I'm trying out Virtual PC 2004, and... \ VOGONS

I'm trying out Virtual PC 2004, and...

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First post, by Gareth_Legacy

Posted on 2005-12-25, 00:29

Gareth_Legacy Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: 2005-12-21, 05:24

...I have a few issues maybe you fine folks can help me with.

I installed Windows 95 OSR2.5 on the virtual drive, and everything went smooth until I got to my game testing. I installed Redneck Rampage in 95, and when I went to test my sound in it's setup program, it froze for a few seconds and crashed to a DOS/4GW error. I don't know the exact text of the error, nor do I have a screenshot. It was about 8 to 10 lines long maybe..? I double checked the port, IRQ and DMA numbers in the Control Panel, and they matched. IIRC, I had this same problem with ROTT's sound setup also, and I managed to fix it, but this was years ago and I don't exactly remember how. Anyone have a solution to this? Windows 95 is emulating a "Sound Blaster 16 or AWE32" if that helps.

Also, Windows 95 is emulating an 8MB S3 Trio32/64 PCI display driver. Is it possible to install a different working driver or update this one?

Lastly, I chose my nforce2 network adapter in the Virtual PC options, and Windows 95 seemed to install the network files ok, but I can't get any internet access through 95. I don't *need* it, but it would be helpful if I could just download updates and game patches through 95. Is it even possible to access the internet though 95's virtual adapter?

Sorry if these issues have been addressed before, but I couldn't find anything on these problems on the forum or Microsoft's website. Any help is much appreciated.

Reply 1 of 3, by vasyl

Posted on 2005-12-25, 07:32

vasyl Offline

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Joined: 2005-03-27, 04:53

I had very moderate success with games in Virtual PC 2004. DOS4GW can only make it worse. You may try exiting to DOS from Win95 and running from DOS prompt. If that does not work, try replacing DOS4GW with DOS32A (search forums for more information) or use the latest build of DOSBox.
I had similar issues with network -- go to virtual machine settings and switch to "Shared networking (NAT)." It seems to be more reliable.

Reply 2 of 3, by DosFreak

Posted on 2005-12-26, 19:12

DosFreak Offline

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You don't want to play RR in VPC. If you want to play RR then dual-boot your computer with Windows 98....or deal with the crappy sound quality you'll get with running the game in NTVDM in Windows XP or finally the 3rd and last option.....run the game in 320x200 in DosBox with wonderful sound quality.

The absolute best option is real MS-DOS/Windows 98. Don't use anything else if you want a good gameplay experience.

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Reply 3 of 3, by Gareth_Legacy

Posted on 2005-12-28, 02:58

Gareth_Legacy Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: 2005-12-21, 05:24

Yeah..I'm not too thrilled with VPC too much. The only thing I found cool about it was seeing my super leet Windows 95 Plus! themes again, hehe. I found my 98 SE disc and installed that on VPC and totally forgot that all those themes are included in 98. I tried running RR on there only to get that same DOS/4GW error, so it looks like Virtual PC is gettin' the axe. 😀 I thought it was a good idea at first because NFS:SE worked like a dream when I installed it on there. Oh well.

I actually have excellent sound quality with the Redneck Ramapge games in XP with VDMSound, but I also had it working perfectly on my old 9x machines under windows too. I'll try putting 98 SE on my smaller hard drive soon.

Thanks for the replies, guys! It's so awesome to see a large community love all the old games as much as I do. I've been convinced for years I'm the only one who's played Anachronox; awesome game. 😁

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