Dedicated Gameing PC--no Windows, mac or linux allowed

Games programs make calls to an OS to display something and accept input.  Even the Xbox has an OS.  Heck, even my first Pong console has an OS of sorts.

I don't think what you describe is possible.

I know you said no linux, but have you looked into Linux from scratch? You might be able to put together something workable with that!

Good luck!

the games are formated to run on the perspective OS and require it to run.. managing drivers and all that 360 has a specialized type of OS that is minimalistic, it's just the capabilities are limited.

go here to learn how to strip running services to a minimum, thus allowing the freed resources to be used by your games /programs..http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/OSguides.htm

ohh i know how to do all of that, i have my computer right now running without explorer as we speak! all i had to do is go to the task manager and and click the process :explorer.exe and click end.....but it still is not what im looking for
thx HG, Gideon,and Zubaz for your help!


i will type it for you to understand hopfully.....as im really bad at explanations

I know it needs a management evironment ( an OS to open stuff within files and executebles) so yeah that linux thing is probably what im looking for but i require a way to boot games without loading the shell in otherwords in the boot sector or startup blackscreen/white chars environment whatever its name is lol, thus it can load the drivers and execute games without actually using the windows and so it wont have anything loaded in either the Ram, GPU,GPU Ram, CPU, processor,cache or the pagefile on a hard drive except for the game and drivers to run the game
also i heard that many forms of linux have compatability issues....

in even simpler terms i would love to find a dashboard that can be used as a standalone OS(like the 360's or original Xbox's )just for games that optimizes hardware to use it to its full potential......one that has the ability to detect graphics cards, ethernet cards and whatever else you may have that is hardware!

This is the forum that got me interested about finding something to do what i said

WWW Link

As has been said, an OS of some sort is required.  Even the XBox 360 has an operating system.  It's a slimmed down version of Windows actually.

Without an OS, a computer is a set of components that don't know how to work together.

The OS brokers communication between bits of hardware.  It provides a common set of calls programs can make to access the hardware.  Games (and pretty much any piece of software you've ever used) are written to specifically take advantage of those common interfaces.  They're typically written to take advantage of specific OSes too.  This is why you can't put an Xbox game in a PC, or a PC game in a Mac.  They're written for one OS.

A game with no underlying OS can not run.  There's nothing to even allow the user to interact with the machine in any way. 

What you're basically asking is if you can have a car, with all the engine parts, everything sitting there, but nothing connecting them together.  Nothing that tells the engine to go when the gas is pressed, or to turn when the wheel is turned.  Or even turn on when the key is turned. 

 

I think what you are requesting is an O/S without the GUI...And, as zubaz says, you are asking for a lot.

The Linux from scratch solution would be less than perfect, and as for compatibility issues, well, that comes with the territory. Nothing comes straight off the shelf like what you are seeking. Even if you installed Windows 2000, you would still need to find drivers for your hardware.

Good luck, though. Who knows, maybe you can develop it. Then we'll all be saying we remember when...

i understand that but how do these people claim they ran games that boot in the black boot screen/ command prompt thing which also loaded the drivers needed to use the hardware on your computer (i.e. mice keyboards, GPUs and everything else thats not software) outside of these??

another refinement of what im trying to do::::
im looking for a minimal os like the one you said that doesnt load anything into the ram or cpu on both the graphics card cpu or system ram except for the os files that are needed to run the game and the and the game and drivers themselves

if you know of one(slimmed down or similar to the way Xboxes dash works)send me a link to it if possible

--- otherwise if i cant find one ill be making a ten cup pot of coffee at 3 am everymorning have a few ciggarettes ready (for the breaks between coding) and logging on/starting Visuall studio express editiond and java to see what i can make! my friends are diehard gamers like me but are not as knowledgeable about comps as i am so im gonna have to add teaching to my sched too...

hey if you want i will recruit a team on WC for just for developement of a software like the one i describe,and maybe it can be a download here, just a thought tho and maybe if any one of you are interested in helping me to do so, that would be a plus.

i started a second user on my PC. then stripped it of all running extras services etc. then optimized the Net settings as well as the OS with various tweaking utiliys. then i removed Explorer as the shell and replaced it with Lite step and a theme with only a right click menu..so the useage is specifically small.. added 4 gig of DDR, a 512 meg V card by ATI and Athlon X2 CPU ive yet to have a game drag on it..

when i want to game i log in under that account

That sound like a good idea,, were can i find litstep? if not is there a Xbox dashboard similar The original on the box itself?

im shure youve heard of the exact oppsite were someone put linux on a XBOX right? its that type of idea!

HG, thanks for the link above. Because I run virtual machines on my laptop, anything I can do to optimize performance is worth it.

any time

I don't think so - last time I checked a PC is/can be more powerful than a 360.

isnt that what i just said in that quote?
....im not trying to get you mad i but i did say CAN didnt i?
   the only thing i screwed up on was the "already is" part.
as in that i had not mentioned a few pcs that have equivalent or higher peak perormance....
the whole point tho is to say that even
people with e low end setups like myself can squeeze more performance out of what they have if doing the minimal thing! and who nows if its configured right it might just play games that have ram requirements higher than what you got.........thats the case with me! i play games that require 512 on a nvidia card with 256 that was even before i overclocked it

also with that said i do think (i might be wrong) but i think games require and say they require more ram because of stuff on your computer that drags it down- and because of mass amount of "stuff" they bump the required amount of ram up to compensate for the ram loaded with processes and foot prints

Sorry - I misunderstood.

naw dont be, i still need to learn grammar appearently so i am sorry, my family is italian and some of us still have grammar issues in the english language
i dont speak italian but my grammar issue is still an element

No worries!!

Well we used to have something like that. Games used to be the entire OS by itself, and all games for certain computer comes with its own OS. It's impossible nowadays, especially with number of different configurations out there.

I'm not 100% sure you can't do most of what you want to do with Windows 2000. It's a pretty lightweight O/S, and many games are compatible. For those that aren't, consider a dual boot.

The upside is you wouldn't have to worry about Linux driver issues.

Good point, but even 2000 has processes that are running just like XP.... i guess i am askin too much......i just found DOS 32 bit extender i wonder if that could run games using drivers and a runtime environment that tells hardware and software(games) how to react and work without having anything else in the backround.....


i dont know if im explaining what i wish to accomplish right OR......

i guess i will try to rewrite what i said abut the XBOX dashboard::
this is a alternat way :::
im trying to make or find a dashboard os exactly like the XboX's but is meant for pc
so it wont have windows but it will be an OS with everything needed to press your hardware and games to the maximal level (just like the 360 or the original
im shure the XBOX dashboard has nothing except the needed processes to run games or rn them online also....
it probably has a way to get the most out of hardware sets insied the case and thats what im trying to do because i will tell you i think the stuff inside a computer can do just as good or even better than what the xbox can do and i know current hardware can do this as we speak but wouldnt it be nice if you dont throw away your old pc with that geforce 4 mx 420? or a similar card of that age? that geforce4 mx 420 apearently is similar already to the GPU in the orininal XBOX but if you compare a pc with that card and its a good balance with ram and processing speed it still skips (lags) alittle not only that but that proves that even a version of windows windows 98 to 2000 still tax system resources to a point.
i havent seen so on the xbox or 360 xbox so far and thats why i have a splinter in my thoughts right now about this!

im shure software on the xbox could unlock more power even out of OLD ati rage 32 megabyte video cards..... thats basically my theory and what i plan to put to the test and thats the whole point im trying to get at.

i guess i should just quit while im ahead lol  

I just have to ask this: Why all the talk about the Xbox? The Playstation 3 beats it in terms of hardware not to mention the Nintendo Wii is outselling both...

Ps3 also beats all in price, and all other consoles beats it in terms of games.

Well said. My PS3 sits there to be played. But I haven't found a good game so far. I use it for watching blu-ray movies...

As for the quality of audio and video, I found PS3 to be better than xbox 360. Today my xbox 360 went back for second round of repair since the launch.

On PS3, you can install most Linux distros. I haven't done that.

I think most people understand what you are trying to do, and my gut feeling is it should be possible to do it by cutting Windows right back. AFAIK it's not necessary for Windows to boot into the GUI (i.e it can boot to a commandline), however you still need some underlying OS layer so that the games can talk to the hardware (this is already explained above).

It's a matter for you to do some further research as to what drivers, utilities etc do *not* need to be loaded for jsut the games to work.

For example, if I guess right many Windows-based games require DirectX to be loaded so this would be a must-have, if you want on-line gaming you need network drivers & TCP/IP stack etc. No (modern) games will have all this built-in. 32 Bit DOS externders don't have DirectX or TCPIP either, however it *was* common to use these in the days of the DOS graphic games.

Sounds like you're better off hanging around in the specialised forums you mentioned & learning from those guys who have done it already.