Classic Windows Newbie Questions

[BurningDoom]

Please help a noob out here. I remember playing on old computer systems as a kid, but I was just recently thinking about taking a drive down to Salvation Army and seeing what old systems they've got for cheap. I've been having an itch to play old PC games from the DOS, Windows 3.0-Windows 98 eras. I currently run Windows XP and have heard all about the backwards compatibility issues with many games so figured that buying an old system may be the best route. I don't like using emulators and roms too much, personal ethical decision.

Some games I'm looking to run on it: Diablo 1 & 2, Doom 1 & 2, Baldur's Gate, Quake 1 & 2, Descent 1 & 2, Heretic, Hexen, Commander Keen, Alone In the Dark, 7th Guest, Icewind Dale, old Star Trek games, etc.

Questions before I look:

-Is Windows 98 Compatible with Windows 95 and Windows 3.0/3.1 software?
-In relation: Is Windows 95 compatible with Windows 3.0/3.1 software?
-Any system in particular good for what I'm looking to do?
-A 3.5 Floppy drive and CD-Rom drive should be all the drives I need for this era of stuff, right?
-Any recommendations on RAM amount and Video Card?

Thanks!

[MrPopo]

Based on what you want to play, you're better off going the route of Dosbox and source ports. There are several for id engine games, Dosbox will let you play anything originally on DOS, and the rest you listed should all just work, like Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate (maybe you'll want a resolution patch).

[Breetai]

I'd say get some top-of-the-line equipment, circa 1999/2000/2001 or so. You're looking at a Pentium III or IV in the 1Ghz-2.0Ghz range. That should give you machine powerful enough to handle most games from Win 98 era, without running into compatibility issues when running most DOS games. Get a Soundblaster 16 compatible sound card (so DOS games will recognize it and you'll have a joystick port) and a decent graphics card from the day (GeForce 2 or 3?). I would be putting Windows 98 SE on it, since it is still running on DOS.

[BRIK]

Dosbox

+1

[Anapan]

If I remember right, except a few screensavers and desktop toys I was able to run every windows 3.11 program/game I had on Windows 95 after transferring some old DLLs they asked for. I've never heard of any Windows 95 software that wasn't compatible with Windows 98.

I think Diablo II's the most demanding game you listed so except for Diablo 2 you'd be comfortable with a system that has half of my old laptop's specs - a Pentium III 1.10 Ghz with 512 Megs of ram, a GeForce4 440 Go (AGP4X 32 Megs vram) and Windows XP. It was perfectly playable with the settings turned up near-full but there were some places where it'd chop up and I wished my laptop had a bit better video card/vram when I ran it in 3D perspective mode and the weather effects/rain started. Diablo 2's minimum system requirements for single player: 233 MHz Pentium or better, 32 MB RAM, 650 MB drive space, 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX compatible video card.

[fastbilly1]

Get a better current pc, run dosbox and install windows 98? I know the allure of having an old pc just for these games, but that can me a nightmare driverwise

Several of hte games you mentioned have versions you can buy on GoG that will just install and run on xp, vista, and 7 - Descent and Icewind Dale for example

[BurningDoom]

Based on what you want to play, you're better off going the route of Dosbox and source ports. There are several for id engine games, Dosbox will let you play anything originally on DOS, and the rest you listed should all just work, like Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate (maybe you'll want a resolution patch).

Well Descent and Hexen are both giving my computer compatibility issues. And if 2 games that popular has issues, I don't even want to deal with the potential issues of others. And old 90s computers are being practically given away, so it's not like it'll cost me much.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Out of curiosity, what if you used VMware on your current computer, ran Windows 95 and tried playing the games that way? Does anybody have any experience with VMware and know if this would be a viable route? I'd try it myself, but I don't own any of the original software.

[MrPopo]

Descent you can play using a source port, same with Hexen. It'll look better and run better.

[CRTGAMER]

Didn't we just go thru all this? A lot of solutions in this recent post:

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 69#p402169