Feedback How do you play old games?

[rantex92]

Like the title said: How do you guys play old games? (with old games i mean old pc games from 95-2006 lower than directx 9)
i searched the web and found many ways but now im confused sould i go with?

-windows compatibilty mode + game specific fixes (wont work for me most time)

-using dxwrapper/dgvoodoo2 (fixed some games but gave me horrible coil whining from my gpu)

-setting up a virtual machine via vmware/vmbox

-installing winXP as second OS and keep it offline (dont think there are any driver for my hw on xp)

- using linux with proton/lutris

-using linux and setting up a vm via kvm with dedicated gpu

-just use/build some old winxp machine

Any ideas /input are welcome

 

[Blauhasenpopo]

Hi
I'm using VirtualBox on a Linux Mint System, hosting an XP in the VM...very cool...maybe a VM with Windows 95...would be better

So if you in a VM you didn't have to care about Viruses.

 

[rantex92]

Hi
I'm using VirtualBox on a Linux Mint System, hosting an XP in the VM...very cool...maybe a VM with Windows 95...would be better

So if you in a VM you didn't have to care about Viruses.

thanks for your input ^^ my experience with virtualboxes some games wont work like the first three harrypotter pc games

and thats a myth there are viruses/malware/exploits wich especially written to look if its running on a hypervisor and those can infect the host system

 

[Blauhasenpopo]

.....hmmmm......dind't heard of these kind of viruses...so.....now i'm scared

 

[rantex92]

.....hmmmm......dind't heard of these kind of viruses...so.....now i'm scared

those arent viruses the term "virus" is nowadays outdatet todays "hackers" or the right term penetration testers wont use oldskool viruses and malware they look for vulnerabilities in the code or hardware and try to exploit it for their porpuse

and dont be scared those who can penetrate a hypervisor arent so common in the wild

 

[FAST6191]

Punching through a hypervisor might be tricky. Overwriting/encrypting things left on your writeable shares that the VM has access to as part of a ransomware effort...

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I haven't come across any that won't work on modern Windows (with some workarounds, like forcing 256-bit color or compatibility modes), other than the odd DOS game that I simply use DOSBox for.

 

[rantex92]

I haven't come across any that won't work on modern Windows (with some workarounds, like forcing 256-bit color or compatibility modes), other than the odd DOS game that I simply use DOSBox for.

thanks for your input

i came across plenty of games wich wont work even with workarounds like for instance the first 3 harry potter games,the complete legacy of kain series,zanzarah,heavy metal fakk2,american mcgees alice etc

i know for many of them dgvoodoo or dxwrapper will do the trick but if i use those wrappers i get horrible coil whining

 

[FAST6191]

I can't really hear high pitches any more so that might be part of it (actually makes diagnosis hard for some things but different discussion there) but actual coils going crazy or just fans spinning 100% because bad software? What causes the latter probably causes the former as well if it is a thing so you could probably attack it from that front, or do some kind of max resource allocation setup to have it appear as far slower.
Equally if it is an inductor that is whining is this not a matter for some solastic or maybe even hot snot (glue gun glue) to take it out of whatever resonance it finds itself in -- if it does it here then it will probably also do it for modern games when it gets pushed hard?

As far as old games and running on modern windows. I usually take it as a given that I will be ending up on https://www.wsgf.org/ (originally a site made to get games working on widescreen, today quite a bit more) and probably https://www.moddb.com/ to have it be nice, anything in line with that then being within normal parameters as far as I am concerned. Every game I have ever owned I used the cracked version of as well as that just seems sensible.

I also have the debate on what I want to go in for -- back when I was... not as old it is not like I was rich and having all the fancy gear. My machines were likely as not to have cyrix and later AMD processors, a sound blaster clone running the finest £10 computer fayre speakers, my CD drive had an error on it that made audio tracks become what I can only describe as high speed modem noise after a few minutes (to this day it means I play heroes of might and magic battles as fast as humanly possible so as to dodge it, this despite that drive being a CD burner as well that died now decades ago), my graphics card (I just about managed to squeak out of onboard) only said voodoo on my wishlist and while I had used a laser mouse that was early enough to need a fancy mouse pad to make it work I still had ball mice at a point when Vista was a nearer than not future thing the magazines were talking about. I would not necessarily go out of my way to emulate any of that but at the same time 486DX100 and all the trimmings using peak of CRT resolutions with voodoo and real genuine soundblaster/creative labs is also not so much a thing me or mine ever really experienced bar the occasional trip to a rich relative which means I might well actually want to operate in the "good enough"/"Just As Good™" regime.

Some of the 16 bit installers don't work on 64 bit windows, though there are usually workarounds.

If it needed an old version of Java (2003 Chrome being about the only thing I would really consider for that), possibly Flash nowadays but eh, old version of visual basic then that can get fun but I usually have vb setup to work for old ROM hacking programs so no great issue from that.

If it is a 3dfx game then Dosbox has not historically done the best at having that mode (and it is usually a notable difference, even if I did not have it back when), today it does a bit better but yeah I would go for wrappers. I don't think anybody would want the S3 virge emulation options of things (those few things that did support it usually doing it out of pity and having far nicer 3dfx modes). A lot of DOS things I will also possibly gravitate to the Amiga versions of just for ease, or 16 bit consoles/PS1 if they have good versions but input can be an issue there (and that is before we consider the things that changed radically -- war games probably being the more prominent example in that discussion)..

midi emulation is its own minefield ( http://macgateway.com/featured-articles/sound-card-history/ for history of sound cards, what one you emulate and means thereof is up to you, I never had anything other than soundblaster and sound blaster clones so your picks might end up different to mind if you need the shiniest options you never had back when) but for the most part that just means what sound font/sound back/instrument library you like best.

All that said I do usually have XP and such machines kicking around. Replace CMOS battery and monitors have VGA inputs for a reason, granted I have DVI outputs for a lot of those as well.

Can't say I have ever been bothered by the Harry Potter games -- seeing prices in a game shop for the GC version the other day though and some noting the magic system has me marginally curious though. For these purposes I would however want to investigate what is causing the issue.

 

[Jayro]

Alice works fine using the Steam version.

 

[rantex92]

I can't really hear high pitches any more so that might be part of it (actually makes diagnosis hard for some things but different discussion there) but actual coils going crazy or just fans spinning 100% because bad software? What causes the latter probably causes the former as well if it is a thing so you could probably attack it from that front, or do some kind of max resource allocation setup to have it appear as far slower.
Equally if it is an inductor that is whining is this not a matter for some solastic or maybe even hot snot (glue gun glue) to take it out of whatever resonance it finds itself in -- if it does it here then it will probably also do it for modern games when it gets pushed hard?

As far as old games and running on modern windows. I usually take it as a given that I will be ending up on https://www.wsgf.org/ (originally a site made to get games working on widescreen, today quite a bit more) and probably https://www.moddb.com/ to have it be nice, anything in line with that then being within normal parameters as far as I am concerned. Every game I have ever owned I used the cracked version of as well as that just seems sensible.

I also have the debate on what I want to go in for -- back when I was... not as old it is not like I was rich and having all the fancy gear. My machines were likely as not to have cyrix and later AMD processors, a sound blaster clone running the finest £10 computer fayre speakers, my CD drive had an error on it that made audio tracks become what I can only describe as high speed modem noise after a few minutes (to this day it means I play heroes of might and magic battles as fast as humanly possible so as to dodge it, this despite that drive being a CD burner as well that died now decades ago), my graphics card (I just about managed to squeak out of onboard) only said voodoo on my wishlist and while I had used a laser mouse that was early enough to need a fancy mouse pad to make it work I still had ball mice at a point when Vista was a nearer than not future thing the magazines were talking about. I would not necessarily go out of my way to emulate any of that but at the same time 486DX100 and all the trimmings using peak of CRT resolutions with voodoo and real genuine soundblaster/creative labs is also not so much a thing me or mine ever really experienced bar the occasional trip to a rich relative which means I might well actually want to operate in the "good enough"/"Just As Good™" regime.

Some of the 16 bit installers don't work on 64 bit windows, though there are usually workarounds.

If it needed an old version of Java (2003 Chrome being about the only thing I would really consider for that), possibly Flash nowadays but eh, old version of visual basic then that can get fun but I usually have vb setup to work for old ROM hacking programs so no great issue from that.

If it is a 3dfx game then Dosbox has not historically done the best at having that mode (and it is usually a notable difference, even if I did not have it back when), today it does a bit better but yeah I would go for wrappers. I don't think anybody would want the S3 virge emulation options of things (those few things that did support it usually doing it out of pity and having far nicer 3dfx modes). A lot of DOS things I will also possibly gravitate to the Amiga versions of just for ease, or 16 bit consoles/PS1 if they have good versions but input can be an issue there (and that is before we consider the things that changed radically -- war games probably being the more prominent example in that discussion)..

midi emulation is its own minefield ( http://macgateway.com/featured-articles/sound-card-history/ for history of sound cards, what one you emulate and means thereof is up to you, I never had anything other than soundblaster and sound blaster clones so your picks might end up different to mind if you need the shiniest options you never had back when) but for the most part that just means what sound font/sound back/instrument library you like best.

All that said I do usually have XP and such machines kicking around. Replace CMOS battery and monitors have VGA inputs for a reason, granted I have DVI outputs for a lot of those as well.

Can't say I have ever been bothered by the Harry Potter games -- seeing prices in a game shop for the GC version the other day though and some noting the magic system has me marginally curious though. For these purposes I would however want to investigate what is causing the issue.

im 100% sure its coil whining (i even made a thread about it back in the day) the strange thing with this coil whinin is
it appears only when playing old games(like soul reaver2 or battle realms) or using old games with dgvoodoo/dxwrapper it changes in pitch and notes depending on my camera movement in games as a sanity check i tried some new games like cyberpunk77,rdr2, and battlefront2 on highest setting but the coil whining wouldnt appear even after hours off playing
i even thought maybe its my overclocking settings and restored factory settings but still the whining would appear

and thank you for so much information i didnt know about wsgf and the midi minefield

i think i will revive an old pc of mine just to keep the hassle at a low point

you should give them a try the first three games are realy good and the music is made by jeremy sole (u know him if u played morrowind) and you should know the console version and the pc versions of those games are completely different games but both versions are worth playing

 

[rantex92]

Alice works fine using the Steam version.

i dont want to buy it again i got many of those oldgames still layin around

 

[Jayro]

i dont want to buy it again i got many of those oldgames still layin around

I have an original copy of Most Wanted (2008 version) for PC on DVD, and the installation disc has the config file set wrong... So you have to rip the disc to iso, fix the config file, and then mount it or burn it again just to install the damn game. Ridiculous!

 

[KleinesSinchen]

i dont want to buy it again i got many of those oldgames still layin around

Too many people are willing to pay for what they already have…

It is worth noting that many problems with older games come from disc based DRM.
Safedisc doesn't work on fully updated Windows 7/8.1 as well as Windows 10 (you shouldn't revive secdrv.sys although I read it is possible). American McGee Alice is infected (sic!) with Safedisc 2.0
Some DRM garbage is even worse – please don't attempt to install an old Starforce protected game on newer Windows.

To rule out such problems it is a good idea to try a version not containing the DRM (cracked). I personally wouldn't want cracked things from shady sites on a productive, online system though. No problem with a secondary, offline system.
=======

As long as good XP compatible hardware is available there is no real problem.

 

[rantex92]

Too many people are willing to pay for what they already have…

It is worth noting that many problems with older games come from disc based DRM.
Safedisc doesn't work on fully updated Windows 7/8.1 as well as Windows 10 (you shouldn't revive secdrv.sys although I read it is possible). American McGee Alice is infected (sic!) with Safedisc 2.0
Some DRM garbage is even worse – please don't attempt to install an old Starforce protected game on newer Windows.

To rule out such problems it is a good idea to try a version not containing the DRM (cracked). I personally wouldn't want cracked things from shady sites on a productive, online system though. No problem with a secondary, offline system.
=======

As long as good XP compatible hardware is available there is no real problem.

you hit the nail right on the head with drm an old games

those hp games are safedisc aswell but they wont start even with crack + dgvoodoo on win10/11

 

[JaapDaniels]

you hit the nail right on the head with drm an old games

those hp games are safedisc aswell but they wont start even with crack + dgvoodoo on win10/11

some cracks still use the DRM engine, just fixing it.
since some engines are upsolete, failing or not even possible in the later windows versions... the crack will still fail.
try different cracks.
if there's a demo or a beta executable of the game try those for there's a chance those do the same as the release/full version executable without the DRM.

 

[SaberLilly]

it depends on the game, some i use on compatibility mode, others that require very specific hardware, like the old jedi knight games that can't run on fast CPUs i have a windows 98 computer just for them.

 

[rantex92]

it depends on the game, some i use on compatibility mode, others that require very specific hardware, like the old jedi knight games that can't run on fast CPUs i have a windows 98 computer just for them.

thats odd outcast and academy run perfect on my win 10 system but im using the steam versions maybe they got some tweaks to run on modern systems

a workaround for games wich runs to fast or not like they should (sometimes sound stuttering bugs too) is to go into the bios and deactivate hyperthreading and all the cores so u only running on a single core (as a example this is a fix for silent hill 4)

 

[RamiroObrien]

i think all old games will easily run on ps 2 or ps 3.

 

[rantex92]

UPDATE: I revived my old fx8350+980ti with win 7 because a xp build wouldnt be possible at the moment (got a 470gtx but only has DVI and Mini HDMI and i dont have those outputs anymore) and my games works like a charm

BUT i got a realy old pc on the way from my grandpa (2,4ghz pentium 4 + radeon 9600/9800) that will solve further win xp troubles

my thoughts on win 7 its refreshing and somewhat nostalgic to use it after so long time most of my games will work right from the get go but on the otherhand you need to update/or install everthing manually ... i guess gotten lazy through win 10 autoupdates
but overall its nice to have win 7 on a secondary system just for old games