Hello, everyone. In this Filler, most of you who use 86Box, PCem or VirtualBox, I plan to give an explanation on how you can make the best working Virtual Machine.
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2025 6:11 am
86Box - Windows 3x, Windows 9x & Early Windows NT Series
Starting with 86Box, its a good starting point when making a Windows 98 PC to name an example. There are a few rules to follow though when making a Virtual Machine on 86Box being a Windows 9x OS.
First off is that Virtualization is very complicated to understand but the key rule is to make a low build that you can because if you make a 2003 Windows 9x Build that's fast. Your Host PC will need to allocate more memory to the Virtual Machine otherwise, the Virtual PC will run slowly at a low frame rate that's required for emulation.
A Good Example of a Windows 98 Virtual Machine is a Socket 5 Intel Advanced ZP OverDrive MMX Series 1 that uses a 3DFX Voodoo2. For the FluidSynth, it will require a FatBoy General MIDI Soundfont that's common with ScummVM and DOSBOX Emulation. One thing to note is while Installing Windows 98 Retail on 86Box is to keep an eye on the CPU Framerate Percentage as it gives an estimate on how the Emulation is processing where 90 to 100 gives it a near perfect 60FPS. If its lower than 90-100, that means your current Host PC has limitations that it can handle.
Once Windows 98 Retail along with Voodoo2, you're mostly done when setting up a Windows 98 86Box Virtual Machine.
As for what applications works best with this Windows 98... I find that the Solvers and Seekers Games from The Learning Company work well as a good example.
To explain what a FatBoy FluidSynth is, its sort of a Soundfont for the General MIDI Standard. While similar or different than a Sound Blaster MIDI track for game music, its possible to get better results with any General MIDI Music Synthesizer sort of like the ones found on a digital music keyboard.
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