long time viewer of L1Techs, first time poster on the forum. As such, please excuse me if I’ve added this topic to the wrong category
I recently came across an old interactive CD-ROM, that I need for a PhD-related academic research, and the CD’s contents were designed to be run on a Windows 3.1 machine or conversely Mac OS v7.0 (release date ca. 1996). As far as the packaging indicates, the software is based on Macromedia, and is QuickTime compatible. I am trying to get this to run somehow so as to see what is the interactive content, and how much of it would be useful for my research project.
Since this would not run under W10 - including their W95 compatibility mode etc. - I tried to run the CD-ROM via a virtual machine (VirtualBox), emulating Windows 98. The CD-ROM installed and ran fine, but the contents - specifically the video-component - is messed up. The best way to quantify ‘messed up’ is to compare it to attempting to run a 256 colour video-component using 8/16 colour mode back in the day.
I’ve come therefore to ask the members of L1Techs’ forum for suggestions on how I might get this old tech to run and for me to get the full (or as close to as full) functionality of the interactive contents. I have some experience with older software (we had a DOS-based and subsequently W95 machines in my childhood), though my experience in the IT world is purely on the consumer level. I do have a recently built mid-range PC that can handle VM’s if necessary, and I would love to get this CD to run, without having to invest in new software/hardware unless other cheaper/free options are exhausted first.
Looking forward to your suggestions, and thanks in advance for the help!
If you have original CDs, make sure to image them in BIN/CUE formats and not just ISO. Most ISO creating software only reads the first track. Many of the older CD games had multi-track games (data+audio tracks) and the games won’t work correctly without the audio data. Some even used the multi-track data structure as a form of pirating protection.
thank you all for the suggestions and the quick replies!
@FaunCB - I will try sheepshaver in the next day or two, and will report back on how it went. Just got to track me an old copy of Mac OS v7 to actually emulate
@hydrian - I do in fact have an original CD, and this is not a game What I am trying to get to run is an interactive CD-ROM by an obscure (and super weird) US metal musician that I am researching. I will see whether the emulation suggested above plays well with the USB drive I have or whether I have to digitise the CD anyway; if the latter, I’ll try both iso and bin/cue options as per your suggestion
@TimHolus - In all honesty, I think my parents still have an old W95 PC somewhere but I live in Germany and they are still in my native Bulgaria, so the logistics might be tricky I did consider purchasing a W95 compatible machine, but to my knowledge retro hardware is a bit pricey here (at least on Ebay). Specialist shops do sell refurbished machines but they come with caveats:
Or something older around gx110 but prices are already high …
Personally, I used gx260 (P4, 512MB) for several years. These machines are quite pleasant.
@TimHolus - Good find! If the emulation route does not work out, I might pick one of these up just to get the research done. I re-purchased most of my retro games on GOG over the years, but one of these machines (or the gx264 with the Pentium IV) might still be of use for some troublesome retro stuff, with an second hand GPU upgrade.
Yea. That’s more likely to be a mixed-mode CD. The first track would be the installer/software part and there will be additional audio tracks for the music. BIN/CUE is your best bet for getting a good image.
Now I’m curious, which metal musician is it? I’m a big fan of US metal music.
@hydrian Gotcha, bin/cue will be the way to go. The musician is called The Great Kat, more specifically her “Digital Beethoven on Cyberspeed” CD. Just make sure you check her work on your own time, she is very NSFW at the best of times.
Just wanted to stop by and first thank everyone for the support!
The sheepshaver solution got the CD to run as suggested by @FaunCB, and indeed .bin/.cue file conversion was the way to go as @hydrian indicated.
Unfortunately I got a slightly different problem now. I noticed that when converting the CD to .bin/.cue format, the process required quite a bit of time, and upon inspection - I saw some scratches towards the outer segments of the CD. This is of importance as, whilst the CD is running in emulation, attempting to access some of its menu-sections causes the entire emulation software to hang. Nothing helps in that instance, short of shutting Sheepshaver via Windows task manager. Perhaps the two are connected?
As far as I can tell from the interactive component (made mostly of images with not enough text-descriptions…), the sections I am trying to access and are leading to a crash are the video-related segments. I got the CD to run on Mac OS8, so I doubt that QuickTime version is too old, though I would love to hear some other opinions before I run out to replace the CD.
You can, for instance, goto a game store and pay them 5 bucks or whatever to resurface the disk. You can also make an iso of the disk and just mount it, but since ur in windows it’d need to be something like daemon tools to mount it… unless windows can mount iso’s now?
@FaunCB Yep, resurfacing it did cross my mind - I will see if there is a game store nearby.
I’ve already explored the ripping option: I made an .bin/.cue from the disc, mounted it to sheepshaver, and that is where I encountered the problem. I am using an 64-bit system, and sheepshaver’s CD-ROM driver is not playing well with non 32-bit operating systems - meaning that it is difficult to get the original CD to run in emulator. I will also try the Linux option you suggested if all else fails.
@FaunCB I am using a .bin/.cue combo rather than an .iso because when I try to digitise this interactive CD-ROM in .iso format, the software I am using straight up states that the “multi-track information will be lost if using an ISO format”. I will try and see what type of information is actually stored on the .iso when I ignore this warning, but the goal is to have the entire CD-ROM to be available in emulation.
That doesn’t really matter for software on computers bub. It matters way more if you’re emulatitg a console like a dreamcast or some early ps1 games, or if you wanted to clone the disc 1:1.
fire it up in a VM of the OS of your choice. be it Windows 95/98, sheepshaver, etc.
Antique hardware … well if that’s your thing, go for it. But i have neither the physical space, time, motivation, etc. Old PC hardware is generally large, noisy and prone to break. None of those things i want in my office
I did consider purchasing a W95 compatible machine, but to my knowledge retro hardware is a bit pricey here (at least on Ebay). Specialist shops do sell refurbished machines but they come with caveats: