compile v9 to run on win98

[dondiego]

Wenas, i forgot i registered here.
I'd like to compile PCEM v9 to run on win98. Is it possible with MSYS? And what packages would i need? Thanks in advance.

[ruben_balea]

It won't run on Windows 98 because it was coded for newer operating systems (XP and later) with more functions in the kernel, user interface and so on.

[GeoffreyMcJefferson]

What's the point of running PCEM on Windows 98 anyway? You usually emulate the 98 Machine with PCEM.

[Arjen42]

Yes, of course if you already have Windows 98, you probable won't need to run an emulator that can run Windows 98. But maybe dondiego has special needs to do so.

I tried running the Windows binary of PCem v9 on Windows 98 SE. After renaming some dll's (guess something went wrong during extracting) and installing DirectX 9 distribution 2006-12. It complained about not finding the function GetRawInputData() in user32.dll. According to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... winputdata. This function is only supported on Windows XP and newer. So no, the PCem v9 build for Windows won't work on Windows 98.

In PCem v9 is called from win.c and in PCem v17 the calls have been moved to wx-sdl2-display-win.c. This file has _WIN32_WINNT set to 0x0501. Another hint that Windows XP or newer is required.

Maybe dondiego thought by compiling PCem as a non Windows program he could avoid the Windows XP or better requirement. Still I wonder why he choose version 9.

[ruben_balea]

Perhaps he just wants to play DOS games on some old computer too fast for these DOS games but not compatible with Windows XP or later, anyway I hope this helps anyone who needs to use an emulator on windows 9x for whatever reason:

To play old DOS games under Windows 9x DOSBox would be the best option. Using quite a few command line parameters (or specifying them in a configuration file) it can mount and boot from floppy and hard disk images, and it can also access CD-ROM images.
For supported games the latest version of SCUMMVM and the latest version of ResidualVM are also still compatible with Windows 9x.

With DOSBox for many DOS games it is usually enough to drag and drop the game folder over the DOSBox executable and it will mount it automatically as the drive c, then the game is started by typing the name of the executable exactly as it was done in MS-DOS. Some games require booting from a floppy or hard drive, using a CD-ROM or any other advanced configurations, but I'm not an expert in DOSBox and this is not a DOSBox forum so I'm not going to explain here how to do that, there are lots of guides online, both in general and specific to a particular video game.
Under SCUMMVM and ResidualVM you have select the folder with the game files, then each game will be permanently added to the list of games and you can play it from there and also customize some settings like a custom folder for saved games, sound and video settings, etc.

Windows 95 may require the WinSock 2.0 update to be installed.

[unreal9010]

Most DOS games should work just fine under Windows 95/98, provided there is enough free conventional memory available and no obscure PCI sound card is involved. A UniVBE-compatible video card is highly recommended too.

[ruben_balea]

Yeah but some have serious graphics issues (Digger by Windmill Software) and others run too fast (Eternam by Infogrames) or have the Borland (Turbo) Pascal runtime error 200 on faster CPUs (Jazz Jackrabbit) although for this last bug there is a patch but I remember that cannot be applied to all the executables, I think that due to the protection against modifications (encryption or propietary compression) included in some of them.

[unreal9010]

Yes, some have graphics/sound issues (regardless of what hardware is used) or keep displaying the runtime error, divide error or work way too fast. Particularly difficult to work under Windows9x are Pinball Dreams/Fantasies. I don't recall anybody getting these to work under Windows 9x environment. No less problematic are some versions of Street Fighter 2. Programs such as Mo'slo might be of help to the games with slowdown issues.
Some graphics cards from the late 1990s also have difficulties with pre-VGA graphics modes such as EGA/CGA. Oddly, I don't recall my Voodoo 3 ever having problems with these, yet it did have issues with Toonstruck (where the highest available resolution was 320x240) and Constructor that did not work at all due to not being able to utilize the linear frame buffer. This also happens under PCem. It was of course expected since Voodoo 3 and Voodoo Banshee are not UniVBE compatible.

[leilei]

Well....

1. GCC 4.7.2 (which produces Win95 compatible binaries) can compile up to V17. The dependencies after V12 (Wx and SDL2) will hate Windows 98 though
2. KernelEx can run V12 somewhat

pcemme.png (14.18 KiB) Viewed 5222 times

3. While this high-end W9X computer is demonstrating PCem, running certain games natively with this particular video hardware combination is a disaster, like Commander Keen 4. The PowerVR card here just shakes it up (harder than any other GPU that shakes it), so there's some practical application of having emulation of a computer on a Win9x system. especially as PCI sound sucks and turn-of-the-millennium video hardware's dos video support isn't guaranteed.

(should pcem gain neon250/kyro emulation in the extremely far future it is imperitave that keen should shake there too)

[dondiego]

Yeah i noticed v9 could not run on 98 due to raw input requiring XP. I want to run DOS games in an emulator, perhaps it's better to use DOSBox as those old PCem versions had many bugs. Seems V9 is doable without raw input though. I could just install XP instead, most windows 9x games ran on XP and i could use ACT for those that were problematic. I want to use an emulator due to speed problems and mainly DOS sound not working. It's an Athlon64 3000+ on a K8M890 board. I think v14 should run on XP, i want to set a 386sx machine may be even a 286.

[wishusknight]

Sometimes people want to do things just so they can see if they can be done. Like porting UAE to AmigaOS 3.1.... Completely pointless, but its done just so one can say they did it.