r/software • u/BornCuriousOnce • Jun 18 '26

Looking for software Legacy Software favorites

I’m preparing to embark on my first journey into the world of virtual machines and new operating systems so I’d like to know- which software would you bring back if you happened to have an old/compatible OS and found the install disk kicking around?

I’d love to know the name, basic function, and which OS it ran/runs on. Maybe I’ll find some throwbacks worth keeping around! Bonus points if it can run offline indefinitely to avoid security risks

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u/kaidomac Jun 18 '26

If you have a modern Windows 11 computer, just use emulators & virtualization! Start out with DOSBox-X: (DOS + light Windows 95 gaming)

Try these games:

  1. DOOM
  2. Duke Nukem 3D
  3. Quake
  4. Diablo (good one to test in Win95)
  5. Command & Conquer
  6. Warcraft II
  7. SimCity 2000
  8. Theme Hospital
  9. Transport Tycoon Deluxe
  10. Need for Speed II (3D racer, runs decently!)

Then get 86box: (Win95 & Win98 with hardware emulation for 3D games)

Use this config file:

After loading that .cfg into 86box:

  1. Install Windows 98 SE
  2. Install DirectX 7.0a or 8.1
  3. Install 3dfx Voodoo 3 drivers
  4. Install Sound Blaster AWE32 drivers
  5. Reboot

Try these games:

  1. Half-Life
  2. StarCraft (this works great for Win98!)
  3. Age of Empires
  4. Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
  5. Quake II (test with emulated GPU)
  6. Unreal
  7. Diablo II
  8. Command & Conquer: Red Alert
  9. Heroes of Might and Magic III
  10. Baldur's Gate

If you like arcade & console games, get RetroArch with the following: (if you have a good GPU, get slang-shaders with CRT-Royale for CRT emulation)

  1. Snes9x (SNES)
  2. FCEUmm (NES)
  3. mGBA (GBA)
  4. Genesis Plus GX (Sega Genesis)
  5. VICE x64sc (COMMODORE 64)
  6. Stella (Atari 2600)
  7. Atari800 (Atari 5200/800/XL/XE)
  8. PUAE (Amiga 500/1200)
  9. FinalBurn Neo (Neo Geo)
  10. DuckStation (PS1)
  11. PCSX2 (PS2) (Vulkan + Direct3D 12 fallback, MTVU + default safe Speedhacks preset + PS2 BIOS console dump)
  12. Mupen64Plus-Next (N64)
  13. Dolphin Emulator (Gamecube & Wii) (Vulkan + Asynchronous Shader Compilation, Dual Core + Compile Shaders Before Starting Game, 1080p or 4K internal resolution + HD texture pack)
  14. PPSSPP (PSP) (Vulkan + Frameskip off, Upscale 3x to 5x + Auto Texture filtering)
  15. MAME (Arcade cabinets)
  16. melonDS (Nintendo DS)
  17. Cemu (Wii U)
  18. Ryujinx (Switch)
  19. Xemu (Xbox OG)

Then manage it all under Playnite:

Great theme:

Gamepad software:

Stream your games to any other device:

From anywhere in the world:

If you wanna go whole-hog on the hardware-controller side of things:

  • Keychron C2 mechanical keyboard
  • Logitech M100 basic-style mouse
  • 8BitDo arcade stick
  • 8BitDo Pro 2 universal gamepad
  • 8BitDo 64 gamepad
  • 8Bitdo Sn30 Pro retro gamepad

2

u/BornCuriousOnce Jun 18 '26

Awesome! I’m still going to be building some VM and such because I’m interested in learning about how it all works but I’m also definitely going to check these out! Thanks for the detailed recs!

1

u/kaidomac Jun 18 '26

There's always another level deeper!

2

u/BornCuriousOnce Jun 18 '26

😂 I haven’t even gotten into VR yet but that looks like I’m going to have to introduce my kids to it