Win 95 / 98 games and Windows 7 ?

wildman · 12 Apr 2012 at 14:58

is itpossible to run PC games that were coded for 95/98 on a modern machine running windows 7 ?

I really want to get back into playing warzone 2100, but I can't see any updates / patches for it to make it win7 compatible. So is it possible to get windows 7 to still run this game through some settings in the launcher / windows or am i just of of luck ?

scrlk · 12 Apr 2012 at 15:39

http://wz2100.net/

Could help you or not?

apatia77 · 12 Apr 2012 at 15:43

I managed to run some old games under VMware.

lokiss · 12 Apr 2012 at 16:30

Not saying this is a writen rule, but some of a very few games iv'e had no joy with in the windows 7 enviroment, have worked with old 'cough' stripped versions with different installation processes.

Recommend dual boot though, can be the answer to most problems if your hardware is savvy with it.

pingwing · 12 Apr 2012 at 16:32

Dual boot or resurrect a w2k computer, its the only way with some games (civ2 has descended to this as there is no other way to play the music of the cd and play the game)

Frenzy · 12 Apr 2012 at 16:40

Might work with xp? You can download an addon called "virtual pc" and "windows xp mode" from microsoft if you have win 7. I use it and it is pretty fast.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/default.aspx

Andri · 12 Apr 2012 at 17:15

Windows 7 XP mode doesn't really have DX support.
VirtualBox from oracle has some DX support but it's limited at best.

Dual boot is your best option.

i'm not 100% sure but WINE on Linux might help as that uses Windows APIs and some Dx features as well.

again, this all depends on the game.

Narj · 12 Apr 2012 at 22:43

Why do Microsoft bother with compatibility mode when most of the time it doesn't even work?

iviv · 12 Apr 2012 at 22:48

Andri said:
Windows 7 XP mode doesn't really have DX support.
VirtualBox from oracle has some DX support but it's limited at best.

VMware Player has decent DX support. I'm pretty certain its emulating the GPU on your CPU, so you'll need a fairly beefy one, but equally you're only playing Win 95/98 games so it doesn't need much grunt. I can play RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 through VMware player

HangTime · 13 Apr 2012 at 00:15

wildman said:
is itpossible to run PC games that were coded for 95/98 on a modern machine running windows 7 ?

Depends a lot on the game. If it is a Win98 game written for say DX7 or OpenGL then you have a fairly good chance, probably more so if it is Win7 32bit.

Some games from that era have some really crappy installers that check the OS version and refuse it install unless it detects win9x, but you may be able to get round this by manually 'installing' the game (copying files over etc).

One problem I have encountered with old games however is when it comes to detecting available resolutions etc, sometimes they fail.

Rozzy85 · 13 Apr 2012 at 00:19

Vinni3 @H|H said:
http://wz2100.net/

Could help you or not?

Wow, I completely forgot that this game existed. I use to play it on the PSX demo I had over and over. You've just reignited some nostalgia for me.

Narj · 13 Apr 2012 at 09:15

Actually, has anyone tried the MS Virtual XP machine for Win7, I presume that will run most of these old games OK?

spudbynight · 13 Apr 2012 at 09:29

I used to play a lot of games in a Win98 virtual machine. Anything I tried to play was fine when I was running it on an Athlon 3500+ with a 7800GTO. In fact a lot of them ran too fast sometimes....

I think anything that needs Win95 or Win98 will be fine on a modern machine in a VM

iviv · 13 Apr 2012 at 11:40

PianoBasher said:
Actually, has anyone tried the MS Virtual XP machine for Win7, I presume that will run most of these old games OK?

Its been a while since I used the XP Mode, but I'm pretty certain that it didn't emulate a GPU, so couldn't handle anything running DirectX. VMware Player gives you:

Narj · 13 Apr 2012 at 11:49

iviv said:
Its been a while since I used the XP Mode, but I'm pretty certain that it didn't emulate a GPU, so couldn't handle anything running DirectX.

So how does that work, does the GPU emulation hand off to the GPU in the actual host machine or is it purely emulated on the (virtual) CPU?

EDIT: On an unrelated note, that looks good actually - I didn't realise that Player supported the virtual networking part and was free! I need to build a VM environment for some SPLAT boxes so that does me a favour!

pingwing · 13 Apr 2012 at 12:21

PianoBasher said:
Actually, has anyone tried the MS Virtual XP machine for Win7, I presume that will run most of these old games OK?

I tried to get it to work for civ2 but it cant emulate a cdrom pass through properly, so the music didn't work/the game wouldn't run at any acceptable speed :mad:

I don't have a copy of xp, 2k or 98 to had to test it in any other virtual machine though so just gave up and got an old laptop out...

Frenzy · 13 Apr 2012 at 13:08

I'll have a look at the xp virtual machine tonight to see what it does.

wildman · 13 Apr 2012 at 21:08

Vinni3 @H|H said:
http://wz2100.net/

Could help you or not?

nice call

thanks for the heads up, its installed and running sweet at 1920 x 1080 on my SB rig

Duke · 13 Apr 2012 at 21:09

www.dosbox.com

wildman · 13 Apr 2012 at 21:27

Duke said:
www.dosbox.com

dosbox won't run it though as its not a 6.22 based game but a win95/98

I use dosbox for tie fighter, syndicate and simcity2000 nostalgic revival when I want to remember the reasons why I came so close to failing my degree and getting booted out of uni