GZDoom for Windows XP?

[OldSchool38]

I love the old game doom and doom 2, however the newest builds for that source port don't support Windows xp anymore, does anyone know the last version that does?  Or if it's possible to hack a newer version to work with XP?

[UCyborg]

Last XP compatible version: gzdoom-bin-4-1-2b.zip

Relevant topic on official forum

[OldSchool38]

4 hours ago, UCyborg said:

Last XP compatible version: gzdoom-bin-4-1-2b.zip

Relevant topic on official forum

Thanks for the information!  reads thread linked....Yikes!, some of those folks over there need to put their arrogance in check-not everyone wants to use microsoft's latest spyware!

[TrevMUN]

50 minutes ago, OldSchool38 said:

Yikes!, some of those folks over there need to put their arrogance in check

Wow, you weren't kidding. People like that Rachael admin are a massive turnoff. I've had the displeasure of seeing people like that well before Microsoft ended support for Windows XP, but as soon as tech journalists began trumpeting the "death" of the OS it seemed like they turned out in droves. It's really irritating to see such attitudes involving old games, too, such as DooM. (The most obnoxious example I recall was in 2014ish when the 90's SNK arcade run-and-gun Metal Slug got ported to Steam, but did not support XP. Some doofus snarkily mocked disappointed XP users with "What about MS-DOS support?! What about Windows 3.1 support?!!!" even though, y'know, the game was ahem "ported" to such OSes in the past.)

By comparison Graf Zahl at least provides some rationale for the decision, even if I disagree with it.

You could try seeing if XomPie would get the newer versions of GZDoom running on XP, though from what it sounds like the real solution would involve the projects to implement the API/libraries/features in the newer Windows versions.

[j7n]

Do you really need Doom updated to enjoy it? The work of GZ was complete when the game was ported. Original games don't receive many patches and can continue to be played. Problems sometimes arise if you want to run them on very new systems, which XP is not. I don't understand the hatred expressed towards older Windows by developers who work on even more obsolete games. They wouldn't appreaciate posts on their forum saying how Doom sucked.

Edited October 17, 2021 by j7n

[TrevMUN]

3 hours ago, j7n said:

Do you really need Doom updated to enjoy it? The work of GZ was complete when the game was ported. Original games don't receive many patches and can continue to be played. Problems sometimes arise if you want to run them on very new systems, which XP is not. I don't understand the hatred expressed towards older Windows by developers who work on even more obsolete games. They wouldn't appreaciate posts on their forum saying how Doom sucked.

I think that will depend on if GZDoom implements more features in the future. The source ports for Doom are known to add extra bells and whistles which have been taken advantage of by mod and map makers. For example, GZDoom has an OpenGL renderer which allows for fully 3D floors including slopes (which the original Doom's engine can not handle) as well as reflective floors, dynamic lights, brightmaps (so, for example, demons' eyes can glow in the dark) as well as a bunch of other modernizations like 32-bit colors so that sprites aren't limited to the original Doom's palette.

So you get maps that look like this rather than like this.

[UCyborg]

The changelog is looong and there's a lot of things related to scripting. The engine is very much oriented towards modding and its renderer uses OpenGL 3.0+ features, Vulkan backend is also implemented.

It's not the kind of engine you pick if you want to play Doom like in 1993.

[j7n]

Oh I've never been interested in mods, only for the nostalgic value of the game itself. OpenGL looks nice on Windows with anti-aliasing, and modern controls such as strafing and jumping. And it works with modern video cards where Doom95 doesn't.

I see that 4.1.2 already has some funky sound engine that is incompatible with E-MU 0404, and sounds like a constantly firing machine gun. Did they really need 128 sound channels for Doom... lol.

[TrevMUN]

11 hours ago, j7n said:

Did they really need 128 sound channels for Doom... lol.

Maybe not for the original game, but it does come in handy for mods/maps with a lot of action happening at once!

[gerwin]

On 10/17/2021 at 5:09 PM, j7n said:

Do you really need Doom updated to enjoy it?

I agree that GZDoom was already one of the most mature and polished games many years ago. Especially for playing the classic contents.

And as for dated operating systems, I worked on this one in 2014:

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/MBF

And here is another recent one for MS-DOS:

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/FastDoom

Some people from the ZDoom/DRDteam websites contacted me about MBF about a year ago. If their wiki entry was OK to me. No problem.

[UCyborg]

23 hours ago, j7n said:

And it works with modern video cards where Doom95 doesn't.

DxWnd can make it work. They key setting is Renderer set to primary surface in the game's profile (which you have to create) settings on DirectX tab.

There's also a mouse patch which you'd need to make mouse input work since it normally uses VXD driver () for reading mouse movement.

Doom95 is probably mostly interesting for historical reasons for some doomers since it was considered a bit sloppy even when it was new. It was Microsoft's attempt to promote DirectX in Windows 95.

Edited October 18, 2021 by UCyborg
Missing link

[Montana Slim]

There's also LZDoom, which apparently had it's last XP compatible release on github earlier this year... version 3.87c - note the "XP fix" file too.

https://github.com/drfrag666/gzdoom/releases

and

https://github.com/drfrag666/gzdoom/releases/tag/3.87c

Tried the newer versions and get the "not a 32-bit app" dialog.

[j7n]

LZDoom works (without sound) if I patch the subsystem version to 5.1. It doesn't complain about any missing imports. I have no idea how complete it with regards to mods.

Apparently they changed the sound engine from Fmod to OpenAL some time ago since version 3.0 for licensing reasons, which genereated some controversy at that time. Nothing with OpenAL works for me. I have to remove the DLL when playing Euro Truck Simulator.

Edited October 19, 2021 by j7n

[DosFreak]

The below are the highest versions that work on each OS the last time I tested:

DOS
eternity-dos-v33920-7
FastDoom 0.8.7
MBF 2.04

95
Zdoom LE 2.8.1f

98SE-ME
Chocolate Doom 2.3.0
Crispy Doom 3.2
Doom Legacy 1.48.8
PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4
Rude 2.5.0c
ZDoom32 2.8.6

98SE-ME (KernelEX)
chocolate-doom-20210726-win32
crispy-doom-20210725-win32
PrBoom+ 2.5.1.7um
Rude 3.1.0pre
Woof! 6.2.0

2000 (BWC)
Crispy Doom 4.3

2000 (BWC) - XP 32
LZDoom 3.88a 8-8-2021 (change major version)

XP 32bit
chocolate-doom-20211019-win32
crispy-doom-20211019-win32
Doom Retro 4.3 10-15-2021
Eternity-x86-4.03.00-pre-412-g47dcc309 10-18-2021
gzdoom 4.1.3 6-8-2019
PrBoom+ 2.5.1.7um 6-16-2019
Rude 3.1.0pre11 10-31-2020
Woof! 7.0.0 9-27-2021

dsda-doom 0.21.3 8-30-2021

Vista 32bit
gzdoom 4.4.2
k8vavoom 4.1
PrBoom+ 2.6um

Vista 64bit
gzdoom 4.5.0

Edited October 20, 2021 by DosFreak

[DosFreak]

If you are interested in mods try gzdoom  4.1.3 first, if video card not supported then try lzdoom.