a couple game programming questions

I have a couple questions:

1. Is there a better alternative to jMonkeyEngine for creating 3d java games? If so, what are its advantages? If not, is it better to use their supplied IDE or to use something like Netbeans/Eclipse?

2. This is far less important as I may never get around to it, but I'd like to someday make an old fashioned DOS game that would be playable on an extremely old PC. What language(s) would I need to use and what libraries are available for this sort of thing? Are there any good guides on the subject?

Any answers would be much appreciated.

>dos game
>old PC
Doom Engine (Id Tech 1), possibly Id Tech 2

If you're lucky and willing to force a GNU+Linux environment, the new DRI (either late version 1 or in version 2) can directly access the GPU without requiring a desktop environment - you could do stuff like MineCraft or Sauerbraten or Tremulous without ever loading up X.

Also, depending on how old we're talking and how primitive it needs to be, ioquake3 uses low-level opengl which should be compatible with older GPUs (it can probably go as low as 1.3/1.4, which is actually common for primitive GPU-related tasks in many languages since it's the same as DirectX 7, which covers most of the basics)