This is a DOSBox Port of Windows ME that includes a full install of Microsoft Office 2000 as well as Half-Life and a few other apps. This port utilizes a custom build of DOSBox Megabuild 6 + Glide patch from gulikoza, therefore hardware acceleration does work for some 3Dfx Glide enabled games.
Install Windows 2000 (XP?) if you do not have a bootable CD-ROM. Doesn't W2k/XP setup need files from the subfolders in i386? 'copy.' does not take subdirs with it. There is also no need to make the HD bootable or to install the CDROM drivers manually. Download custom Windows 98SE bootdisk from 2. Download Dosbox. Make the floppy 3.
Find any tutorial to install Windows 9x stable so dosbox. 32 bit and when it is run on Windows 2000. Installing Windows 95 in DOSBox, tips to achieve a successful install and how to navigate any problems that can come up. Windows Top Windows Mobile Mobile Top Mac Game. Windows software More. Windows 9x DOSBox Guide (Not officially supported.
As the years goes by, more and more Windows games are added on the website. Some of them still work quite easily, others are lucky enough to have an active community developing patches and fixes to make them run on the most recent versions of Windows.
See full list on dosbox.com.
Almost all Windows games are available as ISO version, meaning a verbatim copy of the game disks. If you don't know how to use these files, read our tutorial. You may also get these usual problems:
ISO is not a .iso file: an ISO image is a disk image of a CD or DVD file. Several file formats have been created to make ISO files and you will need to install another mounting software. In our archives, you'll come across BIN/CUE, MDF/MDS, CCD/IMG, NRG. You may want to convert these to ISO using WinBin2Iso, but you will lose audio tracks (usually music) if there are any.
Corrupted ISO: many ISO files can't be mounted with the legacy ISO utility in Windows 10. You need to install another mounting software, see this page.
Game is asking for CD: games have a copy protection program to avoid piracy. You will need to replace the original .exe program with another one. Sometimes, we provide this replacement on the game page, labeled as 'NoCD'. Otherwise, look for a 'crack' directory in the content of the ISO file.
PCGamingWiki
Late 90s and 2000s titles may have a game page on PCGamingWiki, a wiki dedicated to fixes and workarounds for PC Games. We try to add a link to the right wiki URL on every game page, so you should check out the game links below the game description. You can also make a search on the wiki, or through Google by searching the name of the game + 'site:PCGamingWiki.com' (without quotes).
PCem Emulator
PCem is versatile IBM PC emulator, which allows you to properly emulate a whole computer, including late 99 Pentium computer. You also get a Voodoo2 3dfx card and many other drivers. This emulator can be very effective for Windows games until early 2000s generation. You can read this tutorial. Additional information and resources can be found on Emugen.
Alternatively, you can use 86Box, a forked project from PCem which supports Pentium up to MMX 300 MHz. You can watch this video tutorial.
Linux + Wine
Running Windows games under Linux can work surprisingly well, we have a dedicated tutorial here.
Mac + Porting Kit
You can run Windows games on your Mac using Porting Kit (free), or Crossover (14-day trial).
Windows 3.1 Games
Some games were made for Windows 3.1 instead of DOS, you will need to install Windows 3.1 in DOSBox. You will find a copy of Windows 3.x on WinWorld. Follow these tutorials to get it running: VirtualBox forum, Vogons, Sierra Help or this blog post.
Windows 95 Games
Many of the Win95 games won't run on recent Windows versions, but you can install Win95 in DOSBox. The procedure is a bit complicated, hopefully dada_ and some folks over Vogons and #dosbox@freenode set up a guide to do this, check it out in the Google doc.
You can also install Windows 95 in VirtualBox, follow this tutorial to do it.
Another promising solution would be windows95 Portable made by Felix Rieseberg, which runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Windows 98 Games
Some of the recent abandonware games were made for Windows 98. You can still get Win 98 working on your computer using VirtualBox. You will find a guide to the installation here, then a second guide to setup properly Windows. You should read BOTH of them before installing Windows 98. You can also use pre-configured Win98 VMWare images, available at WinWorld.
Windows XP Games
Some will work perfectly, some won't. We rarely have all the resources necessary to get these games to install and then be played. You may have to look over the web for a x64 setup file or fixed exe file. If you find a good tutorial, please post the URL in the comment or drop us a message.
3dfx Games
The second half of the 90s was very exciting as video games would start to benefit from 3D acceleration hardware. The 3dfx company released the Voodoo Graphics cards in 1996, which provided 3D acceleration for games that supported the technology. Performances and graphics were way ahead of the competition (Riva, Matrox, S3, ATI...) but came at a price. 3dfx released its last Voodoo card in 2000, marking the end of 3dfx supported games.
Hopefully, 3dfx can be emulated nowadays using nGlide, a free 3Dfx Voodoo Glide wrapper made by Zeus Software. Very easy to use, just install and play for most games, but you should visit the compatibility page, as many games require a patch or some tweaking.
Another great glide wrapper is dgVoodoo2, which allows you to play not only 3dfx games, but also DirectX (1-7) and Direct3D games. Both programs are very useful, as one may work better than the other.
DirectX Games
As written above, dgVoodoo2 is great for old windows games which often use DirectX. You can also try these alternatives: dxwrapper, an on-going project which may prove difficult to use. WineD3D will convert DirectX to OpenGL, see the readme file in the utility folder.
Games for Windows Live
Late 2000s and early 2010s may require the infamous GFWL (Games for Windows Live) installed on your computer. To install it on Windows 10, you need the offline installer, right click on gfwlivesetup.exe, go to Properties, click on the Compatibility tab and set compatibility to Windows 7, click OK. Then right click on gfwlivesetup.exe and select Run as administrator.
6Other Useful features
Basic Concepts
DOSBox is an emulator that recreates a MS-DOS compatible environment (complete with Sound, Input, Graphics and even basic networking). This environment is complete enough to run many classic MS-DOS games completely unmodified. In order to utilize all of DOSBox's features you need to first understand some basic concepts about the MS-DOS environment.
Connectivity (Modems/Networking)
Installation
The first step is to install DOSBox. This guide will use the 0.74 Windows 32-bit version which is available for download. Download the release for your operating system. If you are a Windows user, get the Win32 installer.
After downloading, install DOSBox to any directory. Also, make a folder to put all your old games in. I put DOSBox in C:DOSBox, and my old games directory is C:OLDGAMES. I put a game in my OLDGAMES directory, TESTDRIV, which is Test Drive, an old racing game. Your directories should look like this:
Running a game
Now, the hardest part, getting games to run. First, run dosbox.exe in your DOSBox folder. Remember that OLDGAMES directory you created in Step 1? You have to basically set that as new directory just for DOSBox. Essentially, it's going to become the C:> drive of DOSBox. So, type:
To dissect the above:
MOUNT: Tells the program to mount a directory
C: Tells the program what you want your new drive to be called (leaving it as C: is fine)
C:OLDGAMES: This is the directory I want to set as the new drive for DOSBox, because all my games are in it. If you created a different directory, write in the directory you created.
(Note: If you want to mount a CD-ROM instead of a folder, type this:
(Note: 'cdrom' is case sensitive and must be lowercase!)
In this example, D: -T cdrom tells DOSBox that my D: drive is a CD-ROM drive, and the first D, tells DOSBox what my new drive name should be called. If you are running your game off a CD-ROM then make sure to use D: in place of C: in the following examples. You can find instructions on how to mount other devices, such as floppy drives, in the mount section).
After you've done this, you will be prompted with a Z:>. Now, just write what you wanted to call your new DOSBox drive, which as I said above, we called C. To navigate to that newly mounted drive just type in:
Hopefully, you're all set! Now, it's time to run the game. Previously I had mentioned a game called TESTDRIV in my OLDGAMES folder. I now want DOSBox to go to that folder. So type in:
That's it! CD stands for 'Change Directory', so you've changed the directory to TESTDRIV. You can find instructions on how to use the Change Directory command, in the CD section of the Commands article.
One more step, running the game! Most games have an EXE file in their directory that you can run. However, some might require a BAT file, or COM file (common in demos and really old games). Most of the time, the file is in the root folder. Please consult the documentation of your game for which file is needed to start the game. In the case of Test Drive, it's TDCGA.EXE. So now, I just type this:
That's it! Here's a picture of all of the commands I've written about in Step 2:
Alternate methods for running a game
The steps described above are closely aligned with how DOS Based operating systems behave natively. However modern operating system allow for more user friendly (although less authentic) ways of playing your favorite games. If the steps above seem tedious or confusing you can try some of these other guides. In most cases these guides will still require you to setup a working DOSBox environment.
Creating desktop shortcuts
NOTE: If you have problems with launching the game, unrecognizable errors being spit out, saving settings, or having the game drop out while running it, one thing to try is to make sure all the files are not set to Read Only. In Windows, select the folder of the game, right click and hit properties, uncheck Read Only if it is checked, and apply to all sub folders.
If you have other errors, please search the forums first before posting a question.
Performance
Yay, you've gotten your game to run! But maybe you're experiencing slowdown? How do you fix this? With the following commands:
CTRL+F7 = Decreases frameskip CTRL+F8 = Increases Frameskip CTRL+F11 = Slows down the game CTRL+F12 = Speeds up the game
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to open the Task Manager, and click the Performance tab. Start by pressing CTRL+F12 until your CPU Usage level begins to go above 95%. After that, if you still need a performance boost, hit CTRL+F8 to have DOSBox not render some frames. The console window will display all of the changes you've made, and the top of the game window will display the current settings. Adjust these settings as needed until your game goes smoothly. Please keep in mind that not all games will run smoothly on DOSBox.
Other Useful features
Quick Start for Windows
Windows users have an option of dragging the EXE of their DOS game onto the DOSBox program (or shorcut pointing to the DOSBox program). This will automatically start the game. If this doesn't work, then I would recommend reading the rest of this article.
Automatically Mounting Your DOS Games folder
You can save yourself some time by having DOSBox automatically MOUNT your folders and change the drive to C:. In original DOS based operating systems a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT contained any commands that the user wanted executed every time the computer booted up. This functionality is simulated by the [autoexec] section of the dosbox.conf file.
For DOSBox versions older than 0.73 browse into program installation folder and open the dosbox.conf file in any text editor. For version 0.73 go to Start Menu and click on 'Configuration' and then 'Edit Configuration'. Then scroll down to the very end, and add these lines:
Now those commands will be executed automatically when starting! If you're having trouble with that, make sure it looks like this (look at the bottom):
Full Screen
Just press ALT+ENTER to go into and out of full screen.
Alternatively, you can open the dosbox.conf file as mentioned above and change 'fullscreen=false' to 'fullscreen=true'. DOSBox will then run in full screen mode when you open it.
Download And Install Dosbox
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