Win 98se vs Win ME

[LaughingMAN.S9]

im currently in the middle of bringing my 12 year old gaming rig back to life to play mostly late 90's games and possibly a few early 2000 games if it can handle


this is what i've been able to salvage

1 ghz pentium III complete with original motherboard
256mb rdram dim
60 gig hd (may have a higher capacity hd somewhere lying around somewhere tho)
nvidia GeForce 256 card (a little dirty but im almost positive can be salvaged)
soundblaster live sound card
50x cd drive
3.5" floppy drive


im pretty sure im going to need a new case and power supply but apart from that i think im good to go, only thing i cant decide on is which OS to go with or which would be better for my needs


win 98 seems like the defacto go to right now being as i mainly want grim fandango and bladerunner up and running along with a few earlier rts titles (kknd, dune, command & conquer, dark reign) light 3d shit like quest for glory V and possible dos titles later on down the line but not a real deal breaker


but i also want to be able to play games like max payne and giants citizen kabuto without problem and i dont know if they were win 98 compatible, which overall do you think i should choose?

[kedawa]

I'm pretty sure any game that plays on ME will work on Win98SE.
None of the features added to ME are of much use for gaming anyway.

[Boltorano]

I recently resurrected my own Windows95 box and got a copy of Win98SE off eBay. CD-ROM had disc rot and it still installed perfectly!

Looking online, both Max Payne and Giants: Citizen Kabuto support Win95, so you should be fine there. WinME is nothing but bad, bad memories for me. Sure, if you gave me a copy for free I'd take it but I wouldn't ever use it, except perhaps to boot up and laugh at. It's terrible.

[ownerizer]

I would go 98SE or Win2K. ME was HORRIBLE.

[johno590]

ME is straight up horrible. Windows 2000 is the best because it was more stable, very close to NT edition.

[LaughingMAN.S9]

lol only reason i mention me is because when i originally built my machine i had me preinstalled on it and it always treated me right, lol for about 7 or 8 months when xp came out and i just moved on, i didnt realize win 98 was supported for so long either, i honestly thought as soon as me rolled out, microsoft just stopped giving a fuck and moved on within that same year, good to know



will i have any problems running 98se with any of the parts i have? specifically the 60 gig hard drive and the 1ghz pentium iii?

[fahlim003]

will i have any problems running 98se with any of the parts i have? specifically the 60 gig hard drive and the 1ghz pentium iii?

The processor is no problem but if the 60GB harddrive is in NTFS file format, Windows98 and lower won't be able to see it. Windows2000 will, so that's my recommendation if it's NTFS.

[MrSparkle]

google "virtualization" you can run both operating systems on a more modern computer/operating system in virtual machines allowing you the ability to play both modern and classic games without needing multiple computers to get around driver issues.

[fahlim003]

google "virtualization" you can run both operating systems on a more modern computer/operating system in virtual machines allowing you the ability to play both modern and classic games without needing multiple computers to get around driver issues.

This is good to a certain point since 3D acceleration is limited in virtual machine booting, at least it was last I checked. So long as the majority of the games aren't graphics hogs a virtual machine is a good idea.

As for NTFS vs FAT32 in Windows 98, I've recalled that you can install drivers to allow 98 to use/see NTFS without significant issue. It's been years since I've done it but if you look around, you should be able to find some information concerning this.
For example: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/...driver/1047598

Even then if you would rather format back to FAT32, that too is an option. The bottom line is that Windows 98 SE is not a bad choice.

[Jorpho]

I have absolutely no idea why people claim Windows ME was "horrible". It was significantly more stable and refined than Win98.

The System Restore stnank was pretty bad.

This is good to a certain point since 3D acceleration is limited in virtual machine booting, at least it was last I checked.

VMware has 3D acceleration, but only in virtual installations of Windows XP or later. Apparently you can also get 3D acceleration in VirtualBox, and can even use Windows 2000. However, at this time the only way to get 3D acceleration in any kind of virtualized Win9x installation is to use a special build of DOSBox; it's completely unsupported and doesn't work very well, however.

As for NTFS vs FAT32 in Windows 98, I've recalled that you can install drivers to allow 98 to use/see NTFS without significant issue. It's been years since I've done it but if you look around, you should be able to find some information concerning this.
For example: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/...driver/1047598

While it might still be available somewhere through unofficial channels, Sysinternals stopped offering their Win98 NTFS driver when they were bought by Microsoft. Paragon still offers something, though:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-win98/

Nonetheless, while it will let you access an NTFS partition, it won't let you boot Windows 98 from an NTFS partition.

the thing is, i recently swapped out my hd on my laptop for a 32gig solid state drive, after windows installation i was left with only 5 gigs left, even after optimzation and getting rid of things i didnt need, i only have around 11 gigs left, so going the route you mentioned still wouldnt be to my benefit

Even a single gigabyte would be plenty for a Win98 installation, virtual or otherwise. You could even run it off a USB flash drive.

[fahlim003]

VMware has 3D acceleration, but only in virtual installations of Windows XP or later. Apparently you can also get 3D acceleration in VirtualBox, and can even use Windows 2000. However, at this time the only way to get 3D acceleration in any kind of virtualized Win9x installation is to use a special build of DOSBox; it's completely unsupported and doesn't work very well, however.

Yeah, I had heard about that DOSBox version but never followed through given the limited use it has.

While it might still be available somewhere through unofficial channels, Sysinternals stopped offering their Win98 NTFS driver when they were bought by Microsoft. Paragon still offers something, though:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-win98/

Nonetheless, while it will let you access an NTFS partition, it won't let you boot Windows 98 from an NTFS partition.

Even a single gigabyte would be plenty for a Win98 installation, virtual or otherwise. You could even run it off a USB flash drive.

Thanks for the reminder. When I had used those drivers in the past it was for my D drive, not C as mentioned since it isn't possible in 98 no matter what. I'll try and find my original install but for now I managed to locate another version for anyone interested: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CWWPGNFP

[Edmond Dantes]

IIRC, the big hard drive is only a problem if your BIOS doesn't recognize it--Windows 98 itself doesn't care.

[LaughingMAN.S9]

google "virtualization" you can run both operating systems on a more modern computer/operating system in virtual machines allowing you the ability to play both modern and classic games without needing multiple computers to get around driver issues.

the thing is, i recently swapped out my hd on my laptop for a 32gig solid state drive, after windows installation i was left with only 5 gigs left, even after optimzation and getting rid of things i didnt need, i only have around 11 gigs left, so going the route you mentioned still wouldnt be to my benefit