Eons ago when I lived in a shared apartment, I had bought a broken and beaten up "Bally Champ" EM pinball machine and got it back to work (had to wind a burnt flipper solenoid coil etc.). Eventually I sold it (the moist cellar wasn't good for it anyway), and where I now live I have not enough space for a pinball machine. My main PC is a Highscreen Colani bigtower (AMD K6-3@550MHz, 768MB RAM, GeForce 3 TI 200 graphics, 2 genuine ISA soundcards, DFI K6 BV3+ mainboard, Win98SE/KernelEx and old Linux on 160GB HDD). As a collector of vintage electronics I had heavily misused the old system for storing huge quantities of downloaded HTML pages (schematics of music keyboard hardware etc., some 10000 old eBay pages etc.) until FAT32 became too clogged for gaming. In 2008 I had lost most of the game and emulator installation in a filesystem crash by too old mainboard drivers anyway, so I had no pinball games on it anymore and lost interest in VP forums.
Not least because Win98SE could not run modern webbrowsers, in 2018 I finally dismantled and heavily modified the Colani bigtower case (took me a year, also for adding TEMPEST-style RF shielding) to install an additional modern PC mainboard (Ryzen 2400G, 16MB RAM, AsRock B450 ITX mainboard, 8TB HDD) running Linux Mint and Win10 on the 22'' 4:3 Trinitron CRT monitor. Now I am reinstalling many of the old original games and emulators. I still have >440 downloaded VP6 pinball games and want to make them playable again. On the old 550MHz CPU some VPinMAME stuff ran slow. So it would be best to install them now on the modern mainboard (but WINE yet has some issues with VP8 and earlier). Ask me If anybody needs older versions of VP tables or the EXEs.
I ran into a situation some-what like yours recently. As,I found my old XP PC that had been my VP8 "security-vault"(rendered offline & all),in-operable last week,or so. Which,is why I'm here,again(I used to belong in 2012). Trying to get back the core system files I was unable to save,at the time...
That is,when I finally prepared to save everything,it was /just/ before the end-of-service for XP & I NEVER expected I wouldn't be allowed to copy the VP/PinMAME files. So,I lost the chance to save them. I mean,I was reading about how incompatible ppl were finding VP8/9 was,w/ Win7(also 8,but that didn't affect me)& my new PC was on Win7. So,I would NEVER risk erasing it from my XP,in order to migrate it over. I mean,I might've lost EVERYTHING if I couldn't get it working properly. So,I left everything that I was unable to save,on the XP & relied on it for playing VP...
On top of that,I had nearly /every/ VP1-VP8 file possible,on the old XP. So,it would've been a MASSIVE amount to recover,if something like that /had/ happened. As,the only VP tables missing,were some early/obscure originals I could never find /anywhere/ & a few ROMs I forgot to grab in time. So,I focused on just thinking of everything as complete & locked-away safely on the XP PC. But,after playing the tables so extensively the first several years,I kinda missed my other games & I was also worried I might be over-using my only source for playing VP. So,I put things aside,until very-recently. When,I started getting the urge to get back into everything(I had been meaning to before now,but something always distracted me from doing so)...
However,(coming back to the present)I nearly couldn't find that Flash Drive,when it /finally/ came time for it to be needed,to continue w/ my current PC(I had to get another,w/ Win7 losing support,as well). So,that's what I really meant,by what I first said...
Also,I can't believe SO much has disappeared from these sites & that VPX is so heavy w/ the graphx requirements! I mean,I'm still fine w/ VP9. So,I haven't checked to see if my Win10 can even handle the recent VPX7.2 that EVERYONE seems to be making tables w/,now. And here I thought basic VPX was impressive. I mean,I really wish VP9xx still had /some/ support...
But,it looks like no one else is using low-end equipment,anymore(your new rig blows mine away,entirely). It's actually strange tho,considering how ppl back in 2012 were still using Win2000,sometimes. I mean,this seemed to be a thing that was gonna remain easily-accessible to even those w/ 10yr-old PCs(like mine). I mean,I thought some of the VP9 tables were about as good as we might /ever/ see...
What's even more surprising tho,is how some VP8 tables are STILL the only known versions of some tables! I would think making-sure ALL tables were VP9.xx-quality would've been the focus,all this time. Rather,than it be about picking certain tables to be constantly-upgraded to look good on UHD screens(especially,the "original" designs)...
Anyway,sorry for the length & griping. But,it's a shame that it looks like some tables are going to remain barely-VP8 quality,while everything-else is being upgraded to look like they're made for the PS4,or something...
BTW-If anyone actually reads this far,somehow(I know it's not likely
),I also offer my old VP files. So,if anyone wants to know what it was like for us,a decade-or-more ago & has the patience to wait a few days after msging. As,I'm not online much,normally. PM me,if U want,as well...