Do TGB-created games run in Win98?
by Andrew Ewanchyna · in Torque Game Builder · 09/30/2007 (12:12 pm) · 6 replies
I've posted a beta demo of my current game (www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=67722) and have since found out that it crashes in Windows 98. It uses version 1.1.3 of TGB.
After dusting off my old Win98 box, I decided to download some other games created with TGB. All these games crashed on my Win98 box: Puzzle Poker, Rack 'em up Roadtrip (admittedly its specs says for 2000/XP) and Grimm's Hatchery (although it sayed it required min 256MB mem while I only had 128MB), Magic Pearls, and Marble Tactics.
This doesn't sound like very good news for us casual game makers. Does this concern anyone else? What chance does a game that only really runs on XP have on the casual portals?
At the moment I can't even count on Window's Vista because of the admin privileges being a necessity as TGB will end up writing user data to the Program Files folder on a user's computer.
After dusting off my old Win98 box, I decided to download some other games created with TGB. All these games crashed on my Win98 box: Puzzle Poker, Rack 'em up Roadtrip (admittedly its specs says for 2000/XP) and Grimm's Hatchery (although it sayed it required min 256MB mem while I only had 128MB), Magic Pearls, and Marble Tactics.
This doesn't sound like very good news for us casual game makers. Does this concern anyone else? What chance does a game that only really runs on XP have on the casual portals?
At the moment I can't even count on Window's Vista because of the admin privileges being a necessity as TGB will end up writing user data to the Program Files folder on a user's computer.
About the author
#2
I also do testing for compatability. I have 6 computers set up with different configurations and hardware, along with about 50 dedicated members of our forum community who do testing for us. When Microsoft quit offering updates for Windows 98, we quit testing for compatability for it. I wouldn't worry that much about people still using Windows 98 or older.
Edit* I just wanted to add, if you are making this for a friend or family member, convince them to upgrade to XP. I made a game for my parents to kind of break it to them this is what I'm doing. While it wasn't the greatest, they were impressed and supported me.
09/30/2007 (12:44 pm)
Andrew, I have to agree with Alan. In my warranty tech days I found nearly the same thing. Most of the people using Windows 98 aren't worried about playing games. I've even had people still running Windows 95 wondering why their kids or grand kids can't play the new game they bought for them.I also do testing for compatability. I have 6 computers set up with different configurations and hardware, along with about 50 dedicated members of our forum community who do testing for us. When Microsoft quit offering updates for Windows 98, we quit testing for compatability for it. I wouldn't worry that much about people still using Windows 98 or older.
Edit* I just wanted to add, if you are making this for a friend or family member, convince them to upgrade to XP. I made a game for my parents to kind of break it to them this is what I'm doing. While it wasn't the greatest, they were impressed and supported me.
#3
If this is not the case, you need to have TGB Pro to remove the whole Unicode Part.
But in the end: Win98 is mostly installed on systems with pure office hardware, so no hardware TGB will run on usefully as they will fallback to CPU rendering. (pure software includes onboard up to GMA 900 from intel which falls back to Microsofts 1.1 OpenGL emulation)
09/30/2007 (12:51 pm)
TGB created games can run on Windows 98 but the users need to upgrade to Win98 SE and have the unicode addon installed.If this is not the case, you need to have TGB Pro to remove the whole Unicode Part.
But in the end: Win98 is mostly installed on systems with pure office hardware, so no hardware TGB will run on usefully as they will fallback to CPU rendering. (pure software includes onboard up to GMA 900 from intel which falls back to Microsofts 1.1 OpenGL emulation)
#4
It's always been my understanding that the casual crowd had sh*t computers, exactly like the ones Marc described.
Marc, thanks for the info on Unicode and Win98. I'll have to take a quick look at the unicode part in the TGB source and see how viable it would be to remove.
09/30/2007 (6:50 pm)
Wow, I've never got such a response on these forums before. You're certainly calming my fears on switching to TGB. It's just a little disheartening that my own DirectX game engine that I used to create my 1st 3 games ran on this Win98 test computer, yet this one doesn't. It's always been my understanding that the casual crowd had sh*t computers, exactly like the ones Marc described.
Marc, thanks for the info on Unicode and Win98. I'll have to take a quick look at the unicode part in the TGB source and see how viable it would be to remove.
#5
09/30/2007 (7:33 pm)
Torque Game Builder 1.5.1, Torque Game Engine 1.4.2, and Torque Game Engine 1.5.2 should all run on WinME and Win98SE. I'm not sure about earlier versions of Win9x. All three of the above Torque versions have a file named unicows.dll which provides the Unicode support for Win9x.
#6
forums.indiegamer.com/showpost.php?p=133927&postcount=97
10/11/2007 (5:08 am)
Actually for casual gamers about 40% of them still use Win 98. If you are looking to have your game on any of the major portals ( Real Arcade, BigFishGames, Reflexive etc..) it better work under Win98 or it will not be there.forums.indiegamer.com/showpost.php?p=133927&postcount=97
Torque Owner Alan James
Really Really Good Things Studio
I work in retail electronic sales, and honestly I can tell you that of the hundreds and hundreds of customers I make contact with each month only an incredibly small percentage of users still are running win98. And they are definite not the type of folks that are going to be interested in a online game portal or download, trust me on this.
Here is my consistent experience with folks that are still running 98: They are more than likely NOT on line, if they are they are on dial-up and only use the internet to check their email...maybe. And before someone starts jumping up and down yelling, "Well I still use 98!", I know, I know there are a few die hards out there, but please...you're the exception and not the rule.
Hardware Vendors, MS and a substantial portion of the software that we sell does not support 98. My suggestion, let it die quietly in the corner somewhere and if you are focusing on casual gaming make it XP/Vista/Mac and if you're especially adventuresome Linux.