Thread: cant run 16 bit programs?

Vista?

xp.

run windows 98 in a virtual machine
vmware or vmplayer
virtualbox

or if it is a really old game
freedos
dosbox

excuse my ignorance but what?

i know how to use the computer but im no programmer.

i know it ran on 98.

A virtual machine is a computer that is a program.

So you can run vmware or virtualbox (virtualisation software) with a copy of windows 98 installed inside.

So you have an old computer running inside your computer.

This way you can go to town and install old stuff and it will not interfere with you day to day computing. Some of those old games have screen resolution requirements.



I think if you run the program from a dos prompt you may have more luck. You can configure the dos prompt to perform certain ways but I would have to look tomorrow.

Try Google [program emulator] for some cues. The notion is to simulate another CPU and/or OS in software. IIRC, there were/are some programs available to execute old CP/M (Z80) executables/applications in early PCs (DOS) when some of us had to make the awkward transition. Add some program or OS keywords to narrow the search.

Joe

Weisyboy,
You have to ask yourself if it's worth the trouble, after all it's just a game.
Out of curiosity what game is it?
I've boxes full of stuff that was OK for 95 that didn't like 98 and stuff that was OK for 98 that didn't like XP and now Vista is here - well it's Groundhog Day.

Ian

BTW Happy Birthday

its a game called pharaoh that is doing it now.


other programs have done it in the past.

fund this:

Platform: Windows 98 / 2000 / Me / 95

Search 'compatibility mode' in your XP Help and Support centre - that should nobble most problems.

I can also vaguely remember having a similar sort of problem that was solved by installing the game in a higher directory. Instead of letting it install in C:\Documents and Settings\admin\My Games\Halo 2 or whatever, just install it in C:\Pharoh - sometimes having a path that is too long can bugger the game installer that can't cope with really long paths.

In the same way some old games go 'not enough RAM' when they need 64 meg and you install them on a system with 2 gig...the installer does its RAM check and wasn't written to cope with today's RAM sizes, so the 'answer' returned by the operating system overflows the installer giving a wrong value (ie it's expecting a number between 0 and 999, it gets an answer like 2048 so it ends up thinking the answer is 048...which is 'not enough'!!)

i have tried compatability mode and it didnt seam to help.

but i dont know if i did it right or not.

Details here...

http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/.../msg00075.html

thanks for that mate ill try it when i get home sundy night

still no luck boys is all hope lost?

Buy an old PC ($20 to 40) and load W95. Keeps the old games realistic.