Stuck noob

[BicycleRepairMan]

Ok, ive got Virtualbox running and booted into Win 95. This is because i want to play an antique game called Janes ATF Goold, and it will only run on Win 85.

So i have a VM running sitting at an A: prompt. It has no other drive letters.

I have a dir on my machines E: drive with all the file in for ATFGold, plus an ISO file imge of them.

SO now what do i do? How do i run the file ATF.EXE on e: ? How do i make it see the dir on E: ?

[BillG]

If you are at an A: prompt, you are in DOS, not in Windows. A: is the floppy drive. What exactly have you installed?

[BicycleRepairMan]

ah good point.

on checking the disc image is missing win.exe.

i shall find another disc and return when i have a GUI loaded

[BicycleRepairMan]

Ok i now have a win 98 GUI

a) how do i get it to see the directories on the HDD of the host machine, without pointing it an an ISO file?

b) its stuck in 16 colour 640 x 480, because it cant see a driver for the display adapter, and i dont think there is a win 98 driver for it. How do i get it to work in 256+ colour at higher res? how do i make the viewable area bigger than a postcard, since im viewing it on a monitor running at 2600 x 1960 pixels.

[BillG]

a). The host OS and the guest OS are running on two different machines. Use file and printer sharing, just as you would for two physical machines.

b). The guest does not see the graphics card in the host machine. It has its own emulated card. Normally the Guest Additions look after this for you, but W98 is not a supported OS and there is no GA iso available.

Have you read the tutorial for W95/98 at the top of this forum?

[BicycleRepairMan]

Ok i read the tutorial, a lot of it went over my head.

i downloaded rain on the host machine, how to i get it on the hard drive of the emulated machine?

I have shared a directory on the host machine, but when i click Network Neighbourhood on the guest, it just says 'unable to browse network'. How do i 'see' the shared directory. Both machines are in the same workgroup, and they have the same IP addres and subnet mask.

And i still dont understand what i need to do to make it run in 256 colours.


*edit* more fun and games.

Last night i had the guest connected to the internet, today it wont connect even using the internet connection wizard.............................

[fixedwheel]

i downloaded rain on the host machine, how to i get it on the hard drive of the emulated machine?

burn a CDROM (CD-RW), and later pass the host CDROM drive to the guest, or better: you could "burn" to a ISO file, register the ISO in VBox virtual media mgr. and then attach to the guest. Or put it on USB attached storage ... (W98 could handle USB if i remember correctly)

I have shared a directory on the host machine,

sorry won't work with W95/W98/ME, no guest additions available

[BicycleRepairMan]

Hmm still doesnt get round the problem of the low res display, the game wont play in less than 256 colours. Do i have to install a driver for the actual display adapter, of, if this is a virtual machine, can i use any win 98 super VGA driver such as an Nvidea 5000 series I presume the way to get it in is make an iso and point the machine at the iso as described for Rain ?

what is 'virtual' about this? the software AND the hardware ?


***EDIT***


Ok, im going round in circles here.

I can go into dispaly properties, change teh adapter to SUperVGA, it does the business, but when i select 256 couls 1024x 768 its says its incompatible with the hardware.

So this is just a virtual SOFTWARE machine only ? In which case looks to me like what im trying to do is impossible, because ill never find a WIN 98 driver for this 3 years old adapter and monitor. The game needs 256 colour and 800x600 to run

Is there NO WAY to do this at all (in which case whats the point of the emulator - i can fail to do this on a real Win 98 machine!!!) ?

[fixedwheel]

can i use any win 98 super VGA driver such as an Nvidea 5000

no, wont work

bearwindows driver or SciTech Display Doctor, see Chapter 3. in the W95/W98 forums Howto => http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9918

[BicycleRepairMan]

Bear windows didnt work, in fact it snafu'd it totally.We got into a loop where it wouldnt run with it and i couldnt wind it back, so ive had to delete the machine and start again.


**edit**

The other one snafu's it as well, the machine ends up only booting in safe mode. Ive spent well over 12 hours bolloxing round with it. Ive arrived at the realisation its prolly easier and quicker to find an old win 98 laptop at a car boot or on ebay and play it on that.

We conclude Virtual Box is a pile of doggy poo when it comes to Win 98........................

[fixedwheel]

easier and quicker to find an old win 98 laptop at a car boot or on ebay and play it on that.

yes

i am running linux host and would try with wine (as i just see in the d/l section there is a Windows version too), and for Windows someone suggested dosbox in a dejavu ... http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34738

[amateur_mav]

Or put it on USB attached storage ... (W98 could handle USB if i remember correctly)

FYI: One of the USB flash drives that would work well with W98 was the Lexar JumpDrive - if you had the driver installed. An OEM driver was needed for any flash drive to work in W98. Unfortunately, all support for this has evaporated and you cannot purchase a flash drive today that will work with W98 that I am aware of.

W98 ran good as a VirtualBox guest in my previous two installs but they were slow and useless so I deleted them before I found out about this SciTech video driver.
So I tried to re-install W98 and this time used "setup /p j" from the command line as was suggested here and the install failed.