/vr/ - Retro Games

I like the choice of games. Almost what my own XP desktop would look like back then.

>>8168379
It can look like that now, anon. Come home, to XP.

What graphic cards are you running?

>>8168372
You have a crack for lost vikings? I got mine from an abandonware site but I can't get it to work.
Also do you have any link for that alien invasion game? I believe it's a game I have been searching for for a while and it's no wonder I couldn't get my hands on it with this name.

>>8168372
>1920x1080
>not the original xp theme
>not using desktop shortcuts
>using steam
>virtual machine
>>this is what peak performance looks like.
Dilate

>>8168385
I still have my original PC from 2003 standing next to my current machine. Sometimes I plug it on and do stuff, playing games, watching some funny pictures I saved over the years. Every time I go back to the Station Square in Sonic DX i feel like I actually came home after being absent for a while.

>>8168480
>not having a 1080p monitor in the XP era
>not using Royale Blue or the Zune theme
>not having a clean desktop
>not using STEAM when it was good
don't think you were there bro

>>8168501
steam was never good

>>8168480
>virtual machine
I'm not using a VM this is an original 2001 Sony Vaio and I only use Steam to get gamea I couldn't find anywhere else. Also my system is betyer than desktop shortcuts and the royal noir theme is dope. Fuck you.

>>8168476
just look up lost vikings 2 for dos, pretty sure the one from abandonware works and plays fine on dosbox. the alien game is from this weird sjitty compilation disc i found for a few bucks online called super game collection 10 in 1.

Glad to see my previous XP thread inspired some fucking dork to make this one. Just installed about 10 GOG games on my XP chinkpad. Nice not having to fuck around with no cd patches.

>>8168657
>sjitty compilation disc i found for a few bucks online called super game collection 10 in 1.
yeah now I'm pretty sure that's the one. Please upload on catbox.moe, because there is no way in hell I can find this.

>>8168660
I actually made this exact thread several months ago so it looks like you copied my idea, fag.

>>8168667
give me an email

>>8168480
> original xp theme
You must be stupid to use that when a system has a first party skin engine built in, and lots of external styles are available.

>>8168713
> several months ago
> literally yesterday
'k bitch
Anyway I'm fine with it. We're XP bros. You should switch to classic theme though. It looks super clean. That looks like Integral.

>>8168842
>implying yesterday is the first time I made this thread
Anyway, no, royal noir looks better than classic theme, suck a fart.

>>8168504
BASED

>>8168717
Wot? why?

>>8168835
>mac OS dock
>still have the start bar anyway
Why use XP if you're going to turn it to shit? AND bloat it.

>>8169907
Dock is some external program, style library can't make it appear by itself. It is not the important part of these screenshots at all.

By the way, were there any third party (supposedly commercial) themes that were signed by Microsoft and ran with unpatched uxtheme.dll?

>>8168372
>doesnt use the classic theme
wew

>>8168501
>>8168480
No. Windows Classic is only acceptable theme. I will post my XP setup in a little bit.

>>8170074
This is what a kino retro PC desktop looks like.

>>8168372
I've realized that I'm actually a masochist and I enjoy trying to run games on win10 instead of playing them

>>8168643
I thought steam didnt run anymore on XP

only good XP theme

>>8171340
>only good XP theme
That would be the Windows 2000 Professional look. None of that gimmicky shit.

>>8171330
google "steam windows xp archive.org", theres a specific build you cam use that still works with a bit of fiddling

>>8171389
Can't argue there, but XP set to "classic" looks pretty damn close to Windows 2000 Pro.

>>8171340
I'm a "classic" guy myself but that does look clean. What is it? Extra points for winamp, it really whips the llama's ass.

>>8170238
No real reason to stick with Windows Classic in XP.

>>8172094
classic theme looks way better and is far less obnoxious. the dark look in OP picrel looks better than the default mickey mouse shit but still doesn't beat classic

>>8172094
Even my W10 is debloated to look like Win2k Pro.

>>8172147
screenshots. post em

>>8168372
Everything went to shit after 2001.
Window 98 era was the last good one, very cool and lively, everything after that was grey, washed out, depressing.

>>8172153
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0WyCAZDR0A
Link should be there somewhere. Requires some tinkering.
Even runs faster than standard settings.

>>8172162
This is dope. I will try it out. I have some chinkpads set aside for gaming that are running XP in classic theme. My main laptop dual boots linux and Win 10 for when I need it. Now, when I'm forced to use Win10, at least it can look better.

>>8172087
https://www.deviantart.com/gigatexel-/art/Classix-10k-2-0-5429033

>>8168501
>Zune theme
BROTHER!

How dangerous is it to connect to the net on an XP machine? I've been downloading files from a different machine to transfer over to my XP machine on a USB drive. But, I want to play some direct IP online games. Is it safe or could you get port scanned and h4XX0red by some chink?

>>8173936
Just turn off all unnecessary services that open up a vector to outside connections.

I'm talking about stuff like Remote Access, Remote Desktop, Remote Registry etc. (DON'T turn off Remote Procedure Call, you need this).

Go to Run -> services.msc and disable them

>>8173936
Not very if you have a modern anti virus / firewall installed(a lot still run on XP) and you're no running compromised / infected software.

>>8173936
If your home network is behind the router, there is zero (0) difference to any other system, old and new. You'd spend more time figuring out the correct way to support old versions of network file sharing protocols on modern Windows (while popular desktop Linuxes should “just work” with them). For quick one-way file transfer, just use any simple and free HTTP server to connect to with a web browser. FTP is an option, too, Explorer supports it.

If you connect it directly to a public network, including internet, either disable the unused network services, or remove all firewall rules granting access to their ports. Scan it with nmap from a different computer to make sure nothing was missed.

>>8174497
Oops, I meant “behind the NAT”, not just any router, though it's the same for most home users.

Pretty good, although I'd add Gunbound in there.

>>8174014
>>8174034
>>8174497
Okay sounds good. Thanks for the tips about disabling services and nmap. Hoping to find someone to play some Rainbow Six.

Man this makes me miss the xp days. I hate the only thing that's as customizable these days is Linux.

HOW do you intall XP on a modern computer? I've been trying to dual boot with win 7 for like 3 days now and no luck.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

>>8175829
Upgrade to Win10 already you fucking troglodyte.

>>8175830
>implying

>>8175829
Upgrade to Linux already you fucking troglodyte.

>>8175829
You need a 32 bit computer

>>8175839
>implying

>>8175829
First, check if XP drivers are available for your machine. If your machine is too new, they may not exist. If you find them, download them ahead of time and put them on a USB stick. Probably easiest if you install Win XP first.

Just get an old laptop. You can find one that can run all games up until '06 or so for less than a hundred bucks, probably less than 50. Some guy locally sold me 2 Thinkpads for 50 bucks.

>>8175846
>>8175909
thanks for the advice. Unfortunately I'm broke as shit, so it looks like this'll take longer than expected.

>>8175918
Just sell drugs. It's worth it to play these older games without any bullshit and on an OS that is far superior to Win 10.

>>8175829
If it's recent-ish, it might not work. Check the chipset and other hardware, some are known to work. The goal is to have essential functions working in a compatible way or covered by XP drivers. If integrated video has no drivers, you may use dedicated GPU (from the supported series), but if neither USB controller nor disk controller nor network card work, there's little point in trying to fix it with additional hardware, just use later, supported operating system. XP support officially ended in 2014, so that's when manufacturers could stop caring about it. It was actually worse for notebooks: if a model was intended to come with later Windows version, manufacturers could drop XP support altogether much earlier, and provide no drivers. You can make your life much easier if you use unofficial CD/DVD installation image with integrated drivers and updates. Install from flash drive might or might not work depending on the tools that handle booting like that.

>>8176428

As for actual dual boot, XP installs as if it's a sole operating system, and overwrites the boot sector.

>>8176447
(B00T.INI is a term not accepted by Cloudflare or 4chan? I get connection errors.)

You can edit B00T.INI, but the XP loader would only work with XP and earlier Windows operating systems (try installing *those* on modern hardware, heh). It is easier to partition the drive for two systems, then install XP normally, then install later Windows version and use its bootloader menu to switch systems. Alternatively, you can install XP over existing configuration, then either boot into it and install a third party bootloader (or restore the original boot sector manually if you're leet, then reboot and add XP partition to the boot options list), or boot from flash/CD/floppy that has tools to install/configure the bootloader (any recovery image, including later Windows installation media, IIRC). Read some manuals, there's nothing a teenage couldn't do 15 years ago.

Sharing of NTFS partitions between XP and modern Windows is not recommended, I've seen files become 0 length occasionally.

Note that old IE versions do not support modern TLS, and many web servers disabled compatibility with old TLS versions. Also, system certificates in XP are ancient (unless you use some third party update). That all means that you won't be able to access a lot of HTTPS links in IE and software that uses system network libraries. You need to download last version of Firefox 52 ESR or roytam's XP build of Palemoon, which is more recent, in advance.

The biggest problem is that there is not much benefit from using modern hardware with XP. A lot of software is not compiled with XP support even if 32 bit build is provided. You can use some second hand Core 2 or old Core i series box in essentially the same way, and it would be just as fast and comfortable.

You may not like it, but this is what getting fucking malware looks like because XP is dead and you can get infected just by connecting to the internet and/or browsing the internet without even downloading/running fucking anything.

>>8176457
An international standard of lamer poster.

>>8176457
I used XP for years after support ended with no issues.

i love how people are gung ho to do all kinds of ridiculous fiddling to get their games running on old versions of windows but as soon as you tell them to just use linux you get hit with "b-but what if every little thing doesn't immediately work perfectly?" which i guess is suddenly a dealbreaker when its not windows

Man I love the WinXP and Win98 aesthethics. I wish there was a way to bring them back to Win10 just visually and... audioally?

>>8176536
Not all people believe that WINE has perfect compatibility with everything. Even a full VM — which is an easier option you skipped — doesn't work for everything.

>>8168372
childhood computer is when life peaked. i will never be as happy as i was then. but that's okay. the memories will keep me going till the day i die

>>8176457
First of all, you're wrong. Posts above show how to connect safely. Second, nobody is suggesting to browse the web on XP (it's possible to do safely but still not a good idea for other reasons). We're talking about gaming on XP, you fucking tard. Windows 10 was designed with dumbfucks like you in mind, so enjoy your NSA malware box.

>>8176546
i'm pretty sure everything that works on xp works with wine, especially with shit like dxvk

when the FUCK are we getting a windows XP skin for windows 10/11? i can't look at this postmodern, minimalist UI design anymore. i think it's starting to actually damage my brain

>>8176564
It really is! The damage is noticeable!

>>8176536
The whole point of using Windows XP to play old games is that you don't have to do any fiddly bullshit. It took 10 minutes to go to Lenovo's support site and manually download all the XP drivers for my 10 year old chinkpad and the 20 or so 95/98/XP games I've tested so far all run flawlessly on max settings.

I use Linux too but not for XP games. Wine support has grown leaps and bounds over the last few years and I use it to play Win 10 games (Win 10 is malware and I use it as sparingly as possible) but running 95/98/XP era games on an XP machine can't be beat.

i cant take this anymore i want to go back

>>8175846
>You need a 32 bit computer

To be honest. You don't. Even a intel core2duo/quad CPU or AMD Athalon 64 should run Windowz XP 32bit. There is also a 64bit XP alternative. But it is apparently problematic . But if you do go with a 64bit OS, try Vista 64bit.

>>8175839
>Upgrade to Linux already you fucking troglodyte

Oh man. I first made the jump to Linux in 2007, after using XP from 2001 to 2007. I liked tinkering with Linus, and using it as an alternative. But it was far from ideal. I still had to compile my own wireless drivers, make custom resolution setting in the xorg. Upgrade my video drivers through compiling. Wine was usable back then. But gaming on Linux was pretty limited. I still dual booted XP and continued to use it. Linux is a good alternative in 2021. But 2007? No.

>>8173936
>How dangerous is it to connect to the net on an XP machine?
Like not at all. It's all FUD to make you move on newer OSes, like those faggots harassing you on the phone to sell insurances you don't need.
If anything, XP gets safer to be on as time passes since "hackers" are focusing on breaching what has the most users.

>>8176454
test: b00t.ini
yep it's blocked

>No Soldier of Fortune
Disgusting

>3D Ultra Mini Golf Adventures
not sure if this really counts as retro already but based nonetheless

>>8179243
Awesome game. Wish I had a chance to do multiplayer.

>>8179408
I remember way back when my cousin let me play it on his wonky W98 rig. Thought it was badass that you could shoot off limbs and shit. I replay it every now and then and I still think it's a pretty fucking solid FPS

>>8178416
>But gaming on Linux was pretty limited. I still dual booted XP
I'm still doing this to this day. Though I use more linux than XP but that's because I "work" more than I do anything else. But all the entertainment shit I do on XP.

>>8168372
>Halo
lmao

Windows 98 was better

>>8180974
Hater

>>8181341
I think you meant Windows 2000

>>8179413
>Thought it was badass that you could shoot off limbs
ha, that's exactly what comes to mind when I think about the first time I played that game. Recently, my 11yo nephew played it on my laptop. I shouldn't have let him, but I hadn't played it since it was new and I forgot how violent and gory it is. Anyway, he spent all his ammo in the first level blowing the limbs of of corpses. Felt bad when I had him turn it off after seeing how violent it is, he was having a ton of fun.

>>8171340
That's not the embedded theme.

If new games ran on XP, I would consider building a dedicated living room game machine and put XP on it. I have so much nostalgia for XP and gaming on XP. But I'm too stubborn to build a machine exclusively for games pre-2010. I want a machine that will play everything. But also run XP.

>>8182091
There are a lot of laptops out there that are fully supported for Win XP and also Win 10 and can run many modern games decently. My Thinkpad with HD 4000 integrated graphics has ran all the pre-2010 games I've tried beautifully. HD 4000 graphics have a bad reputation but I've played plenty of modern games on mine just fine, especially with a bit of tuning. You could take one, mount it to the wall behind your TV, and connect it to your TV via HDMI as an external monitor.

What's strange is that I've run the exact same games (GOG copies) on the exact same machine under both Win XP and Win 10 they seem to run noticeably better under XP even though Win 10 is supposedly able to make better use of the more modern hardware resources (e.g., using all 16GB of ram versus the 3.25GB Win XP uses). No idea why it be like it is but it do.

>>8182091
At the end of the day it's just an operating system anon. With enough finagling Windows 10 LCTS can be turned into a decent OS.
>but muh spying
Turn all that shit off. There are good 3rd party programs that make it easier.

>>8183061
>Turn all that shit off
> implying that's possible
lmao

>>8176554
Same

>>8168480
All the cool kids used custom themes. You're cool, right?

>>8168372
>Starcraft
>SNES
>Quake III
Add in Unreal Tournament and we got a true Chad's gaming PC from the early 2000's

>>8168372

>>8183770
>Nero
>Winamp
>mIRC
>ICQ

fuuuuuuuuuuuck

>>8183718
I loved trying out different themes! Windows and winamp

>>8168480
but anon royale blue is gorgeous

>>8183162
You can't turn off Intel Management Engine.
But you're still going to have that problem if you use Linux.

>>8184773
True. IME is a huge problem that doesn't get a lot of attention. I haven't even seen any good justification for it other than to create a backdoor.

When it comes to Win 10 privacy settings, it's a fool's game you can't win. When I first installed Win 10 a few years ago, I spent an entire afternoon meticulously going through and disabling spy features, many of which are not even found in the settings. A few months later, an automatic update added new spy vectors that were enabled by default and without me asking. In other words, even if you can disable all the spying features of Win 10 (you can't), MS can just slip new ones in without your permission. It is SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED to spy on you and no amount of manual configuration will reliably stop it from doing that.

While this isn't XP, but it still gives me that early 2000 feel every day. Plus it can run a lot of games that XP has problems with, like Mechwarrior 3.

>>8184956
> Win 98
Perfectly respectable OS, anon. I still remember upgrading from 95 to 98. For me, 98/2K/XP was the peak of MS Windows.

can you still run XP reasonably or is it left to old shitboxes you find at grandma's yard sale

>>8168504
this, gaben is a faggot and half-life wasn't even good, steam just turned PC gaming into consolefags

>ctrl+f
>"encarta mindmaze
>Phrase not found
?!

>>8185509
Depends on the machine and whether or not you can find Windows XP drivers. So far I've installed XP on a few Thinkpads and a Dell Optiplex desktop. For my newest Thinkpad (my daily driver), there were no XP drivers available. But for everything else there was and both Lenovo and Dell make it pretty easy to snag the drivers you need. For sure you at least want drivers for your GPU, sound, and ethernet/Wifi interfaces for multiplayer.

Dual booting linux and WinXP is pretty easy as long as you install XP first. Haven't tried it yet but I think you can triple boot with Win10 if you enjoy using malware as your OS.

I haven't had much success getting XP running in VirtualBox, it seems they dropped 3D support for XP in recent versions. RATD4.

>>8184956
Why do you have a shortcut for "Show desktop" in your desktop?

>>8185009
It's a leftover from Mafia installation. It asked for a CD2, but didn't let me to alt-tab to desktop to access daemon tools. This shortcut helped to minimize it.

>>8184864
I (purposely) broke the Windows Update of my Win10, so it's forever stuck at Creator's Update (2018). Works fine as it is, and it doesn't reset any settings. Disabled all the telemetry settings etc.

>>8186012
You reminded me that I have one of my mom's old laptops, a Sony Vaio from 2008 that came with Vista pre-installed. Pretty sure it was still a bloated shitbox but also pretty sure it was directly compatible with XP. I should try installing it on the second HDD. Last I tried the machine was at least capable of running Dark Corners of the Earth, so shit like earlier 2000s games should be fine.

>>8184956
>While this isn't XP, but it still gives me that early 2000 feel every day. Plus it can run a lot of games that XP has problems with, like Mechwarrior 3.

Windows 98 is part of the 9X kernel OS's. Windows 98 SE is better than 98, as it improves things like USB 2.0 support and such. Windows ME is the last of the 9X kernel OSes, and was an attempt to port everything from Windows 2000 (NT Kernel) to the 9X kernel. The 9X kernel runs on top of DOS. And can run DOS games directly from a shell via the desktop. Windows NT started as a workstation/ server side. It basically removes DOS from the equation, as DOS could be a security hole. But I knew people back in 1995/ 1996 who would use NT on their own personal PC's over 9X. Windows 2000 was also borderline available to the public.

9X kernel:
> Windows 95 (1995)
> Windows 98 (1998)
> Windows 98 SE (1999)
> Windows ME (2000)

Windows NT kernel:
> Windows NT (3.0 = 1993 - 4.0 = 1996)
> Windows 2000 (1999)
> Windows XP (2001)
> Windows Vista (2006)
> Windows 7 (2009)

>>8187120
My highschool ran NT 4.0 on its computers 99-02. While I love how it looks, its not very useful for gaming.

>>8187162
>My highschool ran NT 4.0 on its computers 99-02.

My high school was still using Windows 95 machines in 2000-ish. Those systems had games like Sim City 2000, or Dino park Tycoon. But people would install shareware/ pirated software on them via the net. I remember downloading a copy of ZSNES and finding SNES ROMS on random GeoCities sites and playing them on the School PC's. One of my friends was blown away that I was playing Super Metroid.

>>8186780
>Sony Vaio from 2008 that came with Vista pre-installed
Since it's 2008 it could probably handle just about any 98/XP era game you throw at it. Just go to the support website and make sure that the drivers for XP are available. Download them onto a USB stick. Install Windows XP (either from a CD or bootable USB). After installing, boot it up and install the drivers from the USB. Restart, and everything should be golden.

I'm not 100% sure which version of XP is the best. There are some modified versions floating around. I tried one of those called "Windows XP Integral" but it was lacking some sound drivers that I couldn't find anywhere else. So, I downloaded a vanilla "pre activated" copy of XP SP3 and it worked perfectly.

>>8187232
The thing that most bothered me about service pack 3 was that it wouldn't let you uninstall internet explorer. I stayed on SP2 for years because of that.

>>8187120
Thank you, but I already knew that. :) I've used Win98 from 1999 to 2001, when my neighbor gave me a CD with a time-limited demo of XP. Loved it so much for it's stability when compared to 98. In three years I have reinstalled 98 so many times that even today I still remember it's serial key perfectly. It's kinda ironic that now I have several retromachines with DOS and 98 and none with XP.

I miss you, Microsoft Sam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLxP3V4veJk

>>8187443

SOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOISOI
https://youtu.be/2Zj7eQ7kzAk?t=79

>>8171241
Me but with Linux. Retro gaming seems to be damn good on a distro and with wine.

>>8188115
I'd love to use linux exclusive but my problem as a linux noob is that very often, when I try to run old windows games with wine, my shit gets all fucked up. I end up with error messages that fail to turn up any solutions in a google search and then give up because of the amount of time it takes to continue troubleshooting. I get that people more experienced with linux might not have that problem but I just am not there yet

>>8168504
Yeah, alright you faggot. I will be honest, I don't like how it was FORCED onto everyone, but I still think Steam is fantastic.

>>8172107
Silver and olive exist?
What?
Anyways I liked what Nintendo did for Windows XP. Winshutters was awesome.

>>8175830
>Windows 10
>Upgrade
Pick one lol

>>8176564
Openshell can help you get there but it leaves a bit to be desired. Still, made my Windows 10 install look pretty close to Windows Vista for a while. That was nice.

>>8171241
Same.
>find old PC games at thrift stores/garage sales
>try my best to make it run, with a widescreen hack if possible
>update/create the pcgamingwiki page
>don't actually play it and uninstall a month later

>>8188845
>update/create the pcgamingwiki page
God's fucking work.

>>8170238
You didn't actually select Windows Classic, you just disabled the themes service. To fix that bloated taskbar you need to set it to classic first THEN disable the service, as everyone should.

>No spore mentioned
baka

>>8189714
>no spore
that's because I play good games.

>>8168385
based

>>8168504
based

>>8190241
I took the OP image like a week ago. I can still get online, use skype, edit photos, email, etc. Runs pretty fast too. 20 years later, still does everything I need a PC to do and parts/accessories are dirt cheap. Unless you care about modern games, therw'a no reason not to use XP. Windows went to shit with vista and never recovered. Win10 is a joke.

>>8190275
Seconded. Although I'm forced to use linux because of website shenanigans.

>>8188845
>update/create the pcgamingwiki page
this Uploading files from your IP range has been blocked due to abuse. [More Info]
4chan Pass users can bypass this block. [Learn More]
but is a chad picture instead
fucking faggots, fucking ultra hemorrhoids captcha for nothing

>>8168480
>virtual machine
I bet you dual-boot like a retard.

>>8168372
Peak performance wasn't widescreen.

>>8181978
That's weird seeing Windows 7 icons in Windows XP.

>>8192957
XP has had widescreen since 2001. maybe youre just kind of a retarded faggot.

>>8190316
>4chan Pass users can bypass this block.
so fucking blatant lmao

>>8192981
Most of the games weren't though. They could be played widescreen but usually shit got stretched out more than your mom or they just didn't look right.