I don't think any VM software is a good solution for Windows 9x gaming at this point.

PCem is maturing and great for the 486 level Win9x gaming, DOSbox is unsupported and heavily trialanderror experimental (but rather speedy when it does work), VirtualBox does not support DirectX or anything more than the VGA driver, VirtualPC 2004-2007 fully supports Win9x but no 3d acceleration and also has some input issues and the FM emulation is terrible, and I still haven't used VMWare so I can't judge that...

butterfly wrote:

I have access to VMWare Workstation, I was considering preparing a virtual machine to run old Windows games which can't run on Windows 7 x64 and then use the virtual machine on my computer with the free VMWare player.

While things used to be different, current versions of VMware Player allow you to create new virtual machines; VMware Workstation may be slightly redundant in regards to your needs.

I experimented a few things (unsurprisingly, I'm no genius at it) and I couldn't get Win95/98 to run with both accelerated graphics and sound card, it seems to be either or.

You cannot get hardware-accelerated graphics with Win9x in VMware (unless perhaps you start messing around with substitute software renderers). You can, however, get hardware-accelerated graphics with XP in VMware.

I messed the drivers in Windows 7 's XP Mode but I successfully made a WinXP machine and I could run one of the interested games but it runs slow (luckily not while in-game), yet it's better than nothing. Anyway the XP machine gets so slow after the installation, not only when using it for playing.

XP Mode is in some ways inferior to what you can accomplish with Windows XP in VMware. XP Mode is essentially the same thing as Microsoft's Virtual PC (which is a free download and is originally derived from Connectix Virtual PC), but it runs programs using the Remote Desktop Protocol and accordingly has some limitations. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_ … Windows_XP_Mode .

You can also get hardware-accelerated graphics in XP on VirtualBox, however timing and input issues exist for that as well - especially mouse snapping..... and that's still not Win9x gaming.

There was an old post claiming how wrong I was for Win9x not supported in VirtualBox by bringing up XP stuff........ 🤣

Thanks for sharing all of the above, it made things really clearer!
As to VirtualBox, in the meantime I switched back to Windows 7 x86 (on an x64 processor) and VirtualBox won't start but anyway you cut my doubts off.

If you have access to wine on Linux that has very good win9x game support with acceleration

I have attached a list of my owned games i have running in Linux with wine

If installing linux scares you
there are livedvd's with amd and nvidia drivers built in also wine (live dvd's will not alter your windows system)
kanotix is one http://www.kanotix.com/changelang-eng.html
try the Kanotix CeBIT Special 2013 version (or a version with special in the filename)
so install your games in windows
boot with the live dvd then double click on the game exe
not sure how a live dvd handles save games

most VM solution are ok for DirectX 5 for earlier games without Glide or Hardware Accelerations demands,
but stuff get worse if the game demand DirectX 6, you'll probably starts seeing glaring glitches at this point,
and most likely the games can not be run if its demand DirectX 7,8 or 9.

Though most dx9 games usually made in a way that it can also played on NT 5 (x86) environment.

Oh no, installing Linux doesn't scare me 😀 I'm just not sure about the 32/64 support and results and thanks, I didn't know that distro, I'll look forward to try it.
There's one specific game which requires DirectX 9.0b. I tried to install my dad's Windows 2000 as suggested in a not-so-old guide I found (and lost) on the Web but it has built-in service packs but at least it doesn't have sound or video issues (apparently) yet Warlords Battlecry III crashes when I fire it (While it works in virtualized XP which, for the moment, remains the only payable solution on an x64).
By the way when I was trying to do something else I found out that VMWare machines' virtual hardware can be "cheated" on so I will be trying Windows 98 again (I'm pretty sure it came out in '97 but Mobygames says 2004, that's also important to determine which OS to pick)

Warlords III shouldn't be confused with Warlords Battlecry III. Battlecry is a spinoff.

I set up a Win98SE environment under VMWare a while ago so that I could play Warlords III: Darklords Rising. It works pretty well, though it could have better video performance, and I ended up having to install a driver for the Sound Blaster PCI 128 to get sound support. As well, I made the mistake of installing one of the unofficial service packs, so it takes FOREVER to boot up. 😜

leileilol wrote:

Warlords III shouldn't be confused with Warlords Battlecry III. Battlecry is a spinoff.

Yes, I mean Warlords Battlecry III

It needs (?) video acceleration and a soundcard but when I try to run in in Windows 98 SE it just does not start althouth the executable is visible in the task manager.

I have an original Italian version (the CD-ROM design looks like the original one but it came with no external cardboard box, distributed by Microids, bought from a newsagent's). I tried official patch and/or the unofficial one.

Italian manual says system requirements are (approximated translation):

Windows 8/SE/ME/2000/XP Pentium II 450 Mhz or compatible 1GB free space on hard disk 128MB RAM CD-ROM 8x DirectX compatible grap […]
Show full quote

Windows 8/SE/ME/2000/XP
Pentium II 450 Mhz or compatible
1GB free space on hard disk
128MB RAM
CD-ROM 8x
DirectX compatible graphics board, with 16MB of memory and SVGA monitor
Direct Sound compatible sound card
Mouse
56K Modem for multiplayer connection or superior (Lan or Internet)

DirectX9.0b at least

Optimal system requirements:

Pentium 800 Mhz or compatible
256 MB RAM

butterfly wrote:

(While it works in virtualized XP which, for the moment, remains the only payable solution on an x64).

Well, if it works in virtualized XP, what's the problem?

By the way when I was trying to do something else I found out that VMWare machines' virtual hardware can be "cheated" on so I will be trying Windows 98 again

I'm not sure what you're referring to here, but if you could dig up the details again, it might be interesting.

Just tried it in Wine..Works fine OOTB

Jorpho wrote:

Well, if it works in virtualized XP, what's the problem?

The problem is that non in-game menus, like options or a pseudo menu which lets you select allies just before the next battle in campaign mode are freaking slow and jumpy.
Luckily, in-game everything works fine

Bladeforce wrote:

Just tried it in Wine..Works fine OOTB

My friend has a similar version but I can't install *nix on his x64 computer.

By the way, in Windows 2000 I could get Bloodline to work flawlessly and I'm trying to roughly translate it into English from Polish using bing translate (Google's misplaces parenthesis) so I can finally understand what I've been playing and what I'll replay! It's one of the few (if not the only) first person games I liked.

then use a live dvd

butterfly wrote:

The problem is that non in-game menus, like options or a pseudo menu which lets you select allies just before the next battle in campaign mode are freaking slow and jumpy.
Luckily, in-game everything works fine

GOG is actively selling this game and advertising it as compatible with Windows 7. There is almost certainly a way of getting it to work without having to resort to any kind of virtual machine.

Not in Windows 7 x64. It runs but characters are not pictured on the screen. Maybe GOG.com uses some kind of patch.
Anyway, after installing (and playing) Bloodline, which during the installation also installs DirecX 9.0b, I tried to run Warlords Battlecry III again and it runs perfect! So now I just have to make a new clean virtual machine and make it portable.
Thanks everybody for all suggestions (which I will try anyway, just for curiosity's sake) and encouragements and support

butterfly wrote:

Not in Windows 7 x64. It runs but characters are not pictured on the screen. Maybe GOG.com uses some kind of patch.

Have you looked to see if such a patch is available? You should also check GOG's forum for the game. There may be an easy fix.

The VMWare "trick" works!

Jorpho wrote:

Have you looked to see if such a patch is available? You should also check GOG's forum for the game.

In theory it works