Win95/DOS games and XP
 

Is there a catch-all emulator/.ini tweak/driver solution to get Windows 95 and DOS games running on XP? I'm sick of tracking down classics, installing and patching them, but finding out that they're still unplayable. I've given up on Daggerfall four separate times over the last two years.

I've just now installed Dark Reign. I skipped the DirectX3 install, but then got a message to the tune of 'no Win95 detected'. Clicked next, got install successful message.

Booted up, clicked New Game, get this:

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9682/drsq8.png

Cancelling just exits to desktop. I try the other patch the torrent came with, and I get 'Dark Reign not properly installed'.

I'm sick of being barred from great games because of a (likely) OS compatibilty thing I should be able to fix. Help a gamer out.

Well, every person I have talked to that plays DOS games on XP uses Dosbox (do a search on google for it, it's hosted at sourceforge). It can get fairly complicated, but from what I"ve seen no other emulator beats DosBox's efficency. I would at least look some stuff up on it and see if it's what you're looking for.


As for Windows 95/98 games, I ususally try to run it in compatiblility mode, and if that doesn't work I check in random forums to see if anyone has found a way to get that particular game to run in XP.

Yes he's right, DOSbox is probably the best solution right now and is compatible with almost all of the games. I recommend using a frontend like D-Fend to configure your games since it uses a menu instead of the commandline interface. Makes things easier.

I usually use ntcompatible.com for game issues like this. They don't always have an answer for every game, but usually it works. Of course, this isn't the universal fix you're looking for, but if you have any stand-out issues, this is the place I'd recommend.

http://www.ntcompatible.com/Dark_Reign_c318.html

I have an solution to fix the incompatibility of win95 games with winXP, at least some of theme. For example in Dark Reign, aftr the install, locate the dark reign Exe file run proprities on it and set it in windows 95 compatibility mode. That shoud fix the problem ;)

Yeah, changing OS compatibility worked fine. Cheers, ya lebs.