Pc games to be exact, running in Windows XP sp 2 under VMware Workstation player 12 to be exact.
Which after ..ahem extensive testing:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/anyway_else_seriously_bugged_by_the_skipped_games/post35
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/anyway_else_seriously_bugged_by_the_skipped_games/post36
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/anyway_else_seriously_bugged_by_the_skipped_games/post45
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/anyway_else_seriously_bugged_by_the_skipped_games/post46
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/anyway_else_seriously_bugged_by_the_skipped_games/post50
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/anyway_else_seriously_bugged_by_the_skipped_games/post64
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/anyway_else_seriously_bugged_by_the_skipped_games/post67

came out as the best.
So I decided to use that as the testing platform.

So far I ran,
Morrowind. ( playable )
Midtown Madness 1, ( playabel in softare mode )
Jedi Knight ( playable in software mode )
Sega Rally Revo, ( playable )
Trespasser, ( playable only in software mode)
Beast wars, ( doesnt work )
Street fighter Alpha ( works )
Discworld II ( wont start )
Discworld noir ( wont start )
Blade Runner ( playable )
Nocture ( runs only in software mode )
Colin McRae rally 2 demo ( unplayable )
GTA Vice City ( playable)
Freedom Fighters (crashes)
Mage Knight Apocalypse ( Crashes)
Myst IV ( works )
Syberia 1 (works but the main menu breaks up )
Syberia 2 ( works fine )
Chaos Legion ( works fine )
Vampire Redemption (works fine )
Hellgate London ( doesnt work )
The Sims 2 Base Game Only ( works fine )
Star Wars Kotor 1, Best of PC Edition ( works fine )
Star Wars Kotor 2 (crashes )
Cursed Mountain ( works)
Murder On The Orient Express ( works )
Dreamfall ( DRM interferes )
Undying ( works fine)

All games were tested under Windows XP SP 2.
In a virtual machine with a 40 gig hd,
1.9 gig of ram,
and a 512* mb video card. ( *Upped from 128 mb)

The host pc is an Intel i5 core @ 3.39 ghz,
with 12 gig of ram,
and a 2 gig video card.

Here is what I found.

Morrowind runs just fine in 1024x768.
There is some texture warping around the wrist and ankles, but otherwise it's fine.
Windows xp bsods when I try to go in to a higher resolution.
This may just be the virtual drivers.

Midtown Madness 1 refused to load the game proper under the "hardware" video card.
But was perfectly willing to run in 640x400 in software mode.
Ugly, but playable.

Jedi Knight became trippy with the 3D accelerator activated.
But was perfectly playable with the software mode.

Trespasser only ran in software mode,
at 800x600 and everything turned up high.
Ran fine.
Got eaten by a dino.

sega rally revo runs in hardware mode
and runs just fine amazingly enough in 800x600 might turn the resolution up a bit see what it does

beast wars :
Custom mode, it considers 640x480 as ahem ...high.
Specifically made for 3DFX cards.
Doesn't start up at all.
Doesn't work in software mode either.
This is a 1998 game though, so this may mean nothing at all.
And is most likely due to Windows XP rather then the VM.

Street fighter Alpha

Runs fine.
It has almost zero customization options, but if you get it in window mode it wil take on the native screen resolution of the guest OS.
In this case 1024x768.
It runs fine a bit too fine maybe, I don't recall Alpha being this fast

Next up are:
Oblivion
Colin McRae Rally 04
Colin Mcrae Rally 2005

My earlier testing with VMWare Player was not very good.

First thing was that I think I had issues running games in fullscreen. VMware didn't seem to recognize the game wanting to become fullscreen in a lower resolution than the current host desktop resolution. One workaround was to set the host desktop resolution to something lower.

Of the games I tried, "Gorky 17" (GOG version) ran surprisingly good at least in software mode.

"Wheel of Time" had serious playability issues, mouse aim would become crazy and you'd be staring on the sky all the time if you touched the mouse. Plus, while the game was supposed to run in 3D accelerated mode (Direct3D), for some reason at least trees etc. appeared pixellated, like in software mode. I couldn't tell for sure if it was really running 3D accelerated.

Also I had to use a noCD crack to play the game, its copy protection didn't work for some reason in a virtual machine.

Gothic (GOG version) ran, in something like 0.1 frames per second. Not playable.

I dunno, to me that didn't seem like a good option. Then again, I recall Baldur's Gate or was it Icewind Dale (GOG version) running surprisingly well in WINE, which was running in a virtualized Linux (Ubuntu IIRC), running in VMWare Player in Windows. :)

Discworld II
Does not work.
Not unexpected, nor does it need to work.
It has Scumm VM support.
Just included for completions sake.

Discworld Noir
Also Doesn't work.

Blade Runner
Installs and runs however the mouse initially didn't work at all,
It just moved from left to right in the menu and didn't do anything in the game at all.
Rebooting Windows XP fixed this and the mouse pointer appears in game and in menu and works fine.
Blade Runner is playable

Nocturne
Wont run in 1024x768 or 800x600 in direct x 7 with the "video card".
It allows you to choose what version of direct x you want though.
The game is willing to run in software mode under direct x 6 though.
Nocture also seems to be confused about a swap file bigger then 200 mb well i did some ..ahem extensive testing with my other options
using windows xp midtown madness and morrowind as a baseline
under virtual box and and virtualpc the same things happened
midtown madness refused to see its cd
and morrowind came up with a debugger error

vmware player 12 was the only one to and play morrowind and play midtown madness
so far the results err on the side of postiive with only 3 of the games i threw at it
not working
and two of them i was certain would not work regardless so so far just one misser
thats not a bad average for vmware

i had no issues with resolution vmware was happy to switch the guests resolution with out me fiddling with the host resolution

the fact that i was able to run sega rally revo in vmware was the most surprising of all
because i always thought a game like that was several sizes too big for a virtual machine

Interesting thread. How is the graphics support in general of VMWare Player 12? I used VirtualBox and you need to activate 3d support by running windows in safety mode to install special graphics drivers. Maybe there is something similar for VMWare, that would maybe explain the low FPS in Gothic. About Virtualbox I can't say how well it works, because I switched to Mac and now use Parallels Desktop for hardware virtualization and Crossover (Wine) for my windows stuff. So far it works fine.

on vmware its as simple as ticking the accelerate 3d graphics box and choosing the amount of Vram in a pull down menu
and then installing the vmware additions
and thats it

the game support is a bit uneven some games work great ( sega rally revo works just fine and thats from 2007 )
while nocturne was a chore to get to work
it might be that games that were coded with 3DFX in ind are the more difficult to get to work


speaking of that

Colin McRae Rally 2 demo
Unplayable.
The game installs and loads but depsite the settings, there is lag and the car lurches all over the place.
The graphics look great in a 2000 polygonal manner.
But the game it self is not playable.

Yeah it was some years ago when I tested it, maybe VMWare has become better gaming-vise since then. Or then it was some issue with my PC/videocard/something.

Also. is that version you are using the free version, or some pro version? I used the free VMWare for my tests.

My understanding overall is that if the old game has compatibility issues with your video card, those virtual machines won't necessarily help as they still depend on your host GPU and its capabilities, so it isn't a similar powerful solution as, say, using nGlide in order to get 3Dfx graphics support (instead of broken Direct3D support).

But if there is some issue with Windows version, e.g. the game not liking something about newer Windows or its 64-bitness, then I presume a virtual machine will help (when the guest OS is that older Windows version).

By the way I am currently running Nocture alright 3D accelerated... on my old Windows XP machine. I must remember to play it through soon as long as that PC still works. :) I'm not sure if Nocturne had any 3Dfx support, I think it was only a Direct3D game.

Another oldie I recently installed on my modern Windows 7 laptop is <span class="bold">Forsaken</span>. Using nGlide for 3Dfx support, I got it to work otherwise, but in the options menus the text is missing for some reason, ie. you can't really change any options blindly.

However, there is also a new freeware remake of Forsaken called <span class="bold">ProjectX</span>. It works fine (also the options menu), except that it is missing the intro movies etc. from the original game.

GTA Vice City.
Perfectly playable in 1024x768.
With a controller even.

Freedom Force.
Doesn't work.
I get an incompatible error and then it crashes.
Which is a bit odd considering the fact it's supposed to be compatible with XP.
It was released in 2002 after all, just as XP was gearing up.

Mage Knight Apoclaypse.
Starts up,
but crashes when you choose a hero. im using the free version as well
i have a geforce gt 730
and so far im batting better then average so to speak with vmware player 12 so they must have improved in the interim

i dont have much issues with vmware so far most of the problems seem to come from windows it self
and freedom force throwing a hissyfit about windows xp
which is odd

just for the hell of it though im gonna try if nocturne wants to run on windows 7
after chaos legion
syberia 1 and 2
myst 4
and medal of honor warchest

Ah ok. So the guest pack installs everything for the Player version, no need to take extra steps. Personally I never used VMWare, for my needs on my old windows system VirtualBox was fine. But I read that VMWare Fusion (the paid version) had great performance improvements lately, so it's good to keep a closer look on that.

To add something to the topic, I tried to run Morrowind and Gothic in a WinXP VM on Parallels with 2 GB RAM memory and 256MB of video memory with 3D acceleration activated. The only drivers I installed beside the guest pack was Direct-X 9. With Gothic I had the problem that in coherence mode (only showing the start menu) the screen was black. Switching over to fullscreen mode (showing the full desktop) the game runs fine at any resolution. Morrowind I started directly in fullscreen mode and changed to the highest possible resolution (1600x1200). It worked out of the box without any problem. I'm really not cutting-edge about video cards, but is virtualization pass-through really a big thing for consumer graphic cards today? I know that most processors today support it ((VT-X, VT-D, etc), but for video cards I guessed there are only special solutions like expansive video cards or configrations (https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&amp;t=69732) needed.

Ok just tried Midtown via my VM, game runs with the VMware SVGA II (but the screen stays on the loading screen whilst the game moves, as I can hear engine sounds and people shouting at me)

All I have otherwise is Software which works fine. I'm running XP SP3 fully updated.

thats what it did for me
vmware svga II gave me the loading screen but using the software driver works fine

which is excellent to hear because that means my experiences can be reproduced by others i am personally a bit wary of buying the pro version mostly because i dont really use virtualisation often
i prefer to play my older games on the actual hardware or in scumm VM
but sooner or later that might not be an option anymore so this might be a good option to keep in mind

especially with how well vmware is doing in my admittedly basics testing
but of the 15 games i tried 10 worked just fine which is not half bad

i may update the directx to 9 though
cant hurt to do so

Myst IV.
Or Pyst 4 as i call it.
It works fine absolutely fine.
The opening FMV runs smoothly with no jittering or stutter.
The game play it self is fine to at a resolution of 1024x768.
It's a bit "sluggish", but I never played Pyst 4 before, so it may just be a throw back to the slideshow game play of Pyst and Driven
So the "absolutley fine" is currently caveat emptor.


Syberia 1
Works.
The main menu goes a bit flippy, but the game proper actually works fine.

Syberia 2

Works perfectly fine.

Medal of honor war chest.
Err, I cant test this, my discs are damaged.

Chaos Legion :
Works absolutley Fine

So I tried 19 games.
And only 5 of them failed too work .
2 of which i was certain were going to fail.

So 14 working and playable games, at random from 1995 to 2006.
Better then I expected to be honest.

More to come later ! ( maybe )

VMware is probably the best VM software for Windows, and the free version probably is all most people need unless they have special needs or are more of a gear-head (such as myself <grin>). I've definitely had the best VM experiences using VMware over time. Having said that though, I primarily use VirtualBox on Windows as it's completely free and has unlimited VMs whereas VMware restricts the total number of running VMs in the free version to 2 IIRC.

I've only lightly dabbled with using Vbox for running games however and the results are on the shaky side. Really depends on what OS is in the VM and what specific game it is and whether it is 2D engine based or 3D engine based among other factors. The GPU configuration options in Vbox are rather on the ancient side of things, and it doesn't seem to get much love in terms of feature/functionality enhancements over time at all.

Glad to see someone's giving VMware a run for the money for this.

so far i had the best experience with vmware and windows xp
windows 98 was iffy at best
but windows 98 was iffy on everything except vpc 2007

i might go back later again and install win 98 again on vmware and see how it fares with
discworld II
discworld noir
freedom force
nocture
jedi knight
and beast wars

but that is for later

currently i will try to run the following on vmware
colin mcrae rally 04
colin mcrae rally 2005 ( these two actually work under windows 7 )
midtown madness 2
heavy metall fakk 2
dreamfall
undying
kotor 1 and 2
murder on the orient express
cursed mountain
sims 2
doom 3
dungeon siege 1
vampire redemption
vampire bloodlines
hellgate london
dynasty warriors 6
jade empire
and quake 4

most of these games will just work under windows 7 as is or with a patch
but i might as well give it a go

That is awesome. Not sure why you were doing that, but awesome all the same. :D

My experiences with gaming in a VM have been pretty poor, I usually don't bother as Wine works better 90% of the time.

Nice to see that Midtown Madness works though! That's one of the only games I can't get working properly in Windows 10 or Wine, it's so picky.

Midtown Madness 2.
Works.
But the mouse refuses to work, or do much other then moving from left to right.
The options are accessible via the keyboard.
Works fine, 800x600, in software mode.

Heavy Metal Fakk 2.
Absolutely no problem at all.
Runs in 1024x768.

Dynasty Warriors 6.
Runs more or less.
But it's not playable.
The graphics glitch out and the character doesn't attack.

Jade Empire.
It runs with out a hitch in 1024x768.
Yes, it surprised me too.

Doom 3
It runs at ultra settings in 1024x768 amazingly enough.
The mouse however, doesn't like to cooperate
If you turn mouse look off, the game is perfectly playable.

Dungeon Siege.
There is some artifacting and tearing at the edges.
But the game works fine other wise.

Vampire Bloodlines.
Works fine ( in so far this mess works fine )
There is some glitching.
And some textures load in low res mode, but the game it self runs fine.


it really is
and it refuses to run in anything other then software mode

1 and 2 do work fine on xp on actual hardware