Realy Old Games on Windows XP!

Unknown-One

Unknown-One

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I had a nostalgic moment and pulled out one of my many boxes of old DOS games to how well they would do about 10 years later, under Windows XP. I went through them one by one and wanted to show you guys the results and ask a couple questions.
All the games added to the list by me were run on teh fallowing setup (soon to be upgraded):
Windows XP Home - Service pack 2 and ALL recent windows updates.
AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.3ghz)
480MB DDR RAM

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Added by me:

1. The Ultimate Doom (Doom + an extra chapter):
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes (had to tinker with sound options)
Worked flawlessly without any major tweaking! I did download jDooM after a short time for better visuals, but it was not needed.

2. Doom II: Hell on Earth:
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes (had to tinker with sound options)
Again, worked without any issues but ran it under jDooM for better visuals

3. Wolfenstein 3D:
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
To my great surprise this game ran just fine as well, I didn’t even need to adjust the sound options!

4. Dark Forces:
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: No
The game runes just fine, unfortunately no amount of tweaking could make the sound work. If someone has a fix for this that would be great. :D

5. Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II:
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
No problems again! Windows XP is doing well so far.

6. The 7th Guest:
Playable: Yes (patches required)
Video Yes
Sound: Yes
After applying patches from HERE and fallowing THIS guide I finaly managed to get teh game to run! Thanks go to OpTiMaL for this one!

7: The 11th Hour (Sequel to The 7th Guest):
Playable: Yes (patches required)
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
After applying patches from HERE and tinkering with the games settings, it finaly loaded. Thanks go to OpTiMaL for this one as well!
The game runs to fast so you will need something to slow it down!!!

8. Arena:
Playable: No
Video No
Sound: No
Getting really old here, this game had no chance under XP.

9. Descent 2:
Soon to be tested...

Star Trek: Judgement Rights:
Soon to be tested...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Added by sq40:

Full Throttle
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: No

Really want the sound to work on this classic

Space Hulk
Playable: No
Video: No
Sound: No

Rebel Assault
Playable: No
Video: No
Sound:No

Wing Commander
Playable: No
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
Runs at light speed.. Too Darn Fast to play
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I know that some of these games would work with a properly prepared DOS boot floppy (The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour, Arena) but that’s not the point! I wanted to see how possible it was to run them under XP.
If anyone has any advice as to how to fix the problems mentioned, or make these games run under XP, pleas help! :p
 
the descent 2 demo is all fucked up on my computer. It loads fine and everything, but you can't controll anything properly. That game is soooo great. I'd play it any day over HL2 if I could get it to work ;)
 
Hmm, I think I've got that one floating around here somewhere, I'll test it and edit my first post with the results when I get a chance.
 
Not really what you are asking for, but...

You can also run DOSBOX, or some other DOS emulator to run older software on a newer box. I've used it for several old games, so that i can use the newer, faster, better computer instead of the old DOS computer i keep around just to play the old stuff on.
 
Here's a link to some patches for 7th Guest and 11th Hour.

http://www.tbyte.com/downloads/

From what I understand these are official patches, but they are beta only. They do work, though you might need a slowdown program if it runs too fast. The one I use is called Turbo.

I defintely recommend giving DOSBox, like already suggested, a try for some of the other games on your list.
 
I have the Ultimate Doom Collection and the annoying thing for me is that the mouse doesn't work under WinXP Pro. Nothing I do will make it work. Doesn't take long to get reacquainted with the key but it's still annoying. :(
 
My GF and I just built a p2 400 just to run DOS and play DOS games. We even tracked down a classic soundblaster card just to have sound that will easily run with any old DOS games...


We've got all the classics, most of them we both have owned legal copies of beforehand and the copies we use now are zip100 disk of her old dos pc.
 
Try DosBox, it loaded Pagan for me with no problems at all, perfect sound and everything. They've got a long list with compatability for different games and it auto sets sounds for the games and stuff, plus its free :)
 
Instead of a slowdown program, maybe you could run Folding @ home instead to slow your CPU... ;)

Anyways, what was your setup?

Windows version, service pack level

Hardware in question etc. I would like to know :)

-E

 
Anybody here remember "Eradicator" ? That game was the shit... first real game I ever played... had some sweet graphics too... I'd love to get my hands on it again, anybody have a copy of it?

LadyMakoFox said:
My GF and I just built a p2 400 just to run DOS and play DOS games. We even tracked down a classic soundblaster card just to have sound that will easily run with any old DOS games...


We've got all the classics, most of them we both have owned legal copies of beforehand and the copies we use now are zip100 disk of her old dos pc.
Click to expand...

P2-400, that was one hell of a processor... quite an idea you have there
 
If anyone remembers the game Star Trek: Judgement Rights......came out in the mid 90's if i remember correctly. I have the game, loved it when it DID play (which wasn't very often) however, I have tried DosBox and it failed to work


Does anyone know of something else that could get this game up and running?

P.S. If you know how to get Sam & Max working too, that would be great.
 
Chaulk up another vote for DOSBox, it seems to be the best one around.

I used SCUMM for a little while, and I played through Sam N Max again under it, but DOSBox can run some of the games that have been perennial sticklers, like XCom: UFO Defense, and Master of Orion.

Also, since many of these games have become abandonware, you can pick them up easily!
 
Anyone have any Luck with the X-Com Series or Maybe the Origonal Magic: The Gathering Series?
 
Full Throttle
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: No

Really want the sound to work on this classic

Space Hulk
Playable: No
Video: No
Sound: No

Rebel Assault
Playable: No
Video: No
Sound:No

Wing Commander
Playable: No
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
Runs at light speed.. Too Darn Fast to play
 
LadyMakoFox said:
My GF and I just built a p2 400 just to run DOS and play DOS games. We even tracked down a classic soundblaster card just to have sound that will easily run with any old DOS games...


We've got all the classics, most of them we both have owned legal copies of beforehand and the copies we use now are zip100 disk of her old dos pc.
Click to expand...

I've been wondering what to do with my old P2 266. I may PM u in the future if I ever get off my lazy butt and put it together. I miss the old Privateer and some other games I got laying around :)
 
I use dosbox to for dos games because I can keep the cpu usage down on my laptop with it. 100% cpu usage tends to have a negative effect on battery life.
 
Nasty_Savage said:
I've been wondering what to do with my old P2 266. I may PM u in the future if I ever get off my lazy butt and put it together. I miss the old Privateer and some other games I got laying around :)
Click to expand...

I've been playing privateer lately myself. Just use dosbox, privateer works perfectly. You may have to do a bit of tweaking to get it running just right, but for me it works well.
 
obviouslytom, Star Trek: Judgement Rites works in DOSBox. I can't look at how I have it set up right now though as my main computer is going to be out of commission for a few days.

I would have to recommend ScummVM for most of the LucasArts games like Sam and Max or Full Throttle.

Wolf-R1, If you haven't already tried it, I suggest giving jDoom a try.
 
I would love to know how to get the Magic the Gathering game to work the Duel of the Planeswalker one
 
Jonsey said:
I've been playing privateer lately myself. Just use dosbox, privateer works perfectly. You may have to do a bit of tweaking to get it running just right, but for me it works well.
Click to expand...

ShhhhhhhHHHHHH! I need to find something to do with my old p2 266 damn you! :D
 
sq40 said:
Wing Commander
Playable: No
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
Runs at light speed.. Too Darn Fast to play
Click to expand...

ROFL!
ya still got a 5-1/4" floopy drive bangin' around and loaded 12 discs?
there's gaming dedication for 'ya :D


Jonsey, is that the early Privateer or Privateer 2 the Darkening?
 
Stormshade said:
Anyone have any Luck with the X-Com Series or Maybe the Origonal Magic: The Gathering Series?
Click to expand...

X-com 1 and 2 both have windows versions released that work reasonably well. I am also fairly certain that they are freeware... they came bundled with some video game magazines as part of a classic game special.
 
Stormshade said:
Anyone have any Luck with the X-Com Series or Maybe the Origonal Magic: The Gathering Series?
Click to expand...

Um, YEAH. I've got both running fine on my laptops. I often play with a "Super Twisted" deck in MTG (running on my old laptop, PIII 500 with XP Pro SP2, no special requirements) on Saturday mornings (well before that died two months ago... but it works perfectly on my new R3000Z, too.

XCOM works fine, but there are some minor sound issues; you do need to use the XCOM Fix patch, and it needs to be slowed, slightly. You can get a native Win95 version from Home of the Underdogs, which has the patch in it.

My MTG installed ok in XP native mode, but the Duel of the Ancients DID NOT (wouldn't install period). HoTU version works flawless on any machine my wife doesn't use (she can't use Deckbuilder, I can). Of course, ManaLink in the third one works, but there's no one to connect to.....
 
Jonsey said:
I've been playing privateer lately myself. Just use dosbox, privateer works perfectly. You may have to do a bit of tweaking to get it running just right, but for me it works well.
Click to expand...

Not to get off topic, But Freelancer is one hell of a Semi-Sequel...
 
Stormshade said:
Anyone have any Luck with the X-Com Series or Maybe the Origonal Magic: The Gathering Series?
Click to expand...
I could get XCom Windows version to run on XP Pro, but not with music, even with the patch. To get the whole game, I run it in DOSBox v.63. You can scale up/down the CPU cycles, so it's pretty good for today's laptops and PCs.

Still, I find the biggest advantage is that I can confound the ignoramus IT guys at work, play games and not have it show in the (monitored) tasklist.
 
Unknown-One said:
I had a nostalgic moment and pulled out one of my many boxes of old DOS games to how well they would do about 10 years later, under Windows XP. I went through them one by one and wanted to show you guys the results and ask a couple questions.


4. Dark Forces:
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: No
The game runes just fine, unfortunately no amount of tweaking could make the sound work. If someone has a fix for this that would be great. :D
Click to expand...

For dark forces, get VDMsound to get sound working. Mouse is slow as shit though :(

sq40 said:
Full Throttle
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: No

Really want the sound to work on this classic

Space Hulk
Playable: No
Video: No
Sound: No

Rebel Assault
Playable: No
Video: No
Sound:No

Wing Commander
Playable: No
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
Runs at light speed.. Too Darn Fast to play
Click to expand...

Dosbox will help on all but WC. Get MOSLO for that. Cost you a bit for the full version, but it works GREAT on all those games.

edit: SCUMMVM is better than dosbox for any lucasarts game up to the dig.
 
Syndicate works great in DOSBox. Syndicate Wars works but is unplayably slow though, even with the cycles cranked up. I remember trying Syndicate Wars with VDMSound and not having any luck but I don't remember any details.
 
i tried to play the latest version of Wing commander. Prophecy. But it has video bugs, and i KNOW newer hardware can run all the cool settings, but it only turns them on if you have a voodoo card.

I wish there was just a way to view the videos from the old wing commander games. they had some decent acting, but those graphics are just too old.
 
EchoMatrix said:
i tried to play the latest version of Wing commander. Prophecy. But it has video bugs, and i KNOW newer hardware can run all the cool settings, but it only turns them on if you have a voodoo card.

I wish there was just a way to view the videos from the old wing commander games. they had some decent acting, but those graphics are just too old.
Click to expand...

If the game is good, the graphics never get too old ;)
 
sq40 said:
Wing Commander
Playable: No
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
Runs at light speed.. Too Darn Fast to play
Click to expand...

LMAO! I remember when that game was released, you had to spend almost 3000 on a computer that could run it at a decent speed!!!
 
sq40 said:
Not to get off topic, But Freelancer is one hell of a Semi-Sequel...
Click to expand...

Developers didn't quite live up to a few hopes, like a changing dynamic economy and such, but yeah, definitely not visually lacking at all, beats SWG:JTL, and felt a lot like playing Privateer. Privateer 2 wasn't bad, but.. coulda been better too. X, X-2, Battlecruiser series, etc, all could've benefited from a little more simplicity and more multiplayer.. Freelancer; it's really good at it I hear, but never tried it myself. Persistent stats if you stay on the same server apparently.

Anyone know if Solar Winds and Solar Winds 2 ever became freeware or where to get 'em? First PC game I ever tried.. fun stuff :)
 
I have been trying to get Space Quest VI to work on my PC with no luck. It is made for Windows, but it will not even load in Windows XP. I used Virtual PC on my PowerBook G4 and installed Windows 98 SE and it works, though there are delays between bits of speech. I installed VMWare Workstation on my other notebook, a 17" Hypersonic with a Pentium 4 processor and 1 Gb of RAM, and it worked, but was still sluggish. I have attempted a multiboot setup using Windows XP and Windows 98 SE or Windows Me but hit a brick wall finding a video driver. The notebook uses a Radeon Mobility 9700 with 256 Mb of RAM. I found the last release of Omega Drivers for Windows 98 and Windows Me and was able to reach the Windows login screen. (Enter your password or press ESC for root.) The moment I entered the password and pressed Enter, the computer would either report a problem with a file (I believe it was KRNL32.DLL, but it has been a few days since I did this), or the computer would just freeze. I used to hate the idea of a multiboot system, but today, most computers can be at the desktop in just a few seconds, so it is not such a problem. I have used DOSbox, and it does work for some games, but I have spent hours trying to tweak it for others, and the thing that always gets the best of me is sound. It either doesn't work, or when it does, the computer slows to a crawl and the sound sometimes stutters. It has done this on every computer I have tried it on: my former gaming system, a dual Xeon 2.4 Ghz with 1 Gb of RAM, my LAN box, a Pentium 4 2.4 with 1 Gb of RAM, and my Hypersonic notebook. Apart from the Hypersonic, all of my experience has been with either Sound Blaster Live! or Sound Blaster Audigy sound cards. Maybe that has an impact? Though it wouldn't help with the problem on the Hypersonic. :) Oh well, I'm rambling now. :)
 
obviouslytom said:
If anyone remembers the game Star Trek: Judgement Rights......came out in the mid 90's if i remember correctly. I have the game, loved it when it DID play (which wasn't very often) however, I have tried DosBox and it failed to work


Does anyone know of something else that could get this game up and running?

P.S. If you know how to get Sam & Max working too, that would be great.
Click to expand...
Another Star Trek game that I loved was Star Trek: A Final Unity. If I recall correctly, I was unable to get it to work in Windows XP when I last tried, several months ago. :(
 
Hmmm... I remember when my family got Wing Commander (it was our family's first computer we've ever had (that was windows based) Gateway 2000.

We bought Wing Commander at the store, and my older brother really wanted it, and I wanted to try it to (I was 7 at the time, my brother 14) and when we went to install it, it wouldn't work, and our computer wasn't good enough. :(

Poor ol' compy. It still holds a place in my heart, and in my basement.

ALSO!!!! Interesting thing I noticed...

SIM Theme Park (non-dos game)

Can be installed
Will not run
(will open the intro movie SOMETIMES, but will crash, no matter how many compatibility tests I ran and tried, I called all these companies up and none knew what to do (heh but one of the companies started my love for AMD, for when I was on the phone with him, he started telling me about AMD, I don't remember how it got started, but he convinced me it was much more superior than Intel.)

But yeah, don't know why SIM Theme Park doesn't work, I loved that game.

I tried running the original doom, the "demo" CD I guess (it says demo, probably because it only has the first chapter of the game) It's red. But it won't run, but then again, I was never good with DOS. And I haven't tried those other programs either, but I don't really care anyway. I have Ultimate Doom.

Oh... and what was with "Final" Doom? What did that have that Ultimate Doom didn't have? Was it any different? And I guess you can play Doom 2 on the Ultimate Doom CD, because My cousin (who was 22 at the time) popped in the ultimate doom cd and typed in this code on the dos screen, and it loaded up doom 2... I don't remember what it was.

So yeah. Sorry for my long post. Just nostalgia lane.
 
CaptRingold said:
Developers didn't quite live up to a few hopes, like a changing dynamic economy and such, but yeah, definitely not visually lacking at all, beats SWG:JTL, and felt a lot like playing Privateer. Privateer 2 wasn't bad, but.. coulda been better too. X, X-2, Battlecruiser series, etc, all could've benefited from a little more simplicity and more multiplayer.. Freelancer; it's really good at it I hear, but never tried it myself. Persistent stats if you stay on the same server apparently.

Anyone know if Solar Winds and Solar Winds 2 ever became freeware or where to get 'em? First PC game I ever tried.. fun stuff :)
Click to expand...
I used to play Freelancer with friends, but we found we quickly maxed out our ships and hardware, and the game soon became just a lot of flying around and exploring, but nothing new. I bought X2, but I have not played it for more than a few minutes. I -really- need to install it again and concentrate on it, because I loved what I saw. It is unfortunate that there is no multiplayer component to it, though.
 
I have found some games require EMS memory. The NF2 and the NF3 Board I had and have both prevent this. The Onboard NIC stops it (uses that memory area).

I just put in a NIC and disabled the Onboard.

Yes it would run in DOSBox, but the game is sluggest in that.

Master of Orion

DM
 
Stormshade said:
Anyone have any Luck with the X-Com Series or Maybe the Origonal Magic: The Gathering Series?
Click to expand...
I have managed to get most of the X-Com games to work in Windows XP in the past. As I previously indicated though, sound is an issue. It took almost one minute for the Microprose logo to fade in because the sound slowed things down so much. :( Without sound, it plays fine. I have the X-Com Collection, if it makes any difference. (I do not think it does. It does not appear that they made any modifications to the games, just tossed it all on a few CDs.)
 
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