1. #1
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Windows 95/98 on 8.1

    Hey guys,

    I'm thinking this was asked before but our awful search feature is such shit I couldn't find it. I was curious - is there a way for me to run 95/98 in a virtual machine on an 8.1 system? I've got thousands of old games from the 80's and 90's that I like to look at once in a while and they simply can't play on a 64bit system. I do use DosBox for the oldest games but that obviously won't play late 90's 32-bit Windows games.

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    A googling got me this article, might help ya.
    Almost every operating system nowadays is a 64 bits system. Software for Windows 95 or 98 is made for 32 bits DOS systems. When trying to get that software running on a Windows 8, Windows 7 or Vista 32 or 64 bits system and they don't work, we have 4 possible solutions for you, of which 1 surely will work (it takes some experience and time though). Unfortunately, a simple Windows 95/98 emulator does not exist (yet). If your looking to run Windows XP games, check or Windows XP page.
    Compatibility mode

    Some programs and games that were designed for Windows 95, 98 or XP also run properly on Windows 8, Windows 7 or Vista. If they don't work, the first thing you can try is to start the program or game in compatibility mode.

    Right click on the file or shortcut you want to start and choose "properties"
    Click the compatibility tab
    Check the checkbox "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and choose your operating system.
    You can also choose to run the game in 256 color mode.

    Patches and source ports

    Although the compatibility options above look hopeful, they probably won't work anyway. You better search the internet for patches or source ports. Patches are pieces of software that update the game or program. When instructions are included, it's recommended that you read and follow them! Those patches are often released by fans or amateur programmers, so be careful and ALWAYS scan for viruses and malware! A source port is, different from a patch, a rewritten version of the original program or game which works on other operating systems, but uses the original game or program content. On this website we have guides to install source ports for Hexen II and Quake 2.

    Installing Windows 95/98 on Windows 7 or Vista with VirtualBox

    If compatibility mode doesn't work and you can't find a patch or source port, you'll have to use Windows 95/98 itself. As mentioned, a Windows 95/98 emulator does not exist. So you'll have to set up a Windows 95/98 system. However, you don't have to search for an old computer in your basement for this. You can create a virtual machine on your current computer. You can do this with VirtualBox. Within that virtual machine you will install a fresh copy of Windows 95 or 98. Sounds easy, but it really is a job for computer nerds with advanced knowledge. You can find a nice walkthrough here. Remember to uncheck VT-x/AMD-V activation at system - acceleration to avoid system failure when installing Windows 98.

    VirtualBox doesn't officialy support DOS based operating systems like Windows 95, 98 or ME. These operating systems run very slowly on VirtualBox with default settings. CPU load is constantly 100% and video settings don't get any better than 16 colors with a maximum resolution of 640x480. You can try and install an additional video driver to boost performance. Better choose 32 bits Windows XP if possible. When you need DOS, use DOSBox.

    When you have installed the desired operating system on your virtual computer, please make sure that you also install the VirtualBox Guest Additions to enable the graphics driver and therefore 3D hardware acceleration. Note that the Guest Additions are supported by Windows NT and later OSes (Windows 95, 98 and ME are NOT supported). You can install Guest Additions by starting your guest operating system and then click the menu item Devices (on top of the VirtualBox windows) and choose Install Guest Additions.
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  3. #3
    VMWare or Hyper-V would be solutions, but you need copies of the operating systems you want to use with a working key. Hyper-V is actually built into Windows 8 you just have to enable it in the windows features on/off menu. It's pretty restrictive on hardware so it could tell you that your processor is incompatible. Unfortunately 64 bit restricts you to very few options. The folks still using windows 7 32 bit can get the same functionality free without a copy of anything.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Nostalgic View Post
    VMWare or Hyper-V would be solutions, but you need copies of the operating systems you want to use with a working key. Hyper-V is actually built into Windows 8 you just have to enable it in the windows features on/off menu. It's pretty restrictive on hardware so it could tell you that your processor is incompatible. Unfortunately 64 bit restricts you to very few options. The folks still using windows 7 32 bit can get the same functionality free without a copy of anything.
    Seems to also work on virtualbox
    https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=9918
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  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Nostalgic View Post
    VMWare or Hyper-V would be solutions, but you need copies of the operating systems you want to use with a working key. Hyper-V is actually built into Windows 8 you just have to enable it in the windows features on/off menu. It's pretty restrictive on hardware so it could tell you that your processor is incompatible. Unfortunately 64 bit restricts you to very few options. The folks still using windows 7 32 bit can get the same functionality free without a copy of anything.
    But that comes with the limitations of running with slightly less than 4gb of memory. I guess it doesn't really matter for 98 though because 512mb of ram was pretty beastly back in those days.
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  6. #6
    rofl dosbox. nostalgia for those games you made on qbasic?

    id recommend one of the virtualbox walkthroughs. or just emulator the games.

  7. #7
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LiiLoSNK View Post
    rofl dosbox. nostalgia for those games you made on qbasic?

    id recommend one of the virtualbox walkthroughs. or just emulator the games.
    Not quite, no. I play a lot of the Gold-Box AD&D 2.0 games along with things like Terminal Velocity, Doom, Warcraft, EoB 1 - 3, Ancients, Dungeon Hack, Rise of the Triad, Solar Winds...the list goes on.

    I'll go with the VirtualBox stuff.

    EDIT: Looks like virtualbox's site is down. Alas

    Instead I ended up installing XP from my MSDN:



    Anyone familiar with Hyper-V able to help me understand why I cannot connect to the internet with this VM?

    I set up a switch, external, with my wired (I don't use wireless) NIC. I set up that as the network controller used by the VM. Windows XP shows 2 unknown devices and no network devices. No network connections. It shows that I'm using the "Internet" external switch I set up but it has a status of "no communication".

    EDIT
    It seems to be that Windows XP requires a legacy adapter, even with integration services installed.
    Last edited by Darsithis; 2015-01-24 at 04:43 AM.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    Not quite, no. I play a lot of the Gold-Box AD&D 2.0 games along with things like Terminal Velocity, Doom, Warcraft, EoB 1 - 3, Ancients, Dungeon Hack, Rise of the Triad, Solar Winds...the list goes on.

    I'll go with the VirtualBox stuff.

    EDIT: Looks like virtualbox's site is down. Alas

    Instead I ended up installing XP from my MSDN:



    Anyone familiar with Hyper-V able to help me understand why I cannot connect to the internet with this VM?

    I set up a switch, external, with my wired (I don't use wireless) NIC. I set up that as the network controller used by the VM. Windows XP shows 2 unknown devices and no network devices. No network connections. It shows that I'm using the "Internet" external switch I set up but it has a status of "no communication".

    EDIT
    It seems to be that Windows XP requires a legacy adapter, even with integration services installed.
    Is your hyper-v port open? If its not the router will not be able to see the switches traffic.
    I think its 89, google the port list.
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  9. #9
    VMWare Player works better than Hyper-V for running games. Better support for direct hardware use like GPU acceleration. It's also only alternative if you want to use old USB devices like for example some wheel/joystick controllers because Hyper-V and VirtualBox has no practical USB passthrough.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    Hey guys,

    I'm thinking this was asked before but our awful search feature is such shit I couldn't find it. I was curious - is there a way for me to run 95/98 in a virtual machine on an 8.1 system? I've got thousands of old games from the 80's and 90's that I like to look at once in a while and they simply can't play on a 64bit system. I do use DosBox for the oldest games but that obviously won't play late 90's 32-bit Windows games.

    Thanks!

    I recommend virtualbox. It's easy to use, and it's free. The only thing is you need to own a license to use windows 98 (that pretty much goes for any virtual machine operating system).
    When you install W98 in Vbox, select 32bit (only option as there was no 64 bit version of Win98) and it should run Windows 98 in 32 bit mode

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  11. #11
    VMware Player is better. It has a significantly better 3D performance and it works well with external devices. It's basically a stripped down version of VMware Workstation, but the core is the same, which means you get all of the basic technologies in Workstation for free.
    Last edited by haxartus; 2015-01-24 at 07:35 PM.

  12. #12
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vampz View Post
    Is your hyper-v port open? If its not the router will not be able to see the switches traffic.
    I think its 89, google the port list.
    I don't know. I'm not even sure how to open it, sadly.

    Quote Originally Posted by fixx View Post
    VMWare Player works better than Hyper-V for running games. Better support for direct hardware use like GPU acceleration. It's also only alternative if you want to use old USB devices like for example some wheel/joystick controllers because Hyper-V and VirtualBox has no practical USB passthrough.
    Quote Originally Posted by haxartus View Post
    VMware Player is better. It has a significantly better 3D performance and it works well with external devices. It's basically a stripped down version of VMware Workstation, but the core is the same, which means you get all of the basic technologies in Workstation for free.
    To be honest, the games I'm running are like Windows 3.1 games and old DOS games. I won't need 3D performance.

  13. #13
    Stood in the Fire Loyrl's Avatar
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    You could also just find the games online, classicdosgames.com is something that came up in google.. 8.1 doesn't have Xp Mode which sucks, unlike win7, you need an iso to install XP in Hyper-V.
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  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Loyrl View Post
    You could also just find the games online, classicdosgames.com is something that came up in google.. 8.1 doesn't have Xp Mode which sucks, unlike win7, you need an iso to install XP in Hyper-V.
    I've actually had pretty good luck in making most old games run natively (sometimes with a couple compatibility settings). Very occasionally, you'll find a game that used a 16-bit launcher even though the game itself is 32-bit (Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island come to mind). 16-bit applications cannot run on 64-bit Windows. For those two at least, there are new 32-bit launchers you can download that will start the game properly on modern versions of Windows.

    For actual 16-bit stuff...well actual 16-bit stuff was written for Win3.1, not 95/98. All software that required Win95/98 was 32-bit and should work in all current versions of Windows, though you may have to mess around with compatibility settings. Another example: Diablo 2 doesn't work properly on modern video cards. But there is an OpenGL-to-Glide wrapper you can use that will "fool" Diablo 2 into thinking you have an old 3dfx card and the game will run just as it's supposed to. If you are dealing with actual 16-bit programs, I would just use DOSBox. And keep in mind that you can install and use Win3.1 on top of DOSBox.

  15. #15
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Still no internet access.

    I had to plug my host machine into the AT&T router instead of my router. Once I did that I finally was assigned an IP address (legacy emulated intel network adapter) and can communicate with machines on the network from the VM. However, I still have no internet access from the VM. Everything times out. Nothing I can find online helps and I even tried disabling Windows Firewall to no effect.

  16. #16
    Bridged mode (NATted from host computer) setting is most compatible with home routers when trying to set up VMs. This is on by default on VMWare Player and needs to be manually set up from Hyper-V IIRC. Both computers will have same outside IP which might or might not be a problem depending on your needs.

  17. #17
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    I switched to VMWare Player, as suggested by a few people, and I set it up as a bridged connection and boom, everything works. Thanks for all the help!

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