I feel really stupid having to ask this, but my Aunt has just discovered what a computer is and has bought all these windows 95/98 games she found some place or another. Her computer has Vista on it and won't let any of the games run for longer than a few seconds. I've no idea if theres a way to get Vista to run the games or not. I've tried the properties>compatibility tab>windows XP>apply method but it only allows the game to play for a few seconds longer. I've looked up the damn games and half of them don't have websites anymore or the publishers don't even acknowledge the games. >.<'

I though about trying to run a simulation of windows 98 for her to play it on but she's just getting used to the mouse let alone anything that detailed for her. So if you can try to keep it as simple as possible.

If you could help I'd appreciate it...even if it's to tell me to talk her into buying some new games lol >.<' Damn woman wont listen to anything I say, just wants me to make it work.

*Sighs* Women, let me tell you. lol (Yes, I'm a female admitting women are difficult, score one for the men lol)

^_^

You might be fighting a losing battle there, if my experiences with trying to get SS2 to run on XP is any indication.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Vista is...tricky with older stuff. I'm not entirely sure, but, I think there's way that you can have multiple OS's on your machine at the same time, and can switch between them, ie have both Vista and XP or 2000 or 98 etc. But, I've never done it myself, so not really sure how easy it is ^^'

I agree with Gothmogll, Either partition (separate the hard drive into 2 parts) part of the harddrive and install an older operating system (win95/98) (and do it yourself! v.important) or just replace vista with win95/98 completely and when your aunt asks why it vista looks different....lie

I know how you feel AngeL Sl4yuR :3

About the only pre-2001 game my Vista will run is American McGee's Alice. Otherwise it needs to have dedicated programs to make it run.

there is a way to have mutliple OS on your computer, but I don't know how. when you turn it on you select what OS you want to use...but I don't know how

I couldn't even play Beyond Good and Evil on mine... They fed me some bullcrap story about other operating system not being able to work on most new machines and made me buy Vista. I am an idiot.

install 98 on a new partition and when you boot up there should be a key displayed that you can press to choose which OS to boot in...

problem solved, except for the part that no one here knows how to actually install both OS's

Help ya if I could, but my knowledge of Vista is limited to the few times someone got a demo PC working... That program is CURSED!

Thing could be uncooperative because of the DOS factor... Win95/98 games still included some DOS fragments, and while XP can mimic them, Vista has no DOS whatsoever and no inclination to make old things usable.

lol Thanks You guys. I know how to partition the systems but I just didn't want it to have to come to that. I was hoping for an easier fix to this. Bastards at windows! There's no reason I shouldn't be able to play older games on a new system.

^_^

Oh by the way TheNecroswanson, your so getting beat...I'll pretend like you don't like it. ;)

It is possible to use almost any old program with Vista... It just takes some work, sometimes a lot of work. If you want to make it easy you could install Windows 98 in a VMWare virtual machine and run apps through that, although even that might be a bit complicated.

AnGeL.SLayer:

Oh by the way TheNecroswanson, your so getting beat...I'll pretend like you don't like it. ;)

Score one for the boys back home!

ok let me give you an even easier way of doing this

right click on the exe of the game you want and choose properties, in the properties window click the compatibility tab, click the box that say "run it as this" and then pick the versions of windows you want and there you go

no formatting because you'd have to reformat the computer, install windows 98 on the c parition and then install vista again and setup the boot menu for it

lol cleverlymadeup I did that already, you didn't read all the way through did you? :P silly boy. hehe *pats on head* it's okay though, I still love you.

^_^

AnGeL.SLayer:
lol cleverlymadeup I did that already, you didn't read all the way through did you? :P silly boy. hehe *pats on head* it's okay though, I still love you.

then run an emulator, dosbox works great and it's free as in speach and beer

formatting is a pain, especially if your aunt has no clue about computers, it's a LOT of work even if you do and doesn't always work, windows 9x has a bad habit of borking your mbr

Might be worth giving up. Unless it's, say, some old lucas arts games, and you can run ScummVM. Though, does the ScummVM work for other dos based games?

I lul'd a bit inside.

Can't those games run on XP? I know my version of Lego Island, made in '97, runs on this machine. Couldn't you downgrade the machine, tell your aunt that Vista isn't being cooperative, and leave?

I have the oppsite problem, nothing too new will run on my computer. Oddly it will run BG2:SOA but not KOTOR, even when the grapics and sound are gutted. Go figure.

Alright, AnGeL.SLayer, what you're going to want is VMWare Player.
DosBox probably won't work if its a Win9x Game.
ScummVM won't work if it isn't a Sierra Game.
Compatibility mode is just never going to work.

To put Win95/98 into the free VMWare Player, you're going to need 2 things:
1. A .vmx file. This is a plain-text file that describes the virtual machine you're making to VMWare. Google easyvmx for making one quickly.
2. A .vmdk file. This is a VMWare disk image to install Windows into. Google for one of those too. The cool thing is the .vmdk will only take up the space it uses. So a 20GB vmdk will only use 500MB if that's all you have installed.

Once that's all done you're going to start up your new virtual machine and tell it to boot from a Win95 cd just like installing it for real--only you don't have to reboot.

Now that I've shared my knowledge I can sleep easy.

DOSbox, It's the best way to run old games on a newer system, or run it in a Virtual machine like VMplayer or VMworkstation if you have the cash? Or simpler yet, run Vista in compatibility mode for Win 98 on that program? Install Windows 95 on a partition??!?! Wow good luck with that... You'll probably give up long before you ever find a compatible driver (There is no more support for 95 or 98). You could probably pick up an old computer at a flea market for next to nothing to play them, (Try and make sure they have the install disks and drivers if possible). Go with 98SE though, 95 is a real pain. lots of PC gamers keep old systems around just to play old games. I have an old P3 for that. :)

tea of evil:
Alright, AnGeL.SLayer, what you're going to want is VMWare Player.
DosBox probably won't work if its a Win9x Game.
ScummVM won't work if it isn't a Sierra Game.
Compatibility mode is just never going to work.

To put Win95/98 into the free VMWare Player, you're going to need 2 things:
1. A .vmx file. This is a plain-text file that describes the virtual machine you're making to VMWare. Google easyvmx for making one quickly.
2. A .vmdk file. This is a VMWare disk image to install Windows into. Google for one of those too. The cool think is the .vmdk will only take up the space it uses. So a 20GB vmdk will only use 500MB if that's all you have installed.

Once that's all done you're going to start up your new virtual machine and tell it to boot from a Win95 cd just like installing it for real--only you don't have to reboot.

Now that I've shared my knowledge I can sleep easy.

lol I'm touched you joined just to help me. ^_^ Don't be surprised if I pop up beside you as you sleep to ask you to come over and help me with this. lol Aye I'll give it a try...but it's gonna be even harder because I failed to mention she doesn't have the internet....*proceeds to bang head against wall*

And you even took the time to type my name RIGHT unlike some people I won't name...*eyes Thenecroswanson*

^_^

Some of the older games have loyal fanbases whe have made various programs to "upgrade" the games to run on newer systems, though the only ones I know of are Duke Nukem 3D and Doom/Doom 2 which you can get 3D/will run on your "fancy" machine/no sound errors patches for.

Also, I would recommend you let her train for the amount of logic and sheer twitch power needed for some games... Download Steam and bestow upon her the gift of Counter-Strike: Source! It's training power is awe-inspiring.

Booze Zombie:
Also, I would recommend you let her train for the amount of logic and sheer twitch power needed for some games... Download Steam and bestow upon her the gift of Counter-Strike: Source! It's training power is awe-inspiring.

HAAHA 'sheer twitch power' that was great. Thank you for that, really. lol And I've already got her hooked on Scientist Hunt. Oh how I love that chainsaw...ehehe

^_^

AnGeL.SLayer:

And you even took the time to type my name RIGHT unlike some people I won't name...*eyes Thenecroswanson*

^_^

What'chu talkin' bout AnG37 Slayer? I'm sorry, I just can't pronounce the accent.

To be honest, Vista's nowhere near the best OS - especially not for someone who's just getting used to computers. When it craps up for the first time, install XP on it for her and she should have less compatibility issues in the future.

Have you tried uninstalling the games, running compatibility mode on the programs in the DISK then installing, and compatability modeing the installed components? That usually works for me.

vmware is a very good sollution for the problem. That or installing GNU Linux and running the applications under its WINE ability. That is how I fixed my brother's pc to play getteysburg :)

tea of evil:

DosBox probably won't work if its a Win9x Game.

actually it will since windows 95/98 are dos based :)

xp was the first fully dos free consumer os m$ put out, everything before that was dos based. yes 2k wasn't HOWEVER it wasn't consumer focused

...which is why I said probably. Now you've stirred up the know-it-all in me (please forgive me).

A little bit of Windows history is required to explain. DOS is a 16-bit OS that can only run one program at a time. Basically DOS has to had over control to all of the hardware to let something do anything. This is why to run DOS games Win9x you have to switch to the command prompt and use DosBox everywhere else.

Win95-ME is a 16-bit OS that can run 32-bit code, and its this wonky setup that gives AnGeL.SLayer and other Vista users a problem because Vista can't run 16-bit code. NT and its descendants had Windows-on-Windows to make up for this, however Vista can't run WoW and thus the problem.

So, if its a DOS game then DosBox is the answer. If its a 16-bit Win95 game its VMWare/Install 98 or nothing.