playing Windows 95 games from CD-ROM on modern computers?

[gbpxl]

Tried installing Chex Quest Windows 95 version on my Windows 10 laptop to no avail. It sounds like I can run it through Win 3.1 or Win 905 through DosBos somehow? I have DosBox .74. According to DosBox.com, Chex Quest works just fine on DosBox .70, but you cant download it?

I was hoping I could just put the CD in my laptop and it'd start right up but I guess that was asking too much

[Gameguy]

If you're using Windows 10 why not use the free Steam version?

https://www.chexmix.com/chexquest/

I don't really use Steam but I assume almost everyone else does.

Or it's available to play online in a browser.
https://www.dosgamesarchive.com/play/chex-quest/

Or there's a new expanded Chex Quest 3 which includes all three Chex Quest games.
http://www.chucktropolis.com/gamers.htm

[gbpxl]

I personally don't like the look of the remastered one and I enjoy playing off of the physical media from the era I grew up in.

[Niku-Sama]

you laptop has an optical drive?

i'm impressed

[gbpxl]

you laptop has an optical drive?

i'm impressed

External drive

[Gamevet]

My laptop has a DVD drive. It’s nice to have, should I want to watch a DVD, when I’m stuck waiting on a job.

I tried running Atari Anniversary on a Windows 7 PC running a Q9650 (Core2Quad) CPU. It ran like crap and often crashed.

[gbpxl]

all this bullshit of trying to emulate older OS through DosBox and then Windows 98 randomly crashing during the install and the missing .dll files reminds me of why I stopped bothering with PC games to begin with

[gbpxl]

Just got a Windows XP laptop and Chex Quest works like a charm, albeit couldnt get sound during gameplay. gonna tinker with the settings.

[gbpxl]

So update, I was able to get the game running through DosBox on my Win 10 laptop and it works perfectly with zero issues. It still bums me out to not be able to play the damn game straight off the disc and not through an emulator but I will like have to buy a pre-XP desktop for that to happen. And Ive had bad luck with those optical drives. So honestly emulation is probably the only viable rpute at this point.

[Baloo]

If you want to play old games on new PCs, there are a few options:

Check Steam first and foremost.

Then check and see if the game is available on GOG.com. if it is, it will save you quite a headache from getting it to run off of disc.

If it is ONLY on disc for 95/98/XP, You're best off running these games in WINE on Linux rather than in Windows 10. I have had varying levels of success running copies of games in WINE, but it integrates well with the optical drive and the desktop environment I use.

Old Games/programs I have gotten to work with minimal/no problems:

Panzer Dragoon
Sonic R (2004 re-release)
Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast
Star Trek TNG: A Final Unity
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego

Games that haven't worked on WINE:
Daytona USA
Sega Rally Championship
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg

Good luck!

[gbpxl]

oh yeah I have a Windows 98 desktop now. Best $50 I ever spent.

[Edmond Dantes]

oh yeah I have a Windows 98 desktop now. Best $50 I ever spent.

You've joined a mighty happy family, son!

That said even on actual Windows 98, I often rip ISOs (I usually just use old versions of Nero) and mount the discs with, say, an old version of Daemontools (you might prefer something else though--do research, as ONE, only older DTools will work on Win98 anyway and TWO, at some point the program started incorporating adware... though I think that was around the WinXP era).

For a long time one of my personal headaches was if the game had audio music tracks, how do I rip a disc of that AND play it from a digital image AND still have the CD-ROM music? But recently I cracked even that nut.

The only nut I haven't cracked is I have two specific games--Need for Speed: High Stakes and Risk II--that seem to always know if there's not an actual CD in the drive. I've never found a way around this, nor have I found a no-CD crack for either game (and honestly, googling Risk II is a pain in the ass as I usually get the actual board game or tons of just unrelated junk).

[Mad-Mike]

For Windows 95 and later stuff I do one of two things......

- rip to ISO on my LInux box and install via something like Lutris or straight through Wine
- rip to ISO on my vintage 486 DX4 machines or one Pentium laptop (Versa P/75) and run it from there

I find there not a lot post 1995 that I' m that into so I mostly stick to older DOS titles that run on 486 and older, and the newer stuff still feels roughly the same on a modern setup with some compatibility layers under Linux so I use that.

[Rickstilwell1]

For a long time one of my personal headaches was if the game had audio music tracks, how do I rip a disc of that AND play it from a digital image AND still have the CD-ROM music? But recently I cracked even that nut.

How did you do that? I'd like to do that with Sonic 3D Blast.

[Gametrek]

Sonic Cd has a fix. It is a file you have to find and download to apply the patch.


Sonic-R ( which has a graphics update ) also has a fix


...........

If you want to play games from earlier windows release you could


1. DOSbox with special fixes and commands.
2. Winbox for X86box ( an emulator like .... 3 or 4 ) however much lower resources because this goes way back .
3. Oracle VM VIrtual Box
4. VMware workstation Pro series

2, 3, 4, you literally have to install the OS, but again they even have Tiny releases and fixes for those so it should not take up much space at all.

That being said you could mount your physical drive to those options, or the ISO drives.