Absolutely! It can even run on NT4 with 3D acceleration, if you run GLQuake, since Windows NT supports OpenGL.

Buy even non-GL Quake works fine on Windows NT (possibly even NT 3.x, although I'm not entirety sure), since the Quake programmers at id software went out of their way to support it.

See also this very interesting blog post about why the separate winquake executable exists, which also talks about Windows NT compatibility: https://fabiensanglard.net/winquake/index.html

But what about the version for DOS?

sebada11 wrote on 2026-01-17, 13:31:

But what about the version for DOS?

EDIT2: Apparenly, dos Quake does nor run at all on NT 4, based on the link previously shared in this thread. I guess my memory is playing tricks on me. The rest of this post should still apply to other DOS applications.

EDIT: I assumed you meant Windows NT 4. This is also applicable to Windows 2000 and mostly for Windows XP . Windows XP has some integrated Sound Blaster emulation for DOS applications but it is not as as good or as compatible as VDMSOUND.

AFAICR, it will run, but without sound. As provided by Microsoft, Windows NT 4 neither allows
access to nor emulates a sound card for use by DOS software running under it.

You can use a third party component called VDMSOUND to emulate a Sound Blaster compatible card for the benefit of DOS applications running under Windows NT.
The emulated Sound Blaster audio will output audio through any sound card supported (drivers installed and working) by Windows NT .

Unfortunately, even with this driver I can see also the error. I have the Polish version. So it couldn't be the fault of Sound Blaster driver.

is there some "ignore winquake as much as possible" impossible challenge going on here? Because Winquake's made for NT4. It's the way to run it there. Get WQ100.ZIP, extract to quake directory, play.

Yes, I can try also WinQuake. However, I had read something about the trouble workaround for Quake 2. There should be also for Quake 1.

sebada11 wrote on 2026-01-17, 15:21:

Yes, I can try also WinQuake. However, I had read something about the trouble workaround for Quake 2. There should be also for Quake 1.

VDMSOUND won't fix Quake for DOS not running at all under Windows NT and derivatives. See https://fabiensanglard.net/winquake/index.html that was previously shared.

1Last but not least, id Software really wanted Quake to work on Windows NT. Despite their best efforts, the people at DJGPP could not make their DPMI client in quake.exe compatible with the NT Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM).
2
3    Near pointers don't work under NT - which was a huge disappointment to iD and generated some conference calls to Microsoft.
4    - Charles Sandmann[1]
5

Quake 2 is a Windows-only application (Win32). That is completely different from the DOS version of Quake 1, which is a DOS application. The specific issue with Dos Quake 1 not running natively under NT is one that Quake 2 does not have, so there can be no common or even similar workaround.

No. Look at this post (Quake2 + Acebot for DOSBox (128mb)). It regards Quake 2 for DOS

sebada11 wrote on 2026-01-17, 16:45:

No. Look at this post (Quake2 + Acebot for DOSBox (128mb)). It regards Quake 2 for DOS

Q2DOS is a DOS port of the original Quake 2 which was never released for DOS.

As you may already know, Quake 1 and Quake 2 source code was released by ID Software, which is what allows ports, often with improvements and changes, to different platforms to be developed.

My impression was that you were hoping to get the original release of Quake 1 for DOS to work natively (without DOSBOX or another emulation layer) under NT. As far as I know, that is not currently possible.

If you would be satisfied with a port of Quake 1 that is meant to run under DOS, but might run natively under NT, you could try QDOS and possibly other ports that target DOS.

That being said, if you are going to be running a modified port of Quake under Windows NT, why insist on running one designed and conpiled specifically for DOS under Windows NT when there are ports designed and conpiled to work under Windows (including Windows NT) and also an original release (Winquake) that also does ? You are free to have your reasons and you do not need to justify them to anyone, but if you explained more precisely what you hope achieve and why, it might make it easier for people to help you reach your goal or suggest alternatives that you are more likely to find acceptable.

I just just feel sentimental towards Microsoft 's products. NTVDM runs mostly DOS software. With it we don't need the third party software. To my mind, it's just easier.

If that were true, this forum would not exist.

sebada11 wrote on 2026-01-17, 19:09:

I just just feel sentimental towards Microsoft 's products. NTVDM runs mostly DOS software. With it we don't need the third party software. To my mind, it's just easier.

You are certainly free to have a warm feeling toward NTVDM and a desire to use it as much as possible. I suspect that there are not that many people who share that perspective, but you are almost certainly not alone either.

As to it being easier to rely on NTVDM, that it is debatable. I would say that it can be easier if it works and works well, which is very often not the case. That is one of the reasons why third party alternatives were developed to begin with.

I can confirm that WinQuake runs on Windows NT 3.51 with NewShell. GLQuake, on the other hand, gives up due to missing functions in the GDI, kernel and OpenGL libraries.

I 've checked WinQuake. It works on Windows XP without issues but you need to copy WinQuake to Quake for DOS files.