Retro Rig

[Pickster]

It looks like I have all the kit avaliable to me to make myself a retro rig and I was hopeing someone here has tried this themselves and knows the pit falls.

I'm thinking of running Windows 98 SE. How compatible is that with older DOS games? I might dual boot with Windows XP but that seems pretty pointless TBH. Would I be better off with Windows 95?

I know back then Windows 98 was said to have issues with more than 512mb of memory. Is this actually the case? What was the actual implications and is there a fix?

I have a KT3 Ultra motherboard which seems to be one of the last to actually support 3.3v signaling over the AGP port thus the trusty 3DFX Voodoo 2 AGP can live once again. On a side note I also have an AGP ATI X800 which would obviously work well with Windows XP and the later games but I assume it will be more hastle than it's worth trying to get it running in Windows 98.

Does anyone know if the KT333 chipset is any good in Windows 98? Again I would assume it would be, when it came out XP was still fairly new so I would have thought Windows 98 support is going to be a high priority for them.

Is there anything that I havn't mentioned that should be considerd?

Thanks for your time. Looking forward to playing some golden oldies as they were meant to be played (with GLIDE)

 

[riotcity76]

If the only goal is to be able to play old games from Win95/98, you might want to think about just running a virtual machine on your main rig. I know it sort of defeats the purpose of building a retro rig, but VMware Workstation now has 3D acceleration support so those oldschool games would probably run pretty well. No Glide though

This is what I'd do anyway; I'd prefer the convenience of a VM...but maybe you prefer an actual retro rig

 

[Pickster]

If the only goal is to be able to play old games from Win95/98, you might want to think about just running a virtual machine on your main rig. I know it sort of defeats the purpose of building a retro rig, but VMware Workstation now has 3D acceleration support so those oldschool games would probably run pretty well. No Glide though

This is what I'd do anyway; I'd prefer the convenience of a VM...but maybe you prefer an actual retro rig

I didn't actually know that 3D acceleration was an option in VMs now. But VMware Workstation wants to put a dent in my pocket.

Also I'd rather have a seporate machine away from my main rig. If nothing else it would be something else to reinstall when someone cocks up my windows install.

Plus, you know, messing with hardware keeps me busy.

 

[VoraciousGorak]

VMWare Player is free and does basic 3D acceleration (enough to play anything from about 2002 prior, I'd imagine.) If you want I can fire up my XP VM to see how some old games play on it (Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena, the like.)

 

[Pickster]

VMWare Player is free and does basic 3D acceleration (enough to play anything from about 2002 prior, I'd imagine.) If you want I can fire up my XP VM to see how some old games play on it (Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena, the like.)

I'd be interested in how well it works but don't put yourself out as I now have a basic set up running.

Windows 98 AMD 2500+ (barton), 512mb RAM and an AGP Voodoo 3 3000.

It just finished a run through 3DMark 2001 and got a whole 2399 points.

I might try my X800 in there, see if the power supply can handel it (my betting is not with only 10a on the 12v)

 

[Pickster]

I had forgotten how much of a PITA Windows 98 and Drivers can be.

Finally 12 hours and one reinstall of Win98 later I have my X800 AGP running in the system. I had it going last night but it wasn't stable, I think it was something to do with the nVidia drivers that wouldn't uninstall.

...

As I was typing this it just finished 3DMark 2001. A whoping 10,143 points. The 4200Ti I tried last night scored just over 8,200.

The VIA 333 showing its uber power there

 

[VoraciousGorak]

I hopped in my VMWare install anyway, got it all updated, and found that it still behaves oddly in 3D games. For instance, in Quake 3 Arena, it runs as fast as a 6000+ (3.1GHz dual core) + GTX275 test system I used, but in Serious Sam it chugs along slower than a Pentium 3 + Ti4200 combo. So while I'm sure it can work, it has issues. Still best to bring up a dedicated computer to run old games I think.

EDIT: Scored 21600 3DMarks in 2001SE, and the tests it did poorly on were tests that historically were CPU limited, so I think the 3D acceleration is there. It's just the CPU emulation levels are killing it.

 

[riotcity76]

I hopped in my VMWare install anyway, got it all updated, and found that it still behaves oddly in 3D games. For instance, in Quake 3 Arena, it runs as fast as a 6000+ (3.1GHz dual core) + GTX275 test system I used, but in Serious Sam it chugs along slower than a Pentium 3 + Ti4200 combo. So while I'm sure it can work, it has issues. Still best to bring up a dedicated computer to run old games I think.

Interesting. This makes me want to throw up a Win98 VM and see if I get similar results. I tried to play UT99 a few days ago on my regular rig and it kept crashing, even in compatibility mode.