No offense, but people who have computers that old, are not likely to even know about your game, let alone buy it.
I sometimes really wonder if you're saying the stuff you say because you know what you are talking about or just because you mean it should be the way you think or just read it elsewhere?
Beside of whatever owners of older systems might know and what not you do realize that a large percentage of the gfx chips sold today aren't capable of SM3 but still powerful enough to run a decent game (notebooks, integrated chipsets, miniMacs, macbooks) and not only used for datasheets.
You mean kinda how Blitz3D was, back when it was released?
Puhh hard to remember what was available at the time Blitz3D (2001?) was released. I used another one which was available a) on win and mac and b) able to publish off- and online. Anyway things look a bit different today as there are much more products around and some of them are quite good not to mention the unaffordable professional ones. Furthermore some of them offer features which fit quite well into the wide gap between SM3 and DX7.
You mean a game like say, Shpere Racer? Or Aerial Antics? How long did those take, do you reckon?
I've no idea what kind of games you are talking about but i suspect you want to say that these games take some time to finish. But then i quite don't understand your point as obviously there is a wide range of different kind of games and some need more and some less time. I suspect most of the games around here are done under a year. At least mine are... ;O)