QEMU Classic Retro Games From Install to Play -- The Elder Scrolls Adventures Redguard 3Dfx (1998)
2"DOSBox is the BEST for DOS games. Just use DOSBox for DOS games." -- qemu-3dfx.
Indeed, but The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard 3Dfx is a special case and the retail CD originality expected the seamless game experience of install & play from Windows, just like every other late 90's Windows games. The Game 2-CD 1998 retail release did not even include DOS installer that allowed the game to be installed from pure DOS. The techno-wiz of the 90's would probably just install the game in Windows, then boot into DOS with beefed up CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT with multiple selection, DOS CD-ROM & sound cards drivers/TSRs, so & so, to play Redguard 3Dfx. That was the best & recommended solution.
Fast forward into present, 3Dfx is long gone, the price of Voodoos from EBay is insane. If one still keeps Windows XP machine for retro games , then WinXP + GLiDOS + VDMSound can be the solution but with the downside of complexity to make DOS Glide games work in such setup. DOSBox can always be used on modern systems, but installing the game remains the problem that requires game extraction from VM or using 3rd-party installer unpackers. None of those seemed straight forward.
The qemu-3dfx project Goal in Game Preservation has always been perfect restoration of retail CD originality in "pristine condition" and straight forward Install then Play using the properly archived CUE/BIN images. NO fans' mods, NO remakes, preferably NO CD-Crack and NO laundry list/wiki of steps to follow. This is the VIDEO to show qemu-3dfx in restoration of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard 3Dfx in accordance to the expected experience of Install then Play the Game, all from within Windows in QEMU Virtual Machine. Absolutely NO messing around with DOS CDROM & sound cards real-mode drivers/TSRs, IRQ/DMA configuration, so & so. Sound Blaster Pro emulation is provided by AC97 WDM Audio as part of the OS. NO *BS* about period-correctness or "emulation accuracy".
The Game is playable at average 15 FPS, there is little to no stuttering and the game engine tuned the animation according to the achievable frame rate. QEMU TCG on modern CPUs adequately meets the CPU requirement of the Game. The Apple M1 is one of the best CPUs in such use case. On Linux KVM, the game is guaranteed 60 FPS locked all-time going far back to CPUs as old as Core i3-4010U. However, Windows WHPX isn't so lucky, the implementation lacks similar KVM in-kernel PIC/PIT that screwed up the timings of game engine. The qemu-3dfx project implements fixes for WHPX timing faults for Windows games through hooking into WIN32 APIs, hence those fixes are not available for DOS games. Core i7-1165G7 with QEMU TCG played the Games well on Windows 11 in similar experience as Apple M1 despite being less performant.
So let's wrap up for those continue looking for Alternatives in despise for QEMU "elitist" remarks.
- GOG/Steam sell repackaged TES Redguard bundled with DOSBox
- VMware + Windows XP VM + GLiDOS + VDMSound. VOGONS is your friend.
- Core i9 12900KF or Ryzen 5950X with "the other camp" "freaking fast" CPU rendered Voodoo emulation. STOP laughing, it is "playable"(TM) -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGJhWCbGuIc
Or, play something else ... Morrowind is MUCH more fun than Redguard.
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=12089#p12089
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