I was having a LOT of problems trying to get some games in higher resolutions or windowed mode within Windows 98 or 2000.

Then I decided to kill these machines and run a modified Windows XP Pro 32-bit to look like Windows 2000, thanks to the Inexperience Patcher. Now it looks almost like the old thing. I just sad I had to kill Windows 98... But to be honest, browsing was terrible, Championship Manager games refused to run windowed, FIFA 9x refused to run higher resolutions and with nGlide (now it does in new machine).

Now I am stuck with Windows 3.11 For Workgroups, Windows "2002" Professional (XP + Inexperience Patcher), and Windows 10 Professional. Next week I will try another operating system (any old macOS or newer linux to get prepared for the jump if Apple really is going all in with the stupid ARM Macs).

Been trying to use Scitech Display Doctor 7 instead of the provided VMware SVGA II driver with my Win 98SE VM, and I ended up annoyed.

The software and drivers installs OK, I can even use my desired resolution (1280x720 or even 1920x1080) but when I shutdown the machine, VMware throws an error (actually, it's Windows 98 who is doing that; VMware is just reporting it) about an unspecified problem (I suspect its the new drivers) and tells me to reboot the machine or either force shutdown. When I uninstall the software and the driver, all is OK now. I am simply baffled.

The driver runs fine for VirtualBox users. They just have to change the cpu id to something like an i5 and it's fixed. But I can't figure out how to do it with VMware Fusion - or if it even does that.

Another strange thing is when I install it. After install, system information on Windows 98 reports it's a Pentium II. After installing VMware guest tools, Windows 98 sees an Intel i7 4th gen, the real cpu I have on my MBP. Seriously, how the f*** is that possible?

I needed to install a Windows 10 VM for 2 games anyway, Grand Prix 4 and NASCAR Racing 2003. I downloaded 2004 (20H1) build and proceeded to create the VM.

To my surprise, even though I am still disappointed with modern Windows, I was able to uninstall a lot of bloatware, default apps, reduce or disable completely the telemetry & data collection. Also customized its looks a bit with tweaks to resemble a little bit some 9x desktop. I can now survive in a such terrible environment that is Win 10...

The VM now sits at a whooping 13.2GB, even after running CompactOS command and SDelete to reduce the VM size. Chances are it will be bigger when I install more GP4 mods.

And my other two VMs are happily smaller: MS-DOS 6.22/Windows For Workgroups 3.11 working great, with only 1.3GB used, all bells & whistles working.

I got tired of trying to build a good Windows 9x VM, so I got Windows XP Pro x32 and used Inexperience Patcher + some customization to achieve near perfect Windows 2000 look alike; that VM now runs my mid to late 90's games, using only 9.7GB. I downloaded a lite version of XP to try out; I might be able to make an even more smaller VM. I found a way to make file explorer web view look like Win 98; but it only works for one folder at a time, I can't set it as default for others. Sad. I might just make it look like 95 explorer, empty.

As much as I love DOSBOX-X, even with a lot of improvements to run Win 9x, all my attempts to build a rock solid Win 9x VM there failed miserably. Hence why I returned to VMware.

Meanwhile, the iPad Pro running UTM to virtualize another DOS/Win3x machine is pretty good - the developer has said that he will look after enabling sound. I have a Win 98SE VM lurking there, but frankly if I cannot improve the speed for games like FIFA 98, I have only three options: Try Windows 95; Buy a newer iPad Pro (no way, no money) or find some way to tweak it for more performance.

SUCCESS: Fifa 98 Road To World Cup on big screen, wide 40” Samsung. Windows XP Pro SP3 on VMware used for the job. I won the game, obviously.

Right, all my VM's are working wonderfully. Now, anyone know how I can use a Logitech G27 for Grand Prix 3 on VMware for Win XP VM at least? I know it should work for Grand Prix 4 on Windows 10 VM. I guess I have to do some research tomorrow.

I won't even do the same (stupid) question for Grand Prix 1 and Grand Prix 2 on DOS VM since I know it is completely impossible to use a such modern steering wheel there.

Been researching about how to run Windows 98 or XP with QEMU on macOS and a decent graphics performance , but I can't find any guide on how to do it with the best possible configuration...

Edit first time attempt with Windows 10. I managed to install, but it's awfully slow.

Just managed to get XP Pro SP3 32bit running well on my 2nd gen 12.9 inch iPad Pro. Thanks, UTM!

Good video thanks to a generic VBEMP NT driver. I’m using -vga vmware, I could probably have used a VMware SVGA 3D driver, if I had one or if I could get it somewhere.

Turns out I can use the QXL driver for XP.

So far Win 98 and Win 3.11 are fantastic on my iPad. Although I do not get 3Dfx nor acceleration for games like FIFA 98, it's pretty good.

Right now, I'm trying to get XP SP3 to the top from updates and Windows 7 too, on both my Mac (QEMU 5.0.0) and iPad Pro (UTM, I presume it uses QEMU 4.2.0 still). Win 7 is lightning fast for some reason.

I've tried Win 10 on my Mac, but it's awfully slow. I have no idea of what changed so much under the hood between Win 7 - Win 8 - Win 10 for this to happen, since Microsoft is still stuck with their backwards compatibility in Win 10.

Anyway, a Win 7 VM if I make it correctly should be sufficient for me. As soon as I get all my VMs stable on QEMU/UTM, and after some good testing, I may finally quit VMware/Parallels "virtualization empire". If this proves to be good enough (and it's for FREE!!) I don't need to buy new VMware products. I'm not that rich to buy all the programs... plus, getting it running on my iPad is a good sign, with the ARM Macs in the horizon coming at the end of the year.

Just to clarify that while I do recognize that VMware and Parallels are far superior solutions, with near native speeds and easier to use. I do not want to pay for a plan, monthly subscription or huge fee to use their products just to be able to play my 80's/90's games.

There is DOSBox too, at least for DOS/Win 3.x games. With some headaches and work, you could get Win 98 SE going in DOSBox too. But my main issue with DOSBox is that while there is a version with NE2000 networking capabilities, getting it to the internet requires something like a Raspberry Pi 3 acting as a MITM to let it connect to the internet. Not useable for me when I'm on the move. I wish there was an patch to use another card, the AMD PC Net card, which is the one used on VMware and QEMU, to let Win 3.11 connect to the internet without a middle man.

Another thing is that I'd rather play it on my iPad than on my Mac. That means, UTM is a superior solution than Litchie's iDOS2 (or DOSPad, whatever is the official name) for the same reasons above. iDOS2 hasn't been updated in the last years to run latest DOSBox SVN version and lacks NE2000/AMDPCnet ethernet card patch to give networking capabilities. It's a shame, because I think iDOS2 would be a very great app with these benefits. If only someone could fork it and add these things...

Anyway, back to Win 7 installation. Should be a quick walk in the park, it's fast.

Anyone knows how can I turn two VMware VMs into usable QEMU virtual machines? Apart of converting VMDK to qcow2 or img (which I know how to), but I can't figure out why Windows XP SP3 doesn't boot when I try the QEMU route.

Likely different storage controller. Mabye see if qemu can support the same model as vmware before doing any of the below.

You can add drivers via dpinst and then do a sysprep or revert back to IDE and then do the conversion or just convert and the copy the needed drivers to the appropriate location and update the registry.

DosFreak wrote on 2020-08-07, 20:24:

Likely different storage controller. Mabye see if qemu can support the same model as vmware before doing any of the below.

You can add drivers via dpinst and then do a sysprep or revert back to IDE and then do the conversion or just convert and the copy the needed drivers to the appropriate location and update the registry.

This almost worked - I uninstalled VMware Tools and changed the IDE drivers to standard ones, but when I go to QEMU and boot it, I can reach the logon screen, but I cannot use the keyboard or the mouse. Damn! I was almost there for the "promised land".

It's possible the VM is slow and is still detecting hardware mabye wait a bit?

first you should remove all hardware from device manager in vmware
next start it in qemu and let it detect everything
i don't guarantee it is going to work but this is a way of doing it in case some devices interfere
i think it at least worked for win9x
i think it worked for moving winxp from phenom to corei5 this way

Thanks for the tips, I will try again

EDIT: I tried three times, I it didn't work. Was worth trying anyway. I will just set up a new machine from scratch...

Right, all my tests with QEMU were a total failure for more modern Windows after Windows 98. QEMU can run Win 3.11 and 98 just fine, but I do not have 3D acceleration for Windows 98 or XP games like FIFA 9x, Grand Prix 4.

UTM on my iPad Pro (a wrapper for QEMU on iOS) does a great job for Win 3.11/98 less intensive games so I will keep it running there. It still does not have sound though, but I talked to the developer and hopefully he will fix it in the next version.

And I will stick with VMware Fusion on MacBook Pro for 3.11/XP/10, the XP one being skinned to look like 98 thanks to Inexperience Patcher; and Windows 10 for Grand Prix 4 better performance. And I still have one more test to do: DOSBox-X with Windows 98. Since this fork of DOSBox has 3dfx/Glide support, it remains to be seen if I can build a stable enough Windows 98 machine on it. But performance will not be that good anyway, It can only emulate a Pentium MMX at best.

Meanwhile, I will just wait for what will be the x86 virtualization solutions offered on ARM Macs and then make a decision. I'm almost surely not going to get the first gen ARM Macs because of that and just wait for next generations (for improvements and less issues from first gen ones). Anyway, Big Sur will probably have intel macs support for at least until 2023. Who knows, QEMU on macOS can even improve to provide 3d acceleration in the meantime.

So in this scenario, I am actually thinking of a plan to have a retro mac laptop when I get my first second or third generation ARM Mac.

I believe I will get one of these white/black 2008 MBPs to restore. I don't intend to play heavy demanding old Windows games, except FIFA 98, Grand Prix 4 and Counter Strike 1.6. My plan is to restore an old mac, get the newest possible macOS on it, or Ubuntu linux, so I can have most basic stuff I already do on a Mac, and the newest VMware possible on it for Windows XP/98/3.11 retro gaming. That will do for a decent retro gaming laptop (and with a badass look! I always wanted one of those white/black macs) to bring with me when I travel for vacations. And an ARM Mac for work related stuff and as a daily driver.

To @ragefury32 on another topic: I have a 2009 24-inch iMac (1TB HD + 120GB SSD + 8GB) on Catalina patcher, 2010 13-inch MBP (1TB SDD + 16GB) was on High Sierra and I was going to patch it but someone spilled a lot of water over it when cleaning my desk while I was away on vacation... oh God. And a 2011 i5 Mac Mini (250GB SSD + original HDD + 16GB or 8GB, can't remember now) from my dad is on Catalina patcher too. All (except the dead 2010 I want to try and fix later) are running well. And my daily driver is a Late 2013 13-inch i7 rMBP (1TB SSD + 16GB) on Catalina, that one makes the cut for a native Big Sur install, thanks God.

Bruninho wrote on 2020-08-20, 03:36:

games like FIFA 9x

I thought they every year release a remaster for the sports games.

robertmo wrote on 2020-08-24, 09:29:

Bruninho wrote on 2020-08-20, 03:36:

games like FIFA 9x

I thought they every year release a remaster for the sports games.

I never heard about these remasters.

BTW anyone know how can I get Grand Prix 4 running on any Windows (9x to XP or even 7) on QEMU? I can't get it to run, I can install and such, but when I try to run I am presented with a very familiar problem I had in the past with a real Windows PC, but the solution is unclear: I run the game, I get a black screen but I can hear the background music going on. Also, when I run dxdiag to check out video details, Direct3D is never available, no matter which driver I decide to run. Best I can get running on QEMU was a XP vm with (apparently outdated) VMware SVGA II drivers and set it up to 128mb VRAM but still no D3D. Meanwhile, a Win XP or Win 10 VM on VMware Fusion can run VMware SVGA 3D drivers and get Direct3D working.

I never managed to get VMware SVGA 3D WDDM drivers to work on both XP and 7 QEMU VMs.

VMware SVGA 3D is exclusive to VMware and it was explicitly made to differentiate VMware from the rest of the *free* solution such as QEMU and VirtualBox. Though QEMU provides the option to emulate VMware SVGA adapter, the implementation was based on reverse engineering the open-sourced X.Org DDX 2D driver. It is no longer being actively developed anymore. QEMU has since moved on with QXL/virtio paravirtualized GPUs for modern guest OSes, notably Linux and Windows 7+. For QEMU, 3D acceleration through OpenGL is only possible with Linux host and Linux guest. Windows OS, either host or guest, is unfortunately out in the cold.

GP4 works out-of-box in QEMU MESA GL pass-through, WineD3D provides the D3D8 acceleration on top of OpenGL for the game through modern day's GPUs. It was simple to get the game running on either Win98SE or WinXP VM. Just install from ISO and apply the last official 9.6 patch and noCD patch.

kjliew wrote on 2020-08-26, 23:00:

VMware SVGA 3D is exclusive to VMware and it was explicitly made to differentiate VMware from the rest of the *free* solution such as QEMU and VirtualBox. Though QEMU provides the option to emulate VMware SVGA adapter, the implementation was based on reverse engineering the open-sourced X.Org DDX 2D driver. It is no longer being actively developed anymore. QEMU has since moved on with QXL/virtio paravirtualized GPUs for modern guest OSes, notably Linux and Windows 7+. For QEMU, 3D acceleration through OpenGL is only possible with Linux host and Linux guest. Windows OS, either host or guest, is unfortunately out in the cold.

GP4 works out-of-box in QEMU MESA GL pass-through, WineD3D provides the D3D8 acceleration on top of OpenGL for the game through modern day's GPUs. It was simple to get the game running on either Win98SE or WinXP VM. Just install from ISO and apply the last official 9.6 patch and noCD patch.
GP4.png

First I want to say thank you for your incredible and very detailed input. Dismissed many of the doubts I had about this aspect of QEMU.

Second, could you please help me with some kind of tutorial on how you managed to do that? Before that, I would like to give some background, detail my QEMU VMs and what I want to achieve with them.

You might have noticed that my environment is macOS. I have been experimenting with QEMU from the homebrew. I have plans to use it for retrogaming and replace VMware/Parallels, because I actually do not play nothing more intensive than GP4, I think. None of these so-called modern day games are attractive to me. So, I basically want to play whatever game I have played before.

I have two QEMU VMs: One with DOS 6.22 & WfW 3.11 and some games, other with W98SE and some games too. I want to make a third one just for GP4 with XP SP3 because I think it will be better there for some GP4 modding tools/editors too.

The DOS/W311 VM is working amazingly well, no problems, nothing to improve here, has these games working:

Chess 3d, Freecell, Italy 90, NFS, Test Drive, Street Fighter II, Cycles, Grand Prix 2, Karateka, Prince of Persia, Where In The world Is Carmen Sandiego, Accolade Grand Prix, Doom, Doom II, Grand Prix 1, MS Golf 2, Simcity, Wolfestein 3d, Alley Cat, Indy 500, NASCAR Racing, SimTower, Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego, FIFA 94, IndyCar Racing 2, Sokoban, Mortal Kombat II, Lakers vs Celtics.

The Windows 98 SE machine is a different beast. I needed better Direct3D for a few games. The OS is working well though. The games:

Flight Simulator 98, Championship Manager 3, Championship Manager 00/01, FIFA RTWC 98 (needs D3D!), FIFA 99 (needs D3D!), Grand Prix 3, NFS II SE, Full Throttle.

The third VM, I want to use XP SP3 only for two games, and with your guide, I hope to have better performance for the following games:

Grand Prix 4 (needs D3D!) and Counter-Strike 1.6 (old, classic no-steam version. I have the steam version too, but I don’t expect to get steam working on anything below Windows 7).

All these games are working well on VMware Fusion, but I am replacing some Mac apps with free stuff, since for most of these apps I can’t really pay for all of them. And I plan to get an Apple Silicon Mac in the future, so I better be prepared.

If I achieve these objectives, I will be so immensely thankful to you or anyone that can help me, because actually, I’ve spent more time trying to make things work than actually playing any of these games. It’s stressful. I have some personal issues going on and being quarantined in this pandemic isn’t helping me with that too. These retro virtual machines are my idea of a time to relax and be myself while I try to work out my things. I guess that we all are on the same boat now in certain aspects of the life.

I'm still failing to compile QEMU with this patch on my macOS environment, same errors as before. I've installed all required QEMU dependencies from homebrew, and followed the instructions as seen on https://github.com/kjliew/qemu-3dfx but no matter what I do, I'm stuck here:

1ERROR: sizeof(size_t) doesn't match GLIB_SIZEOF_SIZE_T.
2       You probably need to set PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR
3       to point to the right pkg-config files for your
4       build target

even though I've manually set this to /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig where the libraries above mentioned apparently are stored, the same error seen above still persists. I'm baffled.

1MacBruno-Pro:build Bruninho$ export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR="/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

Ideas?

EDIT: After doing this:

1MacBruno-Pro:build Bruninho$ brew --prefix glib
2/usr/local/opt/glib
3MacBruno-Pro:build Bruninho$ ls /usr/local/opt/glib/lib/pkgconfig/
4gio-2.0.pc			glib-2.0.pc			gmodule-export-2.0.pc		gobject-2.0.pc
5gio-unix-2.0.pc			gmodule-2.0.pc			gmodule-no-export-2.0.pc	gthread-2.0.pc
6MacBruno-Pro:build Bruninho$ export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=/usr/local/opt/glib/lib/pkgconfig
7MacBruno-Pro:build Bruninho$ ../qemu-4.1.1/configure && make
8
9ERROR: glib-2.40 gthread-2.0 is required to compile QEMU

Still baffled. The glib version installed from Homebrew is higher (2.64.5) yet it still gives me that error.