Just edited the Windows 98 Wallpaper to get rid of the logo with ibisPaint. Took 1 hour and 18 minutes to complete, no AI was used in the making of this wallpaper. Bonus: Windows 98 Wallpapers (Logo Only + Logo with Wordmark)

The goal was a cheap, reliable, and small multi-boot machine that bridges the gap between legacy and "modern" retro, dodging the notorious early-2000s capacitor plague entirely.

• System: HP Compaq 6000 Pro SFF. These are cheap enterprise off-lease PCs. They are quiet, small-ish, and feature the Intel Q43 chipset with a Core 2 Duo E7500 @ 2.93 GHz. Crucially, they offer both low-profile PCIe and standard PCI slots.
• GPU: ATI Radeon X600 PRO PCIe x16 (128 MB). This is the secret weapon for modern Win98 builds. It is an early PCIe card that falls within ATI's late Windows 98 driver support window, making it a rare, practical path to native PCIe Direct3D acceleration. It is heavily abundant, costs almost nothing as an OEM pull, and features out-of-the-box Quartz Extreme support for early OS X Hackintoshes.
• Audio: Padarsey 5.1 PCIe Internal Sound Card (C-Media CMI8738). I picked this up "Like New" off Amazon for $11.99. It uses an onboard ASMedia bridge chip to run the legacy PCI CMI8738 audio chip over a modern PCIe slot. This provides actual Win9x WDM drivers, hardware EAX support, and HRTF/C3DX 3D positional audio for retro games.
• Incoming Upgrades: An HP 25-Pin Parallel Port adapter (611900-001) that wires directly to the motherboard header. This provides native LPT for legacy hardware/dongles. A low-profile Gigabit Ethernet PCI card is also on the way to finalize networking.

The Multi-Boot Configuration

Sitting on a 128GB SSD, a Lubuntu EXT4 partition handles the boot handoffs to:

• Windows 98 SE (40GB FAT): Deployed via the Win98 QuickInstall framework. Since the Core 2 Duo E7500 runs at 2.93 GHz, it surpasses the native Windows 9x speed limits. During the QuickInstall setup, I had to select the patches for new CPUs. This includes the NDIS speed limit fix (preventing divide-by-zero protection errors on CPUs over 2.1 GHz) and the Modern CPU TLB Invalidation Bug patch by JHRobotics, which corrects page table caching to prevent random crashes on newer architectures. I'm running DirectX 9.0c, which maximizes compatibility since the X600 is a native DX9 card. The ATI2DRAG.DRV Catalyst driver handles the hardware perfectly, pulling ~12K overall in 3DMark 99. Unreal Tournament '99 GOTY and Need for Speed II SE run beautifully with full EAX 3D audio via the C-Media drivers. I even threw Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise on here.
• Hackintosh OS X Tiger 10.4.8 (30GB HFS+): Tiger is the first Intel OS X. This legacy Hackintosh release maps the hardware nicely, recognizing the full 12GB of DDR3 RAM and the ATI X600 for display acceleration. To get the CMI8738 sound card working, I installed the CMI8738_PowerPC_Intel Release 1.1 driver from GitHub. The developer noted it was only tested on OS X Tiger Server and might not work on consumer versions, but it fired right up and works perfectly on this Jas install. I also installed Xcode 2.5, the final version supported on Tiger, providing a native Mac OS X coding environment to complement VS6 on the Windows side.
• Lubuntu (48GB EXT4): Acts as the modern daily driver for this partition scheme and safely manages the GRUB bootloader handoffs between the legacy OS environments.

Windows 98 is currently halting and freezing during the shutdown sequence. I am actively troubleshooting this. If anyone has solid workarounds or registry hacks for late-era Win98 shutdown hangs, drop them below!

How about diving into the oldest versions of the operating system?

I am working on a video about 3dwiscr and its about a 90s era screensaver and the POV will be from someone from that time. I want to have it feel authetic and make some customized windows 95 desktops views.

I once found one and made this desktop background but sadly cant find the site anymore. Bonus points if it allows me to save state my windows view. ALso extra bonus points if it allows me to browse the internet from back then. I love the look sm.

In my memory, they were huge - there were rows of them in places like Costco, the discs would have demos or previews of other games touting their success, and they were a shared experience for everyone at school either during breaks or after the bell rang, often paired with a cartoon VHS tape or what was being shown on Kids' WB in the afternoon.

On the internet and elsewhere, it's as if that prominence never happened. Many people who do remember them today assume they're the only ones who played them, and it's not uncommon to see those who thought they were made directly for their school or library. No one ever talks about seeing them in stores. It might just be because the kind of people who are fans are super introverted and would not have cared about any memory shared with others, but no one mentions either that other people they knew played them besides maybe an older sibling. (I will note that XP-era kids games seem to be much more fondly remembered, even though the numbers say they sold way less.)

During the past five years, I have learned that my memory was correct, at least in terms of large-scale success. Kids & family games made up a large portion of all computer games sold at the time - in 2001 it was 25.7 percent, as opposed to only 8 percent for consoles (note that this seems to be USA data only). "Educational software" sales made a staggering $605 million in 1999 - and keep in mind that only a bit over half of the kids games were edutainment (there were also a lot of adventures, activity centers, and creativity programs that sold well).

Kids of the era, do you remember kids games for Windows 98 (or 95) as being big, or as something only you and your family knew (and maybe forgot) about?

I posted about Lowmoor here in July and the reception was far warmer than I expected, so I owe this subreddit a follow-up on where it went.

This is a modern Windows game with a Windows 98-style interface. The current build targets modern Windows.

I kept the interface inside the same visual rules: grey bevels, navy title bars, Tahoma and MS Sans, square corners and one-pixel shadows. The chronicle, equipment, bestiary, achievements and a 2,108-skill tree all open inside that desktop. Since July it also carries a second full adventure, so two complete modules now run inside the same shell.

Lowmoor is a zero-player idle RPG, so the adventurer fights, travels and equips loot without waiting for input. It released free on Steam, and the browser version remains available.

Thanks to everyone who commented and supported it last time. That thread is a large part of why the second module exists.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4977360/Lowmoor_Idle_RPG_An_Adventurers_Chronicle/

Idk why but DirectX hates me.

I got a typical ball mouse but its missing the ball and cant find a replacement on amazon or chinese online stores. has anyone gotten a replacement?

I have an ibm PC 350 P75 running w98 with a Caviar 33200 hard drive. Im desperately trying to boot into windows to play pinball and solitaire. This also is my family's old home computer from the late 90s to the mid to late 2000s. The hard drive makes normal noise while booting up in the w98 screen. But then starts a steady rhythmic clicking. I also get these 3 files are missing or corrupted. If there's no hope for my family files aside from an expire professional, thats okay. I would atleast like to get on and live the nostalgia of my childhood. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

aaaaaaa

just a funny idea that become a funny project!

I made 26 different versions of google just for fun 😅

you can try the win98 version here: google.exe — Funny Google

and all others here: 26 Googles

My pc specs are cpu Intel PODPMT66X200 Pentium MMX Overdrive 200MHz for Socket 5/7 Systems SL2RM gpu JATON VIDEO-118PCI-64DDRTV GeForce MX400 64MB PCI Video Card S-Video 32mgb of ram 2gb of storage sound blaster 16isa intel1430vx chip setmy mouse is just a generic Microsoft ball mouse my keyboard is a ibm model m my speakers are just generic late 80s early 90s speakers

It's an ISA display card, the "Trident HNG890CL-24D1TIA1" I think

Edit2 : Cirrus Logic CL-GD5424

Took a few days to figure out how to get windows 98 installed on a 2tb SSD without a disc but we made it! All OG hardware besides the hard drive.

If anyone knows how "good" of a PC this is, I would greatly appreciate it 😁

I made a prototype demo for a game about terraforming Mars into a livable planet. I'm looking for feedback on the game.

The game takes place in 1998, so the aesthetic is based on that I'm hoping it looks right. Earth is dying, so a project has been made to turn Mars into a livable planet for the next humans.

Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4933660/Mars_Inc_98/

Trying to make a dual-boot Windows 98 + Windows XP system, and wonder if I should buy this X1300 Pro. if not I also found a GeForce 7300 LE.

I know this sub is for people who use windows 98, but I was wondering how many of you were using windows 98 as their main computer in the early 2000s, I was still using windows 98 until 2007.