Getting older games to run 95/98 era

[eastyy]

so my dad has a collection of games but they need windows 95/98 to run windows xp/7 and 8 they just do not work even in compatibilty mode

I installed windows 2000 on a laptop and a few run but not many (one game matt hayes fishing just could not recognised the graphics card memory as it was to new )

So was thinking just install windows 98 onto a machine but with modern hardware thinking that would be a issue if anyone has some suggestions please let me know ( someone did mention a virtual machine but if you knew my dad that would not be a option .Games literally have to run on a click and not more complicated then that )

oh if anyone has suggestions of pinball/fruit machine/fishing games for the pc would like to know that aswell

[briareos_kerensky]

If you have a valid Win7 license, you can download MS' own virtual machine; you can create links in Win7 to automatically launch the VM and the game, though I've never tried it with games accelerated by DirectX.
Alternatively, you can get other free VM managers (VM Ware Express, Virtual Box) and install whatever OS you want to run those programs. I know for sure that VM Ware Player Plus and Enterprise support Direct3D, VM Ware Express and other free VMs might not be fully able to go through Direct3D or not able at all.
Never tried to emulate 3DFX hardware in a VM either, that might be the biggest hurdle.

[Pulstar]

download nGlide and it'll let you run plenty of 3dfx titles on Windows 7.

Try to find your games on GOG first, before resorting to virtualisation. Also, look for open-source engines or remakes. Plenty of games have been ported for modern Windows.