Getting Windows 95 era games to work on modern PC ??

[ChipTune]

I am trying to get two of my favourite old PC games to run on my Windows 7 computer, Road Rash and Ultimate race pro...

Ive tried running as administrator, putting compatibility to windows 95 / windows 98 etc .. reducing color to 256 and all that.. but nothing will work.. setup installers wont run etc.

Is there any way to get these old games to run on modern pcs? maybe a type of emulator program like DOSbox but for old windows games?

Any help appreciated

[DPrinny]

Get D-Fend, unlike DOS box on its own its easy to use

[ChipTune]

Get D-Fend, unlike DOS box on its own its easy to use

Thanks, but its windows games from the 90's im trying to run, not DOS games.. but ill try this out for when I do play DOS games

[DPrinny]

It runs olde Windows games last time I tried. A lot of Win 95 games played via Dos

[Carrot007]

It runs olde Windows games last time I tried. A lot of Win 95 games played via Dos

That would make them a DOS game then It's true a lot of games into the win 95 era were still dos games, but not all.

My thoughts on playing older windows games...

VMWare (of which i mean the free version for windows):

Set up a VM using Win 95 for old games.

This works well however beign a Vm there are potential issues liek the fact you are installing a really old OS on a very fast CPU! And no hardware acceleration (VMWare does support some hardware acceleration but only on winXP+ so not very useful for playing old games)

Bochs:

Now this is a proper emulator so can be configured speed wise and should have no problems running old games, however the demands on your machine will be a lot higher! Again as far as I know the gfx card emulation is fairly based so DX games would need to run in software mode.

Additional....

Or you could just pick up an older machine and use that!

[ChipTune]

Have you used these things for yourself?

I dont really 'get' how to use the VR stuff.. looks very complicated..

Im using windows 7 64-bit, will it be possible to get windows 95 games working in this via one of the virtual emulation thingies you mentioned above?

[junkmale]

My solution...
I bought an old PC locally. 700MHZ processor, 3dfx video card, running Windows98se.
Cost £20.
Works every time.
Saves all that faffing about with VM and Dosbox.

[Sega2006]

I had the same trouble and planned to build a retro spec PC, didnt get far but I may start it again as 4 of the practise PC's are pretty much ideal for the purpose, I binned most of my floppy disks though due to my current machine being without the disk drive.

[pforson]

The easiest way to run old Windows 95/98 games is via Windows XP. XP seems to like nearly everything with a bit of fiddling. So far I've only discovered 4 Win95/98 games that won't run in XP (NHL98, Fifa98, Magic the Gathering and Micro Machines V3). Try installing XP on a seperate partition.

I use Windows 98SE installed via Parralels on a Mac Mini (in fact, my XP install is also on the same Mac Mini via Bootcamp - who'd have thought that the best way to play old PC games is on a MAC!). I tried VM Ware but the problem is that it uses the computers hardware directly and Mac's don't support 256 colours. Parralels is a pain to setup but works like a charm. Of course, I can only run games in Software Rendering.

The last thing to try, if the game has Hardware Rendering support is to see if someone has released a Glide Wrapper for the game. For instance, I have a self contained 'App' on my Mac of Carmageddon, which runs using Glide rendering and in 1600x1200 res. It looks awesome and all it took was a one click download.

I've never tried Bochs, but I hear the system requirements are very high. But it may be worth a look.

Ta,
Pete

[Carrot007]

Have you used these things for yourself?

I dont really 'get' how to use the VR stuff.. looks very complicated..

Im using windows 7 64-bit, will it be possible to get windows 95 games working in this via one of the virtual emulation thingies you mentioned above?

Yes, well VMWare anyway, have not used bochs for ages (probably because my pc hoarding habit means i have lots of real mahcines to play with!)

And VMWare at least is fairly stragiht forward. Just works like having a real mahcine on which you install an OS. (telling it which drives/images to connect to which on the virtualised one)

One gaming Vm I use is for Risk 2, as it does not play nicely on 64 bit os's. Works fine under vmware though using win 98.

I've never tried Bochs, but I hear the system requirements are very high. But it may be worth a look.

They certainly are higher because it is complete emulation. (And I think a lot of options are compile time (which should not cause any issue for things like this though))

I use Windows 98SE installed via Parralels on a Mac Mini (in fact, my XP install is also on the same Mac Mini via Bootcamp - who'd have thought that the best way to play old PC games is on a MAC!). I tried VM Ware but the problem is that it uses the computers hardware directly and Mac's don't support 256 colours. Parralels is a pain to setup but works like a charm. Of course, I can only run games in Software Rendering.

Yeah but a mac is a PC these days! I use VMWare on my mini (only downside from the PC one is is cost money!) But To be honest I don't use the mac for much these days. (I have thunderbird on it for email and Amplitube for guitar fun)

The last thing to try, if the game has Hardware Rendering support is to see if someone has released a Glide Wrapper for the game. For instance, I have a self contained 'App' on my Mac of Carmageddon, which runs using Glide rendering and in 1600x1200 res. It looks awesome and all it took was a one click download

Which reminds me, no 1 option for playing old stuff. Engine re-implimentation. ScummVM being the most obvious but also things like Xl Engine for dark forces. Unfortunaly only done for certain games and can have issues.

Bah this is making me want to play Jedi Knight again now. Not played it in years for these sort of reasons. Basically it needs Direct X 5 hardware and runs bad on modern stuff (you only get good gfx with hardware acceleration mode which is for dx5 era and very specific (voodoo or ATI Rage era, I may have to venture into the loft and see if I can find parts! I know I have my old voodoo 1 up there, just need to locate the pass though cable to avoid having to swap from the 2d card all the time!!!))

[Sega2006]

Thats just helped me figure out how old the graphics card in the boot of my car is

[Lorfarius]

I use Windows 98SE installed via Parralels on a Mac Mini (in fact, my XP install is also on the same Mac Mini via Bootcamp - who'd have thought that the best way to play old PC games is on a MAC!). I tried VM Ware but the problem is that it uses the computers hardware directly and Mac's don't support 256 colours. Parralels is a pain to setup but works like a charm. Of course, I can only run games in Software Rendering.

This program doesn't get enough praise or mentions! It's just about run everything I've thrown at it for XP, such a brilliant bit of software and being able to Alt Tab between Mac and PC programs is a dream come true. Hell the Start Button appears on the Mac icon bar too, its a dream come true.

[Antiriad2097]

Well, Road Rash should work according to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad52En1tibU

Trawl the comments there for tips on getting it running.

Handy Win7 tip here that you may need for it too:
http://ashraful-islam.hubpages.com/hub/ ... -windows-7

[ChipTune]

Well, Road Rash should work according to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad52En1tibU

Trawl the comments there for tips on getting it running.

Handy Win7 tip here that you may need for it too:
http://ashraful-islam.hubpages.com/hub/ ... -windows-7

now this looks really useful, thanks.. will try that shortly..

now if you can help me get Ultimate (Ultim@te) Race Pro to work on windows 7 64-bit I will love you forever.. hell, you can come over and sleep with my sister!

[ChipTune]

BOOM.. and Road Rash is working .. got my xbox controller working via Joy2key and my own music playing.. back of the net!

Now if someone can pleeeease help me get Ultim@te race pro to work I will be indebted to you.