I spent some time setting up a Pentium II with Windows 98 and a Voodoo 3 on PCem this weekend.
It’s really cool software, and a fun little project.
I spent a little time playing some Rainbow 6 (crazy how much the genre has changed over time) and Castle of the Winds 2.
Black and White runs well, but has some pretty bad audio stutter that I’ll have to figure out a solution for.
Do you have a favorite game from the period that I should try? I’m particularly interested in ones that are hard to run on modern versions of Windows.
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Perhaps Earthsiege and Earthsiege 2; I played those a ton back in the day. Also, I haven’t thought of Castle of the Winds in years, that brought back a pleasant wave of nostalgia!
Crusader: No Remorse and No Regret are great.
Total Annihilation
Blood.
Redneck rampage
Nblood is a good source port, I think there’s a couple others too
Neverhood! It’s a wonderful point-and-click adventure that oozes style. Everything was done with clay and stop motion
I got that as a pack-in game for something, probably a CD-ROM drive, and was impressed. I bet it has aged very well, good rec.
It has! It’s slow, sometimes painfully, but it’s worth the time spent
Mechwarrior 2
You have excellent taste.
I’ve been looking for an .iso for this one. I think they best versions all ran on DOS, but I’ve got that installed too.
It’s easily one of the best games of the period. The intro is incredibly cool.
Ooh, it’s even got Mercenaries. Thanks!
Thief 2 and Gothic 1 and 2. But I think those 2 are ok to run on modern systems.
I’d really love a patch to play Gothic 2 with English subtitles but German audio.
The English voice acting might be the worst I’ve ever heard.
Lo idea about theeenglish dub/translation, but if you can ignore that they had like a dozen voice actors for a whole island, the German voice acting is really good. Good look finding that mod.
I have never heard of this project and it might suck up a lot of my time. How does this differ from making a virtual machine from old versions of Windows?
I believe I first played RollerCoaster Tycoon on Windows 98. I also got SimCity 2000 from GoG but it’s the DOS version and I feel like the Windows version looked better.
For things that actually used the 3D card, I used to enjoy Midtown Madness 2, Motocross Madness, and Need for Speed III, but that all might’ve been in my Windows 2000 days.
That out of bounds effect on Motocross Madness makes me smile even today
I only had the demo of it and I just kept going up the hill and building up as much speed as possible, only to then let myself go OOB - for hours and hours.
Ah… Lovely memories of a brainless kid just messing around with his computer…
I believe the difference is that it actually emulates the hardware instead of just making the stuff you have look and act like it is compatible, but I’m far from an expert.
I really enjoyed Midtown Madness 1 when it came out, if 2 doesn’t work I think 1 would. Thanks for the rec!
The wing commander games.
Lemmings
Homeworld :)
Adagio of Strings intensifies
Subject did not survive interrogation.
Great idea, I might even have a copy somewhere.
Deus Ex?
Deus Ex runs way better natively than in PCem
Jagged Alliance, Commandos, Fallout :)
Oh, Jagged Alliance is a great idea. I think I even have those other ones on GOG, which I bet will run just fine on PCem.
About games hard to run, back on Win7 I couldn’t get Dark Colony installer to run with any compatibility mode (luckily, you can run the game just by copying the files from the CD). StarCraft had some graphics issue but just on menus (I think on Win10 as well), and I couldn’t play Outwars at all (although GOG version has some fix for modern Windows). A GOG game I bought that I couldn’t run on modern windows was Slave Zero.
Thanks for the recs, you’ve got great taste and I’ve never tried a few of these before.
Not sure if this counts, but Privateer 2 : The Darkening is one of my favourite games of all time and its a pain in the ass to run on modern systems.
Its a DOS game so I’m not sure if it counts, but still.
This reminds me: I was thinking of “Independence War Deluxe”, because sheesh, I couldn’t even get that running from a PC Gamer demo CD on release-era hardware LOL.
Oh, I played the original Privateer and loved it. I’ll definitely give this a go, thanks!
Interstate 76. I haven’t been able to get it working on any machine after the mid 2000s.
I have it from GOG, but the control mapping is still pretty bad IIRC.
I should really give it a go here, good idea.
I have it on gog too, but I’ve been on Linux since 2009 and it just throws wine errors every time. The last time I was able to play it was on a Pentium M laptop I had from 2006 or something.
I should try it on my Steam Deck, I wonder if it’s any different with Proton?
I’ve only tried wine and GE-proton through Heroic, Lutris and Bottles. Always gives some wine error.
I’ve never tried it through Steam.
