system allows you to have your own taste as well, so it's not as paternalistic as many auto-EQ systems.
It may be that you like it badder-than-life. If so, you can choose how it plays. And it plays ever so well. Yes, it does have a huge cone with a six-layer-deep coil on its butt, but the magnet that grips it is insanely powerful, and can stop and change direction blisteringly fast, thus avoiding what's called 'overhang'. This is when a cone keeps pushing air around after the amp has stopped sending it the note.
My favourite demo was from Sherlock Holmes on BD, as Sherlock experiments in ballistics in his Baker Street lodgings. From a quiet soundtrack, the sudden slam was jaw-dropping.
The DD18+ drops devilishly low and never ever seems to run out of power to spank you and your world to a happy, quivering pulp. Brilliant.
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Tutorial: How to make old games work on Windows 7
Getting old games running should be easy. Those old system requirements? Irrelevant! The tools at our disposal? Endless!
We've got virtual machines and emulators and online fan projects and - cough - eBay access to damn near everything ever released and everything else we could ever want.
Indeed, 90 per cent of the time, getting an old classic up and running is a piece of cake. Sod's law being what it is, though, the game you really want to play will usually land in that fiddly other 10 per cent, and when that happens, you're on your own. Well, no longer.
Over the next few pages, we'll show you how to get almost any old game back up and running on your PC, starting with simple 'just work, please' instructions to DOSBox, and scaling up to deal with the Four Horsemen of Incompatibility: Windows, QuickTime, DirectX and 3D.
We say 'almost', because unfortunately some games just won't play ball. If you want to be absolutely, positively certain, you don't have much choice but to head to eBay and actually hunt down or put together a new system using decades-old technology.
This is doable, but more than a little bit of a pain, since you'll need everything from the right processor and memory to an authentic soundcard. Luckily, these instances are few and far between, and rarely involve the kind of games that you're realistically likely to want to play these days.
Interactive movies, for instance, tend to be amongst the biggest nuisances to get running, but they're also some of the worst games ever, so it's no great loss.
Before delving too deeply into things, it's also worth checking to see if either Good Old Games, Steam or smaller sites such as DotEmu have the game that you're after.
Part of what you're paying for on these sites is a version of the game designed to run on modern systems, typically via a pre-configured version of DOSBox. You pay for the privilege, but typically not very much. It's worth it to skip the headaches, especially in complicated games that use fancy graphics, come on multiple CDs, or have very, very specific system requirements.
If none of the aforementioned sites have what you're after though, read on for everything you need to know to do it yourself.
DOSBox made easy
DOSBox is an x86 emulator that also recreates Microsoft's old DOS operating system. Words cannot express what a wonderful tool it is.
It doesn't simply play games - it handles any sound translation between the Soundblaster drivers of the day and whatever you have in your box; it deals with memory for you; it can mount ISO images of CDs; it can record in-game footage; and much, much more.
It's also incredibly easy to use. For simple games, all you need to do is drag the game's executable onto the DOSBox icon and let it do its thing,
There aren't many hotkeys to remember. If the game is going too quickly, press [CTRL]+[F11] to slow it down. To speed it up, press [CTRL]+[F12]. This tends to be most important for very old games, and you'll quickly see if it's going to be a problem.
If you want to take a screenshot, press [CTRL]+[F5]. To start recording video, press [CTRL]+[ALT]+[F5], and press it again to stop. By default, all snaps are saved in \Users\(you)\AppData\Local\ DOSBox, though you can alter this in the main DOSBox configuration file, and on a game-by-game basis. Most games will require a little more love, if only because they need to install files.
For security reasons, DOSBox doesn't give any Tom, Dick and Heimdall 2 access to your drives, so you need to manually activate them and mount files and folders to give them the access they need and space to expand. You can do this with keyboard commands and configuration file editing, but it's far faster to use a dedicated front-end such as DOG.
When you run DOG for the first time, it'll ask you to point it to your copy of DOSBox, try to work out the version you're using, and usually fall flat with a floating point error. Just ignore this, the rest works fine.
Every game you run needs its own Profile, consisting of a name (the name of the game), the version of DOSBox you want to run it in (usually you'll only have one) and a configuration filename. Most of the other controls can be left alone.
Long time, new C:>
The most important options are in Drives. Click 'Add Harddrive' and you'll be asked to select an existing folder on your PC, and map it to a drive in DOSBox. This should be 'C:' for most games. If you're playing a game straight from CD, repeat this process by clicking 'Add CDROM' and setting it to 'D'. It doesn't matter what it is on your actual PC: most old games expected these letters.
Finally, if you have a game in .ISO form (which you've made yourself and not, hypothetically, downloaded from some dodgy website) you can assign that as a drive too. We recommend having a dedicated folder for your Profiles where all of your working directories are saved by game name, just to make them easier to manage.
Once you've set them all up, click the OK button and double-click on the Profile name to start it. Quite often it fails the first time - don't ask why - and won't actually mount the drives. Second time on, it should be fine.
Once in DOSBox, if you haven't pointed DOG to a specific executable, you only really need to know three commands: the name of the program you want to run, the fact that you type the drive name to select it (usually 'C:'), and the change directory command - 'cd
If you've - cough - accidentally made your CD backups in the wrong format, there's a handy free tool called AnyToIso that can convert them. In particular, many - cough - backups have a tendency to be in .IMG files rather than actual .ISOs, which can cause compatibility issues.
The same tool can also be used to create virtual CDs of specific files if you want to copy them into emulators/virtual machines without opening up more directories.
The one thing that DOG won't do for you is handle games that require multiple CDs. If you're playing from original discs, this shouldn't be a problem - just map the actual drive and swap them on command.
If you're using ISOs though, the easiest way is to save them all in the directory you're using for the C: drive, create the profile without mounting any of them, and run DOSBox. Mount them manually using the command 'imgmount d (first).iso (second).iso -t', adding as many as you need, and pressing [CTRL]+[F4] will swap between them on the fly.
DOSBox has many, many more options, but this is all you need to get the overwhelming majority of DOS games running. But what about Windows?
Technically, early versions of Windows are themselves DOS programs, and yes, you can run them on DOSBox. It's not recommended though, unless you really like compatibility problems and incredibly bad frame-rates if you do get them working.
Getting Windows games running is a bit of nightmare. You can't usually just install an old copy and expect everything to work fine, since there won't be the drivers for your current kit.
The obvious solution: a virtual machine, which doesn't just save you the hassle of creating new partitions and risking file loss, but handles the translation of everything from graphics to audio. In theory, it should be easy.
Fire one of them up, drop in your old copy of Windows 95, and as far as it's concerned, Take That will be together forever. Right?
The problem is that virtual machines don't bother supporting the features most games need as far back as this. Proper graphics support, sound support, the additions to make it easy to copy files into your virtual machine… all of them are aimed at more recent versions of Windows than 3.1, 95 and 98 - the ones you need for most older games.
You can sometimes get around this by installing a copy of Linux and running games through WINE (its own virtual machine; the name, if you care, stands for Wine Is Not An Emulator). But that's unreliable at best.
To cut a long story short, your best bet is Windows 2000 in a virtual machine. It's not ideal for gaming, but it's as close as you can get. Chances are you don't have a copy of this one lying around, but - one second, cough coming on - it shouldn't be hard to find one somewhere, like eBay.
As far as the virtual machine goes, you won't get any real benefit from buying one, so you may as well use the freebie VirtualBox. As far as system requirements go, if you're playing modern games, you should be fine - a dual-core processor or better is advisable, as is 4GB of RAM.
You'll also need a decent chunk of hard drive space - we gave our virtual machine around 5GB to play with. It's also worth noting that while this will be fine for 2D games, virtualisation still isn't ideal for 3D games.
On the plus side, these typically rely on DirectX more than third-party technologies, or bundle everything they need to work properly if not, and so are likely to work out of the box. More than most, anyway.
Enter the matrix
Once you've downloaded VirtualBox, fire it up and click the 'New' button. Give your virtual machine a name, and tell it that you're installing Windows 2000, and most of the options will be set up for you. This defaults to 168MB of RAM and a 4GB hard drive.
You can opt for either dynamic storage or fixed-sized storage. Dynamic storage will keep growing until it hits the maximum you've allowed the storage space to be, while telling Windows 2000 that it always has the maximum to play with. In contrast, fixed size actually creates a file of that size up front. We went with the latter for simplicity's sake, but it shouldn't matter.
Bugs and quirks
To actually install Windows 2000, fire up your virtual machine. It'll display the First Run Wizard, which asks you where the install media is, typically this is a disc, but - cough - ISOs will do as well and set the process running.
If for some reason it doesn't work for you, quit out, start the VM up again, and go to the Devices option at the top. From here, you can mount CDs and DVDs the old fashioned way, either as ISOs or by pointing VirtualBox to your actual drive. Fingers crossed, everything will now go as planned, although check the official VirtualBox forums if it crashes midway through installation.
There are lots of small bugs and quirks that can give you a bad day, especially for a process that takes as long as Windows - usually as non-intuitive as unticking boxes with names like 'Enable VT-x/ AMD-V' in response to a whole screen full of bibble.
(While we're sure this goes without saying, just to be on the safe side: neither Windows nor its installer can affect anything on your actual system. Don't panic when it tells you it's formatting the C: drive, it actually means the virtual one. VirtualBox, and other programs like it, do offer tools to move files from one to the other via shared folders, as well as better integrate the mouse cursor and share the clipboard, but nothing that you actually have to worry about).
Once Windows 2000 has been installed, it'll look rather shoddy. To fix this and get it ready to work properly, go to the Devices menu and choose 'Install Guest Additions'. This will add VirtualBox's custom drivers to the installation, allowing you to run everything properly.
At this point, you can go back to the Devices screen, map an ISO or your DVD drive, and try playing some games.
The only other tweak you may have to do for games that required a limited palette is to go into Control Panel > Displays > Settings and switch the colour depth down to 256 colours. Games will tell you if they need this though, and you're generally fine sticking with High or True Color mode for the rest.
Other tweaks you can do include pressing the Host key (by default, the right [CTRL] key) and [L] to switch into Seamless Mode, which cuts out the Windows 2000 interface and makes the current window act like any Windows 7 program, and taking Snapshots, which saves your virtual machine's state to go back to later.
It's worth doing this immediately, so that you don't have to sit through an immeasurably tedious reinstallation if a program you install manages to break something.
Boxing clever
With VirtualBox for Windows and DOSBox for DOS, and regular Windows 7 for those blessed games that don't cause trouble in the first place, there should be very, very few old games you can't get running. They may not work absolutely perfectly to start with, requiring a little balancing to get them running at the right speed, or a new driver here and there, but the majority at least will play ball.
For the others, a quick Google search will often show you the tweak you need, or point you to another solution, such as the aforementioned WINE for Linux, or even a fan remake or engine rebuild that both makes the game playable and boosts its features to make it run better on modern systems than it ever did at release.
For Ultima VII, for instance, there's Exult. For Star Control II, try The Ur-Quan Masters. Similar projects are few and far between, but if it's a particularly loved game you desperately want to play, it's worth a look to see if anyone shares your desire enough to have started one up.
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