Gaming Tricks to running Win 95/ Win 98 games on Windows 10?

[Wii_Shaker]

I have downloaded some abandonware games that I want to be able to play but am having trouble playing them on my Windows 10 machine. The software installs no problem and appears to run in the taskbar but that's as far as that goes. I haven't seen a game screen even though my OS appears to be running the game in both the taskbar and the task manager.

Does anybody have experience getting their games from older OS to run on Windows 10? I know that Windows 10 has been a boon to folks trying to get legacy software to run. My machine runs most of my 32-bit software no problem but struggles when it comes to some games however.

FYI I'm looking to play the game and capture footage for YouTube. Worst case scenario is I dust off an older computer and set it up but I really would like to avoid putting a legacy machine together if I can get the software to run properly in Windows 10.

Any tricks, tips, hints or software I should look into to get my games to run properly? I am running the .exe as administrator and applying compatibility mode to no avail.
I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

It may help to know what games in particular. Some may have GoG versions that have been updated to work on modern software, in which case you should use the GoG version.

Some may also have third party patches that allow them to run on modern OS's, assuming they're moderately popular games.

Others you may be able to run in DOSbox, or in a VM running Windows 98/95.

 

[tech3475]

Might be worth looking into Virtual Machines.

I personally use VMware but Virtual Box is free.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I have downloaded some abandonware games that I want to be able to play but am having trouble playing them on my Windows 10 machine. The software installs no problem and appears to run in the taskbar but that's as far as that goes. I haven't seen a game screen even though my OS appears to be running the game in both the taskbar and the task manager.

Does anybody have experience getting their games from older OS to run on Windows 10? I know that Windows 10 has been a boon to folks trying to get legacy software to run. My machine runs most of my 32-bit software no problem but struggles when it comes to some games however.

FYI I'm looking to play the game and capture footage for YouTube. Worst case scenario is I dust off an older computer and set it up but I really would like to avoid putting a legacy machine together if I can get the software to run properly in Windows 10.

Any tricks, tips, hints or software I should look into to get my games to run properly? I am running the .exe as administrator and applying compatibility mode to no avail.
I'm open to suggestions.

Tried setting compatibility mode or run as admin in the properties? In some cases 640x480 or reduced color mode might also help.

 

[Wii_Shaker]

Might be worth looking into Virtual Machines.

I personally use VMware but Virtual Box is free.

I was hoping it wouldn't have to get to that but I'm not opposed to the idea. I'll try almost anything. Why do you prefer VMware?

 

[Deleted User]

virtual box and dosbox

 

[Wii_Shaker]

Thanks everyone. I'll continue to play with compatibility settings but it's likely to not run based on my tinkering so far.

I'm going to try to play the game virtually and emulate the OS as that seems to be the next logical step.

The game is Disney's Extremely Goofy Skateboarding:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_Extremely_Goofy_Skateboarding

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Out of curiosity, I grabbed a copy of the game and...it runs just fine for me on Windows 10

What are your PC specs?


EDIT:

Spoiler

 

[Wii_Shaker]

Out of curiosity, I grabbed a copy of the game and...it runs just fine for me on Windows 10

What are your PC specs?

It's literally this machine, no hardware modifications or upgrades yet:
https://www.cnet.com/products/lenov...r-core-i5-7400-3-ghz-8-gb-1-tb-us-90h7002bus/

 

[Mythical]

It's literally this machine, no hardware modifications or upgrades yet:
https://www.cnet.com/products/lenov...r-core-i5-7400-3-ghz-8-gb-1-tb-us-90h7002bus/

change your dpi scaling to 100% in the display settings, or for the goofy.exe go to properties and override dpi scaling and try again

 

[tech3475]

I was hoping it wouldn't have to get to that but I'm not opposed to the idea. I'll try almost anything. Why do you prefer VMware?

Virtual Box has given me some issues VMware didn't e.g. graphics glitches on a Linux distro.

VMware isn't perfect, but I've found myself preferring it and worth the expense (only bought it when BF sales were on and got cashback).

I would recommend someone uses Virtual box first though since it's free.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

It's literally this machine, no hardware modifications or upgrades yet:
https://www.cnet.com/products/lenov...r-core-i5-7400-3-ghz-8-gb-1-tb-us-90h7002bus/

So nothing too funky then.

Did you grab the game from MyAbandonware?

Double check and make sure all files extracted from the archive if so, it's possible an AV might have picked up something which is stopping the game from running.

 

[Wii_Shaker]

So nothing too funky then.

Did you grab the game from MyAbandonware?

I sure did.

 

[Deleted User]

PCGamingWiki is a super helpful resource for these kinds of things, it has nearly every game and fixes for nearly any game to run on modern systems

my mind is blown nobody's mentioned this

 

[Wii_Shaker]

Out of curiosity, I grabbed a copy of the game and...it runs just fine for me on Windows 10

What are your PC specs?


EDIT:

Spoiler

What are your compatibility settings?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

PCGamingWiki is a super helpful resource for these kinds of things, it has nearly every game and fixes for nearly any game to run on modern systems

my mind is blown nobody's mentioned this

Because it doesn't have anything to help for this particular game.

What are your compatibility settings?

Literally just ran it as an admin, didn't need to change any other settings to get it running. I also ran it in Dxwnd, but only so I could run it in windowed mode, it ran fine without that as well.

Which makes me suspect there may have been an issue with your download more than anything. Redownload, see if that fixes it.

 

[Deleted User]

Because it doesn't have anything to help for this particular game.

like 8 times out of 10 when it doesn't have anything that means the game typically runs fine on modern systems, as you said, it runs fine for you but not him
but i also posted when i didn't have glasses on so i had no idea what game he was talking about

OP did you try just installing directx 7 or DirectPlay by chance? maybe it doesn't work because it's missing important APIs like that
or you can try this to replace whatever with openGL/vulkan http://fdossena.com/?p=wined3d/index.frag

 

[Wii_Shaker]

like 8 times out of 10 when it doesn't have anything that means the game typically runs fine on modern systems, as you said, it runs fine for you but not him
but i also posted when i didn't have glasses on so i had no idea what game he was talking about

OP did you try just installing directx 7 or DirectPlay by chance? maybe it doesn't work because it's missing important APIs like that
or you can try this to replace whatever with openGL/vulkan http://fdossena.com/?p=wined3d/index.frag

Bizarre that it's not working. I've tried most everything in regards to the built-in compatibility options.

The weird thing is my machine runs Skateboard Tycoon, which came out around the same time and didn't require me to jump through any hoops but *sigh* I guess I'll keep working on it.

I just enabled Legacy Components and re-installed DirectX. Do you think I would need to install an older version?

I also downloaded the game from an alternate source. The files were identical and the problem is unchanged.

I appreciate the help. Thanks everyone

 

[Kwyjor]

There are a couple of options. There's dgVoodoo, which is a re-implementation of old DirectX somewhat like WineD3D. And there's BoxedWine, but that's probably more useful for much older games.

Then there's PCem, which provides low-level graphics card emulation. It requires a powerful computer to run at a decent speed, but it's the best option to run Win9x with 3D acceleration.

Virtual machines like VMware or VirtualBox will only provide you with 3D acceleration if you are running Windows XP or later inside the machine. But Windows XP might be enough to get this game running.

 

[Mythical]

I really believe it's a dpi issue. It happens a lot with older games