Need help installing old games in Win7 x64...

[maugomale]

Ok, so I downloaded this huge pack of awesome old Star Wars games (X-Wing series, Rogue Squadron 3D, Dark Forces II, Racer). As I ran the setup launcher and try to install them, I get this message that says due to incompatibility with x64 OS, I should run the setup.exe that's within the disc. As I try that, I get yet ANOTHER message that says that the game can't be installed at all due to incompatibility.

 

I really wanna play these games, but I'm not sure what to do anymore. I've googled it around and found out I should use the XP Mode in Win7 to make them work, but I'm not sure. I wanted to check it with you guys. If anyone could give me a hand here, I'd be grateful.

 

Also, I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate. :drinks:

[Hardy]

you'll need another pc with windows 98. even if you get them working on 7 64, they'll most likely have graphical glitches, crashes and sound problems. i got rogue squadron working on xp without crashing after the first mission using a hex editor. u have to edit the offset values in the exe.

 

you can use hex editor by neo.

 

go to offset 17B889h

 

change the value under 'values' to B8.

 

do the same for these...

 

17B88Ah to 00

17B88Bh to 00

17B88Ch to 00

17B88Dh to 00

17B88Eh to 90

17B88Fh to 90

 

save the hexed exe and replace the original one with it.

 

dunno if that'll work for windows 7 64.

[Od!uM]

you have to make a shortcut to each of your original .exe's then what you want to do is force them to run in windows 2000 compatibility. I play Tie Fighter and Dark Forces II on my PC all the time and I run Windows 7 Pro x64.

[Hardy]

you have to make a shortcut to each of your original .exe's then what you want to do is force them to run in windows 2000 compatibility. I play Tie Fighter and Dark Forces II on my PC all the time and I run Windows 7 Pro x64.

 

[Zan]

mmm what you could do is get win98 SE install disc, download Virtualbox and run win98 as a virtual machine, then play your games there without much fuss.

[maugomale]

you have to make a shortcut to each of your original .exe's then what you want to do is force them to run in windows 2000 compatibility. I play Tie Fighter and Dark Forces II on my PC all the time and I run Windows 7 Pro x64.

 

Well, you see, the problem I'm having is with the installation setup. I can't get it to install. Displays a message that due to x64 OS incompatibility, the game won't install. How did you do it? o.o

[Cmdr. Zap]

Well, for Win 7 ultimate you might try installing Microsoft's XP virtual machine mode for Win 7. You should have access to that with Ultimate. The download for it can be found on the Microsoft website. Might help with these games, and it's useful for various other older software. I think it helped me with a game that had the x64 compatibility problem.

[maugomale]

Well, for Win 7 ultimate you might try installing Microsoft's XP virtual machine mode for Win 7. You should have access to that with Ultimate. The download for it can be found on the Microsoft website. Might help with these games, and it's useful for various other older software. I think it helped me with a game that had the x64 compatibility problem.

 

I take it it's the only way, then? I already have it downloaded, but didn't install it to check if there were easier alternatives. Guess I got no other choice, eh?

 

Thanks for the help, everyone!

[Cmdr. Zap]

I take it it's the only way, then? I already have it downloaded, but didn't install it to check if there were easier alternatives. Guess I got no other choice, eh?

 

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Yeah, that's the easiest way I could find. I wouldn't be too reluctant to install the XP mode, it's actually useful for quite a lot of things. Pretty much any x16 bit software will have a problem installing on the x64 bit OS, and I've found the virtual XP system to be quite a good way to circumvent that issue. From the earlier posts, it looks like Rogue Squadron 3D might have some issues with XP too, but compatibility modes might help with that. As for X-Wing and DF II, I've installed them on an XP machine without too much trouble. As I recall, DFII has some problems with the FMV cut scenes, and X-Wing, Tie Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance needed to be run in the 98 compatibility mode.

[maugomale]

One more question: Do I need to install video card drivers on the virtual XP? I'm running low on disk space, and I don't want to waste any more than I can afford.

[Hardy]

One more question: Do I need to install video card drivers on the virtual XP? I'm running low on disk space, and I don't want to waste any more than I can afford.

 

No. Virtual PC/Emulators only emulates limited hardware. If you install/use Windows 98 through an emulator you'll only get 4MB of a generic trident video. Average 98 game needs 16-32MB. You can't use your existing video card.

 

50-100 bucks should buy you a 98SE tower with Pentium III 550Mhz, 512MB ram and 32MB graphics or equivalent. Plenty to run those games. Look at second hand electronic stores or ebay. Theres no other way round it.

[Cmdr. Zap]

Hmm, I didn't realize the hardware was so limited with the XP mode, but it looks like HDY is correct. The Virtual XP mode is pretty much for business software. Still, X-wing and Tie Fighter might work with this, they don't have 3-D acceleration, but you'd have to check the requirements. Other than that, getting an old 98 machine somewhere is probably your best bet if you wanna run x16 bit apps.

[startana]

Hmm, I didn't realize the hardware was so limited with the XP mode, but it looks like HDY is correct. The Virtual XP mode is pretty much for business software. Still, X-wing and Tie Fighter might work with this, they don't have 3-D acceleration, but you'd have to check the requirements. Other than that, getting an old 98 machine somewhere is probably your best bet if you wanna run x16 bit apps.

 

Yeah, the WinXP mode on Windows 7 is designed SOLELY to address complaints users had about not being able to run productivity software for XP on Windows Vista. The XP mode for Windows 7 is actually a lot like running parallels on a Mac, in that neither allows you use OpenGL, direct3d, etc.

 

On the subject of getting older games to run though, I am able to play Dark Forces, Jedi Knight: DF2, and Jedi Knight: MotS on 64bit Windows 7 Professional. As far as the install goes, I don't remember having any issues installing, and then to run I just changed compatibility mode setting, set it to run as administrator, set it to disable aero, and then just ran the exe directly. If that doesn't work, I think there is some kind of bundle on Steam that has a lot of older Star Wars games. It may mean re-buying some games, but the price should be low, and it would presumably work on your current rig.

[SierraEx]

virtual PC is not the only way, this way worked for me

 

open up the CD and find the setup file, right click and go to compatibility and run it in Windows XP SP 3 compatibility

you will also need to do this for the game exe

[Hardy]

virtual PC is not the only way, this way worked for me

 

open up the CD and find the setup file, right click and go to compatibility and run it in Windows XP SP 3 compatibility

you will also need to do this for the game exe

 

This doesn't work for most games older then 10 years. Compatibility mode has gotta be the most pointless feature included in windows. Even if you get it working, more often then not the game won't run properly. It'll either crash and/or flicker graphical glitches.

 

I have the Doom 95 collection, they don't work at all on Vista+, even through dosbox.

[Frogman]

I know I am a couple years past a timely response to this topic, but I have answers! Since I came across this topic trying to solve this very problem I figured i would post my solutions to help those who find it in the future.

 

First running Dark forces on Windows 64 bit systems (works for win xp also). simple solution

Step 1. Download Dark Forces Here (yes legal full version)

http://www.myabandon...dark-forces-2t4

Step 2. Download the XLEngine here (also known as DarkXL)

 

http://xlengine.com/?page_id=50

Step 3. Extract the star-wars-dark-forces.zip file to a directory on the C drive.

NOTE: I tried extracting to other drives and had no luck. My Dark forces is in

C:\OldGames\star-wars-dark-forces

 

Step 4 Extract the XL Engine into a directory on you C drive

Mine is in c:\XLengine

 

Step 5: Run the XLengine_Launcher and set your Dark forces file path (click on the Dark Forces logo on the left hand side to switch from Daggerfall)

Step 6: Play! Mouse look is enabled and you can customize some controls. 95% of the game music works.

 

Second:

Hardy if you are still on this forum, Here is your solution for playing old school Doom + Doom2 on Win Xp, Win Vista + 7

Go here and download the legacy program

http://doomlegacy.sourceforge.net/

 

This will allow you not only to play those great games but to customize your controls and enable mouse look.

[Supa]

I've gotten games like Rebel Assault and Dark Forces working on Windows 7 64-bit with DOSBOX, but it was a really big pain in the ass. It took me something like 3 hours to get it working, and by the time I did get it installed, I wanted to just cry myself to sleep.

[Hardy]

Thanks for those links Frog. I've since gotten all the doom games working through dosbox along with a several other games but no matter how much I emulate these games, I end up going back to the real thing on my 98 PC. It doesnt matter how much time and effort I put into researching - I just end up going back to it because the Windows versions of games like Doom, Red Alert & Grand Theft Auto are better then their Dos counterparts.

[Bars]

If your not squeamish find and pirate a copy of vmware workstation 8.0.2. It allows you to divert 128mb of vram w/ 3d acceleration enabled per virtual machine. A feature VBox has not equaled. Then you can use remote desktop to the VM for full screen, good performance, hotkeys and sound etc