I've been wanting to play Ripper ever since it first came out. I could never get it installed with WIN98. About 6 months ago I purchased a new PC with XP and tried installing it again. This time I managed to get past the setup screen and it ran fine except there was no sound. I was very disappointed but someone helped me out and I finally got to play it. In fact, I've played it about 6 times in the past 6 months. It was well worth the many years I waited.
These were the instructions I used to get it up and running (NOTE: VDMSound works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It does not work on Windows 95, 98 or Me.)
Step 1: Get VDMSound.
http://ntvdm.cjb.net/ Step 2: Get update1 for VDMSound.
Step 3: Get VDMSound Launchpad.
Step 4: Install VDMSound.
Step 5: Overwrite the files in the VDMSound directory with the ones in update1.
Step 6: Extract the files in the VDMS Launchpad to the VDMS directory and run INSTALL.BAT.
Step 7: Find Ripper's setup program, right-click on it, and choose the "Run with VDMS" that does NOT have the musical notes icon.
Step 8: Set up Ripper using a Sound Blaster 16 on address 220h, IRQ 7, DMA 1, and Hi-DMA 5.
Step 8: Find the Ripper executable, right-click on it, and choose the "Run with VDMS" that does NOT have the musical notes icon.
Step 9: Play and enjoy. Remember that you need to select "Run with VDMS" every time.
Optionally, you can tinker with the various settings using the "Run with VDMS" option that has the musical notes icon next to it. This will also create a .VLP alias that you can use to run the game every time with the same settings without needing to reconfigure or right-click the executable.
Hope this helps someone.