Windows XP CD-ROM games

[Tempest]

Please make it possible to play Windows XP CD-ROM games on Windows 10.

[Gadsby]

Publicado originalmente por Tempest:

Please make it possible to play Windows XP CD-ROM games on Windows 10.

I am not sure XP CD-ROM games, if you meant to say DOS eras; you can use DOSBox-Pure: http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/windows/x86_64/latest/dosbox_pure_libretro.dll.zip

[Tempest]

Well, I don't think so? Not sure how far DOS eras go. I meant Windows XP CD-ROM games, like Midway Arcade Treasures PC CD-ROM and Atari 80 Classic Games in One PC CD-ROM.

[Scottrick]

If you want to play 16-bit PC games and if you're on a 64-bit machine, you'll need to install a 32-bit OS on a virtual machine. However, if you're already running on a 32-bit OS, you should be able to run 16-bit games natively.

[Tempest]

Thanks. I haven't tried that, yet, but it's seemingly a lot of trouble for not much gained. Is it? Does running a virtual desktop impact performance of the game? Does it take a lot of system resources?

[Sekoku]

Publicado originalmente por Tempest:

Thanks. I haven't tried that, yet, but it's seemingly a lot of trouble for not much gained. Is it? Does running a virtual desktop impact performance of the game? Does it take a lot of system resources?

Virtualization is a performance hit in gaming, yes. Depending on your hardware and the software you're virtualizing it can be a small/big hit.

Virtualization is used for VFIO/GPU-Passthrough on Linux, for example. And you can run games "satisfactorily" from the modern era there.

In the grand scheme of things, you're asking for something that RetroArch does not cover. There is no emulator for "Windows XP" era titles. Even Win9x doesn't have an emulator, as generally there is no need for it: You should be able to run things through the Win32 libraries/backwards compatability that is notorious for Windows.

Does it take up a lot of system resources? Depending on the hardware you're virtualizing: Could be, but generally if you have a CPU that is able to run virtualization (which most modern processors are able to do) you should be able to run the host system (one OS) while virtualizing another (the other OS) with no issues. A lot of IT folks do this for training purposes on learning another operating system.

But to go back to emulators: This isn't covered by RetroArc, so you're looking at the wrong program for this. You will want to look up "VMWare" or "VirtualBox" or "QEmu" and learn how to use those if you're looking to go this way. Otherwise, you should see if there is workarounds for the game you're planning to play on Windows 10 like there are for certain older titles (Fallout, Starcraft) that may have graphical issues on Windows 8, 10 due to API breakage over the years.

[Tempest]

Thanks. That's very helpful. RetroArch is great but it sounds like it does not address my issue.

[Sekoku]

Publicado originalmente por Tempest:

Thanks. That's very helpful. RetroArch is great but it sounds like it does not address my issue.

Correct. RetroArch does not have Windows "cores"/emulators as there is no Windows emulator out there.

[Tempest]

Dudes, something wonderful just happened. I've been trying to get these old CD-ROMs to play since Windows 8. There would be an assortment of issues that would prevent the games from running properly. I had not tried in maybe about a year. At that time, Windows 10 would run the game either in a tiny window or would run the game at about 5 FPS, no matter what setting I tried. I just looked at VirtualBox and that might be pushing my limit as i'm not that tech savvy. So I did the obvious and tried again to play an old game, this one "ATARI ANNIVERSARY EDITION" that was released for Windows ME. And to my pleasant surprise it finally works on Windows 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to see if all of my old CD-ROMs work. Oh, I'm so happy!!!! I wonder what happened? Maybe there was an update to Windows 10 that restored the ability to play old discs? I just plopped it in and it was able to play the game!!! No compatibility setting needed!!

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It's interesting that some of the old games on CD-ROM work better than others.