Best Windows Platform . . .

Viper61

Spaceman
I'm putting together a WC gaming machine and I was just curious, what is the best operating system that I could find that would allow me to play all the WC games? I've only used WC with Win98 and WinXP, so any suggestions would be great.
I'm going to use a 366MHz with 64MB of Ram (which is what my old video card that I'm going to use has on it :) ) and I think I'm going to just go with the Integrated sound that's already in the computer

Also, I use a Gravis Blackhawk Digital joystick and I have problems using it with the older WC games. Does anyone out there use a Gravis Blackhawk Analog? I like the feel of them and I was looking into buying one. Thanks

C-ya
 
For all of my older WC games, i use a 486-33 with 32 megs of RAM running DOS. I use an older Creative AWE 64, mainly because it works really well with DOS. The joystick is a cheapie that I got at the local CompUSA for $2, it works with all of my games. For the newer ones (privateer 2 and prophecy) i have a pentium 2 266 with 192 megs of ram and a voodoo 3 2000 running windows 98, both work awesome. the main problems that I think you will experience are trying to get the onboard sound to work with DOS ( i was too lazy to try, hence the AWE 64). Hope this helps
 
Originally posted by Mystery muppet
Conclusion: Best OS would be Win98.

As for the joystick-issues, you'll need to be more specific before we can help.

Joystick-issues? I was just asking if anyone had used a Blackhawk Analog with WC. I know why the digital joystick doesn't work. Win98? Really? I had serious problems running Armada and Academy in 98.

C-ya
 
Viper:

Why choose if you don't have to?... It's OK to have a newer machine; simply set it up to multiboot, so you can have both Win 9x AND "old" DOS. Just make sure your soundcard will support both, and has a standard joystick port on it.
 
Originally posted by Preacher
. . . simply set it up to multiboot, so you can have both Win 9x AND "old" DOS. . .
Sounds good but there's just one problem, I'm lazy and I don't know how to do that. :) I'm a damn electrical engineer and I don't know how to partition a HD, set up multiboot, etc, pretty sad ain't it? If preacher or anyone has a link to a website that would walk me through that, I'd be much obliged.

Plus I'm getting married in a few months (actually closer to a year) and my fiance already has her photoshop, illustrator, picture maker, etc software on my new machine plus her scanner and printer (she's a photogrpher/graphics artist if you haven't guessed) and I would like to have a gaming machine all my own aht I wouldn't get kicked off of.

C-ya
 
Originally posted by Unregistered
Sounds good but there's just one problem, I'm lazy and I don't know how to do that. :) I'm a damn electrical engineer and I don't know how to partition a HD, set up multiboot, etc, pretty sad ain't it? If preacher or anyone has a link to a website that would walk me through that, I'd be much obliged.
C-ya
www.xosl.org. Follow the links.

It's a free, graphical multiboot manager program. The manual for the program explains a lot of the practical stuff regarding multibooting, and even a good amount of partitioning info.

For the most painless disk partitioning, get Partition Magic (www.powerquest.com, or at your local CompUSA/Staples/OfficeMax, etc.. It's a commercial program; current version 8, but even older versions to v3 or so will prolly do you just fine. Older versions can be found for a better price, natch. And, the older versions run in DOS a bit more painlessly).

To combine both functions in one free program: Ranish Partition Manager (www.ranish.com). Problem is, it's non-graphical and more aimed at the savvy (read: non-lazy :D) multibooter/partition meister.

As to your laziness, I can't offer you a cure except for...getting married! Sounds like you've got that covered, but lemme give you a bit of advice: If you want a harmonious marriage, you'd best solve the laziness problem BEFORE that. Godspeed to ya, Bub...
 
I found the solution using 2 paritions,WinXP (for newer games) and Win98 (not SE!!!!) for older,DOS and ofcourse WC games...

I can play Privateer,Armada with a boot disk (Privateer no music:( ).
Also I got problem with Prophecy...In both formats it has problems with the movies....No matter tha accleration set etc
 
Originally posted by Preacher
Viper:

Why choose if you don't have to?... It's OK to have a newer machine; simply set it up to multiboot, so you can have both Win 9x AND "old" DOS. Just make sure your soundcard will support both, and has a standard joystick port on it.

Why would anyone bother to do that? All the Windows 9x versions are more than capable of rebooting to a more recent version of DOS than was released as a stand-alone consumer product.

Partitioning the system is pointless and a waste of time if you're looking to run DOS and one of the OSes in the 9x/ME series... It's also inefficient if you plan to install a pre-7.1 version of DOS (read: anything that was sold as MS-DOS or came with the releases of Windows 95 before OEM release 2) as you'll need to format the file system as FAT16, and your DOS installation won't be able to see the FAT32 partition most would use for Windows 9x. If you *do* use a post 7.1 version of MS-DOS, you'll need to go to the effort of copying it from out of a windows install...

Basically, making it a multi-boot system is just a waste of time and energy that doesn't give you any noticable help.
 
Originally posted by TCSTigersClaw
I found the solution using 2 paritions,WinXP (for newer games) and Win98 (not SE!!!!) for older,DOS and ofcourse WC games...

What problems you got with SE? Everyone else I know wouldn't touch 98 actually and 98 SE is considered to be the best Windows of all by many...
 
I dont know why,but Win98 are more......compatimple and with less problems with old games than SE......

I got Win98 only for old games.....Maybe they are general not as good as Win98SE,but I also got my WingXp partition so I dont got a problem :)
 
I'm using Win98SE with no problems - I actually still use a good ol' boot floppy when I want to get into DOS. Is actually working with your Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files to worm out the last possible bit of conventional memory a lost art nowadays?

-Adam
 
Originally posted by TCSTigersClaw
I dont know why,but Win98 are more......compatimple and with less problems with old games than SE......
I got Win98 only for old games.....Maybe they are general not as good as Win98SE,but I also got my WingXp partition so I dont got a problem :)

I use Dos 6.22 and Win98 SE in dual boot (sometimes together with linux in triple) and don't have any problems with windows based games (well one exception I recall - Phoenix. That one doesn't seem to be able to figure out my graphi card :-( ). No idea about Win98SE's DOS however, I don't use that one.

Actually unless I do multimedia stuff I am surprised as to how stable the system runs... (and that comes form an MS hater like me)

But everyone his preferences - as long as it isn't XP. That system is pure spyware...
 
Win98`s Dos is the problem.....beside that its they are the best....
but still.......they are windows...:rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by TCSTigersClaw
Win98`s Dos is the problem.....beside that its they are the best....
but still.......they are windows...:rolleyes:
What's the problem with it, and how do I remedy the drawbacks?
Thanks

C-ya
 
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