Cool! I'm definitely interested, 'cause I'd like to eventually get a lot of my gog games playing on DOS/Win98.

AllTinker wrote:

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1glide*.dll (3 files)

Don't delete GlideDrv.dll!

Also avoid v227i. The Unreal community are a bit trigger-happy on suggesting that not realizing the platform regressions within.

leileilol wrote:

Don't delete GlideDrv.dll!

Oops yes, right you are! Adjusted my post.

leileilol wrote:

Also avoid v227i. The Unreal community are a bit trigger-happy on suggesting that not realizing the platform regressions within.

Yeah I feared that might be the case...

Yeah 227 is built with crappy Visual Studio compilers that can't even properly target Windows 9x anymore.

Also 227 uses stolen source code, so it's a wonder why they haven't been canned already for it.

Getting the GOG version of Wing Commander IV working on 98SE was a bit more involved.
I've put together this package which has everything needed except DirectX.

The files in that package are:

• WC4DVD.EXE - the unmodified original taken from the WC4 DVD.
• DXMCI.DLL and MPEG2.DLL - from here.
• Version 1.63b for Win9x of AC3Filter - the downloads were broken for me so I used Wayback Machine.
• K-Lite MPEG decoder pack for Windows 98, which I got from here.

If you're using my package:

• Unzip it into your WC4 directory overwriting all files.
• Install AC3Filter via codecs\ac3filter_1_63b_win9x.exe.
• Install the K-Lite MPEG decoder pack via codecs\klmpeg101.exe. On my P2-400 the Cyberlink video decoder had best performance/reliability. Others recommend Ligos, but it ran like garbage for me!
• Run the 'configure dxmci' shortcut and set the path to the vob\ directory. (Otherwise it'll try to read from c:\vob).

Of course this assumes you don't have a hardware MPEG/2 decoder card - to make use of one of those I assume you'd basically need the original DVD discs. Have no idea since I've never owned one!

DracoNihil wrote:

[...] Also 227 uses stolen source code, so it's a wonder why they haven't been canned already for it.

OldUnreal.com's 2.27 page wrote:

This package was created with knowledge and permission of Epic Games.

^^ one second of googling would have shown you that result.

I've run 2.27i on 98SE but with KernelEX installed. I also had some trouble getting 3D acceleration working but that machine has VIA/S3 UniChrome onboard graphics which might be the problem. YMMV.

2.27 is really intended for running the game on [more] modern systems, so it's probably not what you want on an actual retro machine. It seemingly can work, but you might save yourself some pain using one of the original patches.

xjas wrote:

OldUnreal.com's 2.27 page wrote:

This package was created with knowledge and permission of Epic Games.

^^ one second of googling would have shown you that result.

One second of googling will not show you how Smirftsch was approached by someone from Epic asking why 227 seemingly had features and code not covered by the NDA agreement that stemmed from future versions of the engine. Let alone stuff that happened in private via Windows Live Messenger and the forum PM's themselves.

Also it's not "2.27" it's "227". And that "patch" has throughly broken quite a bit of my own custom content that runs just fine on Unreal versions 224, 225, and both 226b\226f.

AllTinker wrote:

Getting the GOG version of Wing Commander IV working on 98SE was a bit more involved.

Considering how much the early DVD games relied on hardware decoder cards, I don't doubt that for a second. I'm surprised you found some codecs that work on Windows 98 though. And I think LGR even used Cyberlink's stuff.

"You don't know what went down on Windows Messenger, maaaaaaan." L0L.

I bet Epic lost $0.00 over the "stolen" source code, if your unverifiable hearsay is true. The fact that it's still up all these years later with full knowledge of Epic seems to show the matter was settled. If 2.27 - excuse me, 227 - works, use it, if not, don't. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Personally, I like the fact that these community patches exist, even if they're not ideal for every situation. No need to try to tear down someone else's work.

work? ha

Most of the recommendation for the patch usually is for Chris Donhal's excellent work on the D3D/OpenGL renderers which he apparently isn't allowed to host on his own site due to some terrible community exclusivity agreement, so by needing to use those renderers you're forced to have broken cruft of questionable quality to come with it packed away in an unneccessary installer program. I'm sure Epic aren't thrilled to see "OLDUNREAL EDITION" defacing some graphics for a bit of self promotion on a 'patch'.

Hell, 227i still doesn't fix the clipping errors and softlocking behavior in a few maps that haunted Unreal since release. Obsession about the Quadshot and questionably backporting a particle system and assigning improper decals and gratuitous shadows to everything seems to be a bigger priority...

Frankly, a lot of the fault is in the presentation as an alleged "Epic-Approved patch". I see it no different than that old "GLQuake v1.13 patch" that shoves in an ugly grain on every surface, force fog and glows everywhere while calling itself a patch (leading it to be mistakenly mirrored as an official patch). It's misled folks for ages and it fixes nothing. I'd have no issue if it were called "Smirftsch's oldunreal hack pack" but that's nowhere near as clickbaity and wouldn't sound "important" of course, and I wouldn't have to had anti-recommend it in this thread here.

thank god for kentie's d3d10drv

It's such a shame Epic hasn't released the source for Unreal/UT99. Can only hope there's a decent reason behind their reluctance... Has there been any statement on it?

Always disappointing when companies only give source to some group of "chosen ones"; there are good and bad examples, but I can't help but think the result is never as good as it could be. Obviously in some circumstances proper open source isn't possible though; I get that.

It's been a Sweeney thought now and then. No chance for UE2 however due to middleware politics however (Kat/MathEngine stuff)

There isn't even any real middleware with Unreal Engine 1 other than Galaxy, and last I heard, you could just email the guy and he'd send you the full source to the very last build of Galaxy...

Last I heard also the guy was working for Creative with their implementation of OpenAL that they long since abandoned, so I wonder if he had to seek new employment after that.

AllTinker wrote:

Hey all, I've been gradually trying to get some of my GOG.com copies of games running on native DOS 6.22 and Win98 SE as appropr […]
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Hey all, I've been gradually trying to get some of my GOG.com copies of games running on native DOS 6.22 and Win98 SE as appropriate.

There was an old topic, but rather than necro that or make a post just for one game I thought I'd start a new thread to share findings on getting the more stubborn ones working...

Both Unreal Gold and Descent 3 were supplied with the nGlide wrapper, which I removed by deleting the following nine files:

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1nglide*.* (3 files)
23DfxSpl*.dll (3 files)
3glide.dll, glide2x.dll, glide3x.dll

While Unreal Gold started working fine after this on my Banshee, it seems Descent 3 has been otherwise modified and just crashes back to desktop.

After some trial and error I found that installing the 1.4 no-CD patch over the top did the trick! (Attached below, originally from descent3.com here).

EDIT: It's possible that the 1.5 patch would work as well since it also seems to contain the full executables, rather than just deltas.

I've got a short-list of games to try so if I figure any others out I'll post about them here, or if anyone has figured out fixes for other games I - along with others I'm sure - would be keen to hear about it!
____________________________________________________________________

EDIT 2: Rather than spam the thread I'm going to just edit this post with my findings.

My process for installing these is to install them on my modern PC, then copy the installed files over and perform the given steps.
Apparently you can use innounp to unpack the offline installers manually but I haven't tried it myself yet.
____________________________________________________________________

Unreal Gold

• Remove the nGlide wrapper - see above for file list. Optional I guess if you don't have 3DFX hardware, but I can't attest to how the wrapper runs on vintage gear.

Descent 3

• Remove the nGlide wrapper, as with Unreal Gold.
• Install the 1.4 no-CD patch over the top (or quite possibly the 1.5 patch, both available here):
• D3_1.4_NOCD_Patch.exe

Thief Gold

• Copy the files found in backup\no_ddfix\ to the root directory of the game - replacing THIEF.EXE and CAM.CFG.

Thief 2

• Copy the files found in backup\ to the root directory of the game - replacing THIEF2.EXE and CAM.CFG.

Wing Commander Prophecy

• Remove the nGlide wrapper, as with Unreal Gold.
• Install the following registry settings AFTER editing the "Installed To:" line to suit your setup (or change it via regedit later):
• wcp.zip

Wing Commander IV DVD

• Download this package, or see my post here for the original sources if you prefer.
• Unzip it into your WC4 directory overwriting all files.
• Install AC3Filter via codecs\ac3filter_1_63b_win9x.exe.
• Install the K-Lite MPEG decoder pack via codecs\klmpeg101.exe. On my P2-400 the Cyberlink video decoder had best performance/reliability. Others recommend Ligos, but it ran like garbage for me!
• Run the 'configure dxmci' shortcut and set the path to the vob\ directory. (Otherwise it'll try to read from c:\vob).

Regarding getting Descent 3 GOG to run on W98se, remove nglide*.* and the 3dfxspl*.dll files only? Leave glide.* files alone?

buckeye wrote:

Regarding getting Descent 3 GOG to run on W98se, remove nglide*.* and the 3dfxspl*.dll files only? Leave glide.* files alone?

You'll want to delete those three as well.

If the game comes with glide2x.dll/glide3x.dll files, they're there for hijacking for a wrapper and surely not intended to use with actual Voodoo hardware (where glide files are card specific and in the \windows\system folder)

Thank you both!