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Which retro Pentium for Win XP?

I might just be SOL for Windows XP, key I have is OEM wnd tied to Motherboard I wouldn't remember. Anyone have a Retail Version they wish to part with?
 
EverStaR said:
I might just be SOL for Windows XP, key I have is OEM wnd tied to Motherboard I wouldn't remember. Anyone have a Retail Version they wish to part with?
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I always go to archive.org. Take your pick of whatever version you want.
The version I chose last year installed fine but it was only good for 30 days. XP gave an unlock code and then I had to call a toll free Microsoft phone number and enter that code on a touch tone phone, then a few seconds later a new code was given to enter into XP. It was all automated, no talking to humans. I was surprised that phone number and process still worked.
 
There are also anti-registration hacks available (FWIW). You can also try to locate a copy of XPe, which, I believe doesn't require registration. Or you can install a copy of Win2K.

Win7 is a lot tougher.
 
Chuck(G) said:
There are also anti-registration hacks available (FWIW). You can also try to locate a copy of XPe, which, I believe doesn't require registration. Or you can install a copy of Win2K.

Win7 is a lot tougher.
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I have few Win 7 VMs, so good there. I have an XP VM, but I do want to run XP on real hardware again. We will see, I did read about the hacks. I have a lead on something, we will see how it works out. First I need working hardware lol.
 
Torch said:
I always go to archive.org. Take your pick of whatever version you want.
The version I chose last year installed fine but it was only good for 30 days. XP gave an unlock code and then I had to call a toll free Microsoft phone number and enter that code on a touch tone phone, then a few seconds later a new code was given to enter into XP. It was all automated, no talking to humans. I was surprised that phone number and process still worked.
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My guess is that XP is still used in industrial applications which require old software to operate. When the spinning rust inside a controlling machine finally turns to dust, what do we got on our hands? A reinstall of a 23 year old operating system! Now, big, serious corporations can't just download "XP PRO SP3 NO LICENSE FULLY UPDATED 2014" from the pirate bay (or make modifications to the system registry without proper approval), it all has to be done by the book. MS would be in for tons of lawsuits if they didn't keep this one phone number phone activation service, rather, since there are multiple numbers available for different countries where MS operates, active (the online activation works too, if you first get some security updates IIRC).
 
Zare said:
I'm unable to think of a 32-bit windows game I've played a lot and isn't playable on modern Windows PC. Yeah 16-bit is deprecated and you need a machine for that (I have one). 32-bit support is still on high level.
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Sound in Max Payne doesn't work in Vista+ because of a deprecated library, this requires replacing all the sound files to a codec that is usable on modern systems and modifying the game itself. It also requires a fix to a library the game uses for Ryzen 3000+ CPUs, although I can't quite remember the reason for this. Also, a couple of sections in the game have to be repeated for it to trigger the next level sequence.

Let's not even mention GTA here. Those games are a mess.

Edit: retail Half-Life has issues too.
 
JamieDoesStuff said:
Sound in Max Payne doesn't work in Vista+ because of a deprecated library, this requires replacing all the sound files to a codec that is usable on modern systems and modifying the game itself. It also requires a fix to a library the game uses for Ryzen 3000+ CPUs, although I can't quite remember the reason for this. Also, a couple of sections in the game have to be repeated for it to trigger the next level sequence.

Let's not even mention GTA here. Those games are a mess.

Edit: retail Half-Life has issues too.
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Microsoft cannot do anything about that. Why I take this category of ill-compatibility way less serious than deprecation of 16-bit layer is because it's not Microsoft initiated. APIs move on, libraries deprecate.
In my view if you have the option to patch stuff to make it work then it works.

In *nix world it's common to work around the moving target problem when using stable, years old proprietary software on up to date OS.

But yeah I did remember in the meantime a couple of games that I wouldn't bet are moot under 10/11 but I did not get them to work correctly. Even under 7 I think. Starfleet Command games, first two.

When you say GTA is a mess is it a mess 'vanilla' or it's not able to be patched to stability under new Windows at all?
 
Torch said:
I always go to archive.org. Take your pick of whatever version you want.
The version I chose last year installed fine but it was only good for 30 days. XP gave an unlock code and then I had to call a toll free Microsoft phone number and enter that code on a touch tone phone, then a few seconds later a new code was given to enter into XP. It was all automated, no talking to humans. I was surprised that phone number and process still worked.
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What phone number did you use?
 
Torch said:
I don't remember. When you choose to unlock your copy, the Activate Windows by phone screen pops up and it tells you what number to call.
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Just curious. My copy of XP Pro 32/64 is an Enterprise Edition and never needs to be activated. On another note, I just got my W7 gamer up and running, changed out on the mobo and W7 detect that and gave me a watermark and a popup indicating that I didn't have a valid copy. So, while on line I selected Activate and it reactivated instantly.
 
Zare said:
In *nix world it's common to work around the moving target problem when using stable, years old proprietary software on up to date OS.
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How so? Really curious, since whenever I try and run older software (10-15 yrs old) I will always get "cannot find shared lib *.so" or something along those lines, so I always simply install say, an older version of Ubuntu in a VM.
Zare said:
When you say GTA is a mess is it a mess 'vanilla' or it's not able to be patched to stability under new Windows at all?
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Sure they can be stable, if by stable you mean having a 33/66 chance of the game crashing when saving, loading, shooting, starting a mission, ending a mission, entering a car, etc. And that's with patches and the frame limiter turned on. The GTA games really should've been console exclusives: they run like crap on many machines from that time, and we're talking about higher end ones. San Andreas is the most compatible of the three, presumably since it's the newest and the porting developers got their shit somewhat together (still requires some patches though).
 
JamieDoesStuff said:
How so? Really curious, since whenever I try and run older software (10-15 yrs old) I will always get "cannot find shared lib *.so" or something along those lines, so I always simply install say, an older version of Ubuntu in a VM.
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How I handle that on FreeBSD is load a compat- layer for old FreeBSD version, then compile those dependencies in a jail and run software from there.

With linux you have same facilities (docker instead of jail), if you are able to compile old, matching glibc against a current kernel then it's same as above. If you aren't, Linux does not have a convenience like FreeBSD compat- so things will start to get rough but still doable. You can provide wrapper libraries implementing the obsolete API on user side and targeting the current syscalls/kernel interface on the other side, and load them via LD_PRELOAD into the target software transparently.

Truthfully I wouldn't go for loading 10-15 year old package on modern Linux not because of kernel ABI and userspace API problem but because all API problem. Everything used 15 years ago on Linux in a typical big GUI application, is pretty much gone. Even if you manage to compile an ancient GUI toolkit for instance, it won't look good or behave good on current X11, and not to mention moving Linux towards Wayland.

Linux is a faster moving target than Windows.
FreeBSD can still compile the kernel using COMPAT_FREEBSD4 which will be next year quarter of a century old.

P.S. forgot that Linuxlator, the Linux translation layer in FreeBSD is years behind the current Linux and might be a better candidate for running ancient glibc software. https://www.freshports.org/emulators/linux_base-c7/ is the userspace that runs underneath it, therefore 15 year old.

JamieDoesStuff said:
Sure they can be stable, if by stable you mean having a 33/66 chance of the game crashing when saving, loading, shooting, starting a mission, ending a mission, entering a car, etc. And that's with patches and the frame limiter turned on. The GTA games really should've been console exclusives: they run like crap on many machines from that time, and we're talking about higher end ones. San Andreas is the most compatible of the three, presumably since it's the newest and the porting developers got their shit somewhat together (still requires some patches though).
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Yeah that pretty much reeks of unplayable.
Experience that I had in mind was with NFS5, during the years DirectX started being buggy. First in a mid-game track level (Industrial Zone), mid track the game would crash due to texture issues. This was nvidia/DX issue and there were unofficial patches for it that worked for a while, but then libraries moved again and game began crashing even more regularly and earlier than before.

Then nglide support appeared and everything was fixed back to nominal playability.

So GTA's code is shit which makes it a reason to run old computers. Thanks for this info, it's actually a quite popular game which may be the reason why someone does the old but not vintage PC build
 
Alright, XP issue is resolved. I found a really Nice Core DUO machine out there that I will go pickup next weekend. Fresh XP is loaded and activated.
Here are the system specs:
  • Gigabyte G31 motherboard with Intel E8500 Core 2 Duo 3.1GHz CPU
  • 2GB Hynix DDR2 800 RAM
  • BFG Geforce 7900GT 256MB Video Card
  • Sound Blaster Live Sound Card
  • DVD +/- RW drive (the brand may vary)
  • Lexar 256GB SSD (partitioned for both xp and 98) (new)
  • Thermaltake 500W PSU (new)
  • Copper Heat Pipe CPU fan (new)
  • Fractal Mid Tower ATX Case (new)
Now back to the 486 DX/2 Project for a week or so.
 
I have had a reason over the last few days to break out my Windows XP box Dell Dimension E520. While doing so, I could not resist playing a little "Serious Sam", which was about it for me outside of Chess or Card games.

A help link for registration is here not sure how useful it is though.

Funny, I just can't think of an XP machine as being 'retro', is still seems to be in the "obsolete" category....guess I am getting too old (chronological, not maturational).
 
Chuck(G) said:
Shouldn't the topic be "Best Pentium for Gaming on Windows XP?" Not all of us play games.
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When you're dealing with CPUs from that era there really is no difference, unless OP wanted to try and hunt down and exceedingly rare dual xeon workstation board(which even then wouldn't have the performance of a later socket 775). Oh, and no SLI. So even graphics-intensive workstation loads from the era would have used "a gaming PC" for lack of a better term.
 
EverStaR said:
Alright, XP issue is resolved. I found a really Nice Core DUO machine out there that I will go pickup next weekend. Fresh XP is loaded and activated.
Here are the system specs:
  • Gigabyte G31 motherboard with Intel E8500 Core 2 Duo 3.1GHz CPU
  • 2GB Hynix DDR2 800 RAM
  • BFG Geforce 7900GT 256MB Video Card
  • Sound Blaster Live Sound Card
  • DVD +/- RW drive (the brand may vary)
  • Lexar 256GB SSD (partitioned for both xp and 98) (new)
  • Thermaltake 500W PSU (new)
  • Copper Heat Pipe CPU fan (new)
  • Fractal Mid Tower ATX Case (new)
Now back to the 486 DX/2 Project for a week or so.
Click to expand...

Definitely a good all-rounder. I'm curious how its possible to boot 98 on a machine like that. Curious in an "Oh! I gotta try that!" way.

You'll want to upgrade the graphics card to an 8800 when you get the chance. Sadly that motherboard does not appear to support SLI. /sad day
 
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