What can you tell me about virtual machines?

[GRIMM]

I was thinking about buying or building a classic gaming computer, but looking at prices to build one, it seems ridiculous. And pre-built ones either lie about being gaming computers, or are themselves overpriced.

So I thought maybe about just running some virtual machines to emulate old operating systems. Specifically 95, 98 and XP.

My main concern though is how well does vm software work, what is the best (windows 10 professional, or 3rd party vmware?), and how well would it work to play older software using an older OS in a virtual machine mixed with modern hardware?

How different is this also than say running compatibility mode in that case?

[iceman1980]

Escrito originalmente por GRIMM:

I was thinking about buying or building a classic gaming computer, but looking at prices to build one, it seems ridiculous. And pre-built ones either lie about being gaming computers, or are themselves overpriced.

So I thought maybe about just running some virtual machines to emulate old operating systems. Specifically 95, 98 and XP.

My main concern though is how well does vm software work, what is the best (windows 10 professional, or 3rd party vmware?), and how well would it work to play older software using an older OS in a virtual machine mixed with modern hardware?

How different is this also than say running compatibility mode in that case?

Depends on the VM Type. Also you'll be only able to emulate x86 and x64 architecture or IA-32 / IA-64. generally KVM will give you as close to bare metal performance, which means it will perform as well as being physically installed on the hardware.

[Lord Flashheart]

This may be useful for very old games.

https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1

[GRIMM]

lol did you really just suggest dosbox?

[iceman1980]

Escrito originalmente por GRIMM:

lol did you really just suggest dosbox?

I think the biggest problem you will have is getting your hands on a ISO for the OS you need.

[GRIMM]

I actually still have some old software discs with the original OS' in storage for 98 and XP. 95 maybe even.

[iceman1980]

Escrito originalmente por GRIMM:

I actually still have some old software discs with the original OS' in storage for 98 and XP. 95 maybe even.

Then you should be able to run KVM no problem. Reason I suggest Kernel Virtual Machine is because it will run with about a %1-2 performance penalty.

[Lord Flashheart]

Escrito originalmente por GRIMM:

lol did you really just suggest dosbox?

Yep I have not used it for a long time. If it is for 90s games, maybe suitable.

[Omega]

Main problem will be that many pieces of VM software do not support DirectX and OpenGL,

VMware is an exception, I believe it supports OpenGL and up to DirectX10.

I'd recommend dropping Linux on the machine and running the old games under WINE. WINE has great support for older applications and games.

For even older MSDOS stuff use DOSBox.

[Recuva]

Escrito originalmente por GRIMM:

lol did you really just suggest dosbox?

Old windows ran on top of DOS so you can actually run windows inside dosbox.

[Recuva]

Escrito originalmente por Product ∏:

Escrito originalmente por GRIMM:

lol did you really just suggest dosbox?

I think the biggest problem you will have is getting your hands on a ISO for the OS you need.

winworldpc.com have lots of old operating systems as .iso, .img, file archives etc.

[Talby]

If you are running win 10 already just enable hyper-v[docs.microsoft.com] and start creating vms quickly - win10 pro is already setup to go but can also be enabled on win 10 home with a script

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5BEv2-ngxM

As mentioned, Dosbox is another good one to run on win10 for old games too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ge2nGDROsE

KVM on linux on an old rig is just as well...

[Electric Cupcake]

Dosbox is great, but mounting a Windows 3.x or 9x environment on top of Dosbox is more trouble than it's worth, IMO.

I use a plain old Windows 2000 on top of VirtualBox. But I hope WineVDM gets to the point where it's as easy to load and configure 16-bit games on as Dosbox is for dos games.

[Electric Cupcake]

https://www.old-games.com/ lets you download packages with windows 3.x loaded on top of dosbox. The capped speed for free downloads aside, they work nicely.

After editing the config file to lower the mouse sensitivity and setting the high DPI compatibility mode to application, it's great to play Troggle Trouble Math again without the clockspeed being way too high.

[Hobbes2424]

Escrito originalmente por Crosseyed Mie:

https://www.old-games.com/ lets you download packages with windows 3.x loaded on top of dosbox. The capped speed for free downloads aside, they work nicely.

After editing the config file to lower the mouse sensitivity and setting the high DPI compatibility mode to application, it's great to play Troggle Trouble Math again without the clockspeed being way too high.

Hey, I know this is an old post but I searched on google and could only really find this steam forum post. Can you explain what you mean by "setting the high DPI compatibility mode to application"? Do you mean enabling "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" for the dosbox shortcut?

I just want to play Troggle Trouble Math again without it being so fast :/

Lowering the CPU clock speed within dosbox with CTRL-F11 makes the game have intermittent slowdown/lag problems at 25% which is where the game starts becoming actually playable.

It's too bad these older games have been abandoned as I'd love to re-experience my childhood once more. Thanks for your help & input

[EmotionallyBroken]

Escrito originalmente por GRIMM:

I was thinking about buying or building a classic gaming computer, but looking at prices to build one, it seems ridiculous. And pre-built ones either lie about being gaming computers, or are themselves overpriced.

So I thought maybe about just running some virtual machines to emulate old operating systems. Specifically 95, 98 and XP.

My main concern though is how well does vm software work, what is the best (windows 10 professional, or 3rd party vmware?), and how well would it work to play older software using an older OS in a virtual machine mixed with modern hardware?

How different is this also than say running compatibility mode in that case?

I downloaded one and within an hour I boot it up and was playing rebellion on windows 95

I think it was the VMWare that Omega referred to.