Which Windows OS is best for backwards compatibility?

[BetaWolf47]

Is it possible to get a machine that will run all Windows 95, 98, and DOS games flawlessly? Also, what kind of hardware should I be running for these types of games?

(P.S. I don't want to be required to use DOSbox... I want to be able to run DOS games natively)

[rgw825]

I can tell you right off the bat that i am on Windows XP home edition and i own Oregon Trail for MS-Dos and it plays perfectly. And i bought that all way back in 1996 when i was still running Windows 95. But i tried to install it on a friends computer with Vista and i couldn't do it unless i downloaded some program.

[BetaWolf47]

I've read before that either Windows 98 or 2000 were the last OSes to support real-mode DOS. If 98 and Vista combined give me full access to the Windows library I'll be happy. 98 will probably be the least taxing on the hardware.

[Nintendo&Sega]

Hey BetaWolf47!

Believe it or not, I set up a PC specifically for this purpose a couple of months ago as the XP machine just refused to run some earlier games that I wanted to play again.

Like your good self, DOSBOX was a big no-no for me as i'd like to experience games as they were intended to be run (and they way i remembered them) and not via some emulator.

Anyways, my set-up is a PIII running Windows 98SE and all my DOS/Win95/Win98 games run perfectly

Give me a shout if you want the full pc specs of my pc and hopefully that will give you some guidance on what's needed to get to playing those games.

[BetaWolf47]

Thanks for the advice! I'd like to know if I can dualboot Vista and 98 Second Edition, perhaps. I'm worried that Windows 98 is incompatible with newer hardware though. Does one have to downgrade to run an older OS? My current specs:

AMD Turion 64 X2
2GB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon X1200