Compatibility fun!
I think Microsoft really needs to make a decent Win95 emulator.
Seriously, on my desk just now i have a bunch of games including: The 11th hour, Escape from horrorland, Dark Forces, and a whole lot besides. Iknow they're not actually often that good but i want to play them nonetheless.
However, the only way i'm going to play any of these is if i go down to the garage, lift 2-3 fairly heavy boxes of crap up to my room, lay out the ol' Win95 computer inside onto my desk, plug it all in, and then spend half an hour while it laughs at me getting it to work. It's not fun. Hell, the only reason it all still works is because the viruses are too busy fighting it out amongst themselves to bother with the actual computer.
Surely Microsoft could spend a month or two making an emulator just so i can relive my past gaming memories and realise that many of the games i played then are nowhere near as good as i thought they were at the time.
I have DosBox and ScummVM but surely someone could be so kind? Besides, then Linux and Apple users can experience the fun of having their childhood memories dragged out and crushed!
(Yes, i know about Virtual PC and such but really? come on!)
Seriously, on my desk just now i have a bunch of games including: The 11th hour, Escape from horrorland, Dark Forces, and a whole lot besides. Iknow they're not actually often that good but i want to play them nonetheless.
However, the only way i'm going to play any of these is if i go down to the garage, lift 2-3 fairly heavy boxes of crap up to my room, lay out the ol' Win95 computer inside onto my desk, plug it all in, and then spend half an hour while it laughs at me getting it to work. It's not fun. Hell, the only reason it all still works is because the viruses are too busy fighting it out amongst themselves to bother with the actual computer.
Surely Microsoft could spend a month or two making an emulator just so i can relive my past gaming memories and realise that many of the games i played then are nowhere near as good as i thought they were at the time.
I have DosBox and ScummVM but surely someone could be so kind? Besides, then Linux and Apple users can experience the fun of having their childhood memories dragged out and crushed!
(Yes, i know about Virtual PC and such but really? come on!)
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I've never run up against a Win95/98 game that I couldn't make work in XP, though the 2 others you mention I don't own.
Have you tried winXP's compatibilty modes (right click the executable and choose 'run as win95') or used the Compatibility Fix?
What exactly is the problem when you tried to play the games you listed above?
Whenever i try to run a game such as toonstruck, it comes up with an error message along the lines of:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\autoexec.nt. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications
with an option to either close or ignore. both of which close it
This (as far as i can tell) means 'I can't run this because it is not designed for my use!'
I grabbed an old Pentium II - 350 MHz w/ 1.6 GB disk, threw PC DOS on it (I still have the floppies), threw Win for WG 3.1.1 on it (CD), added network drivers, the TCP/IP stack for WFW w/ DHCP, Sound Blaster, and of course a CPU slowdown tool - MoSlo, I believe. Now I have a genuine DOS environment so that I can FINALLY finish "Magic Carpet".
Anyway to save space, I bought a $60 Belkin KVM switch at BestBuy. So now my DOS system and my Linux/"whatever I want it to be" system are connected to the same keyboard, mouse, and monitor. No need for emulation, and the most "space" that's lost is the floor space for the DOS/WFW system, which is a mini-tower anyway. It's a much better solution than dual-booting or using emulation. No reason why the same can't be done for a Windows 95 system -- and if you install it on more modern hardware w/ 256 MB or so of memory I'll bet that it would be screaming fast as well.
Copy and paste the autoexec.nt file from
C:\windows\repair\
to
C:\windows\system32\
Then try to install again... :-B
www.ntcompatible.com
http://home.earthlink.net/~angeldancer27/XpGameListA_E.htm
if anyone else is having trouble go to them. they will be your friend. i managed to get the 11th hour working and i think if i follow the help from the second site and bang my head into my computer enough i should get ToonStruck working. oh, and i think i can probably get Dark Forces working now that i have the patch from this site
http://support.packardbell.com/de/mypc/index.php?PibItemNr=6945970000&PibItemParent=P920400503
which basically stops WinXP Service Pack 2 sticking its ugly head into my emulated DOS type fun. (Sorry i didn't make these into proper links and stuff but i'm far too lazy.)
so far have done the drive mount and set it up for C:
then tying in the game file name simply gives the error message
'this program cannot be run in DOS mode'
Which is strange since many one of the sites quoted here in this thread leads to another webpage that lists games which someone has been able to work in xp INCLUDING ESCAPE FROM HORRORLAND IN DOSBOX. This confuses me. lol.
I present the ultimate challenge to all pc users more literate than me. Help me please!
Exception code: C000008E FLT_DIVIDE_BY_ZERO
Fault address: 0051BD80 01:0011AD80 C:\Program Files\Fox\Croc\croc.exe
Registers:
EAX:00723948
EBX:00723988
ECX:00000014
EDX:00723908
ESI:00000000
EDI:00000008
CS:EIP:001B:0051C00B
SS:ESP:0023:0012E374 EBP:00000000
DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:003B GS:0000
Flags:00210293
Croc 2 runs perfectly fine in XP, BTW.