Since I don't see a specific category for this topic, I'm placing it under SOFTWARE. If any mods would like to create a new category for Virtualization talk, then feel free

So I decided to download the latest Sun xVM Virtualbox, it's an interesting app and does some neat things with a more current guest OS like Windows 2000 or later or even a Linux Distro. It includes both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

It does run mighty fast on my new Quad-Core system but of course the lack of any native driver support for your host machine graphics card makes for some interesting 16 color VGA display issues...

If you intend to run an older Windows based OS like 98/98-SE then have a copy of UniVBE or Display Doctor from SciTech Software handy

As a side note, I powered up my old 98-SE box with a Voodoo 5/5500 card and found that there are still some folks out there coding driver packs for these cards, even support Vista x64

There are drivers (Additions) available for most operating systems:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes

With enabled additions you can do things like this:
http://www.virtualbox.org/attachment/wiki/Screenshots/VirtualBox_OSX_beta_3.png

Thanks for the links Philip, but like I mentioned and is mentioned here, using Win98 and/or DOS will not allow any of the Guest Addon's to function

It's an interesting idea to have support like this out of the box and perhaps someday it will come to pass.

It is interesting to see that my old DOS and Win3.11 Diskette's still function with no signs of bit rot yet

Windows 9x isn't ideal for VirtualBox.

Use VPC for Windows 9x.
Second runner up is Vmware for Windows 9x.


Here's the chart I use:

DOS games = DOSBox
DOS/Windows 9x = Virtual PC
Windows 2000+ = Vmware


Vmware and Virtual PC are roughly about the same for 9x compatibility but Virtual PC uses an emulated S3 card which gives it a bit better compatibility for old games than the custom video card emulated in VVmware.


If you do decide to use Virtual PC then you will need to download the Virtual PC 2004 additions because Virtual PC 2007 doesn't come with additions for 9x.

(Vmware comes with 9x additions in a pre2k.iso in the Vmware directory).

Good info Dosfreak, I've read some of your posts over on Vogons too about this very subject.

For the moment I've decided to keep using my real hardware box for older gaming as it has a Voodoo 5/5500 PCI card and there are still folks updating driver packs for it