I love the idea of finding a Windows server, and then going: *"I MUST INSTALL WINDOWS 98 AND PLAY GAMES ON IT"* It's like the retro-tech equivalent of "do you have games on your phone?" Apart from that, *great video as always!*
Something I learned long ago - never install Windows directly from CD. Boot to command prompt, format the disk, copy the contents of the Windows install folder to the hard drive, then install from the hard drive.
@@mmuller2402 I have encountered several reasons. One of the reasons is unreliable optical media and unreliable optical drives. You're much better off frontloading the possible risk. Somehow even if nothing else ever fails, the Windows install CD finds a way. The next is that it's plain quicker by many times for some reason, the optical disk handling of the installer is absolutely hideous, and formatting the HD is slower as well than when you do this on a fully equipped system. The other is that the installation hard disk can always be accessed by Windows 9x with fallback INT 13h routines (otherwise you're doomed anyway and have to rethink your installation strategy), but access to optical drive is often temporarily lost during installation. The way the optical drive is accessed on first boot of the installation and on subsequent ones differs. Then after the installation is finished, it always turns out after a few minutes that you need the CD again because the drivers that you install request some Windows component, and it can turn into a headache again because even the CD inserted is sometimes not found because the correct path is not set. But when you installed from hard disk and the installer is still there, the path is correct. As you see we have a special case of KOALA TEA SOFTWARE on our hands. The most rushed, badly slapped together, worst tested subsystem of Windows.
@@mmuller2402 Well i wrote a more elaborate reply previously but the powers that be decided for you not to see it. I'll try to keep it brief. Yes it's a LOT faster, you frontload the risk of file read error, and you work around installer bugs that cause the CD to be temporarily not available during install, and around path issues when installing drivers later. Installer is quite buggy.
This also leaves all the installer files (and the “installed from” directory it knows about) on the hard drive so if you ever add a feature later or need to replace a file, it doesn’t bug you for the install CD. Most OEMs did it this way when building their install image, which left the install files in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs - that is my go-to for the folder I put them in as well.
imagine being a server, built to maintain and store important files by some mega million dollar cooperation, everyone depended on you, just for you to be sold to some weeb and turned into a windows 98 gaming pc lol
Fun fact, there is a patch for Win9X to fix the memory issues. Also, that experience is very normal for that time period. I remember doing these types of things, running unsupported cards and other shenanigans back in the day.
Lol. Even though its been decades now I immediately knew what that line at the top was before you opened it. Good old Sound blaster bloatware. That brought some memories back.
A better install method is to copy the install files from the CD (d:\win98) to the HD (c:\win98) and then run setup from the HD. Since Windows was installed from that folder, it would remember that and use those files in future without even asking you. Just do that copy after your fdisk and you’d be set. I loved the video.
niice! wish my thrift store had retro hardware, or like any computer stuff in general. Best thing i've found was a Windows 7 retail copy for $1.50 (was very happy about it lol)
for older system like Server 2003, you could always burn chntpw onto a cd, boot it and remove the password, leaving everything in the original system intact.
The video chip doesn't actually have _any_ VRAM of its own, it uses main system memory, defaulting to 32 MB. It may be possible in system BIOS to configure more system RAM as VRAM, which may fix Far Cry.
And fun too. I don't know how well the 'AI' was coded in that game, but guerilla warfare in that game felt good. Coming across a group of bad guys in the jungle 😘👌
Bro, I just remembered about one of your videos yesterday, but I couldn’t remember the name of the channel to find it. And today I received a notification about a new video from you Х)
You may need to install a patch for Far Cry if you were using the retail disc version. I had similar problems with the ground textures not rendering on an Athlon XP with a 7800GS and the patch fixed it.
Awesome video. I love seeing older hardware being used again. You might want to try running a memory test like memtest86+ to make sure the RAM is all good. Some of those video artifacts remind me of failing VRAM.
You can use chntpw to reset a Windows account password running off of a Linux livecd / usb drive, if you ever did want to e.g. investigate the Windows Server 2003 setup on this machine.
Also note that any flicker you see from the monitor is not visible when you are in front of the monitor. It only shows on cameras. It is just a thing that CRTs did that shows up on cameras.
Far Cry later required 128MB of video RAM after a certain patch iirc, up from the 64MB that the box says and it also required Shader Model 3.0 support at hardware level.
I'm defenetely not going to get some old server with loud af fan to play quake on it, but just out of curiosity, have you tried putting on some headphones and did it help to muffle the fan? Also, haaai Astolfo minifigure, hai, haaai, nice to see you :3
hey loved the video a thing that has been killing me is where you go the theme for your pc if you could tell me where you got it i would be really happy ‼
You would have had an easier time if you'd copied the setup files to the hard drive to begin with and then ran Windows setup from there. It's an old trick OEMs did back in the day that slowly became more and more necessary as time went on and hardware of the time started to exhibit some strange behavior in DOS.
Actually, In my experiance Windows 98SE will boot and run fine on 1GB RAM. One of my "Retroboxes" running 98SE is a Pentium III (Talautin, 1.2GHz @ 1.4GHz), 1GB PC133 SDRAM, 60GB IDE SSD, 3DFx Voodoo2 24MB SLI, is running Windows 98SE perfectly. (With the modern USB patch)
Ha, I have a Dell laptop with similar hardware specs, that Pentium M is very clock/watt efficient for it's time and it's IPC is pretty decent. It would easily play back 720P H264 video.
I have 98 on an SBC but I paired it with quite a few other gaming-specific expansions. It lives inside a full-tower case because that was the only thing with enough slots for the backplane I was using (and even then it had to be modded for the case standoff holes). It was an expensive project but I was happy I did it.
@@Ionic1k Well then it wasn't a hacker's machine then, because we always set the password to password. We loathe paranoid security keeping us from doing our bloody job and when we have to come in an fix things. Anyone that puts a password on the bathroom gets a coffee cup through the face. Yes, I know, anybody in the world could just walk in off the street and steal the toilet. And no, I don't care. Keep bloody passwords off everything. You don't need one on your garden house even if anybody could walk up and turn it on and leave it running and cost you a fortune...
@@Ionic1k thats what im doing too lol. Idk which one to pick. I like the windowmaker aesthetic, but i feel it lacks in customizability. especially with keybindings. I come from using sway a lot so I want to be able to access everything via shortcut
@@ttj_ for me at least, ive been getting away with using plugins for certain things on windowmaker, but ive had some issues with multi-monitor support.
