>>12909606
Useful Links 2/2:
MDGX - A 90's style site full of info about configuring DOS/Win9x and lots of downloads and links. The design is sadly the worst of the 90's style, and lots of links are long dead, but plenty of good info and programs.
>https://www.mdgx.com
Multiboot Guide - Guide to making a bunch of OS's boot and run off of the same HDD using hidden partitions and a boot manager.
>https://www.goodells.net/multiboot/
Windows Update Restored - A mostly complete restoration of the old Windows Update websites/services that existed for Windows 95-XP.
>https://www.windowsupdaterestored.com/
Windows Quick Install project - A linux-based installer to quickly put Windows 98SE or Windows ME on a machine with a bunch of updates and drivers.
>https://github.com/oerg866/win98-quickinstall
Total DOS Collection - Useful for 86Box, PCem, and real hardware. They try to get every single revision and patch and expansion that exists. The most recent set on the Internet Archive is uploaded by GGG in parts. Not sure of the exact version he uploaded, but it was put up around 2023 so it's far more recent than the version 13 or 14 that comes up on google.
>https://archive.org/details/@ggg_ggg894
eXoDOS - Useful for DOSBox. Tries to get the final release of every game working under DOSBox flawlessly. Comes with games pre-setup with config files for DOSBox to make them run as well as possible. They have torrents on their official website.
>https://www.retro-exo.com/exodos.html
eXoWin9x Vol 1 - Like eXoDOS, but for Win9x. Vol 1 covers games from 1994-1996, so you get a lot of Win3.x releases in there as well, that would run under Win9x. Uses a combo of DOSBox and 86Box unlike eXoDOS, depending on the game.
>https://www.retro-exo.com/win9x.html

So after playing Civil War Generals 2 to death, pushing the Confederacy to Washington and taking the White House, I started looking around at other Win3.x/Win9x turn based strategy games to scratch the itch. While there are plenty of other games, they mostly don't hit the spot CWG2 does.
First I tried checking out Civil War General 1, only to find it's literally the exact same game only with fewer scenarios/maps, and a slightly less pretty menu. Same artwork, same design, same just about everything. CWG2 isn't so much a sequel as it is a Gold Edition version of the game with additional stuff and a prettier menu. Then I saw Panzer General 2 uses the same engine, so I tried to check it out. While it may or may not be good, the interface is not nearly as polished as CWG1/2. Gonna take me a while and maybe the manual to figure out how to interface with the game properly. Sid Meier's Gettysberg looked interesting, but it's more of a real-time strategy, so it's not exactly what I'm looking for. Unfortunately, most of what remains is either rocking an interface straight out the 80's, since SSI were the kings of "If it ain't broke, don't change it."
Anyone have any turn based strategy Win3.x/Win9x games they can recommend? I'm starting to come to terms that I'm probably not going to find anything else like CWG1/2 in terms of polished UI and ease of a new player getting into it.

>>12909606
Massgrave has Windows XP ISOs:
https://massgrave.dev/windows_xp_links

>>12909956
Their Office stuff is really good.

OP, just a suggestion, but I feel like you ought to pick your images a bit more carefully. I like these threads, but I found it a bit hard to pick out from the catalog because I couldn't tell what your image was at a glance.

>>12911496
I feel ya. Was kinda hoping to do a screen shot of different games for the OP picture, just because there's so much to take a picture of.

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1.44 MB JPG

>>12911496
I'm thinking maybe something a bit more PC-oriented and not just screenshots from PC games, like pic related. Maybe that might help tell people this is the x86 gaming thread?

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Here's the pack so far. I've actually been procrastinating a bit on adding games, focusing more instead on extras and fluff, such as getting the Windows 2000 color/font scheme in. I also tried to add the icons, but they won't show up for some reason, not sure why. Performance is better than it's ever been, and the pack will actually be slimmer than the previous incarnations, too, since I will no longer be including either PCem or separate ODR/NDR builds, just the one NDR 86Box executable. I'm also going to include an actual README this time around with usage tips, though I've yet to really get started on it.

>>12911504
>>12912982
Yeah, I think that's for the best. It's nice that you're showing actual games, but for an OP pic, hardware would probably be preferable IMO.

I install win98 on 86box. It comes with some generic pack of drivers and stuff in the install. Cool. I install mechwarrior 3. It comes with directx install, but it says the version already installed is current or more recent. Launch game. Error message says I need to update directx. mfw

>>12913375
Is it the Windows 98 QuickInstall? That one comes with DirectX 8.1, which IMO is unnecessary (pretty much everything from that era, you'll wanna play on Windows XP), and I've heard it does cause issues with some earlier games. I downgraded it to DX7, and I've had no issues so far. Maybe try that?

>>12913375
Those Win9x errors weren't always the clearest or most informative.
>Install Age of Empires
>requires 16MBs of RAM, I have 256MBs
>go to run it
>NOT ENOUGH MEMORY!!!
>check RAM
>86% free
>far more than the 16MBs the game wants
>game keeps spitting the error even with every other program closed
>finally turn on virtual RAM on one of the spare HDD's(had it turned off when installing on a CF card, since regular writes like that will just kill the card faster)
>4MBs of virtual RAM on spare HDD
>game works fine now
They could have specified that the game requires virtual RAM no matter how much physical RAM you have, but instead it just threw generic OUT OF RAM error. Thanks a lot Microsoft.

>>12913432
I guess to be fair they didn't expect really anyone to actually turn off virtual RAM, this was the days of like 16 to 32 MB of RAM after all.

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>>12912982
Ideally people should know what your thread is about just from a quick glance at a 150x150 thumbnail

>>12913432
>>12914015
It's always been recommended to keep virtual memory on even in modern windows because of dumb errors like that. Modern windows can't do crash dumps without virtual memory either. And nowadays a rogue youtube tab can max out your RAM.

The dumb errors in Win95/98 are mostly because it dumps all runtime libraries in system32 and some games need specific versions but whenever you install something it overwrites the global ones. Plays hell on stability. XP had that issue as well iirc, they only fixed it in Vista (by making every installer create its own libraries, so now the Windows folder grows to 50+GB after a few years if you install lots of stuff).

>>12914015
>>12914806
The funny part is it's the first Win3.x or Win9x game I've installed and tried to play to have an issue with no virtual RAM. Wipeout, Turok, Quake, Riven, Quake 2, POD, Caesar 2, Caesar 3, BHunter, Star Wars Shadows of the Empire, nothing complained about virtual RAM being disabled, just Age of Empires. That Win98 testbench .iso was a similar story, Unreal ran at the speed of slow on the lowest possible settings and tiny resolution, but it didn't complain about virtual RAM not being there. I'm actually thinking about turning it back off once I get done playing Age of Empires and the current batch of games I have installed, so I can see if any other games demand virtual RAM to function, and which ones.
>The dumb errors in Win95/98 are mostly because it dumps all runtime libraries in system32 and some games need specific versions but whenever you install something it overwrites the global ones. Plays hell on stability.
Yeah...already had some fun with that.
>install a batch of games
>some seem fun, put them aside to play more later
>others suck, uninstall them
>go to play one of the games I enjoyed
>missing .dll
>one game I uninstalled, on it's way out it took out three different .dll's
>had to hunt down installers for those and reinstall them to get game functional again
Still having a blast playing through the PC generation I didn't have a halfway decent computer for in my teens.

>>12914948
Yeah, I've been a bit wary of uninstalling things on my 86Box machine as well. So far it's held together very well, and I'd like to keep it that way. Backups are certainly good for this purpose, of course.