Running or Virtualizing older operating systems

[Big Phil]

I'm thinking about getting a new desktop replacement laptop to replace my DOS machine, my Windows 98 machine, my XP machine, and my cheap Vista laptop (used for trips and the like), but one of the reasons I still have four machines is gaming. I still play DOS games and older Windows games on the DOS, Win98, and WinXP machines. Can anyone point me to a website, books, or something that would help me understand how I could virtualize older Operating Systems on the new machine to enable me to play older Windows games without using something like DosBox? I figure I'll need to use DOSBox for really old games, but games like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri or Quest for Glory V are new enouch that they could (theoretically) still work, but they don't work on my XP or Vista machines (well, QfG V does, but it's been patched. Quest for Glory anthology will only work on my Win98 machine).

Ideally I'd like to be able to set the machine up so that I can switch to a Win98 window or a WinXP window (I have both operating systems laying around) and play old games without having to do any funky rebooting or patching.

[Bounty]

I quite like Qemu, but it's not for everyone. Virtualbox is probably your best bet when it comes to performance vs usability, but keep in mind that it's still just an approximation of a real PC, and the more modern your virtualized software is, the worse performance will generally be hit.

I've only really used these for operating systems, less so for games.

[Netko]

Why not actually virtualize it with real offerings from either Microsoft or VMWare? I've still got a Win98 virtualized through Virtual PC, and it runs fine for the occasional MechWarrior 2 or Dark Omen game. Now, if you want 3d support, things get a lot more complicated (basically, you have to go for VMWare's commercial products, and its buggy), but for 2d games (or non-accelerated 3d, of course), any proper virtualisation solution works fine.

[Seggybop]

Under Windows, I've had the best experience with Virtualbox. Given that any software that's unable to run normally will be quite old, performance should definitely not be a problem, but I'm not sure about getting things like sound or joysticks to work.

[Bounty]

Why not actually virtualize it with real offerings from either Microsoft or VMWare? I've still got a Win98 virtualized through Virtual PC, and it runs fine for the occasional MechWarrior 2 or Dark Omen game. Now, if you want 3d support, things get a lot more complicated (basically, you have to go for VMWare's commercial products, and its buggy), but for 2d games (or non-accelerated 3d, of course), any proper virtualisation solution works fine.

I have used both VirtualPC and VMWare, and Virtualbox was a lot more pleasant to use than either of them. I'm not really sure why exactly - probably because Virtualbox is pretty liberal in what disc formats it accepts, and because it's got a good UI - but I do know I switched to Virtualbox and never looked back. Well, accept for Qemu, that's better for DOS.

[General Zod]

I'm thinking about getting a new desktop replacement laptop to replace my DOS machine, my Windows 98 machine, my XP machine, and my cheap Vista laptop (used for trips and the like), but one of the reasons I still have four machines is gaming. I still play DOS games and older Windows games on the DOS, Win98, and WinXP machines. Can anyone point me to a website, books, or something that would help me understand how I could virtualize older Operating Systems on the new machine to enable me to play older Windows games without using something like DosBox? I figure I'll need to use DOSBox for really old games, but games like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri or Quest for Glory V are new enouch that they could (theoretically) still work, but they don't work on my XP or Vista machines (well, QfG V does, but it's been patched. Quest for Glory anthology will only work on my Win98 machine).

Ideally I'd like to be able to set the machine up so that I can switch to a Win98 window or a WinXP window (I have both operating systems laying around) and play old games without having to do any funky rebooting or patching.

If you're not averse to Macs, you could get one of the new Macbook Pros and use VMWare or Parallels to run all of those operating systems.

[Bounty]

If you're not averse to Macs, you could get one of the new Macbook Pros and use VMWare or Parallels to run all of those operating systems.

Why would you need a Mac for that?

[General Zod]

If you're not averse to Macs, you could get one of the new Macbook Pros and use VMWare or Parallels to run all of those operating systems.

Why would you need a Mac for that?

As far as I know, they don't offer Parallels or VMWare Fusion for Windows.

[Bounty]

As far as I know, they don't offer Parallels or VMWare Fusion for Windows.

Windows has VMWare, Virtualbox, Qemu and Virtual PC. Which do the exact same thing.

EDIT: Fusion and Parallels are ports of Windows software themselves. So yeah...

[phongn]

VMWare Workstation is by far the best of the Windows virtualization solutions (and also the most expensive, unfortunately). However, for DOS gaming, DOSBox is the best solution.

[Big Phil]

VMWare Workstation is by far the best of the Windows virtualization solutions (and also the most expensive, unfortunately). However, for DOS gaming, DOSBox is the best solution.

Doesn't VMWare cost ~$200 for a license? I think given my needs Virtualbox might be a more cost-effective solution.

[Bounty]

VMWare Workstation is by far the best of the Windows virtualization solutions (and also the most expensive, unfortunately). However, for DOS gaming, DOSBox is the best solution.

Doesn't VMWare cost ~$200 for a license? I think given my needs Virtualbox might be a more cost-effective solution.

VMWare player is free, and there are ways to use other virtualization apps to make compatible virtual machines. But Virtualbox is probably the better option for Windows guest OS'es.