Some games start on VirtualBox running Windows 98SE. Why?

[Josey]

Hi all,

I've installed Windows 98SE on VirtualBox following a how-to on the MSFN forum.

It seems to be running very nicely. I tired four games and two of them ("Cluedo: Murder at Blackwell Grange" and "Tomb Raider 2") seem to play well, but the other two ("Plane Crazy" and "Lego Racers 2") installed, but won't even load the opening videos or go to the menu. All that happens is that a black window opens for less than a second, and then closes.

Is there anyway to fix this?

Let me know if you need any more info.

[Kurt_Aust]

The usual reason for games working or not has to do with limitations of the emulated graphics card.

Note that as VirtualBox does not supply Win9x specific video drivers, one has to use workarounds.

I'd suggest looking at the video card requirements listed for those games, also perhaps they'd run better under a Win XP or Win 2K VM for which a proper driver is available.

[mpack]

Presumably, the games that don't work require a feature that the working games don't. For example, a specific graphics mode or API (directx ?). For details or confirmation you'd have to ask whomever wrote the game.

[Josey]

The usual reason for games working or not has to do with limitations of the emulated graphics card.

Note that as VirtualBox does not supply Win9x specific video drivers, one has to use workarounds.

I'd suggest looking at the video card requirements listed for those games, also perhaps they'd run better under a Win XP or Win 2K VM for which a proper driver is available.

I'm using the "SciTech Display Doctor" software. Looking at the video card requirements listed for those games is a good idea. I'll see if that gives me a clue.

So, does VirtualBox have good graphics support for Windows XP (for 3D games)? If so I'll give that a go.

Presumably, the games that don't work require a feature that the working games don't. For example, a specific graphics mode or API (directx ?). For details or confirmation you'd have to ask whomever wrote the game.

Before trying the games I upgraded to DirectX 9.0c. Is there any settings I should try changing?

[mpack]

Before trying the games I upgraded to DirectX 9.0c. Is there any settings I should try changing?

That's kind of pointless, since a Win98 VM has no access to graphics acceleration hardware. Your SciTec driver is basic VESA only, and that's the best you can do with Win98 in VBox. Direct3D drivers installed in Win98 will be software only, and single threaded, and slow.

In fact getting games to run well just isn't a priority in VirtualBox: gamers don't pay for VBox support contracts I guess. So, while it is true that graphics performance will be much better in an XP VM, there are no guarantees that it'll be good enough for what you want.

[Josey]

Thank you. I've decided to try and get a working 98SE PC going to play the games, and just use VirtualBox for using software, which it does very well.