Try the SilentPatch DDraw for GTA III/VC.

http://www.gtagarage.com/mods/show.php?id=25368

Thanks, apparently it needs NT-based Windows (it says ntdll.dll is missing, and doesn't work even with KernelEX), i will install XP or 2000 and check that.
By the way that laptop has 1080pts in 3dmark2001 (1024x768x16) and 1530pts in 640x480x16 so maybe it wouldn't be a total slideshow.

Update: And it works! In Win XP, but maybe I can make it work in 98 somehow too. I used fresh XP installation with built-in graphic drives. The game is almost playable with only 8MB VRAM which is pretty suprising, as this is only Rage 128 in 2000 laptop computer... I hope there are some free soldering pads so I can solder another 8MB, or else I will look for the mainboard with 16mb (it exists), so even more games will probably work.

Here's the video of gameplay:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2rbHIj6SMlF … iew?usp=sharing

adalbert wrote:

but maybe I can make it work in 98 somehow too

It won't. The Ddraw.dll relies on ntdll.dll. KernelEx won't help you here.

adalbert wrote:

Update: And it works! In Win XP, but maybe I can make it work in 98 somehow too.

I made a patch that should remove the memory check. It's based on GTA 3 v1.1, not sure if it works with 1.0.

Thanks, thats great, it works! 😁
I am now trying to use some other patch in order to make game looking more ugly but faster. I tried running game with 3Danalyzer forcing textures to be 32x32 and it is almost smooth 😜 Regular game works almost fine with top-down camera mode, performance is like with GTA1 on P1 100MHz. Of course i'm trying all of this just for fun 😜

GTA3 has huge unavoidable overdraw issues that was fixed later in GTAVC

Well, I could try using GTA VC, but I assume that similar patch would be needed then 😜

Update:
All right, I (probably) managed to do it by myself!
I compared patched and unpatched file and I noticed that only one bit needs to be changed.
Then I edited the gta-vc.exe file and changed:

00 00 00 c0 00 59 59 73

to

00 00 00 c0 00 59 59 eb

same section existed in GTA3.exe.

Modified file still works on my modern PC so I didn't break anything, I am copying the game to the laptop so I can check if it really disabled the memory check 😉

//update2: confirmed, it works 😉 and it is totally playable! Playing with lowest settings (640x480x16) gives 15-20FPS on that 8MB Rage 128. Sure, it's not perfect, but I'm sure that back in 2002 an owner of this 1999 laptop would be happy to see it running GTA:VC. ~35fps on the beach, so forcing lower draw distance or making another modifications would improve the gameplay even more.