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General discussionVirtual Machines(15 posts)(15 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 15, 2023
Can older games, like those made before 2005, be installed and played in virtual machines like Windows 95 and XP? Or, are they so modified that they can only be installed and played inside DOSBox?
Posted June 15, 2023
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Tadatoyou: Can older games, like those made before 2005, be installed and played in virtual machines like Windows 95 and XP? Or, are they so modified that they can only be installed and played inside DOSBox?
My guess is maybe. I can run Windows 10 inside a virtual machine running on Linux, but I do need to pass special drivers that I found online to the client OS for that (for paravirtualization as pure emulation of the hardware can be very expensive... it is far cheaper if the client OS is made aware that it is running in a vm and takes some shortcuts) and I'm not sure those drivers would be available for older versions of Windows.

Your best bet may be to become really comfortable with Windows portability tools on Linux like Wine. Personally, that's what I intent to use to solve my portability needs for aging games.

Imho, GOG should be working on that.
Post edited June 15, 2023 by Magnitus
Posted June 15, 2023
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Tadatoyou: Can older games, like those made before 2005, be installed and played in virtual machines like Windows 95 and XP? Or, are they so modified that they can only be installed and played inside DOSBox?
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Magnitus: My guess is maybe. I know that I can run Windows 10 inside a virtual machine running on Linux, but I do need to pass special drivers that I found online to the client OS for that (for paravirtualization as pure emulation of the hardware can be very expensive... it is far cheaper if the client OS is made aware that it is running in a vm and takes some shortcuts) and I'm not sure those drivers would be available for older versions of Windows.

Your best bet may be to become really comfortable with Windows portability tools on Linux like Wine. Personally, that's what I intent to use to solve my portability needs for aging games.

Imho, GOG should be working on that.
Thanx for the prompt reply. I am using Windows 10 and because of some of the problems that I've had installing and playing older games I thought I would try running them in their native environment.
Posted June 15, 2023
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Tadatoyou: I am using Windows 10 and because of some of the problems that I've had installing and playing older games I thought I would try running them in their native environment.
Installing Linux (along-side Windows 10 (dual boot) or on another machine, if possible) and installing W.I.N.E on that, may be a viable option if you are new to Linux and willing to get your hands dirty. Games run via W.I.N.E can perform quite well, almost equivalent (and sometimes better) as running on their native system. Not all games are able to work, and some can perform worse, and there are the tricky (or nightmare) ones to get working too.
Post edited June 15, 2023 by Trooper1270
Posted June 16, 2023
Overall, however, I'd say that running old games in Wine is quite a bit more compatible than the latest Windows, judging from the number of complaints I see about those games not working on Windows, whereas they install and run perfectly in Wine, usually without tweaking. Occasionally using winetricks directshow to get those old video codecs working.
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Tadatoyou: Can older games, like those made before 2005, be installed and played in virtual machines like Windows 95 and XP? Or, are they so modified that they can only be installed and played inside DOSBox?
Only DOS games run in DOSBox. Not Windows games.
Posted June 16, 2023
Virtual Machines, with the exception of ScummVM which is a special case, are utter and total garbage for gaming applications.


Emulation is the way, as it has always been. Stop asking, it won't happen. Ever. VMs are designed on totally different principles compared to emulators like DOSBox or PCem.
Posted June 16, 2023
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eric5h5: Only DOS games run in DOSBox. Not Windows games.
Except Windows 3.11 works just fine in DosBox, and i have installed Win95/98 on Dosbox as well once and gotten it to work.

For Windows 95 you're looking at likely at 8-32Mb or less ram, and 100-400Mhz.
Posted June 16, 2023
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Tadatoyou: Can older games, like those made before 2005, be installed and played in virtual machines like Windows 95 and XP? Or, are they so modified that they can only be installed and played inside DOSBox?
- Many 1995-2005 32-bit games run just fine under W10. Some games may be more awkward than others / need a community patch or source port, but there's no real 2005 cutoff where 32-bit games from the 90's stop working.

- Most DOS games run fine under DOSBox.

- 16-bit Windows (not DOS) games that were designed for Windows 3.1 that can't run natively under 64-bit Windows or DOSBox, can still be run by installing DOSBox then installing Windows 3.1 inside DOSBox. I've done it before and it works fine.
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Post edited June 16, 2023 by AB2012
Posted June 16, 2023
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Tadatoyou: Can older games, like those made before 2005, be installed and played in virtual machines like Windows 95 and XP? Or, are they so modified that they can only be installed and played inside DOSBox?
I play Jedi Knight from 1997 without any VM, but I had to add dgVoodoo2, since it uses now unsupported DirectDraw calls.
Also other Windows games like Gexx or Jagged Alliance 2 or Desperados run without VM.


The question is not when the game came out but for what system it was compiled.

It it's made for 32 bit systems, then there is a high chance that Windows compatibility modes will do the trick, in some cases DDraw needs to be replaced or dgVoodoo2 used. For surround sound you might need emulators as well (that's the same in a VM which usually has no surround sound at all).

If it's made for 16 bit however, then yes. Then you need a VM.
Post edited June 16, 2023 by neumi5694
Posted June 16, 2023
Few months ago I installed Medieval: Total War from my Total War: Eras disc collection but just couldn't get it to work under Windows 10 (and I tried really hard!), so I started to think about maybe installing some Windows XP VM as a workaround.

Still haven't tried it nor Googled it how this would be done, so if anyone has any tips I'd be happy to hear about it.
Posted June 16, 2023
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Tadatoyou: Can older games, like those made before 2005, be installed and played in virtual machines like Windows 95 and XP? Or, are they so modified that they can only be installed and played inside DOSBox?
These games were unplayable…UNTIL NOW - PCem > by Linus Tech Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWEE2RJj3YI
Posted June 17, 2023
I mean sure. You can futz around with a virtual machine, but I've never done so. I've found tweaking things via translation frameworks such as WineDVM and more bluntly, Wine itself to be more than sufficent for most use cases, alloting a little bit of time to tweak your settings as need be.
Posted June 18, 2023
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Cadaver747: These games were unplayable…UNTIL NOW - PCem > by Linus Tech Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWEE2RJj3YI
Awesome stuff. Thanks.

The people involved in that project (especially the original maintainer that maintained it for 15 years) deserve a medal, seriously.

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Darvond: I mean sure. You can futz around with a virtual machine, but I've never done so. I've found tweaking things via translation frameworks such as WineDVM and more bluntly, Wine itself to be more than sufficent for most use cases, alloting a little bit of time to tweak your settings as need be.
Yeah, I've had to do it for other work-related stuff, but for gaming preservation, it wouldn't be my first pick either.

Much better to toss away the old clunky proprietary OS that nobody can touch and replace it by an open codebase that emulates the required functionality and that is actually maintainable.
Post edited June 18, 2023 by Magnitus
Posted June 19, 2023
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BranjoHello: Few months ago I installed Medieval: Total War from my Total War: Eras disc collection but just couldn't get it to work under Windows 10 (and I tried really hard!), so I started to think about maybe installing some Windows XP VM as a workaround.

Still haven't tried it nor Googled it how this would be done, so if anyone has any tips I'd be happy to hear about it.
Sounds like the disc DRM doesn't work on Windows 10, which is quite common with older games. The game clearly works as it is available digitally on other storefronts.
Posted June 19, 2023
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Prah: Sounds like the disc DRM doesn't work on Windows 10, which is quite common with older games. The game clearly works as it is available digitally on other storefronts.
Nope, definitely not the case as I even tried getting some NOCD crack files (which for example helped when my Mafia CDs refused to work) but still had no luck.
As for the game working on other storefronts that's not entirely true either as you have to do some magic tricks to make it work there as well, according to what I was reading on Steam forums (and tried to apply on my copy but again, no luck).

So, OS is the problem, no doubt about that.
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussionVirtual Machines(15 posts)(15 posts)
(15 posts)