Best way to emulate Windows 98 with a decent CPU and good graphics with at least 512-1024 MBs of RAM?

[JukeBoxHero]

I am on a Ryzen 3 2600, I have tried 86Box, it was incredibly slow with no drivers or really anything good about it, I can't even figure out how to get QEMU to work, there's no GUI nor any GUIs currently available and updated for Windows 10, plus even with a slightly older GUI I noticed there were virtually no GPUs to choose from, even when I've read "QEMU can do Voodoo emulation!!!", DOSBox-X ran at great speeds and had all 3 of the things I had requested albeit with an older sound card which wasn't an issue since I enjoy the OPL synth sound. However, a major deal breaker was that I couldn't figure out how to get the NE2000 Ethernet emulation to work which meant no networking whatsoever, along with the issue they don't have an IRC or a Discord chat which stopped me from getting support quick and easy, plus I ran into issues with the virtual CD-ROM device , so what I'm trying to figure out is, how I can run 98 reliably, with good CPU speeds, a decent GPU, 512-1024 MBs of RAM, sound, and networking?

[JukeBoxHero]

P.S I will accept a guide to setup QEMU with functioning graphics and sound WITH A GUI.

[RainyShadow]

Setting up networking in DOSBox-X

WinPcap

slirp (source only?) 

 

I'd go with pcap.

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How to Set up Virtual machines with QEMU GUI on Windows 10

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by RainyShadow

[JukeBoxHero]

Just now, RainyShadow said:

Setting up networking in DOSBox-X

WinPcap

slirp (source only?) 

 

I'd go with pcap.

Appreciate this, will try when I get home, the main issue I faced however was 98 not even detecting the NE2000 device, which to be fair was not installed during installation so there's a possibility that it didn't install the files required for NE2000 devices, or maybe I'm stupid and wrong, who knows? Anyways, will be sure to try ASAP and get back to you with results.

[RainyShadow]

They say auto-detection won't work (probably), it's on that page. 

 

P.S. added QEMU guide to last post

[JukeBoxHero]

Just now, RainyShadow said:

They say auto-detection won't work (probably), it's on that page. 

 

P.S. added QEMU guide to last post

I had followed that guide and after getting to the VM creation screen, I saw no way to add a ATI/nVidia/3dfx video card to my virtual machine, do I need to install a module or a ROM to get them to work?

[RainyShadow]

No ATI/Nvidia, unless you manage to get GPU/PCI passthrough working on Windows. I think the last time i checked it was a Linux-only thing. 

The emulated video cards are pretty old. But at least they're based on real cards, unlike the kludge in VirtualBox

Here is a page with some drivers. 

 

Some old docs, not sure how much it changed since 2012... Or check the config files for hints.

[RainyShadow]

@bob_smith

Have you thought about trying MESS / MAME ?

I haven't touched that since before the merger, but it probably progressed a bunch for the last few years...

There were many third-party frontends in the past too. I posted a few links here.

Edited August 23, 2021 by RainyShadow

[Sergiaws]

I'm happy running Windows 98 vm in VMware. However, I'm wondering if it is possible to patch it in order to be able to use it with more than 512 mb ram.

[pangoomis]

https://archive.org/details/PATCHMEM ?

[Dave-H]

Probably some useful hints here as well.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/118097-day-to-day-running-win-9xme-with-more-than-1-gib-ram
I don't know about in a VM, but I've been running Windows 98 accessing 3GB of RAM for years!

[Nokiamies]

2 hours ago, Dave-H said:

I don't know about in a VM, but I've been running Windows 98 accessing 3GB of RAM for years!

I got Windows 98SE with 98lite micro shell (95 explorer and no ie) on Vmware workstation with 4gb of ram for testing software before deploying it to my real Windows 98 system. Just avoid excess use of vmware tools drag and drop. It tends to crash with drag and drop on any win9x based os if 4gb ram. Also firefox/retrozilla may give random memory error which is solved with rebooting Windows luckily. Some of software just do not like it sometimes which is not big issue

Edited August 28, 2021 by Mr.Scienceman2000

[testaccount66766]

I’m wondering, would it be possible to get a newer version than OGL 1.1, preferably up to 2.0,and maybe D3D working on VMWare? If not, what alternative VM or emulator software would you recommend, or should I switch to Virtualbox? Note that SciTech Display Doctor does not work properly in VMware.

[pangoomis]

Best option would be to buy a GeForce 6200/6600/6800 or 7000 series PCI-E GPU, or a Radeon X300/X550/X600/X1050 (slow), X700/X800/X850 (fast) PCI-E GPU, and use Linux together with QEMU passthrough like someone did here:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=72401

If you are looking for a way without buying anything? Sorry, but that's not possible.

If I knew a way to virtualize/emulate a decent GPU for 98SE, I would have know it by now. That would have saved me from spending money on building a powerful 98SE PC. I know my game.

Edited August 30, 2021 by MrMateczko

[testaccount66766]

On 8/29/2021 at 6:18 PM, MrMateczko said:

Best option would be to buy a GeForce 6200/6600/6800 or 7000 series PCI-E GPU, or a Radeon X300/X550/X600/X1050 (slow), X700/X800/X850 (fast) PCI-E GPU, and use Linux together with QEMU passthrough like someone did here:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=72401

If you are looking for a way without buying anything? Sorry, but that's not possible.

If I knew a way to virtualize/emulate a decent GPU for 98SE, I would have know it by now. That would have saved me from spending money on building a powerful 98SE PC. I know my game.

Thanks for the answer, but whats wrong with using something like Mesa3D and/or wined3d for software emulation?