Windows 2000 Pro or 98SE

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Jul 2018 at 23:26

Ninco! said:
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.

Don’t say I never give anything away free.

I play about with it still in VM Machines just to see what the old softwares like.

Rroff · 9 Jul 2018 at 23:39

malachi said:
Definitely 98SE, many games didn't work on 2000 such as the original disk version of Silver and MDK.

Maybe I'm getting 2003 and 2000 mixed up its been so long but I thought people managed to get all contemporary games working at the time - though as before that doesn't mean the knowledge or files/programs can easily be got today.

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Jul 2018 at 05:20

Rroff said:
Maybe I'm getting 2003 and 2000 mixed up its been so long but I thought people managed to get all contemporary games working at the time - though as before that doesn't mean the knowledge or files/programs can easily be got today.

Windows 2003 was a server OS. There was Windows 2000 / Windows Me. Both where horrible for games on release. Nothing worked correctly.

Rroff · 10 Jul 2018 at 05:44

mrbell1984 said:
Windows 2003 was a server OS. There was Windows 2000 / Windows Me. Both where horrible for games on release. Nothing worked correctly.

I remember which OS was which just been awhile since the days when I knew people who gamed on those OSes so might have the memories of what they said about their experiences connected to the wrong OS.

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!

Deleted member 77746 · 12 Jul 2018 at 20:22

Ninco! said:
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!

I play around with the old operating systems in vms. They all pretty stable in VMware workstation for mac. But that's just software emulated and not really hardware.

Rroff · 12 Jul 2018 at 20:25

mrbell1984 said:
I play around with the old operating systems in vms. They all pretty stable in VMware workstation for mac. But that's just software emulated and not really hardware.

I sometimes mess about with them including RISC OS in virtual machines and to be frank they mostly make Windows 10 look incredibly poorly designed even with in some cases antiquated approaches or needing more manual hands on - once you get them up and running they mostly tend to just work without fuss and minimal getting in the way of the end user.

Though I have managed to make Windows 95 and 98 top itself occasionally being a bit ambitious or careless.

Deleted member 77746 · 12 Jul 2018 at 20:38

Rroff said:
Though I have managed to make Windows 95 and 98 top itself occasionally being a bit ambitious or careless.

It was mainly drivers for me that used to make 95/98 blue screen. Always when adding new hardware. Can you remember this?

Here is some history:

Rroff · 12 Jul 2018 at 20:45

mrbell1984 said:
Here is some history:

Ah the choice of music LOL.

almoststew1990 · 12 Jul 2018 at 23:12

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?

Rroff · 12 Jul 2018 at 23:13

almoststew1990 said:
Irongate

Wow been awhile since I heard that mentioned.

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).

Deleted member 77746 · 15 Jul 2018 at 14:10

Nice collection of games there!!! I'm going to install 'The Settlers III' on Windows 10. It should play! Got Unreal Tournament 2004 too sitting there that I might try.

LewisRaz · 15 Jul 2018 at 15:21

mrbell1984 said:
Nice collection of games there!!! I'm going to install 'The Settlers III' on Windows 10. It should play! Got Unreal Tournament 2004 too sitting there that I might try.

Still have a couple of games of settlers 2 against my mate every now and again. Excellent game series!

Deleted member 77746 · 15 Jul 2018 at 15:28

LewisRaz said:
Still have a couple of games of settlers 2 against my mate every now and again. Excellent game series!

Tried to get settlers 3 to play in widescreen but not found a solution yet. Does settlers 2 play in widescreen?

agw_01 · 15 Jul 2018 at 15:33

mrbell1984 said:
Windows 2003 was a server OS. There was Windows 2000 / Windows Me. Both where horrible for games on release. Nothing worked correctly.

The 2000 Pro BETA was awful. The final release however, I found absolutely brilliant. I was on 2000 SP4 until XP SP3 was released, just couldn't find a valid reason to upgrade. Had absolutely no issues with any game across quite a number of different CPU/GPU combinations.

Without doubt, one of my favourite operating systems. Perhaps only really surpassed by Windows 7.

LewisRaz · 15 Jul 2018 at 16:26

mrbell1984 said:
Tried to get settlers 3 to play in widescreen but not found a solution yet. Does settlers 2 play in widescreen?

Native 1080p. Just checked, this is the 10th anniversary edition tho.

Deleted member 77746 · 15 Jul 2018 at 21:40

LewisRaz said:
Native 1080p. Just checked, this is the 10th anniversary edition tho.

Playing this now, mission 1, campaign - been playing an hour and no where near the portal lol

agw_01 said:
The 2000 Pro BETA was awful. The final release however, I found absolutely brilliant. I was on 2000 SP4 until XP SP3 was released, just couldn't find a valid reason to upgrade. Had absolutely no issues with any game across quite a number of different CPU/GPU combinations.

Without doubt, one of my favourite operating systems. Perhaps only really surpassed by Windows 7.

I have to agree after 2000 SP4 it was extremely stable. Might stick this in a VM see how well it is.

linktoinsanity · 16 Jul 2018 at 14:21

Windows 98SE. Yes Windows 2000 Pro is more robust and secure, but older games will have more issues and if it is a retro setup, go with Windows 98SE all the way, it was the best of the Win9x series (yes, that includes ME).

heatonpkmassive · 17 Jul 2018 at 12:41

agw_01 said:
The 2000 Pro BETA was awful. The final release however, I found absolutely brilliant. I was on 2000 SP4 until XP SP3 was released, just couldn't find a valid reason to upgrade. Had absolutely no issues with any game across quite a number of different CPU/GPU combinations.

Without doubt, one of my favourite operating systems. Perhaps only really surpassed by Windows 7.

+1