Has anybody here bought a Windows 98 PC recently?

[aka1nas]

a Win98 VM on VMWare workstation is awesome for this, it has 3d acceleration now so you can run all the early 3d games too(these are the most problematic ones, too new for DOSBox, but still don't work on a modern OS).

 

[nOOky]

I wouldn't buy a computer, but I have one sitting here. It was one of my first custom builds, and I hate to toss it out while it still works. My old 1.4 T-bird cpu has been running at 1.5 for years now, under a Globalwin Fop 32 cooler. I think. I have problems running old games under Vista etc. so it serves it's purpose.

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: Via

Originally posted by: mb
Seems pretty pointless when you can run them perfectly in XP, Vista, or 7...

Actually that IS the point.

I've never been able to get certain games to run properly under XP.

I know everyone's experience is slightly different, but mine hasn't been good at all.
The last time I tried to install NFS:HP, for example, it just hung at the menu screen. That was probably 3 or 4 years ago.

So, instead of jumping through hoops to get games to run the way they originally did, why not not just drop $50, $100 on a dedicated 98 gaming machine? I spent much more on my 360, PS3 and Wii individually - and I hardly use them unless friends come over. I'm mostly on my PC when it comes to games.

But I don't really need convincing that it's worth it for me. I loved so many games from 1996-2001. If you're not from that generation it probably would be a waste.

Has anybody had actually gone through the trouble of buying an older PC to play games only to think afterwards "That just wasn't worth it at all. These games are too old to be fun".

They will work just fine on your current PC though.

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: CP5670

I know everyone's experience is slightly different, but mine hasn't been good at all. The last time I tried to install NFS:HP, for example, it just hung at the menu screen. That was probably 3 or 4 years ago.

I don't think XP is your problem. As I said earlier, it's usually not the OS but the video card drivers that cause trouble with these late 90s games. I played NFSHP a few years ago on XP and it worked fine from what I remember, although that was on a 7800GT.

I'd just dual-boot a little win98 partition for maximum compatibility. It is what I am planning on doing when I get around to playing Planescape Torment (which doesn't fully work right in windows 7)

This won't usually work because you need to find Win98 chipset and video drivers for your (modern) hardware. I remember Nvidia dropped all Win98 support several years ago. Not sure about Intel or AMD.

Dosbox for DOS games, WINE in Ubuntu for many others (they've done reverse engineering on all versions of windows, so it typically has multiple dlls and can handle early games), virtualbox with win 98 if all else fails.

Is there a way to use WINE on Windows? That might actually be the best option for late 90s games, as it should have better 3D support than the VM programs.

Wine in fact will work on windows (there's an installer made especially for windows virtual machines, but it should work in native windows as well). However, it requires you to replace the native windows DLLs. Actually, adding them to the same folder as the executable should also work, in which case you could just rip DLLs from older versions of Windows and put those in the base folder of the exe as well. I also have doubts this would work in Vista or 7, but you could get a virtual machine I suppose.

Biggest issue might be the Glide only games, or the games with Direct3d support that only worked correctly on 3dfx cards. I think there were some pretty good Glide wrappers out there though.

 

[CP5670]

a Win98 VM on VMWare workstation is awesome for this, it has 3d acceleration now so you can run all the early 3d games too(these are the most problematic ones, too new for DOSBox, but still don't work on a modern OS).

Have you actually tried it? From looking over this and this, it looks like it's pretty hit-or-miss in its current state. The 3D support is also limited to the commercial products and is not present in the free VMWare Server.

VirtualBox apparently does OpenGL and D3D8 but not D3D7, while Virtual PC doesn't do any 3D at all.

Wine in fact will work on windows (there's an installer made especially for windows virtual machines, but it should work in native windows as well). However, it requires you to replace the native windows DLLs. Actually, adding them to the same folder as the executable should also work, in which case you could just rip DLLs from older versions of Windows and put those in the base folder of the exe as well. I also have doubts this would work in Vista or 7, but you could get a virtual machine I suppose.

Do you have link to this installer? I found this, but it seems like the whole thing is unfinished. They say it doesn't compile yet.

 

[Northern Lawn]

I'm of the same mind as the OP. I have an old computer (I always keep stuff) it has an MSI mobo, AMD 2500, SD ram I think, and a kick ass 9800 pro video card, lol. It's missing some parts as I've cannibalized it over the years. I think it's missing the hard drive and maybe the ram. But I have win98se and an old, but very nice, CRT monitor and I want to play older games on it too this winter. However, I recently bought a Lucas Art kedi package off STEAM and believe it or not, Dark Forces and Dark Forces II work. So I may try to re-install System Shock II, I could never get that to work with XP or Vista, but now I use Windows 7 and it's awesome, I may not need to fix up that old computer. I'm Going to have to try out a few more old games first System Shock I + II, deus ex, Tie fight vs whatever etc.

I read that windows 7 was meant to be a lot more compatible then XP and Vista' with older games.

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: Northern Lawn
I'm of the same mind as the OP. I have an old computer (I always keep stuff) it has an MSI mobo, AMD 2500, SD ram I think, and a kick ass 9800 pro video card, lol. It's missing some parts as I've cannibalized it over the years. I think it's missing the hard drive and maybe the ram. But I have win98se and an old, but very nice, CRT monitor and I want to play older games on it too this winter. However, I recently bought a Lucas Art kedi package off STEAM and believe it or not, Dark Forces and Dark Forces II work. So I may try to re-install System Shock II, I could never get that to work with XP or Vista, but now I use Windows 7 and it's awesome, I may not need to fix up that old computer. I'm Going to have to try out a few more old games first System Shock I + II, deus ex, Tie fight vs whatever etc.

I read that windows 7 was meant to be a lot more compatible then XP and Vista' with older games.

I have Windows 7 and for Win95/98 games, its less compatible than XP was.
Still using my WinXP computer for modern gaming and legacy gaming.
Also, I really want to make a Win98 system for older games that just refuse to play. Stuff like Magic The Gathering, Dungeon Keeper 2, and a few others. I would need a socket A motherboard and CPU, a GeForce 3, and a soundblaster PCI 512 or something similar. But I dunno if I need a 3rd computer in the house. Also, I am getting downright sick of the gaming situation these days and may just give it up entirely. Will have to wait and see how I feel.

 

[Via]

Originally posted by: shortylickens Also, I am getting downright sick of the gaming situation these days and may just give it up entirely. Will have to wait and see how I feel.

Whenever I feel like that (and it's been dozens of times) I take a deep breath and realize that if I'm lucky enough to make it to my 70s or even 80s I'll still probably be trying out games .:laugh:

I might not have the concentration, dexterity, or eyesight to last long, but I'll at least be intrigued.

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: CP5670

a Win98 VM on VMWare workstation is awesome for this, it has 3d acceleration now so you can run all the early 3d games too(these are the most problematic ones, too new for DOSBox, but still don't work on a modern OS).

Have you actually tried it? From looking over this and this, it looks like it's pretty hit-or-miss in its current state. The 3D support is also limited to the commercial products and is not present in the free VMWare Server.

VirtualBox apparently does OpenGL and D3D8 but not D3D7, while Virtual PC doesn't do any 3D at all.

Wine in fact will work on windows (there's an installer made especially for windows virtual machines, but it should work in native windows as well). However, it requires you to replace the native windows DLLs. Actually, adding them to the same folder as the executable should also work, in which case you could just rip DLLs from older versions of Windows and put those in the base folder of the exe as well. I also have doubts this would work in Vista or 7, but you could get a virtual machine I suppose.

Do you have link to this installer? I found this, but it seems like the whole thing is unfinished. They say it doesn't compile yet.

http://wiki.winehq.org/WineD3DOnWindows

At the bottom of the page they link to the precompiled installers.
However, they don't support D3d7 (or lower) anyway, so many older games aren't going to work. Was there a software reference renderer in the older DirectX SDKs? Perhaps it'd be possible to force one of those to work, cpus should be powerful enough today to run anything pre DX7, and probably a lot of the DX7 stuff as well.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: Fox5

Originally posted by: CP5670

a Win98 VM on VMWare workstation is awesome for this, it has 3d acceleration now so you can run all the early 3d games too(these are the most problematic ones, too new for DOSBox, but still don't work on a modern OS).

Have you actually tried it? From looking over this and this, it looks like it's pretty hit-or-miss in its current state. The 3D support is also limited to the commercial products and is not present in the free VMWare Server.

VirtualBox apparently does OpenGL and D3D8 but not D3D7, while Virtual PC doesn't do any 3D at all.

Wine in fact will work on windows (there's an installer made especially for windows virtual machines, but it should work in native windows as well). However, it requires you to replace the native windows DLLs. Actually, adding them to the same folder as the executable should also work, in which case you could just rip DLLs from older versions of Windows and put those in the base folder of the exe as well. I also have doubts this would work in Vista or 7, but you could get a virtual machine I suppose.

Do you have link to this installer? I found this, but it seems like the whole thing is unfinished. They say it doesn't compile yet.

http://wiki.winehq.org/WineD3DOnWindows

At the bottom of the page they link to the precompiled installers.
However, they don't support D3d7 (or lower) anyway, so many older games aren't going to work. Was there a software reference renderer in the older DirectX SDKs? Perhaps it'd be possible to force one of those to work, cpus should be powerful enough today to run anything pre DX7, and probably a lot of the DX7 stuff as well.

It might be worth a try. Most of the broken games I know of are in fact D3D7 though.

You can still force software rendering in dxdiag (this is how I got Grim Fandango working on my 280), but you don't get any texture filtering at all and it looks like crap in most games.

 

[Skott]

Ah, Win98. How I remember thee.... I don not miss having to monkey around with DOS to get enough memory to run a game. LOL. I'm glad GOG.com is bringing back the older games to better run on newer systems.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: CP5670

a Win98 VM on VMWare workstation is awesome for this, it has 3d acceleration now so you can run all the early 3d games too(these are the most problematic ones, too new for DOSBox, but still don't work on a modern OS).

Have you actually tried it? From looking over this and this, it looks like it's pretty hit-or-miss in its current state. The 3D support is also limited to the commercial products and is not present in the free VMWare Server.

Yep, I've used it successfully on several old games (Mechwarrior 2 Mercs, Dungeon Keeper 1, etc). 3d accell is much more reliable with 6.5, it was an experimental feature in earlier versions of VMWare Workstation and was disabled by default.

 

[Fox5]

http://www.microsoft.com/downl...8b5f410&displaylang=en

Here's a software rasterizer for dx9, perhaps it'll work with older games as well.