I have developed easy to use ranking system which will help us to find which games are able to work on win9x. It is quite simple.

Tools:
Dependency Walker
http://www.dependencywalker.com/

"Can You Run it?" web tool
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

Explanation
Rank 1:
Game is officially able to run on Windows 9x systems and it works

Rank 2:
Game is oficially unable to run on Windows 9x but with updated system game runs. Edit: add here games which are officially unable to run on win9x but they run even without patching.

Rank 3:
Game is oficially able to run on Windows 9x but it does not run at all (due any reason).PLEASE ADD LIST OF MISSING DLL EXPORTS AND REASON WHY GAME DIDNT RUN

Rank 4:
Game is oficially not able to run on Windows 9x and it does not run even when kernelEX is applied. PLEASE ADD LIST OF MISSING DLL EXPORTS AND REASON WHY GAME DIDNT RUN

Rank 5:
Game or engine developed oficially for Windows 9x, which after years is losing its compatibility during updatin - updating of OS or Game itself.PLEASE ADD LIST OF MISSING DLL EXPORTS AND REASON WHY GAME DIDNT RUN

Some of Win9x users have new games. since Kernel and other system files have quite larga number of exports we can focus on those which are really needed to be added. When you come across a game which is unable to run due a missing export or message like "needs winXP to run" run dependency walker, open its main executable (and some other executables) and send with your report all exports which were missing, including files in which the export was missing.


KERNEL EX VERSION 0.3.2a

Ranking List Class "1":
Warcraft II: Battlenet Edition
Warcraft III: The Reing of Chaos
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Heroes Of Might and Magic III
Heroes Of Might and Magic IV
Might And Magic 6
Might And Magic 7
Grand Theft Auto 3
Diablo I
Diablo II
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Far Cry 1
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
The Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind
The Need For Speed III
The Need For Speed 5: Porsche Challenge
The Need For Speed: Underground 2
Baldur's Gate 1
The Neverhood
KKND
KKND: Extreme
Command and Conquer
Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Command and Conquer: Tiberium Sun
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2
Command and Conquer: Generals
Command and Conquer: Renegade
Dungeon Keeper
Lands Of Lore 2
Lands Of Lore 3
StarCraft
StarCraft: Broodwars
Freelancer
Mafia
Unreal Gold
Unreal Tournament
Unreal II
Unreal Tournament 2004
Age of Empires I
Age of Empires I: The Rise of Rome Expansion
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion
Age of Mythology
Rise of Nations
Rise of Nations Gold Edition
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome
Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII
Halo
Quake III
Quake III: Team Arena
Red Faction
Half Life
Half Life: Team Fortress Classic
Half Life: Counter Strike
Alien Versus Predator 1
Mortal Kombat 4
NHL98
Dune 2000
Commandos
Ubik
Civilization II
Wing Commander: Secret Ops
Spellcross
Guildwars
Tomb Raider 1
Tomb Raider 2
Tomb Raider 3
Tomb Raider 4
Tomb Raider 5
Tomb Raider 6
The Need for Speed 1
The Need for Speed 2
The Need for Speed 3: Most Wanted
The Need for Speed 5: Porsche Challenge
The Need for Speed : Underground

The Sims 2 + All addition
The punisher
gothic 1
gothic 2
moto racer 3 gold edition
motoGP
motoGp2
call of duty + Addition
fifa 05
pes 05
bus driver
code of honor
gta vice city
splinter cell 1,2
swat 4
matrix (It is cut)
prince of persia Sands of times
prince of persia Soul of warrior
unreal 2004
wolfenstein enemy territory
flatout
guilty gear X2
guilty gear isuka (At hold-down xp office)
freedom fighters
XIII
chrome + addition
evil dead regeneration
suffering ties that bind
richard burns rally
midnight club 2
alarm cobra nitro
xpand rally
max payne 1
max payne 2
colin 3,4
bloodrayne
bloodrayne 2
Half life 2


Ranking List Class "2"
The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion (with trouble)
Prey
Doom 3
Quake 4
Grand Theft Auto III : San Andreas
Alien Arena
Torino 2006
Civilization IV
Civilization IV Warlords
Civilization IV Beyond the sword
Alpine Ski Racing 2007
Need For Speed : Most Wanted
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 (windows version masq. for install + kernelx + patch 1.41 (i think))
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 - Hammers of Fate (windows version masq. for install + kernelx + patch 2.0)
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
F.E.A.R
Alarm Cobra Nitro
Alarm Cobra Crash time
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
The Mark
El Matador

Ranking List Class "3"
Halflife 2 - Episode One (Reason - SteamEngine)
BTAS: Zak McKracken - between time and space (http://www.zak2.org/zak2/cms/front_content.php?idart=33&idcat=1&changelang=2) (wxWidgets bug for windows9x systems, worked around by kernelx)


Ranking List Class "4"
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl (Reason - unknown. Bugtracker error? exports are OK)
Age of Empires III (GDI32.dll : AddFontMemResourceEx)
Red Alert - A path beyond BetaFinal - (error message window not visible, exports ok)
Rank 4:
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 (with patch >= 1.5 - saving is not working anymore, no folder found)
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 - Hammers of Fate (with patch 2.1 - saving is not working anymore, no folder found)
Supreme Commander (numerous missing exports)


Ranking List Class "5":
Ultima Online (Reason - BSOD related to afvxd.vxd on logon)
Steam Engine (reason - artifical block, two missing exports)
Mechwarriors 2: Mercenaries (requires patch 1.05p or above when used with kernelEX)
The Need for Speed 4: High Stakes (Reason - unknown or KernelEX)

This list shall be updated, and reasons added.

Reserved for future use.

Rank 1:

Need for Speed Underground 2

Rank 2:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (shouldn't run on Win98 but runs anyway)


I wonder why GTA-SA has Win2000 as a system requirement. It could be possible that some secondary bloat bundled with the game requires WinNT, while the real game itself runs. Is there a Steamless HL2?

Perhaps specify exactly how old games may be listed.

I am looking for steamless HL2 but i found only crack 1,8Gb large. Also if San Adreas has written on booklet and in "Can you run it" tool "Required Win2k/XP" and the game runs it belongs to rank 2 no matter if it needs kernel ex or not.

Also age... i am not sure about it. Still complete list of win9x games is much longer as games which are not compatible and quite much of them are still available. And not only low rated products, but very good games. Add them all

Rank 1:

Unreal Gold
Unreal Tournament
Unreal II
Unreal Tournament 2004
Age of Empires I
Age of Empires I: The Rise of Rome Expansion
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion
Age of Mythology
Rise of Nations
Rise of Nations Gold Edition
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome
Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII
Halo
Quake III
Quake III: Team Arena
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2
Command and Conquer: Generals
Red Faction
Half Life
Half Life: Team Fortress Classic
Half Life: Counter Strike


Rank 4:

Age of Empires III
GDI32.dll : AddFontMemResourceEx

Demos are not suitable - they contain some bugs which may be not connected with windows 9x.

Class 5
Mechwarriors 2: Mercenaries (requires patch 1.05p or above when used with kernelEX)

Specificly, there's a CD read error when going into a stage on all v1.0 games. It's present in XP and oddly enough becomes present in OS's with the kernelEx patch applied. Patching the game with the official 1.05p, 1.06, or 1.1 patches should remedy this. Worth noting at least.

It’s about time for this thread, eh?


Rank 2:
Torino 2006 (shouldn't run on Win98, but runs flawlessly, no patching!)


------------
As for HL2, I’m pretty sure win98 handles it perfectly, but as long as it uses Steam, it is unable to get the game working.
Need a workaround to get rid the steam.
On the other hand, Source engine is fully Win98 compatible!
Valve had fully working Steam under win98 until last summer, when they stopped to support this OS via Steam.

Steamless HL2 is the only way to go under Win98. (Assuming you own the game)

some people requested Crysis... i am too lazy to download demo... anybody tried it?

Very nice idea Offler... once more!

Here's an important rank 2 game and add-ons (it uses Python and works just fine on Win9x):
Civilization IV
Civilization IV Warlords
Civilization IV Beyond the sword

PS: I confirm what tonich said about HL2...
You shouldn't use steam anyway. The idea to ask a server if you can play a game you bought is just beyond my understanding.

oh, and what category games that work with KernelEx go?

games able to run on Win9x with kernel ex go to "rank 2". if i understand your question...

also about HL2. i asked support if there should be added to steam a command line switch to skip OS check and try to run Steam on any system. i have to write down the missing exports for steamengine. if they shall be fixed steam and steam shall have a cmd line swith it could work even on Win9x with KEX.

I have analyzed steamengine executables:

Steam.EXE - all exports OK
execution is blocked due error message

steamTMP.exe - all exports OK

SteamService.exe - Kernel.32dll: GetConsoleWindow and Advapi32.dll: ChangeServiceConfig2A
At least missing exports, but file can be executed

GameoverlayUI.exe - user32.dll: LockSetForgroundWindow

Writeminidump.exe - all exports OK

Anyone else on steam workaround?


--------------------------------
Rank 2:
Alpine Ski Racing 2007 (shouldn't run on Win98, but works fine, no patching)

Note: I installed it under WinXP, as I have a double boot system.
Not sure whether it can be installed under Win98, thought. I just didn't try.

i have added some new games in list. i think that i can change version 0.3.2 to 0.3.5 without trouble

Why not merge it with the Compatibility Database i started? It's useless to have 2 topics on the same thing. I'm running KernelEx 0.3.5.

On topic: Steam sucks. I am a moderator of a non-steam gaming forum and will always run non-steam. Steam CS 1.6 takes 1 minute to open on my main rig, non-steam CS 1.6 takes 3 seconds. Not mentioning Source games... Besides, HL2 is a singleplayer game. Why should i need an internet connection to play it?

I'll be back with my own crappy games list.

few months ago i bought HL2: EP1. during installation it required internet connection, steam installation and registration. since august 2007 is win9x not supported by steam so installation failed. Game itself is able to run in rank 1...

i would like to separate games from other more usable software, just because for better searching in database...

I don't realize how this improves searching, the search button would return the same results anyway. But whatever... One less worry for me - i won't maintain that topic anymore. Whoever wants to find a compatible app, let him read the 50+ pages of the KernelEx topic. I did.

Ranking List Class "1":

1602 AD Its a great game everyone should get it!

please maintain the database of apps. i will maintaint the games database. it is quite important to distinguish if the game can be installed easily on any win9x system, or needs Kernel Ex, or if the game shall not run from different reasons (such as god damned steam).

It's exactly the same for apps... Whatever, i'll decide what to do later.

there is a bit difference. people who need apps working need some information how to do it - even when it is complicated like erasing files or manipulating registers...

If somebody wants to run game we can hardly create such information database, because no one will read it - they will rather use XP. so only solution for common lazy user shall be installation of kernel EX and nothing else - thats why i once refused to edit game executable to force it run - common users will not do that at all.

also games can provide more information about differences between XP and 9x, since there is more games as other apps and they use system resources more intensly. so if the game shall not run the best way how to report it is to use dependency walker, analyze the dll exports and report the missing things.

Games will show incompatibilities more with user32, gdi32, kernel, shell, directX but they will not use some interfaces such as Firefox 3 does. the matter is not same, at least not for me...

I understand now. I'll edit my topic and just maintain the applications database from now on.

Did Anyone tried Tomb Raider games?

i am sure that most of them belong to rank 1 but i never play them

Tomb Raider 1 to 6 (Angel of Darkness) run fine natively in Win98SE, although I've had trouble with refresh rate zero in Angel of Darkness on my old mobo (Jetway 630CF with SiS630 chipset) and had to run it under Win2003 instead (bad video driver probably).

Haven't had a chance to try Legend or Anniversary (is there any newer one?) because minimum hardware requirements largely exceed my possibilities. Too bad, because the TR series is by far my favorite.

added Tomb Raider series.

I've tried installing Anniversary on Win98SE and failed.
It runs on 2000 or above, but the fatal profile corruption bug destroyed records I've made.

so somebody asked me to update the list... i will add some games that surely work, but i am still grateful for any help.

Any more news on steam? I can't say I'm a huge fan of NT at the moment, for many reasons. I would like to see steam back on 98, even if there is only a select bunch of people running it.

nfs: most wanted activist kernelex and nfs underground. Half life episode Piratical version (pcgame) Error microsoft shaderapidx9.dll ;/

Rank 1 chodzi:

The Sims 2 + All addition
The punisher
gothic 1
gothic 2
moto racer 3 gold edition
motoGP
motoGp2
medal of honor 1 + All addition
call of duty + Addition
fifa 05
pes 05
bus driver
code of honor
gta vice city
splinter cell 1,2
swat 4
matrix (It is cut)
prince of persia Sands of times
prince of persia Soul of warrior
mafia
nfs underground
unreal 2004
wolfenstein enemy territory
flatout
guilty gear X2
guilty gear isuka (At hold-down xp office)
freedom fighters
XIII
chrome + addition
evil dead regeneration
suffering ties that bind
richard burns rally
midnight club 2
alarm cobra nitro
xpand rally
max payne 1
max payne 2
colin 3,4
morrowind
bloodrayne
bloodrayne 2
Half life 2
Far cry
And many many others, I have mentioned curious


Rank 2 NFS most wanted It walks

tested this some time ago...

Rank 2:
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 (windows version masq. for install + kernelx + patch 1.41 (i think))
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 - Hammers of Fate (windows version masq. for install + kernelx + patch 2.0)

Rank 4:
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 (with patch >= 1.5 - saving is not working anymore, no folder found)
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 - Hammers of Fate (with patch 2.1 - saving is not working anymore, no folder found)
Supreme Commander (numerous missing exports)

Rank 3:
BTAS: Zak McKracken - between time and space (http://www.zak2.org/zak2/cms/front_content.php?idart=33&idcat=1&changelang=2) (wxWidgets bug for windows9x systems, worked around by kernelx)

hl2 series is not the most important.the most important hl2 game is css and dods and tf2..
and a solution for playing hl2 games is that use no-setam(stand alone)game program..but it's not official.

It walks under WITHOUT 2 HALF LIFE win98se KernelEX. It will suffice (will enough) to pull off version without steam i.e. versions in (to) emporio emule, then, it belongs to pull off under acting crack win98se. Send on forum for version crack emporio? It is in (to) it emule crack.

I want to warn you guys. do not mess up with cracks around this forum. when you own official version of software you can say how to make it run on Win98SE legally. There are some principles which are allowing using some tools or some new code to run game properly, even if that code is not released oficially, but do not call it crack.

Ad: Steam
The technological differences between Win98 version of Steam and WinNT/2k/XP steams are again based (and only based) on adding "EX" exports, which are contained in XP kernel. These exports work very similar to their "nonEX" variants which are contained in win9x kernel, so i think that somebody is trying to spare some money or time during development (somebody is lazy).

Also i have identified some new technological barriers in games - for example TES: Oblivion. I have hardware strong enough to run the game properly. In Windows 98SE the game runs quite slow, on Windows 2000 it runs faster. As some system modules are missing so the game "waits" for them, but it hangs for some time to.

also Ultima Online (first and still active massive online game since 1996). Its executable module is nightmare. If you try to login while "uo.cfg" is present in "game/account" directory the system get BSOD regarding to afvxd.vxd. But if you erase uo.cfg the game will run correctly and uo.cfg will be restored from main game directory.

and the worst - some installations are requesting system services which are not present in Win98Se, not even with KEX. Installations generate numerous error messages. i try to map one of those games.

also i have tested Supreme Commander too. it is not connected only to missing exports, but to other system modules. i cannot say what exactly it needs.

hey everyone!maybe i found a great success about steam!maybe you can run steam in 98!
at first,i don`t have win98 in my computer at presant.so i can't try it and make sure this way can make it run in 98.
1.download the steam program(ps:the steam download link:http://steampowered.com/download/SteamInstall.msi)
2.open winrar,and extrack the msi file.
3.you can see a file named steam.exe1.THEN,NAME IT STEAM.EXE.now you can see its ico is steam logo.
4.run it,if it does,you will see a "updating" box.it will download full steam files.(don't forget to add steam.exe=winxp in kexver.ini)
and another one important file is steamservice.exe .i think it can add the steam service to your system.so,if you don't run it before you run steam.exe,maybe you can get an error.so you 'd better to run this file before you run steam.exe,certainly,you must add it in kexver.ini

try your best to run it..
and post the problem to me.

Doesn't Steam work under the WINE project for linux..... Sounds like we should make a wine for windows 9x to run newer programs.... It may be our only way to get newer stuff working

This topic pinned ["stickified"] under "Supported Software, Games + Hardware":
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=95815
and moved here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=8

Keep up the good work!

i tried to extract steam before and it was not able to run. when you run steam.exe1 it will download latest steam engine which is updated and contain WinXP version files. when i try to run steam.exe afterwards i get no error message, but the executable will not start steam service

then in steam directory this file is created
(failed)STEAM_assert_20081016081121_1.mdmp

which seems to me as some kind of error message. also the steam.log contains this:
CsComm Session Oct-16-2008 08:11:26.851 [4293961989] ReconnectThread (4293961989) Starting


since the clients are updated via server connections we can patch the client, but with any new release of steam the patches we would do will be undone, erased or not functional with newer version of steam.

By the way, i am not sure about that, but the steam files which i downloaded today seems identical with those i downloaded two months after the support for win98 ended.

steamservice.exe is linked to missing export in Kernel32.dll:GetConsoleWindow

and will not start...

since i want to make Valve and Steam creators angry i believe that i will start support steamless projects

INFO: An .mdmp file (MiniDump) is a crash report than can be opened in Visual Studio and analyzed by programmers for debugging purposes.

How about battle field2?i haven't tried it on win98.
but i heard somebody says it can run on 98.

Battlefield 2 can't run under win 98 yet
perhaps with a future version of kernelex it can.
The following api's are still missing

very sorry to hear that..bf2 is one of my favorite games..
i hope that kernelex can solve that..

The new ones does not work. Demos anyway.

F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
Quake 4
F.E.A.R
Alarm Corba Nitro
Alarm Cobra Crash time: Need anything higher then the 6200 to run it.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
The Mark FPS
Doom 3
El Matador: Like Max Payne but better.

Found some more that work.

Just a update:

I found a neat get around. Well say you download a demo, and you extract the files, and there is a setup.exe to install the game. Well if you run setup and a get a error, you know xp only etc, well just go to the bin folder or whatever game.exe file and run the game that way. Doesn't work with every game of course, but you don't have to install it the game to be able to run it.

I only found this trick in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars so far. NFS Pro street , i tried it too, but all i got was a black screen.

Here are a new group of games that can run under 98.
C&C:zero hour
Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising
unreal2003
all of them are rank1.
another point,there are two "unreal2004" in the list.

The game cradle of rome is some times listed as being able to run under win98 the version i have (dutch version) however does not run under windows 98 due to the following missing api's

shell32.dll
SHGetFolderPathA

ole32.dll
CoWaitForMultipleHandles

It does run correctly with kernelx though.

Can any of these games run just fine without using Kernel, just curious?

Maybe i am blind, but i didn't see this game listed:

Code of Honor 2 Conspiracy island

But it works just fine, make sure you don't disable any of the options in the option menu in the config file tho.

Rank 1:
The House of the Dead 3 (SEGA/DirectX 9.0b)