Building a Win98 setup

J

Jimmy the Greek

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Aug 20, 2002
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I'm planning to use spare parts to build a Win98 box, so that I can play PBA Bowling 2000 the way it was meant to be played.

I know that I have to use an old OS, but do I have to go back to '99 for the video card? I'd like to use a GF 5600 I have lying around, but will it still work correctly with the popular 3D APIs of 1999? Or do I have to turn back the clock even further, and use my Diamond Viper or Voodoo3?
 
when you install 98 it will still install DX9c, you may be able to use the 5600, but only after trying it out will you find if you can play the game correctly.

When i built my 98 gaming machine i used a Viper770 32mb with Voodoo2 SLI'ed and its been really good, almost every game i can play without any real graphical issues.
 
Now this is what I call hardcore gaming. hahaha, good luck man! I still have my 98 box in my closet, but I definitely don't use it anymore.

It's a thought though...
 
You may want to go back to an earlier card due to Win98 compatibility with nVidia’s more recent drivers.
I’ve got a Win98SE setup, and at one point I put in an FX5200 card to see how the old games played, and while the card worked perfectly, installing the drivers somehow totally screwed up the windows interface. For example, in Windows Explorer, you could no longer create new folders, check file properties – all sorts of weird things happened. I know it was due to the drivers, because I reinstalled Win98, put in a GeForce 2, installed the newer drivers, and the exact same thing happened again. It was irreparable – I had to install again. I gave up on the FX card, and just kept the GF2.
If you’re willing to risk potentially doing a fresh Win98 install, I’d say go for it. It’s a lot of fun playing DeusEx, Thief, and Quake 2 with super high resolution and max AA & AF settings.
 
I had a PIII 666MHz, and debated between an old gamin box or a linux server. SUSE won, but I think I still have an old 800 laying around.
 
Servant of Shodan said:
You may want to go back to an earlier card due to Win98 compatibility with nVidia’s more recent drivers.
I’ve got a Win98SE setup, and at one point I put in an FX5200 card to see how the old games played, and while the card worked perfectly, installing the drivers somehow totally screwed up the windows interface. For example, in Windows Explorer, you could no longer create new folders, check file properties – all sorts of weird things happened. I know it was due to the drivers, because I reinstalled Win98, put in a GeForce 2, installed the newer drivers, and the exact same thing happened again. It was irreparable – I had to install again. I gave up on the FX card, and just kept the GF2.
If you’re willing to risk potentially doing a fresh Win98 install, I’d say go for it. It’s a lot of fun playing DeusEx, Thief, and Quake 2 with super high resolution and max AA & AF settings.
Click to expand...

Which drivers worked for you?

With the 5600, the earliest drivers I can use are nVidia 43.45, which give me a boatload of problems (jutting polygons in PBA Bowling, NBA Live 2000 won't start, various DX cooperative level errors). I may go to a GF2 I have lying around.
 
If your building a retro box surely the Voodoo3 would be the only choice? Glide FTW!
 
Fawkes said:
If your building a retro box surely the Voodoo3 would be the only choice? Glide FTW!
Click to expand...

I think the voodoo 5 or 6 would be the ultimate 98 gaming video card for all api's of its day.

I can rip up the games pretty good at 1024x768 with my TNT2 32mb or SLI'ed V2 12mb's.
If its too far up on spec good chance i can play on my current XP gaming rig with my 7800GT.


Arcygenical said:
You need to throw in a 7800GS for true 98 gaming ability...
Click to expand...

Uh, hope thats sarcasm, the last driver support are 81.98 drivers for GF6 series cards.
 
I have a system with '98 installed so I can play Deus X, Oni, messiah, etc. I use an MX4000 card and can use up to 61.47 drivers without any issues. (I have all nvidia drivers backed up since 2000)
 
blert said:
I have a system with '98 installed so I can play Deus X, Oni, messiah, etc. I use an MX4000 card and can use up to 61.47 drivers without any issues. (I have all nvidia drivers backed up since 2000)
Click to expand...

If you can use such recent drivers, maybe my card is the problem. Perhaps the 5600 wasn't designed to handle DX6+DX7.

Or maybe the games I've tried were programmed poorly.
 
RogueTrip said:
Uh, hope thats sarcasm, the last driver support are 81.98 drivers for GF6 series cards.
Click to expand...


Yeah... youre right, he'd better go for some 8800GTX's in SLI then.

Ahhh, the sarcasm runneth ovar.

Ti4200 would be my choice...
 
And older card would prolly be better, if you check the FSFT section and ask around I'm sure you can find a GF3, or MX series card for next to nothing.. And if you look around on the Nv or Ati site you could find the newest WHQL drivers for Win98/ME.. They would prolly be the best drivers to use..
I use a GF2 and a voodoo2 for legacy gaming.. I would use both of my V2's but can't get them both to work properly on my KA7-100.. IRQ conflicts used to be a bitch, now a days we hardly have to worry about them..
 
The GF2 gave me the same problems, so I turned to the Voodoo3 (1.01 drivers.)

Unfortunately, my monitor (Envision CRT circa 2005) now gives me an 'Out of Range' error when I try to run a full screen 3D app. Does that sound familiar to anyone?
 
Greetz
I submit for your edification that I have a 6600GT running w/ very new drivers .I'll have to reboot and write back if anyone wants exact version, but I'm quite sure I installed "latest" that was listed w/ 98 support by nVidia. DeusEx, all Quakes, Tribes, and many more run not only well but in most cases amazing since one can crank up all the pretties and get mind-boggling framerates. BTW there are moves possible in many games like Quake(s) at 100+ FPS that cannot be achieved at lower rates.
Incidentally a good workaround is to use Wine, especially Cedega (I also use Point2Play) w/ Linux. I am a longtime Slackware user but also run a debian based distro, Xandros (primarily to keep up with "windows-friendliest" to be able to advise newbs intelligently) and both run numerous old doze games and even some DOS games very well. The very slight performance hit from using layers (Wine says it's not technically emulation) isn't hardly even noticeable especially when you consider the vastly faster hardware environment. Online games are even better due to Linux's vastly superior networking (TCP/IP stack) which substantially reduce lag even in "emulated" games. Those like Quake3 that are easy to install native... fuggeddabottit! Awesome!

Anyway I just wanted to offer some hope to those building retro boxes. Oh! and are any of you using Revenge of Mozilla or Windows Lite to improve the gaming environment? They pare down all the crap that M$ screwed in to integrate IE and make the system way faster and more stable due to reduced "spaghetti" code.

For reference here's Retro Box specs
Asus TUSL-C2 Skt 370 mobo w/ 1.4GHz Celey OC'd to just shy of 1.8GHz
512 Megs Kingston PC133 ram
Belkin USB 2.0 card
0.9 TB total hd storage (nope, no Raptors sigh)
Promise TX2 IDE accelerator card (safer extreme overclocking)
XFX GeF6600GT w/ 256megs oc'd roughly 10%
multi boot XP, W98, Slackware 11 w/ 2.6.18 custom kernel, Xandros 3.0 w/ 2.6.11 kernel
Viewsonic A9f (yeah I still like CRTs)

Hope this helps someone
Jimmy

PS BTW this box is FAST! It will run FEAR and Quake4 at 1024 at reasonable fps although AA etc turned down
 
enorbet2 said:
Greetz
I submit for your edification that I have a 6600GT running w/ very new drivers .I'll have to reboot and write back if anyone wants exact version, but I'm quite sure I installed "latest" that was listed w/ 98 support by nVidia. DeusEx, all Quakes, Tribes, and many more run not only well but in most cases amazing since one can crank up all the pretties and get mind-boggling framerates. BTW there are moves possible in many games like Quake(s) at 100+ FPS that cannot be achieved at lower rates.
Incidentally a good workaround is to use Wine, especially Cedega (I also use Point2Play) w/ Linux. I am a longtime Slackware user but also run a debian based distro, Xandros (primarily to keep up with "windows-friendliest" to be able to advise newbs intelligently) and both run numerous old doze games and even some DOS games very well. The very slight performance hit from using layers (Wine says it's not technically emulation) isn't hardly even noticeable especially when you consider the vastly faster hardware environment. Online games are even better due to Linux's vastly superior networking (TCP/IP stack) which substantially reduce lag even in "emulated" games. Those like Quake3 that are easy to install native... fuggeddabottit! Awesome!

Anyway I just wanted to offer some hope to those building retro boxes. Oh! and are any of you using Revenge of Mozilla or Windows Lite to improve the gaming environment? They pare down all the crap that M$ screwed in to integrate IE and make the system way faster and more stable due to reduced "spaghetti" code.

For reference here's Retro Box specs
Asus TUSL-C2 Skt 370 mobo w/ 1.4GHz Celey OC'd to just shy of 1.8GHz
512 Megs Kingston PC133 ram
Belkin USB 2.0 card
0.9 TB total hd storage (nope, no Raptors sigh)
Promise TX2 IDE accelerator card (safer extreme overclocking)
XFX GeF6600GT w/ 256megs oc'd roughly 10%
multi boot XP, W98, Slackware 11 w/ 2.6.18 custom kernel, Xandros 3.0 w/ 2.6.11 kernel
Viewsonic A9f (yeah I still like CRTs)

Hope this helps someone
Jimmy

PS BTW this box is FAST! It will run FEAR and Quake4 at 1024 at reasonable fps although AA etc turned down
Click to expand...

Good mobo, i have one with a 1.13 tualatin but might of gotten damaged with the power supply, haven't tested it since it failed. Does your 6600GT run at 8x, i thought the board was 4x only?
 
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