Advice needed - Old computer for old gaming

[hottyson]

Compaq Presario 4850

Pentium II 300MHz

384 mb RAM

Integrated ATI Rage Pro AGP chipset w/4 MB

52x cd-rom

6.5 gb Quantum Bigfoot CY (3600 rpm?)

Wired Ethernet to my router

I had WinXP on it but it crawled. I am thinking of putting Win98SE or WinME on it and using it for some old multi player games. So I NEED some good advice.

Games:

Unreal Tournament GOTY

Dukenukem3D

Heretic/Hexen/HexenII

QuakeIII (if it will play with 4mb video)

1, I wont be using any web browsers on it since it is just for multi player FPS games. Does that mean connected to the internet, I am immune from getting infected by a virus or exploits since I don't web-browse with it?

2, which should I use Win98SE or WinME for my particular computer for these games? and why?

3, should I install any of the unofficial service packs since this computer is just for games?

Perhaps someone is using a similar system for the exact purpose that I am. What do you recommend?

Thank you!

[Mijzelf]

1, I wont be using any web browsers on it since it is just for multi player FPS games. Does that mean connected to the internet, I am immune from getting infected by a virus or exploits since I don't web-browse with it?

You will be immune for any exploit in any webbrowser, and AFAIK W98SE itself doesn't have any security holes in it's internet interface (especially not when you don't install the 'client for ms networks'). But you will be vulnerable through any exploit in the games you're playing.

2, which should I use Win98SE or WinME for my particular computer for these games? and why?

W98SE. It has a better dos support.

3, should I install any of the unofficial service packs since this computer is just for games?

I don't think so.

[BenoitRen]

I would install the unofficial service pack 2.1 anyway. It doesn't hurt, and might make the system run better.

[Raynor]

You can play Unreal Tournament even with most modern computers. (I've played it on Quadcore with 4 gigs of ram and 8800GTX 768MB without any issues). Just use updated renderer and make some tweaks described on BeyondUnreal forums thread over here: http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=160250

[kaapo]

- Duke and heretic , they should run fine.

- Unreal tournament/quake3 , well, Minumum is p233, 4MB 3D-card.

1. You are right,. no services, no risk.

2. Put rather win98 than ME, you need to boot plain dos for these games.

- Get soundblaster sound card, swap graphics card to TNT2+voodoo(2) or voodoo3.

I did play up to P3 650mhz/TNT2 in pure dos, then i installed win98Se and voodoo2. THis is becouse up to that most games i played didnät like windows at all using tdos4gw extenders etc proprietary memory management systems.

[Panarchy]

A good game to play on old machines, is Charlie II

[Kasolai]

I just setup a old computer for UT GOTY also! That game is timeless, its just as fun today as it was 8 years ago when it was new.

Mine is a Dell OptiPlex GX1 tower:

550mhz P3 cpu

384mb pc100 ram

Intel BX motherboard with 5 PCI slots, onboard 3com 3c905b ethernet, ATI Rage Pro Turbo AGP2x 4mb video, and Crystal 4236b sound.

10gig hard disk

PCI Sound Blaster Live 5.1

PCI Quantum3d Obsidion2 X-24

PCI 3com Performance Pro hardware modem

I remember UT GOTY was originally optimized for Glide mode for 3dfx cards, so I dug out my vintage Quantum3d Obsidion2 X-24 card. Its a SLI 24mb vram double voodoo2 on a single PCI card that cost me 600 bucks back when it was new. Still works perfect. I was going to run Win95, but figured 98se has better stability even if its a bit slower. I installed 98se, loaded IE6sp1, and all the updates off the windowsupdate site. I also loaded the nusb33e update. I found an Intel BX chipset update driver on their site and ATI still has drivers for the rage pro turbo chips. SB Live is using the latest driver they offer on the web site, and for the voodoo2 I'm using the last driver for it released by Quantum3d. The guy that makes the updated opengl renderer for UT also did a faster Glide renderer! I'm running it now with no problems.

UT GOTY runs fantastic on it, smooth frame rate in every level, even Hall Of Giants at 1024x768 res and 16bit color. How the heck did those voodoo2 cards go so **** fast using only a PCI slot ??

Has anybody setup a computer JUST for UT GOTY? whats the minimum OS I can put on it and the game still work? Would NT4 Workstation with minimal services possibly be faster for it than 98se or 95 ? What about a 98micro or 98lite stripped version ? I want to use this computer only for UT games over my home network, so I don't need the OS to do anything except whats needed for UT and the hardware drivers (I don't know if any require IE). If I do a stripped down version of the OS, I'll remove the modem, I don't actually need it in there.

Thanks for any advice !

[BenoitRen]

I was going to run Win95, but figured 98se has better stability even if its a bit slower.

That's wrong. Win98 SE isn't as stable because it has IE integrated.

Would NT4 Workstation with minimal services possibly be faster for it than 98se or 95 ?

NT4 isn't suited for games at all.