Windows 2000 Pro or 98SE

Ninco! · 29 Jun 2018 at 23:03

Hi All,

Just seeking views as to which operating system is better for retro gaming pre XP?

Essentially late nineties or early 2000 games compatibility/performance & Dos compatibility.

Windows 98SE or 2000Pro? My gut tells me 98 as 2000 was commercial software. Sorry for sounding dim but nice to have confirmation.

Thanks in advance.

Ninco! · 30 Jun 2018 at 16:24

Some great points, I'll go with 98SE.

Many thanks all, appreciated.

Ninco! · 6 Jul 2018 at 19:21

Thanks for the views all, really helpful. I'll give 98SE a go.

Cheers Mr Bell, I have the original disk (although it might be corrupt) so I might just take you up on this offer. Thank you.

Tomorrow will be the first format and 98 install since 1998? I can envisage something going belly up during the install and I'll be sat clueless - I'm a bit rusty!

I might be back (cap in hand) asking for advice - Probably bemoaning that Windows 98 is rubbish.

Thanks all.

Ninco! · 12 Jul 2018 at 19:45

Windows 98 installed, talk about a blast from the past - I had completely forgot the process of installing drivers for everything!

Surprisingly, it did not take long (20 minutes) to install Win 98 - I was envisaging 3 hours, only for the PC to hang at some critical phase.

Boots perfectly. Now hunting down drivers for the PC, graphics card, USB, Sound card etc. Fortunately the Vogons (Dosbox) site has this covered. I'm currently debating about the unofficial 98SE SP3 as I can see this going horribly wrong. But then part of me thinks, ahh what the hell, time to give it a go!

Ninco! · 14 Jul 2018 at 20:42

almoststew1990 said:
Have you got a driver for USB stick support sorted? That makes life a hell of a lot easier! If not I can link one in the morning but you'd need to put it on a CD (or it might even fit on a floppy).

I put a bunch of common drivers on a CD - USB, Nvidia 43.X, Voodoo 3, Soundblaster Live, a few intel, via, SiS, chipsets... Of course I ended up with an AMD Slot A Irongate system lol, probably the only chipsets I didn't put on the CD

What are the specs of your system? What are you going to do with it?

Hi AlmostStew,

Specs:

Pentium III 1GHZ
512 MB RAM
ATI Rage 128 Pro AGP 16MB
Motherboard Dell OEM Intel
Seagate U6 Hard Drive 20GB
Soundblaster Live!
Davicom Network Interface Card 10/100

What am I going to use it for - retro gaming, piccie of one shelf. When I move I'll have a permanent den I can properly display

Essentially retro games which are likely not to appear on GOG or Steam for the foreseeable and very difficult to get working under Windows 10:

Colin McRae Rally
Grand Prix & Nascar Legends
Rowans Mig Alley, Flying Corps
Geoff Crammond Grand Prix (2/3)

Yes there are modded versions for some of the games. I personally prefer vanilla - although not adverse to patches which provide fixes (rather then overhauls).