Realy Old Games on Windows XP!

[Boar-Ral]

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...

I have a LAN box that I have considered installing Windows 98 SE or Windows Me on. (Don't laugh; I've actually had very good luck using Windows Me. It was a much more stable operating system than Windows 98 SE on my particular hardware setup, before the days of Windows XP.) Unfortunately, what I am trying to do is sell all of my other computer hardware, apart from my PowerBook G4 and Hypersonic notebook. The entire point of buying my Hypersonic notebook was to be able to consolidate all of my other computers into it and have less clutter around the apartment.) If I could get all of my older games to work on that notebook, I would be in heaven.

 

[Boar-Ral]

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!!!

I remember buying the game and going to a friend's house so I could copy the disks from the high density ones to a huge pile of low density ones, because my computer didn't have a high density floppy drive. The game barely ran, but I stayed up late countless nights to play it. I never imagined the day I would have the -opposite- problem; too much computer!

 

[braidman]

What about scorched earth? anyone?

Why did no one ever make a true clone of that program, possibly with some updated functionality (multiplayer, faster animations) but still 2d and the same cheesy graphics....

 

[Unknown-One]

Anyways, what was your setup?
Windows version, service pack level
Hardware in question etc. I would like to know

I'll update my first post with that, thanks!

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.

I DO have that game, I'll dig it out and see what I can do with it.

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'll add those to teh list in teh first post if you dont mind

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

Dont knock teh old 5-1/4 drives! When I had to put my 3-1/2 floppy in my Lain Li I said "eh, what teh hell!" and painted both my larg and small drives black to match my computer and threw them both in!
(I'll have to get a pic of that )

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.

YAY! both games are working!!! The 7th guest ran at normal speed, but The 11th Hour was zipping around like crazy!
I did have one small problem with The 7th Guest, at teh top of the stairs there is a painting that morphs when you touch it, the game crashes when I touch this painting
Seeing how buggy these are, I may just see how rusty my codeing skills are

 

[Noodles in a bowl]

To ScHpAnKy's question from the first page
I have a copy of Eradicator on cd, it all runs fine on XP home (well apart from I haven't got the sound working yet).
Sorry though, its quite a long way to the US from here, and I just don't think I could throw it that far!

Generaly to the rest of the thread i've two older systems (in a big shoebox under my desk!) which I use to run older games (especially c&c and red alert with mates)
They pc's cost nothing, from a skip outside my old school. So much less hasssle than trying to run things on xp. Both run Windows ME, which i've never had any problems with!

The 'Alone in the Dark' series was awesome, cannon fodder two, original worms, duke nukem 3d, dune 2, rebel assult, netstorm, Dawn patrol (why has nobody else made a decent WW1 flyer???), earthsiege, monkey island, close combt, etc etc. Ah the good old days

Edit: Just went and found my BBC Acorn, booted it up and loaded the original Elite; gaming nirvana as far as i'm concerned

 

[Kevin003]

Red Baron 2
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
Very playable and still a classic

Secret of Monkey Island
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: Yes
Plays just as good as it did back in the day. Still an amazing game.

Orginal Nascar Racing
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: No
No sound. Other than that still an oldie but a goodie.

Jeporady
Playable: Yes
Video: Yes
Sound: No
Once again i can't hear anything. I loved to hear the hosts voice.

 

[kamxam]

I have a game called "The horde" i might try to play again. I have both the star trek games from way back and got them to work but not well. I did get colonization to run in windows finally and that's one game i wish they'd make a remake of someday.
I got xcom:terror from the deep to play, but it was so fast it was pretty much unplayable so will have to get a slowing program.
I have a ton of old programs that i can't seem to part with so will try them out...hehe

 

[LadyMakoFox]

basicly for all you all who want the dos games I'd suggest you just build a DOS Box machine.


All you need is an older cpu I'd suggest the earily Intel p3's or a late p2, the mainboard I'd suggest your mobo have an intel chipset and only the ones ending in BX for this.

Next, find an old soundblaster card (best place is pawnshops or second hand stores) then basicly get harddrives and such for it.


I found this to be the best way to play old DOS games.


for those of you who must have an OS besides DOS, I have Win95 installed on it just so I can browse the net or whatever when needed.



I've already got an Apple II with 700 disk (games/apps/all kinds of crap) lined up to be sent to me, all I have to do is pay shipping


I <3 these games, they are why I'm a gamer nowdays.

 

[Unknown-One]

heh, looks like I started a trend

 

[Boar-Ral]

basicly for all you all who want the dos games I'd suggest you just build a DOS Box machine.

Two weeks ago I setup my Pentium 2.4 LAN box to my parents though they brought it back today because they thought it was too noisy. So I think it might end up being my computer to play old games on, since I've all but given up on getting Windows Me to work on my notebook. I just need to find an out of the way place for it now.

 

[LadyMakoFox]

heh, looks like I started a trend

Not really, my gf and I have been seeking this kinda stuff for ages.. Took us a long time to find an original soundblaster card..


If I can bend all the pins without breaking them on my 386 and 486's back to normal I'm most likely gonna rebuild them for more things to do.

 

[Unknown-One]

If I can bend all the pins without breaking them on my 386 and 486's back to normal I'm most likely gonna rebuild them for more things to do.

I know exactly what youre talking about! I just found two old 486's and one has all the pins bent over! I REALY hope none of them snap off when I'm bending hem back

 

[LadyMakoFox]

I know exactly what youre talking about! I just found two old 486's and one has all the pins bent over! I REALY hope none of them snap off when I'm bending hem back

Thing is that 386 is my first x86 platform cpu

 

[ScHpAnKy]

I know exactly what youre talking about! I just found two old 486's and one has all the pins bent over! I REALY hope none of them snap off when I'm bending hem back

Mechanical pencils own for this operation!

 

[talley]

Fury 3 - everything btu joysticks seems to work fine in xp sp 1 & 2 for me.

 

[Gophermaster]

I've been trying to get Fallout 2 working on a machine very similar to the OPs. I've heard that it can work but I can't seem to do any good.

 

[SecCom]

I just got C&C 95 working on XP, but it requires an interesting process to get it to work. Few files to patch and you need to activate the CD and game to have Win95 compatibility.

I'm trying to get X-Com working right now, but I'm having issues with my floppy drive

 

[SecCom]

Fury 3 - everything btu joysticks seems to work fine in xp sp 1 & 2 for me.

I remember buying that game with a percission pro joystick, it was heaven on earth. That game was so cool.

 

[acra2]

I bring about the future of old DOS gaming on a new machine and it's called a "virtual machine".....

Seriously, get a copy of MS Virtual Machine,

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx (45day trial)

It emulates an older system that has a S3 graphics card and a soundblaster and you install the OS of your choice on it and away you go.... it even emulates a network card.

I got two new XP boxes to play Red Alert (win95) aganist each other both inside the virtual machines over IPX.

 

[Frosteh]

If you're fan of old puzzle adventure games, might i recomend SCUMM VM (Virtual Machine) which emulates the SCUMM engine used to make such games as monkey island, and a lot of the point and click puzzle games to follow.

Google SCUMM VM for the link, works like a dream *thumbs up*

 

[Monkey34]

Wow. I'm surprised everyone doesnt have an old Win 95/98 box lying around for old games. I've got 3 of them taking up space(but only use the celeron 600 for games w/ win 98).

 

[Nasty_Savage]

As a side note, I just got Myth: The Fallen Lords to work on my "modern' game rig (i never did finish it ) I just hope my new 20.1 inch ws dell monitor I'm getting doesn't have issues with it...

 

[OpTiMaL]

Thought I would point out a group that has done some brilliant remakes of old Sierra adventure games. These are available to download for free.

http://www.agdinteractive.com/

They have currently completed King's Quest 1 and King's Quest 2. They even got the original voice actor that played King Graham in King's Quest 5 and 6 to play the voice of him once again.

They're currently working on Quest for Glory 2 (aka Hero Quest 2).

Seeing how buggy these are, I may just see how rusty my codeing skills are

If you make any progress with that let me know. Would be nice if it had a few less bugs.

 

[MikeTimbers]

Raptor: Call of the Shadows works under XP - I'm not certain it was a DOS game but it's old enough to be.

 

[rpkitche]

I haven't tried any, but here is a list of DOS games, some freeware.
http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/list/

 

[Boar-Ral]

I bring about the future of old DOS gaming on a new machine and it's called a "virtual machine".....

Seriously, get a copy of MS Virtual Machine,

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx (45day trial)

It emulates an older system that has a S3 graphics card and a soundblaster and you install the OS of your choice on it and away you go.... it even emulates a network card.

I got two new XP boxes to play Red Alert (win95) aganist each other both inside the virtual machines over IPX.

The only problem with Virtual PC, as I indicated earlier, is that some of the last games to come out that won't work with Windows XP will generally operate too slow on Virtual PC, even on cutting edge hardware. There are not many of these games that are slow like this, but there are a few, unfortunately. (Like Space Quest VI, as I mentioned.) Just my two cents.

 

[NIVO]

I have tried for over a year to get the original Southpark game going on XP, tried all the compatibility modes and it still exits back to desktop. I would really love to get it going becuase I so wanna play some old skool multiplayer. Nothing beats a yellow snowball firefight! Any had a chance to try this one yet in XP? please post results. Thanks

 

[wtburnette]

I've been trying to figure out if I should build an old DOS box to play Forsaken on. That game rocked, but I think it had to have a specific DirectX version...

 

[lopoetve]

The only problem with Virtual PC, as I indicated earlier, is that some of the last games to come out that won't work with Windows XP will generally operate too slow on Virtual PC, even on cutting edge hardware. There are not many of these games that are slow like this, but there are a few, unfortunately. (Like Space Quest VI, as I mentioned.) Just my two cents.

The other issue is that MS fucked up VPC04. If you have a game that changes the resolution of the screen, it'll dump out to your real windows setting with an error you can't make go away. something about security risks,

 

[lopoetve]

What about scorched earth? anyone?

Why did no one ever make a true clone of that program, possibly with some updated functionality (multiplayer, faster animations) but still 2d and the same cheesy graphics....

There is an updated version.

I bring about the future of old DOS gaming on a new machine and it's called a "virtual machine".....

Seriously, get a copy of MS Virtual Machine,

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx (45day trial)

It emulates an older system that has a S3 graphics card and a soundblaster and you install the OS of your choice on it and away you go.... it even emulates a network card.

I got two new XP boxes to play Red Alert (win95) aganist each other both inside the virtual machines over IPX.

MSVPC04 blows. They broke several dos memory things that worked in Connectix's versio, they bugged windows so it can't do some of the res changes it should, and performance actually DECREASED from connectix.

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

Never buying an NFanything board then. That's BS.

 

[BlackDragon323]

I dont feel like reading thru 4 pages, so sue me.


I can confirm Arena works with DOSbox.
I'm using XP Pro with SP2, as well, and it runs great.
Also, if you WANT Arena, go to Elderscrolls.com and they have it for free to d/l.



I have a thing for retro-gaming, and I when my bf looked at what I was playing (arena or Pools of radiance, forgot..) he was like, WTF? weren't you just playing Doom3 a moment ago? WTF is that?

You can't have old-school gaming without all the old school emu's: MAME,ZSNES,Gens,DOSbox.....*sigh*

I've lost my copy of 7th Guest and cant seem to find a place to buy it (or d/l for that matter...shhh!), so if anyone's got a link to where I can get it please let me know, I miss that game!

-=JAJ=-

 

[OpTiMaL]

I would check either Amazon or eBay for 7th Guest. Should be able to get it for only a few bucks.

 

[Ender.Wiggin]

And for any of you Relentless/LBA/Twinsen's Odyssey fans, there is a Windows utility (LBAWIN) that will help you play Relentless/LBA, as well as a Windows XP patch for Twinsen's Odyssey/LBA2 and an active fan base on the Magicball Network Forums.

http://lbawin.akoonet.com/

http://el-muerte.student.utwente.nl/lba/forum/index.php?

 

[nephilim]

Not sure how well it works anymore, but this used to get sound on tons of old games. Emulates a SB card and some of the old DOS mode.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/

 

[doubleJ]

I play Tomb Raider using Glidos and Vdmsound. It works fine under Win2k, at least, and the TRx project has updated graphics!!!
About Forsaken, I played the downloaded demo on my work Winxp system and it was fine.
JJ

 

[Unknown-One]

If you make any progress with that let me know. Would be nice if it had a few less bugs.

I'll let you know, at the moment I'm trying to figure out how The 7th Guest has its data encrypted, if I can figure that out I'll be 1/3 the way to makeing something that can "play" it
Any ideas on that one? diging through the files with a hex editor didnt turn up anything familiar

 

[kamxam]

The sequel to Scorched earth is Scorched earth 3D. It's a free download and it is interesting to say the least. Just have to get used to the new interface and it's as addicting as the previous ones were.
Just look up the Scorched Earth 3d on the search bar on your browser and you should be able to find it fairly easy.

 

[Unknown-One]

OpTiMaL, you wanted to know where I am currently. Well I'm trying to decode teh games audio and have had partial success! Useing MFAudio I opened the "GAMWAV.GJD" file from CD 1 and input the fallowing values:

RAW - Raw Sound Data - Uncompressed PCM
Frequancy: 11070
Samples: 16
Channels: 1
Interleave: (box greyed out because of teh current "Channeles" setting)
Offset: 10

I can distinctly hear Stauf speaking, (and VERY CLEARLY laughing and saying "up and down, and left and right, thats the way the cards unhide"), as well as some music. The only problem is that there is a lot of static, so I must have something wrong in that list of settings. I think its the frequancy but I cant be sure...

 

[Unknown-One]

small update:
The 11th Hour is older than I thought! I opened the game manual for teh first time in ages and the binding gave out All the pages spilled out onto the floor Oh well...

Oh, and in other news I managed to extract one of the 11th hours data files! The file format for audio in The 11th Hour is ".rol". I cant think of anything that can play rol files, so I decided to try and brute force my way through it with MFAudio again. After extracting "mrdeath.rol" I loaded it in to MFAudio and eventualy ended up with the same problem I had with the audio from The 7th Guest. I could clearly hear teh music, but no matter what setting I tinkered with I could not get rid of the static.

Any ideas?

 

[OpTiMaL]

Sorry about the manual. I wish I could lend a hand, but I don't know very much when it comes to decoding a game or anything. Maybe someone else here with some experience in this sort of thing that would be willing to help?

Also, for the person that mentioned Star Trek: A Final Unity. That game is capable of running in DOSBox, but it takes some work to get it running properly. I think the method to get it running was posted in the DOSBox forums a bit ago.