game- Lose your Marbles

Windows 95 plus had a game called Lose your Marbles. I believe it will run on win 98 SE, has anyone tried it?

jaycee

 

Hi,
Since it is in the Win 95 Plus pack you will need to read the licensing information that will be in .txt or .doc files on the CD.

It is included in the Win 98 Plus pack:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/usingwindows/fun/articles/811Nov/funfoundation5e.asp

You can get a demo here:
http://www.download.com/sort/3150-2111_4-0-7-4.html
which is probably the Sega/Segasoft release.
Time-limited trial:
http://www.softlookup.com/display.asp?id=17120 (sorry, lots of pop-ups)

Information:
http://www.gamezilla.com/review.aspx?review=7551

Matt

 

I love that game. It's a great time waster if I want something more graphically pretty than solitare! (Although they fancied that one up in the Vista Beta's.)

I saved the Plus! folder when I had Microsoft Plus!98 installed on 98SE. Well, I always install it when I use 98, but these days I only have an XP and a Vista partition.

I usually make a Plus! folder in XP's Program Files and copy the Themes and that Marbles folder to it. I also saved the few screensavers that work (the animated ones like Garfield) on XP and put them into the System32 folder. Then I make a shortcut to the Marbles.exe file in the Start Menu and it plays perfect on XP! It's one of those programs that don't need the registry entries.

Also cool is my "Original Desktop" theme that happened to be one of the Themes I saved. Apply that in Display Properties and I'm looking at that old fashioned 98 green desktop that is even more old fashioned than the Windows 2000 desktop you get when just using the Classic theme that XP comes with. I get the old icons and everything. I don't keep it there, but it's nice for a little nostalgia.

 

Thanks everyone, I will certainly be trying those Links and as I still have plus CD (Ithink) I will try to install on XP Good to find people who know and love the game.

jaycee

 

The cd won't install on XP. You need a 98 system. Install it to that, then copy the Plus! folder to a cdr. You may want to also copy the .bmp files in the Windows folder and the wallpapers in the Windows\Web\Wallpaper folder to the cdr as well. May help some of the Themes run.

Don't install the Themes.exe into XP either. Just use Display Properties. It'll pick up the Themes in the Program Files\Plus\Themes folder even though it's not the default Theme folder in XP.

 

I have dual boot Win xp and win 98 but not 98SE

Am I right in thinking it will only run/install in SE

jaycee

 

No that's not right. It was released along with Windows 98 and works with either 98 Gold or 98SE.

So, you've got what you need.

By the way (I keep forgetting to tell you stuff), if you copy over the bitmap wallpapers from 98's Windows folder don't include Plus.bmp. That's just the current theme's wallpaper and that'll mess up XP's Theme Manager when it tries to apply your selected theme's wallpaper. It won't be able to change it. It'll create its own Plus.bmp when you apply a theme the first time.

Anyway, you'll be able to play Lose Your Marbles without going and downloading anything! If you want you can just install Plus!98 on 98 and just play it there. No muss, no fuss.

I've never found the full version of that. It's supposed to enable more multi player features and have more screens. Apparently SegaSoft sold all copies of that before I got interested. But the one in the Plus program is good enough. No time limits, so play it forever!

 

Thanks you guys for all your help. I now have to find my Plus programme.Spent an hour looking for it, I know for certain that I have it, but where!!

jaycee

 

Hi Eck

Just one more thing, I know my version is neither WIN ME nor SE does that mean it must be the gold version that I have?

I do have a CD for Win SE but I can't install it over the top of my existing Win 98 maybe something todo with having dual boot

 

Yep, the released version of Windows 98 was called Windows 98 Gold. So you've got Windows 98 1st Edition there.

You're cd of Windows 98 Second Edition CAN be used to upgrade, just not officially. First you need to uninstall Internet Explorer from Add/Remove Programs so the version on the cd will install correctly.

You need to startup from a Windows 98 Startup floppy (make one from Add/Remove Programs). Delete the win.com file in C:\Windows (or C:\Windows\System - I forget). Then you can just type the letter of your cd drive to access it (usually E: if you've just got one hard drive). Then just type the command setup and it will start. Since setup will detect a C:\Windows folder, it will by default want to install to a new folder like C:\windows001. Don't let it do that. Change it to C:\WINDOWS. That's assuming that is where you have the Windows folder now. The point is to install it over your current Windows folder so it will upgrade all the files but still allow your installed programs to work. If you had let it install to a different folder, you'd be messed up.

When setup is finished you will need to install your favorite version of Internet Explorer (the latest available is IE6 SP1). Then I'd recommend reinstalling your motherboard chipset drivers (AGP, etc) over themselves even if Windows setup seemed to install them fine. Reinstall the latest Direct X and Windows Media Player 9. I'd also uninstall your videocard driver and reinstall it or at least reinstall the latest version over the top if you're not comfortable with the process of fully removing drivers (using DriverCleaner and such). I'd do a repair install of any Microsoft Office installations you may have. Then do all the Windows updates (Like the Unofficial 98SE Service Pack, etc).

This procedure usually works fine. Of course the cleanest way is to start from scratch with a formatted hard drive and your 98SE cd, but then you'd need to reinstall all your programs. And, if you bought your PC retail (not building it yourself) you would have the problem of losing whatever programs the computer manufacturer preinstalled. They might not install from any cd's they gave you if you change (upgrade) the original operating system, so you'd lose them. Doing the upgrade this way you get to keep all the stuff that's on your hard drive working.

Make sure to back up any of your personal files first. The procedure can potentially mess up. Then you would need to format and start from scratch, and I'm sure you'd be happier if you had backed up first!

Edit - Oh! If you're currently dual-booting with XP, when done you'll notice you no longer have the XP boot loader when you start your computer. The partition is still there and this won't touch your XP, but how do you get that back?

Just start up with your XP cd. When asked, press R to get to the Recovery Console (to repair a current Windows Installation). This is the first R! Not the one in Windows Setup. Don't choose to setup Windows on your computer now! Just get to the Recovery Console. I've never done this myself for something like this, but I believe you need to type FIXBOOT. I think that'll be enough, but if not you may need to type FIXMBR, then FIXBOOT. Try just FIXBOOT first. A little unclear here because I'm not certain. You may want to browse around a bit first searching for this procedure before you do anything. I think FIXMBR might be dangerous for your 98 installation. If you wind up being too unsure about this, instead of repairing the boot menu this way, just run XP's Setup from the cd and choose a repair install to the same partition and Windows folder you have XP installed to now. XP will detect the 98 install and setup its boot menu again. Then you need to do the chipset, AGP, Video driver, Windows Update stuff like I told you above, as XP will put back its original files.

 

Thanks for the detailed instructions, I may just give it a go. I bought the PC with bare drive and no OS but I have never installed chipset drivers before, sounds a bit scary, although I do have motherboard CD. Wish I could just format C: and install SE without messing up XP.

jaycee

 

Well when you bought your PC with no OS you must have installed 98 and XP on it, yes?

So you're not as inexperienced as you think. And you certainly can format the 98 partition and install it fresh if you want to! After all, since you didn't get a pre-loaded system you must have installed all your software as well.

As long as you still have the installation cd's and downloads of the setup files for your software there's no problem backing up your personal files to a cdr or dvdr and setting up 98 fresh however you want to.

This usually doesn't mess up anything in the other partition with XP on it, with the exception of the boot loader. Like I said, all you need to do there is boot from the XP cd and run a repair install into the XP partition. Note that this is not an upgrade install, but a repair. If you're currently using the XP boot loader this will restore that (so you can choose your OS at bootup).

This hastle with the other partition is why I've always preferred using Partition Magic and Boot Magic rather than the official processes. They keep it all seperate so changing stuff on one won't affect the other. But it really is just a bit more work. I would say to try that FIXBOOT thing, but I'm not certain the effect it would have and it's really safer to do an XP repair install to get its boot manager back.

The other steps I mentioned regarding uninstalling Internet Explorer in 98 can be ignored since you'll start that with a formatted hard drive. Just wipe and install!

Chipset drivers aren't an absolute necessity with XP as it comes with many natively, but you will need to install them into your new 98 installation. The motherboard cd is the easy way, but most of those are real old by now. You really should go to both your motherboard manufacturer and chipset manufacturer's websites and download a newer version. Same with video and audio card drivers.

If your XP cd isn't Service Pack 2, I highly recommend unpluging your cable from the ethernet card before fresh installing. SP2 will not be there after the repair install and that included important patches. Get SP2 installed and the firewall going, and then connect to Windows Update and get the rest of them. Even though you may have Automatic Updates on, make Windows Update your first stop on the net and have it do its thing.

It's a good idea to set your virus scanner to not run at startup (disabled) before doing the XP repair install. You'll be off the net so you'll be safe. Don't forget to reenable it once your online and set it to load on startup.

If you browse around the forums here you'll learn a lot about these processes. Another good forum, expecially regarding Windows 98 type stuff is msfn.org. A good website to get all kinds of stuff is mdgx.com. I think the 5% of computer users who still are running Windows 9x systems use those 2 websites as a second home.

Have fun with it. It's not a quick process and it can get annoying, even if you've setup systems a lot.

 

Hi Eck Yes I did install everything from scratch. Used Sys fils, Fdisk with Paramaters, and I may or may not have used a small disk management utility off the Net. To do it again I would certainly have to brush up but still have my notes somewhere.

I once tried to reformat C: using Drive Manager in XP but the command was greyed out. A couple of people more knowledgeable than myself said that it could mess things up. but they didnt seem to know why or how.

1) Should I make a startup disk in 98 & XP and what, if any, extra files would I need.
2) Where would I get the Format command from, I also tried using Dos.
If I disappear for a while you'll know things have gone 'Pear Shaped'

Things were so much less complicated in DOS!

Thanks so much for your help and interest.

regards jaycee

 

Heh, please do make sure you brush up some before starting this stuff.

You make a Windows Startup floppy from add/remove programs in 98SE. The FDISK program on that is the older one that shouldn't be used on hard drives larger than about 60GB, but you won't be FDISKing. Windows makes the floppy using the EBD folder's files in the WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD folder. The FDISK fix you probably already applied replaces the one in the COMMAND folder but not the one in the EBD folder, so if you want you can copy the newer version onto the floppy, overwriting the one add/remove made.

You should also copy smartdrv.exe from the Windows folder to the floppy as well. No need in your case this time, but if you ever need to install XP to a FAT32 drive using this floppy then running Smartdrive first is a must to speed things up. You'd only need to do that if you run a computer that won't boot to a cd though.

In your case you'd just boot from the floppy and format the c: drive (if that's what 98SE is on, reboot, insert the 98SE cd and run Setup.

Don't worry about what the format program says is the size of what it's doing. It's a cosmetic defect. In fact, when it finishes it does list the correct size. It's the old FDISK that's broke, FORMAT just looks like it's broke but it works fine on huge partitions.

When 98's on and you're ready to fix the boot loader, make sure your bios is set to boot to cd first and boot to the XP cd.

Say ok to setting up Windows now. If it's an upgrade cd you'll need to switch cd's when it asks for proof of elegibility to the 98 cd. Or maybe not since you already have XP installed and it should pick that up. Then switch back to the XP cd. Choose the partition that has the XP on it. Make sure you do not choose an upgrade install. You want to choose a repair install. And you want to install to the same folder XP has Windows in now. If it has an advanced button, click that and make sure of this stuff.

When done you'll have your boot selection screen back. Remember that you won't have your installed Windows Updates anymore so you'll need to go there (several times) and let it do its thing. If you use any unsigned drivers you'll need to reinstall your versions of those, and at least with ATI I needed to run the videocard driver setup right over itself to get back Smartgart, VPU Recover, etc. The driver version is the same, but the software needs to be refreshed.

As far as 98 goes, if I were you I'd do some reading at mdgx.com and msfn.org. There's lots more to it than Windows Update will do for you. Usually by the time I get to Windows Update there's nothing there for me to download as I have everything on cdr's and install the various unofficial service packs and what have you. After your motherboard drivers, Internet Explorer is a good next step followed by Direct X. Then your videocard drivers. Then WMP9. Then your soundcard drivers. Then any other hardware drivers. Then whatever Office you like to use. Then the Unofficial Service Pack. Then the other updates for 98SE, IE, Direct X, WMP, the Unofficial MDAC updater (Maximus Decim also has one for IE). Then I usually use 98SE2ME (you need a Windows Me cd for that) and the native USB drivers. See, by the time you get to Windows Update there's not much for it to do!

A good shortcut for you on that stuff would be the Windows 9x PowerPack version 4.1 that is has a thread over at msfn, and a link to that thread is also posted on MDGx's site. That can be extracted and burned to a cdr and has most of the stuff all on one cd. That'll save you some work as he put Internet Explorer, WMP, the Service Packs, the other updater's I mentioned all on this cd with an autorun menu! He just finished his new version about a week ago so it's extremely up to date.

I hope things go reletively smooth for you.

 

I reckon I have enough info to give it go.

Have copied important files to F: a separate drive.

I remember being told I only had 10 Gigs but think I ignored it. I may have used 'DiskGo'