With a machine able to POST it was time to install an operating system. There is not really much of a debate about which one to pick.
I made a mistake when I decided to get the software in the original boxes. The version of Windows 98 was still sealed. And I could not get myself to crack it open. So I did the only logical thing. I bought it again in the OEM version.
Sadly no bootable CD but it came with a boot floppy that automatically configured the CD drive. The installation was as smooth as I remembered it.
I was always amazed by the quality of Microsoft stuff from that era. Back then, you could take the HDD out of an old machine, insert it in a completely different PC, and the thing would boot all the way to a 640x480 desktop. All you had to do was install a few drivers.
Windows 98 came with support for the Matrox Mystique out-of-the-box. I only had to use the drivers that came with the SoundBlaster Live and network card to get them working.
The next thing I wanted to be able to do was transferring files from/to the Quake PC. All I had to do was to enable File Sharing in Windows 98 and check the SMB 1.0 option in Windows 11 Features list.
Once again, I tip my hat to Microsoft for its remarkable focus on backward compatibility. That being said, transfer speed was slower than I anticipated. So I only transferred a single file, ftpserver3pro.zip for Quick ‘n Easy FTP Server Pro. It is a marvel of a stand-alone FTP server with blazing fast transfer speed.
The only weird thing about it is that it is skinned for Windows XP so you get a little bit of a visual mismatch. Overall it is well worth it given how useful it is.
If you don't have a Windows machine available, you can also just run an FTP server and use Internet Explorer to download Quick ‘n Easy FTP Server Pro. Modern browsers have dropped support for FTP but IE4 will have it forever!
The latest version of winrar supporting Windows 98 is wrar311.exe. It allows to decompress anything that was ever compressed (except 7z :/). I also followed the example of LGR[2] and register my version after all these years of free-loading.
The latest version supporting Windows 98 is 5.35_Winamp5.35.exe. Having good music is essential when pulling your hair on driver issues. Amazingly winamp is able to playback audio CD even without the audio cable CD-ROM/soundcard connected or a WDM driver.
To my surprise, I found versions of HWiNFO able to work on Windows 98. However, running HWiNFO3232.exe froze the machine. I also tried cpu-z_1.04-win9x.exe but it also froze! I ended up using the awesome Everest (general, matrox, 3dfx2).
Using PrintScr on Windows 98 doesn't always work well. For example, the splash screen of an application cannot be captured this way. That is where IrfanView shines. Not only it truly capture the state of the screen, it is also a fast image viewer which came handy when I had to view all Quake screenshot formats (PCX, BMP, and TGA).
daemon347.exe: Super useful to mount an iso from a HDD into a virtual CD-ROM drive.
I wanted to study in detail the Quake Shareware CD and its encrypted content. But I wanted to do the work on a more powerful machine. Daemon Tools 3.47 could not generate a CUE from a CD but Alcohol 120% v1.47 was up to the task.
I had zero hope of being able to browse the web. I tried IE and Firefox but nothing worked. Then I found out a hero developer, rn10950, had been maintaining RetroZilla and that one worked well.
A good RetroZilla pairing for a full retro experience was to visit websites archived by theoldnet.com.
Running DOOM and DUKE3D.EXE.
| ^ | [1] | Windows 95 vs 98 |
| ^ | [2] | Registering WinRAR in 2021: How Far Back Does It Work? |
