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Nooo! A switcher of the bad kind! ;-(

Josias

Josias

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 10, 2006
1,908
1
Well, my bigbrother got his first Mac 2.5 years ago. A 1.07 GHz 14" iBook G4 with 256 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD and AirPort running Panther. Though it may be a while before he gets a new computer, he considered switching back to Windows. Don't mistake him, he loves Mac OS X and Apple, and was the man who made me switch.:D , but he loves playing games - mostly old games. He has a lot of old windows games, and though he is aware that Intel Macs can run Windows natively, he is insecure about the stability about BootCamp and Windows running on Macs. I am aware about the fact that Microsoft used a MacBook Pro to demo Vista, but I gotta ask you, how can I further convince him about the stability of BC. He wants to "triple-boot" with both Mac OS X,
Windows XP and '98. Can he dual boot with an XP machine, so he gets both XP and '98. The reason he wants '98 is hames like GTA2 and older games that don't run in XP. Believe me, he is not stupid, and knows alot about computers, but I don't know why he wanna switch, and that would really sock, so if you could give me advice on making him stick with Mac, thanks a lot.:)
 
98 would work best in Parrellells I'm sure that would be able to handle w98 games, though I have certainly played GTA2 on XP and it ran fine.

You need to remember that an intel mac with boot-camp is exactly like running windows on a normal PC. (Except you loose some functionality eg the webcam, bluetooth, but those aren't needed for gaming)
 
IMHO if he really wants to run 98 he should pick up a cheap older PC or similar vintage to the games he wants to run. And run XP and OS X on an intel Mac.

98 generally won't run well on modern hardware since it doesn't support a lot of the newfangled hardware USB2.0, etc... and drivers aren't always available for the hardware you've got. By the time you're done, you might as well be running it on Parallels since you don't have accelerated video, etc...

B
 
balamw said:
IMHO if he really wants to run 98 he should pick up a cheap older PC or similar vintage to the games he wants to run. And run XP and OS X on an intel Mac.

98 generally won't run well on modern hardware since it doesn't support a lot of the newfangled hardware USB2.0, etc... and drivers aren't always available for the hardware you've got. By the time you're done, you might as well be running it on Parallels since you don't have accelerated video, etc...

B
Click to expand...

Anything made after 2003 hardware wise is not goign to have drivers for it because that was when everyone drop supporting all the Win 9.x line.
 
Josias said:
Well, my bigbrother got his first Mac 2.5 years ago. A 1.07 GHz 14" iBook G4 with 256 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD and AirPort running Panther. Though it may be a while before he gets a new computer, he considered switching back to Windows. Don't mistake him, he loves Mac OS X and Apple, and was the man who made me switch.:D , but he loves playing games - mostly old games. He has a lot of old windows games, and though he is aware that Intel Macs can run Windows natively, he is insecure about the stability about BootCamp and Windows running on Macs. I am aware about the fact that Microsoft used a MacBook Pro to demo Vista, but I gotta ask you, how can I further convince him about the stability of BC. He wants to "triple-boot" with both Mac OS X,
Windows XP and '98. Can he dual boot with an XP machine, so he gets both XP and '98. The reason he wants '98 is hames like GTA2 and older games that don't run in XP. Believe me, he is not stupid, and knows alot about computers, but I don't know why he wanna switch, and that would really sock, so if you could give me advice on making him stick with Mac, thanks a lot.:)
Click to expand...

Actually, you can play GTA2 on XP instead of 98'. I remembered somewhere where you can set the game to play in 98' mode instead of XP mode. Do you know what I mean? I installed this game, Total Annihilation, and it didn't work on XP so I had to change the mode to 98 and it work just fine but the sound is creepy though.
 
Josias said:
Well, my bigbrother got his first Mac 2.5 years ago. A 1.07 GHz 14" iBook G4 with 256 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD and AirPort running Panther. Though it may be a while before he gets a new computer, he considered switching back to Windows. Don't mistake him, he loves Mac OS X and Apple, and was the man who made me switch.:D , but he loves playing games - mostly old games. He has a lot of old windows games, and though he is aware that Intel Macs can run Windows natively, he is insecure about the stability about BootCamp and Windows running on Macs. I am aware about the fact that Microsoft used a MacBook Pro to demo Vista, but I gotta ask you, how can I further convince him about the stability of BC. He wants to "triple-boot" with both Mac OS X,
Windows XP and '98. Can he dual boot with an XP machine, so he gets both XP and '98. The reason he wants '98 is hames like GTA2 and older games that don't run in XP. Believe me, he is not stupid, and knows alot about computers, but I don't know why he wanna switch, and that would really sock, so if you could give me advice on making him stick with Mac, thanks a lot.:)
Click to expand...

First off, stress to him that everything is the same hardware. Second off, stress to him that Boot Camp is merely used at the very beginning to get XP to run in EFI by emulating BIOS. It sounds like your brother is under the impression that Boot Camp is an emulator, which it isn't. Also, running older games can be done in XP by enabling compatibility.

All he has to do is install the game, then on the icon on the desktop right click, go to properties, click on the tab for compatibility, and under compatibility mode select Run thsi program in compatibility mode for Windows 98. ;)
 
get an old compaq or something to run 98' on. running 98' on a macbook is not a good idea and will most likely bring your system to a crawl.
 
supremedesigner said:
Actually, you can play GTA2 on XP instead of 98'. I remembered somewhere where you can set the game to play in 98' mode instead of XP mode. Do you know what I mean? I installed this game, Total Annihilation, and it didn't work on XP so I had to change the mode to 98 and it work just fine but the sound is creepy though.
Click to expand...
You're right.

To the OP, tell him to right click on the .exe file for the game, switch to the "compatibility" tab, check Run This Program in Compatibility mode, and select Win 98.
 
benthewraith said:
Second off, stress to him that Boot Camp is merely used at the very beginning to get XP to run in EFI by emulating BIOS.
Click to expand...

Bootcamp does not do the emulating. EFI has compatibility mode, which was disabled until they released a firmware update that happened to come out at the same time. All Bootcamp does is give you the drivers and change the partitioning. You can install windows without bootcamp if you wanted.
 
A Macbook should work just fine for him. He will have ways of playing all his Win98 games with either:

- Win98 compatibility mode in WinXP (as described by the others)
- Win98 in Parallels in OS X
- Win98 in vmware in WinXP

The next version of vmware is even rumoured to have reasonable 3D acceleration, but it's not like he's going to need that for games that only run on Win98, anyway.
 
Allright, so I got the '98 part, that the games will work in XP (he'll find out, there's just no Windows in his house. Last time he touched a Windows was a year ago).

I just gotta ask, since BottCamp is still a Beta, is it reliable. It says it is not Covered by Warranty or AppleCare.:eek: Is there any chance it will crack up? Has such a thing happened before. Don't worry about my brother, he can install it correctly and stuff, but he is doubting the reliabilty of BootCamp. Tell me, is it stable, is it secure?

BTW, that "sock" remark, it was merely not to turn it into four tiny stars, like so: ****.:D
 
Josias said:
I just gotta ask, since BottCamp is still a Beta, is it reliable. It says it is not Covered by Warranty or AppleCare.:eek: Is there any chance it will crack up? Has such a thing happened before. Don't worry about my brother, he can install it correctly and stuff, but he is doubting the reliabilty of BootCamp. Tell me, is it stable, is it secure?
Click to expand...
Just because it is a Beta does not mean it has problems. From what I have heard is that it is fine.(remember it does not run within windows so once its done its job you don't need it again) There has been a few people that have had problems but they are the minority. I think the Macbook is still his best option.(other then getting a old PC from ebay)
 
trainguy77 said:
Just because it is a Beta does not mean it has problems. From what I have heard is that it is fine.(remember it does not run within windows so once its done its job you don't need it again) There has been a few people that have had problems but they are the minority. I think the Macbook is still his best option.(other then getting a old PC from ebay)
Click to expand...

Ok, I think a 1.83 GHz MB with 1 GB RAM will be fine for him. He won't need 2 GB RAM, since the most graphically advanced game he's playing is Prosche 2000:p , and since he's doing fine with a 40 GB harddrive now, he should be fine with the basic 60 GB.;) BootCamp is free, and he already has a XP Professional SP1. Will SP1 work in BC? Or is it fine?:confused: :D
 
Palad1 said:
old games as in.. DOS games? Check out DosBox :)
Click to expand...

We had that on our 1 GHz Windows Box, worked fine. But my question is now, will XP Service Pack 1 work in Boot Camp? We don't want to buy (*cough* torrent *cough*) another version of Windows XP...:D
 
Josias said:
We had that on our 1 GHz Windows Box, worked fine. But my question is now, will XP Service Pack 1 work in Boot Camp? We don't want to buy (*cough* torrent *cough*) another version of Windows XP...:D
Click to expand...

IIRC Windows XP SP1 doesn't have drivers for SATA drives and some other things required for installation.
And the Apple drivers are for Windows XP SP2, and you need those to work most of the hardware.
 
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