I remember when this was Connectix and it cost as much as a new PC. The price is down low enough for this beast to be worthy of serious consideration. I know it supports soundblaster 16, does it support the MPU-401?
How about intelligent mode? (I figure fat chance of that.)
People from Microsoft could not care less for some old DOS games ... They are making an emulator for business, not for gamers. Therefore DOSBOX is much better.
If some game works in Virtual PC well, then it is good, if not, then you have bad luck - there is only a very small probability that it will ever be fixed.
I think (without researching it though) that dosbox is quite unique in the intelligent mode emulation of the mpu. (at least in a usable state for games)
Virtual PC is great for those games that are difficult to run without an older version of Windows (usually games around the age of Win95). DOS games definitely fit better with DOSBox (if you've got a powerfull enough PC!).
As far as partitioning goes - very soon now no one is going to be supporting drivers for windows 98 anyway. It'd better to hand onto a vintage windows 98 machine.
I don't suppose that Virtual PC helps if you wanted to install a PCI card with Windows 98 drivers on Windows XP does it? I think this is a fat chance but I thought I'd ask.
is there a simple setup guide for bochs to run say Win95? Wen Win95 is running in bochs what graphic card/s can it detect/use?
a) The first rule is: Bochs is not simple and userfriendly.
b) Windows 95 - it should be possible to install it in Bochs (I failed some time ago with W98 SE - but it could be some problem on my side - remember the point a) ).
You must make disc image (Bochs contains BXIMAGE.EXE for that), there is no mounting directories as in DOSBOX. You can probably install from CD, but I installed DOS to a disc image, copied Windows files there and installed from there (for editing of Bochs disc images I recommend DiskExplorer from http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA013937/editd … sk/index_e.html (choose VMWare format).
c) Graphic card - I do not remember, probably some S3 card - certainly not any 3D accelerator
d) Bochs emulates CPU as DOSBOX does. So if somebody is looking for something more quicker than DOSBOX, then Bochs is not a solution.
e) MPU401 - yes - it works. SB 16 emulation - I could not get it work now. In any case they are warning that it works acceptable only when the program does no do much else. Some months ago I had some working sound in Bochs, but it was less reliable and more stuttering than in DOSBOX.
I piddled with Bochs a little, and it is quite clear from the documentation and the command line interface that it is geared towards people who want to run Windows as a guest OS on a computer with Linux. My recommendation: if you want to run old Windows as a guest OS pay the $110 for Virtual PC or suffer.
I remember trying W98SE in BOCHS some time ago and it froze during installation. May be if I tried it again, it would be better, bit I was just fed up with Bochs (I periodically try to use it and periodically give up in disgust after hitting some bugs).
Pod Gold now works thanks to Dege's fine patches. Williams F1 Team Driver works now sometimes(!).
The other two still remain firmly dead. Also dead is Jetboat SuperChamps (and Hot Chix n Gear Stix / SuperChix76) though Jetboat SuperChamps 2 and Kayak Extreme work fine (evolutions of the same engine) however Real and Small Rockets (who distribute the games) no longer are in touch with the Russian company who made the games; hence no patches 😜