Well, here we are again! Windows 7 is already 3 years old and Windows 8 was released in October 2012. Support for XP will cease in April 2014, just a little over a year from now. Say what you want about Microsoft, the fact that they have continued to provide support for this venerable operating system for going on thirteen years has been great for those of us who are gamers. I built a low-end computer just to house my old XP hard drive.

But, things change and move on, especially in technology. And, boy, did they move on this time with Windows 8. There are good things and bad things to say about this new operating system, but I also remember much gnashing of the teeth when the “horrible disaster called XP” was released. I refused to give up my Windows 98 for four years. All I can say is that Windows 8 is here and I don’t see Microsoft going back to the “old ways” anytime soon.

So with that said, I’ve been running Windows 8 for about 6 months off and on and for about 3 months full time with Windows 8 Pro. I will leave all the arguments about whether it’s good or bad or something in between to those who know far more than I do. What I care about is if it works for me and if I can continue my self-admitted gaming addiction in the new operating system.

I installed Windows 8 Pro in my good old system that I built in 2009, so it is running on 4 year old hardware. I will include my computer specs for reference. As you can see, they are far from “cutting edge.” But I use my computers until they no longer suit my purposes or croak beyond repair.

Processor - Intel Core Two Duo, Wolfdale E-8400, 3.0 Ghtz
Disk drive - 500 GB WD 32 MB cache
Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 video card, 896 MB
Creative SB X-Fi sound card
4 GB RAM

UPDATES
Processor - Ivy Bridge Core i5 @ 3.6 GHtz
Disk drive - 1 TB WD Velociraptor
Video Card - Nvidia Geforce GTX Overclocked 660Ti
Ram - 8 GB
Sound Card - Creative SB X-Fi

I've updated to Windows 8.1 and then to the Windows 8.1 Update with no effect on games.

I’m also running Windows 7 in the same system on a super fast solid state boot drive and another 500 GB data hard drive.

On to the reason for this post… games. As time permits, I’m testing all my games on Windows 8 Pro. Unless otherwise noted, these are all original CD or DVD versions of the games and I installed to the default location of C:\Program Files (x86). I have played each of the games to where I interact with inventory items by picking them up and using them, saving a game, exiting the game and loading a saved game. I’ve made sure dialogue trees work and the sound and video behave as they are intended. The list is short at this point, but I will add to it as I am able, so check this thread often. They include adventure, RPG, FPS, platformers, action and casual games. We welcome all other experiences on Windows 8 with your games. I'm concentrating on games pre-Windows 7 which was released in October 2009.

NOTE: You may see a message saying "Windows has protected your computer. SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this program might put your PC at risk." If you click OK, the window will close and nothing will happen. If you click on "More Information," you will be given the option to Run Anyway. I got this with the Squirt the Cat installers and I selected Run Anyway.

NOTE 2: GOG is now including Windows 8 on their game information. So, if you run into an old game that won't run on Windows 7 or Windows 8, you may be able to find it there. We will assume that if GOG says one of their games will run on Windows 8, there shouldn't be any problems.

GAMES THAT INSTALLED AND PLAYED WITH NO ISSUES OR ONLY MINOR TWEAKS

American McGee's Alice 2000

A Vampyre Story 2008

Barrow Hill 2006 NOTE: Had to go to the game folder to send a game shortcut to the desktop.

Big Fish Casual Games NOTE: I had two which would not play on the Windows 8 Release Preview. I notified Big Fish and when the official OS was released, I found both games now played. They told me they were going through their game catalogue and patching any games that had problems.

Bioshock 2007

Chains of Satinav 2012 Although this is a new game, there was a question about it in the Glitches forum, so I'm including it. Oldman played in on his Windows 8 with no problems.

Culpa Innata, Uncut Version 2007 Oldman installed the game, but got an "unable to process, error 1275" message. When he installed the updated Tages copy protection drivers, the game launched and played normally. You can get the Tages drivers here... make sure you get the correct version for your computer, 32-bit or 64-bit.

Tages Copy Protection Drivers

Dark Fall Lights Out 2004

Dark Fall The Journal 2002

Deus Ex 2000 After a rocky start, Diat60 was able to get this game installed and running. She initially got a large installation screen that she couldn't do anything with. She then tried some fixes from another website, but none of them worked. She then uninstalled everything including the game and tried again. This time when a message box from Windows offered to diagnose and correct problems, she let it run and after a couple of adjustments on Windows part, everything worked as it should.

Diablo II Lord of Destruction Expansion Pack 2000/2001 Had a notice that the game was not compatible and giving options for getting help on line or running it anyway. I right clicked the game icon, selected Properties and then opted to run it in XP SP3 mode. The game plays perfectly.

Dracula Resurrection 2000 NOTE: Another surprise. Initially the game didn’t install, but I right clicked the setup file on the disk and clicked on Run as Administrator. The setup asked me if I wanted to install DirectX 6.1 and I said yes. The game ran perfectly – I couldn’t run it in XP without selecting Windows 98 in Compatibility Mode. I did have to send a game shortcut icon to the desktop. The game installed to C:\Program Files.

Dracula The Last Sanctuary 2001

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 2001 Initially I got an error message that the disk was damaged or had bad sectors. Since I knew it didn't, I went to the Setup file (inside the Setup folder) on the disk, right clicked and selected Run as Administrator. The game installed and played perfectly. I played all the way through the first challenge with no problems at all.

Haunting at Cliffhouse 2012

Keepsake 2006

Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events 2004

Morrowind 2003

Myst Masterpiece Edition 2000 (original game was 1993) My biggest surprise so far. I could not get this game to play well at all on my Windows 7 unless I did some serious gyrations. Even the GOG version did not play well without a couple of tweaks. However, I installed it on Windows 8 with all the defaults and it plays perfectly. When asked if I wanted to install Quicktime 4, I said yes. When asked if I wanted to install DirectX 6.1, I said yes.

Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls IV 2006


Pandora's Box 1999 Bristol got this venerable old game to run on her Windows 8 computer by using the patch. Pandora's Box Patch

Penumbra Overture 2007

Prey 2006

Ratatouille 2007

Scratches 2006 NOTE: In Windows 7, it was necessary to access the Scratches game file and edit the Scream.cfg file… but not in Windows 8.

Syberia I – 2003 At the end of installation on disk 2, I got an error, but the game works perfectly. Error was DirectX 8.0a Object error; Unknown error.

Syberia II 2004

The Hobbit 2003 NOTE: Had to go to the game folder to send a game shortcut to the desktop.

The Lost Crown 2007

Tombraider Underworld 2008

Undying 2001 (Clive Barker's Undying)

Uru, Ages Beyond Myst 2003

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2004


GAMES THAT NEEDED SIGNIFICANT EXTRA STEPS TO INSTALL AND/OR PLAY

Bioshock 2 2010 Although this is a later game, I got an error message when installing it and the same error message when I tried to launch the game. The error referred to a missing .dll file in Windows Live. This is a Games for Windows Live game, so I opened up the GFWL client which said I needed to download an update. After I downloaded the update, the game runs perfectly.

Dracula Origin 2008 I could not get this game to install at all, even using compatibility mode - I suspect Windows 8 is blocking the Tages copy protection. However, Starcom got it to install and play using the NoCD fix. I'm going to double check it and hopefully this one can be added to the "plays" list. EDIT: Nope, didn't work for me. I cannot get the game to install at all. Starcom and I "seem" to have the same original 3 CD version, but it worked for him.

Grim Fandango 1998 I used the 3rd party installer and launcher and this game installed, launched and played perfectly. However, when I pressed F1 and saved the game, I lost all sound when I resumed the game. When I exited and then started it back up again, the sound was fine. I tried XP SP2 compatibility with no success. Then I tried Windows 98 compatibility and was able to save, resume, exit, reload etc. with no loss of sound. You will need the installer and the launcher which can be found at these two links.

Grim Fandando Installer
Grim Fandango Launcher

Shivers 2 1997 I was finally able to get this old Sierra game working by using the installer from Squirt the Cat. After I installed the game using the installer, I went to the game folder (C:\Program Files (x86)) and sent an application shortcut to the desktop. I also changed the icon to the one found in the game folder. The game ran perfectly after that. Squirt the Cat installers can be found here:

Squirt the Cat Installers


GAMES THAT WOULD NOT INSTALL OR PLAY

Amber Journeys Beyond

Riven, The Sequel to Myst

Shivers I

Silent Hill 2 The game installed fine, but I had to say NO to installing DirectX 8.1. If I said yes, the installation aborted. Game loaded and I played for about 1/2 hour. Unfortunately, I could not do a save. I believe the issue concerns the hard drive size. Message was it needed 32 KB space and free space was 99999999+ KB. Then it checked the hard drive and said the save was corrupted.

Zanzarah - I finally give up on this one. We found a work around in Windows 7 which involved importing a saved game from a computer running XP. But even that didn't work. The game installed and would load, but the cutscenes had flashing lights and the whole game ran in slo-mo. Shucks.

NEW CATEGORY: LIMBO!

Myst Exile 2001 The game installed and played. However, all the video flashed constantly. Once the video was done, then the game worked just fine. InlandAZ suggested missing codecs and I downloaded and installed the K-Lite codec package. No change. Tried some settings in my Nvidia Conrol Panel and finally gave up. Inland, however, installed the game in his Windows 8 running in a VMWare image and it installed and ran perfectly for him.

Draclvr thanks for the info. I appreciate it and I look forward to your list of playable games on W8.

Same here Draclvr, I now have Windows 8 64 bit Laptop (I had it for about a month now) and I appreciate the time and effort you take to test out the games.

As for Shivers II, did you try the installer from Squirt the Cat that you mentioned in your test for Win7 64 bit yet?
I no longer have the game so I can't test it here, but just curious.

By the way, thanks to your recommendations regarding programs like Stardock I absolutely love Win8, with Stardock you get the best of both worlds, Win7 at start-up and one simple click and you can test drive Win8, also thanks to InlandAZ, and others for testing out Win8 and giving us your feedbacks

I tried the Squirt the Cat installer with Shivers 2 last night, but it didn't work. I'm going to try again this morning with a couple of cups of coffee in me!

EDIT: Success this morning! I'll edit the post. I'm going to try the installer for Amber too, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thanx a bunch Draclvr! You R a Dear!

Just curious, why does it work when you send a shortcut to the desktop Drac ?

Dunn

It would work just fine to go to c:\Program Files (x86)\The Game File\application launcher. But I don't want to do that - I want to double click an icon on my desktop. The game installer just didn't put one there during installation.

Oh, Ok thanks,

Dunn

Thanks Drac

Thanx Draclvr, My old laptop just died and have had to get a new one needless to say it runs on Win 8 so fingers crossed

Big Thank You to Draclvr. I have very few of these games and don't have Windows 8 yet but I appreciate the effort you went to to record and share this.

Here's hoping I will get to personally try these games on Win8 soon.

Thanks, Bob. I'm plugging away at it as time permits. I'm hoping that people who have games that I don't will check them out so we can add them to the post.

Hi,
Just dropped by to say that I was able to play "Riven The sequel to Myst" from GOG on my Windows 8 64 bit Laptop, I just let GOG pretty much let it install by itself and do it’s setup, the only thing I changed was the “Install to destination” in which I choose to install it in my C:\Games folder and the game played without a hitch, crash or any hiccups.

That's good to know, Starcom! Does GOG advertise Riven as playable on Windows 8?

Yes they do Dralvr,
here is the link if others are interested:

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/riven_the_sequel_to_myst

take care
Ray

Is Windows 8 64-bit an asset or a problem when it comes to gaming?

In my opinion, it's an asset because you can use more than 4 MB of RAM in your computer for other things. For the few games that are 16-bit code and won't play on 64-bit operating systems, there are other alternatives.

If you have a higher end computer such as the one you were looking at earlier, then you should definitely get the 64-bit operating system, be it Windows 7 or Windows 8.

I put a 32-bit Windows 7 operating system on our computer we use at the American Legion because I only put 2 GB of RAM in it. That's all we need, so it made sense. But if you have more than 4 GB of RAM, then you need the 64-bit OS.

I am going to lend my Myst(the original) and Delaware St John #2 and Agon 1-3 to a friend.. Mom has win 7 and he has win 8.
Has anyone tried to play these.. and do I need to make a separate folder for them and keep them out of Program Files.
I am still using XP so I can not try them out.
thanks

Check in my Windows 7 and Games thread. It seems to me I could not get the Myst Masterpiece Edition to play without a lot of tweaking. I finally downloaded the GOG version and even it needed something to get it to run properly. I believe they have fixed that by now though. They list is as working on both Windows 7 and Windows 8.

I don't have the Delaware St. John game to test on Windows 8.1.

I don't remember if the Agon games were listed in the Windows 7 thread, so check there. For the most part, if a game played in Windows 7, it also played in Windows 8.

What I do with these games is to first try to install them normally. 99% of the time, that works. If there are issues, the next step is to try compatibility mode. If that works, then you're good to go. If none of that works, then I install in Documents.

If your Myst is the original Myst, I doubt it will work natively in Windows 7, but it's worth a try.

GOG has the Myst games for $5.99.

Thanks Drac..mine is the original.. I checked already in your list of games.. guess I will go over and just try to load them... with all the games I have I am bound to find one that will work. They are Big Fish gamers and want to step up .. :-)

Let me know how it goes!

thanks share

Gray Matter installed and played without a hitch in Win 8.

I'll add it to the list... Thanks, Cue!

Hi, hoping someone can help. I just managed to install from disc Simon the Sorcerer 4 on my Win8 laptop. Took some doing but got there in the end but when I tried to launch the game a message came up saying xul.dll missing. I downloaded and installed from the internet then another message came up saying mozjs.dll missing. I tried downloading and installing this. it seems to have downloaded ok but when I click install, the window showing the progress flashes momentarily then disappears therefore it is not installing. Can anyone help? ScummVM doesn't support this game. Also...simple terms please...I'm not a techie!

First thing is, where are you downloading these .dlls from? Dll download sites are notorious for malware. Did you scan the download with your anti-virus program before you did anything with it?

I have to leave to go muck stalls in just a few minutes, but hopefully someone can check in later to help you out. Have you tried right clicking the game icon and running as administrator. Or right clicking and selecting Properties and running the Troubleshooter?

Hi Draclvr,

I used a site called dll-files.com. I am pretty wary and Norton confirmed it as safe. And, yes, I did try running as administrator and running the trouble shooter but neither worked.

There may be nothing wrong with the files you downloaded, but there are different versions of those files and the ones you found online may not be the ones the game needs. The game "should" install the files it needs, so you may have had a bad install. You might try uninstalling the game, setting the installer to run with compatibility mode set to to an older version of Windows (I'd try XP first), and then running the installer.

I've tried absolutely everything now and nothing works. Still getting the same message. There are some blogs from people getting this message when trying to run Firefox but they are quite old and I don't get what Firefox has to do with running a game from disc! Looks like I may have to give up unless there are any other suggestions out there.

I sure can't think of anything else to try. I've had one or two games that I simply had to give up on. That's why I've kept my trusty old XP computer. I've taken it off-line and just use it for stuff like this.

Oh well. Had to give up on Dreamfall too. In fact it corrupted this Pc and the previous one! Had to restore to a previous point in order to get it working....the pitfalls of being an old addict!

I've purchased Windows 8 recently but reading all your posts on it, it looks like I have my work cut out for me. Thanks for all the info. I'm sure I'll be back.

Midgie

Midge, if you have any questions or need any help at all, please PM me! I can do Windows 8.1 in my sleep!

Has anyone found a way to make Pandora's Box work with 8.1? I just keep getting a message "not compatible, etc.".

Hi, Bristol... sorry I have responded, but I've been out of town for 5 days. Just got off the road and have to run in town to a meeting. I'll try to get back to you tomorrow! I don't have this game and don't know anything about it, but I'll see what I can find out.

Drac, will Grim Fandango work on Windows 7? I don't have 8 and I didn't see it in the Win 7 list.

It is in the Windows 7 and Games thread with a link to the installer. Check down in the "G's." It works great!

I've read that ResidualVM. has at long last made it possible to play Grim Fandango on modern machines if you're lucky enough to have a copy.
You still need the original patch from LucasArts which is availble on the ResidualVM download page.

Gil.

I'll have to check it out... thanks, Gil. The game is working great on both my Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 machines using the installers though.

Mine works fine on my Win 7, too, but I thought I'd mention it.

Gil.

I've checked out your link and am going to try it on both my drives... always good to have more than one solution for a great game!

Good to know about this, Gil - thank you!

I tried the Grim Fandango installer and tried to play the game. It says it won't run without the registry keys. Am I supposed to install from my CD also?
It also says PKZIP can't remove temp files.

Melia, I noticed the link in the Windows 7 and Games thread has changed the target to the Grim Launcher, not the Grim Setup. Use the links in the Windows 8 and Games thread - you'll need to download both files... the setup file to install the game and the Launcher to play the game. I'll need to have Jenny or MaG change the Windows 7 and Games link to say it is for the Launcher and add a link to the Grim Setup.

You will need to have your Grim CD in the drive and then run the Setup file.

OK I changed the links in the Windows 7 thread to match the ones in the Windows 8 thread. Do you want the description changed as well?

OK. Will give it a shot. Thanks.

Jenny, it might not hurt... It seems they have changed a few things since I made the post in the Windows 7 and Games thread. Thank you!

Hey Drac,

I replayed Aura: Fate of the Ages recently on my Win 8.1 machine. I didn't try to install it as-is but instead, for some reason, ran the installation and game executable using XP compatibility. Anyway, no worries. The game played flawlessly. I then wanted to play Aura: The Sacred Rings but I couldn't get it to play. The game installs fine but when I try to launch the game it goes unresponsive. I tried installing with no compatibility but that failed. I tried running the compatibility troubleshooter but no joy there (8.1 wanted to run Vista compatibility). I also tried XP but no luck. I see that this problem came up in the Windows 7 thread where Kemal said they couldn't get it running and ended up using VMWare to play it. However, Sarahandus got it to run without any issues.

Is VMWare a good way to go? I haven't run any virtual environments on my 8.1 machine.

I don't use any of the virtual machines, so can't comment on them. You do need to have a copy of a Windows operating system. I think Jenny and Inland are much more familiar with them, so you might ask in the general Glitches forum.

Installing VMWare.

Cue,
Have you tried installing and running as Administrator?
(Right-click the icon and choose "Run As Administrator" from the context menu.)
You could also try installing to some location other than C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86). This is what games from GOG do -- they install in a "C:\GOG Games" folder instead of where the original disc version of the games installed.


It is worth a try, since Kemal was able to get Sacred Rings playing inside VMware.

VMware is the best for running Windows 95/98 virtual machines on Windows 8/8.1.
VMware Player is free.
VMware Workstation is expensive --> ***link***.
VMware Fusion is for Macs, and is generally less expensive than Workstation --> ***link***.
So most gamers who use VMware use VMware Player.
I used Fusion when I was using a Mac.

VirtualBox is free, but does not run Windows 95 or 98 well at all.
It should work OK with Windows XP.

VirtualPC won't install and run without crashing on Windows 8/8.1 without a lot of fuss. Getting it to install and getting it to work without crashing are two different things. It worked much better with Windows 7. To get it working without crashes, I had to locate and download an antique version of Windows Phone, as well as an obscure upgrade that was not too new.

So of these three, VMware Player is the best choice for installing Windows 95/98 in a virtual machine that is running on Windows 8/8.1.

As Draclvr pointed out, all of these virtual environment programs need a Windows installation disc. And if you install XP or later on a virtual machine, you'll have to activate it after installing. If you do this, I'd advise you to back up your virtual machine immediately after Windows activation, before installing any games on it, so you can restore it to a fresh install condition without using up another activation.

Thanks Drac and Jenny. As usual, you are both very resourceful and informative.

I did try to run as administrator but it still came up unresponsive.

We use VMWare VSphere on our work network where SBS2008 Server hosts Windows 2000 Server and Window 2003 Server so I'm a little familiar with it. I didn't install it so that will be new to me. If the player has similar functionality and appearance as VSphere I may have a fighting chance to figure it out. I'm just a little nervous with the installation in Win 8.1 since everything I've done so far in Win 8 has been a bit trying. By the way, Drac, I did install Classic Shell for Win 8 and love the look. So much easier for me to get around.

I recently scrapped my XP computer when I bought my new Win 8 machine. Can I use the OS product code from that PC for the virtual installation?

Classic Shell has been a godsend for everyone who wants to take advantage of the "under the hood" improvements in Windows 8.1, but just can't stomach the UI. I called it Windows 7 Plus to someone last week!

I don't know about whether you can use the XP code or not - sometimes those OEM versions are tied to a certain computer. Jenny will know more.

The interface in VSphere is somewhat different from what you see in VMware Workstation -- and the interface you have in Player is a diminished version of what you see in Workstation. You may have to edit files to get access to some functionality.

However if you've been using VSphere, you shouldn't have trouble with VMware Player other than some differences in the user interface.

Whether it's legal to re-use the product code for your old XP computer would depend on whether the XP installed on it is a retail or OEM version. Often retail versions of XP were transferrable up to 3 activations, while OEM versions were only good for the activation on the computer they were originally installed on.

Am I remembering your old XP being somewhat the vintage of mine? Like an HP from around 2004? I've moved that hard drive to new computers twice meaning I had to activate the OEM version of XP twice as it recognized that is was on a different motherboard and never had any problems. But it might be different for just using the activation code.

I watched a YouTube video showing the VMWare installation as well as the OS installation within it. Looks pretty straightforward. I see that Microsoft actually offers an ISO image download for XP SP3 on their website. I'll try it with my OEM product key and see what happens. The worst that can happen is it fails...no harm, no fowl.

Great memory, Drac! I had that computer many years and finally gave it up. I really liked it but it was pretty technically challenged for gaming and I finally bit the bullet and bought a new machine when the motherboard died.

Thank you, Jenny, for your as ever astute and very helpful comments on this matter!

I've just moved to Windows 8.1., and boy, how hard it is to get just everything up running again. Windows has become so terribly restrictive and monopolist (or at least it's even more obvious than it was), that even some applications that were native Windows 7 software (and some quite expensive at that!) will no longer work, which takes you ages to work around issues or look for alternatives.

For instance, Virtual PC, which worked well on 7, is no longer supported and cannot even be installed. Microsoft now uses 'Hyper-V', but that's only available for Windows 8.1. Pro-edition, and I have the regular 'Home' Edition. Just awful.

I tried Oracle's VirtualBox, only to find out, that, as I wanted to run Windows 98 SE as a guest operating system (emulation, in other words), the so-called 'Guest Additions', which offer indispensable monitor, mouse and sound tweaking (otherwise you're stuck with just 16 colours on your screen) cannot be installed for Windows 98! It took me ages to at least attempt to install it, changing administrator settings and copying files to and fro, mounting and unmounting devices, but all to no avail, because the documentation clearly states that these Additions, somehow, are unsuitable for 98. Again, I should have taken your word for it!

So I got VMware Player. Installation of the application and installation of Windows 98 inside the virtual machine worked perfectly.

I got no sound devices, however, so I downloaded the Creative Labs sound drivers from here, and installed them inside the virtual machine (copied them to rewritable DVD first):

https://communities.vmware.com/message/2272670
Direct link: http://ccftp.creative.com/manualdn/Drivers/Others/1843/SBPCI_WebDrvsV5_12_01.exe

Then I got sound that skipped and was out of sync with the video.

So I went to Control Panel -> Multimedia -> Audio -> Advanced -> Hardware Acceleration -> None.

(Also accessible by right-clicking Loudspeaker logo at bottom right of screen -> Audio properties.)

That way I got the old Timescape: Journey to Pompeii/Pompeii: The Legend of Vesuvius running perfectly again, just as a test.

More to come, hopefully!

Rich

Thank you so much, Rich! It will be interesting to see how Windows 10 does with games. I guess time and technology marches on. I keep my old XP computer handy for the older games, but I play them so seldom. I have been getting the urge to load up Shivers though!

My old desktop which ran XP got 'fried' though, so I decided to go for a radical update of hardware and software, which was long overdue anyway, also because XP is no longer supported, so I guess should only be run offline to rule out vulnerability.

As for Windows 10, my advice would be: no rush whatsoever! I think it's pretty ridiculous that you have to throw away fully operational applications and peripherals (like printers or scanners), just because a new operating system no longer supports its versions or drivers! Especially when its content is far more important than the technology it's embedded in, and there are no real alternatives. Of course, emulation might help, which is exactly what I'm trying out!

Best,

Rich

Jenny said that she got Virtual PC running on Windows 8.1, but she went through a lot of hassles to get there.



Sounds like a headache and a half...

I think I misread, because the triple negatives did me in!

Rich

Virtual PC can be installed under Windows 8.x - just rename the executable to something other than setup.exe (e.g. Mysetup.exe).

Tried that. It installed, but crashed immediately when I tried to do anything with it. I had to install the Windows Phone and the update to get it to behave.

Oh dear, it turns out VMware Player doesn't play other games I installed al all .....

Installation runs deceptively smoothly, but games like Odyssey, China, Egypt II and Aztec (DVD versions) immediately crash on start-up.

In all cases, I get 'DirectDraw invalid mode' (DDERR_INVALIDMODE) error messages, and some more investigation reveals VMware doesn't support Direct3D acceleration at all for a Windows 98 guest, only later systems - 2000 and XP!

This makes VMware as an emulator pretty much useless for playing adventure games of the late Nineties/early 2000s, I guess!

I think I need to return to Qemu again, a really cumbersome program to start off with, but where you can set and tweak all installation parameters individually and manually! And once I'd gotten all of these right on XP, I could play most of these games!

Rich

P.S. But first of all I need a rest

After my little much-needed rest, some more VMware Player hints.

Another problem with playing vintage games on WMware Player is that they mostly have a fixed screen resolution of 800x600 pixels.

Though you can set the window running the guest system to any display size you want, when you start the game, it reverts to a small window of 800x600. You can set the VMware window to full screen mode, but then the game size will stay fixed, and you get huge black borders around your game screen.

See image for this anomaly.

In the free Player version, there is no facility to scale the screen (in VMware Workstation, there is a 'Stretch Guest' option), which means that every time you want to play the game, you have to set the display size of your (underlying) host system to 800x600!

There is, however, a program you can install to start VMware Player in a fixed, adjusted display of 800x600 by downloading the 12 Noon Display Changer 4.3.2.

From here: http://12noon.com/

If you follow the instructions found here:

https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-16772

you can create another 'VMware Player Game shortcut' on your desktop and specify as its target (mind you, this is on a Windows 8.1 host):


The initial rescaling of your screen looks truly terrible, but that way, you can still enjoy your old games in a Windows 98 or XP virtual machine!

And of course, if you shut your guest session, your host display will revert to its normal state.

Best,

Rich

P.S. The problem remains of the lack of DirectDraw and Direct3D support in the Windows 98 guest.

I just has a new gaming computer built and I attempted to load my latest Tex Murphy game and surprise it mentioned that there were missing files and could not continue installation. I have Windows 8. I had no problems with this game with windows xp. If anyone using windows 8 has had good luck installing with windows 8 please tell me what to do.

Can you tell us what missing files it mentioned?

I will get back to you because I became so frustrated and disappointed I just stopped installation. Today is labor day and I want NO drama.

I was so happy when I got my new custom built computer but the happiness was short lived when I began to install/reinstall my games. My guy would not install WXP as my o/s because xp was not supported as of July 2015 and Windows 8.1 was the wave of the future. I had bought Phantasmagoria at GOG a few months ago and wanted to install and play it on my new computer. It has three levels om install so I download part 1 and wanted to continue but oh no I got the following: The file could not be located in the installer folder. Please make sure that the file is in the correct folder or specify the current locationI found that the file in question is Binary file 813kb @ http://cdn.gog.com. That is important but I don't know what to do with it. Has anyone using 8.1 found this to be a problem or is it just me. I miss my old Windows XP

I am not sure what you mean by "three levels" and I wonder if you've misunderstood what the files are. I don't have this particular game, but it sounds like there may be one exe file and 2 bin files for data.

You have to have all installation files downloaded in order to install.

You can't install the first file, then the second file, then the third. You need all three in order to install anything.

You may have had a similar problem with the Tex Murphy game.

I can't add anything to what Jenny said - you must have all three files downloaded and in the correct folder before you can install anything.

This has nothing to do with what Windows operating system you have. This is how GOG manages their game downloads. If you continue to have problem, you can always contact them for help.

Are you using the GOG downloader to download the game?

Marian, I thought of that as soon as I posted earlier. If you use the GOG downloader, that will download all three parts into the correct folder and you don't have to do them individually.

Right. The option to use the GOG downloader is a bit hidden now in menu choices, but we can direct lexxy to that option if needed.

I used the word level when I meant 1of2/3/4/5. I have attempted using galaxy and so far so good. It seems to be taking a long time to download but I am sure it will be worth it. Thanks everyone for your input.

Let us know how it works out!

Phantasmagoria originally came on 7 CD's. It was full of filmed footage, which made it a lot larger than most DOS and early Windows games.

Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect is even larger, and will take even longer to download. Not only does it have filmed footage, but it uses higher resolution than Phantasmagoria, which means bigger files.

You just have to be patient downloading large games like this -- especially Tesla Effect.

Hope you enjoy the games.

We're talking days for me with my slow internet connection for some games!

Well I worked on downloading Tesla Effect for a week, then gave up.
I may try again at some point in the future, but it's not a priority.
I'd have to start from scratch, since the size of the files has doubled and they're obviously not the same files.

Witcher 3 was 22 GB which I think took 6 days running it all night and during the day when I wasn't using the computer. It's depressing sometimes!

Well, lexxy, that's why I installed the free VMware Player on my Windows 8.1 machine, and installed my old Windows XP CD to run inside it as a guest operating system.

The incompatibility problems I experienced and reported above applied to my Windows 98 emulation, not to Windows XP, which so far has installed and run without any serious glitches.

I just installed some old games like 'Odyssey' the way I did on Windows XP as my native system, and it worked exactly the same way, without any more adjustments.

You may try this route, it could be worth it!

Rich

Installing XP on new hardware can be a nightmare. Most likely you won't even be able to find XP drivers and even if you can find anything (most likely fan made/hacked) you won't end up with a stable machine. Keep in mind that XP is nearly a decade and a half old now. Hardware has evolved considerably in the mean time. XP was great for its time, but it is time to move on.

I had to check, but I see that the GOG installer for Phantasmagoria does indeed now split the installer into an executable with a couple of BIN files. Probably this was to address the long delay that some large installer has before there is any visible sign that it is working. In any case you must have all three parts downloaded and in the same folder before executing it.

And a small correction - Microsoft ceased all support for XP on April 8, 2014, not July 2015.

Happy day, Telsa finally installed after two days of downloading. I could not believe how beautiful the graphics are and to have my old Tex back is amazing. I want to thank you all for your input. I do have another question that may seem strange but I am not happy with the sounds on 8.1. My opening and closing sounds on XP were great and I miss them. I found the sound waves from XP but I don't know if it is possible to install them. I miss the old tada sound when the computer is signing off. I have the sound waves on my desk top but do not know what to do with them.

Yes it's possible to change them.

You can find tutorials on changing system sounds using Google and a search for
Windows 8.1 sounds

Here are a few of them
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-sounds#1TC=windows-7
http://winsounds.com/how-to-change-windows-sounds/

and a YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c104qDumTy0

I found it easier to change Windows sounds in XP and earlier, but it's still possible.
Be aware there is a login sound as well as a startup sound. You may want your old startup sound as your login sound.

I change my sounds all the time! There are some really cool ones to play with. Some of them go with the different background schemes. For instance, if you right click on a blank space on your desktop and select personalize, you are taken to the screen where you can make lots of changes including your sound. If you click on Get More Themes Online, you can select from hundreds of picture sets. A friend had one of dolpins and the sounds were different variations of water splashing. It was kind of cool.

i found blood ties, the mystery of crystal portal, and hidden magic doesn't work at all om window 8, but it does on window xp.

Draclvr reported that she succesfully ran Blood Ties on Window 8.1 ***here***

Big Fish lists Mystery of the Crystal Portal, Blood Ties, and Hidden Magic as being compatible with Windows 8.

http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/5263/the-mystery-of-the-crystal-portal/?pc
http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/2290/blood-ties/?pc
http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/5220/hidden-magic/?pc

Keep in mind that if you bought CD versions of the games, they will not be updated and may not work on versions of Windows that were not current at the time the CD was published.

Blood Ties is also playing on my Windows 10. As Jenny says, if you have CD versions, these games might not work. Mine is from BFG.

yes they are from a cd version, egames and viva media, on hand.

The original game is from 2008, so that's probably why.

Hi all,
I was going through some of my old games and came across a screen saver Berkley After Dark 4.0 and I installed on on my old WXP with no problem. I tried to install it on my new Windows 8.1 computer with no luck. The saver is so cute that I want to have it on my main system,is it too old, copy right 1996 to work on a newer system? I tried all of the compatability settings with no luck.

I'm afraid it probably won't work, lexxy - it's just too old.

Googling found someone who had gotten After Dark screensavers running on Windows 7, but I don't see anything having to do with success on Windows 8.

Thanks for the research I knew it was a long shot but hope springs eternal. You can't have it all I will just watch those cute little flying toasters on my Windows XP.

Those toasters were so cool! Although I now much prefer the wonderful themes they have now that we no longer even need screensavers. Some of the holiday ones are so gorgeous.

http://www.bryanbraun.com/2014/03/15/how-i-rebuilt-flying-toasters-using-only-css-animations

If you go here
http://bryanbraun.github.io/after-dark-css/

you can click the underlined links to display the different screensavers, including the toasters. Unfortunately you can't choose the degree of toastedness of your toast the way you could in the original.

Great links, Jenny.

Jenny100,

Thanks so much for the link. Those were the good old days I am really enjoying it,

That is just so cool, Jenny! Leave it to our moderator to find the best links!

Thanks for that lin... that was fun

Glad you enjoyed it.
I like how he made it so you could get the different After Dark screensavers from a list,
with the interface similar to the original version.

In Firefox you can toggle full screen with the F11 key -- so nothing onscreen but the toasters.

do all the harry potter video game play on window 8.

I listed Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone as playable after I ran the setup file on the disk as an Administrator.

thank you very much.

Good evening!

Would a game listed on GOG as compatible with Windows 7, run on Windows 8 (8.1, x64) as well, or does the list have to specifically list Win 8 as one of the supported operating systems?

Jim

That's a good question, and I'm not sure if there's a definitive answer to that. What game were you thinking of specifically?

Not necessarily. One game that was listed as compatible with Windows 7 did NOT work on Windows 8.1. I believe it was Zanarah. The place to ask would be GOG or even try going to the forums for that particular game and asking there. Like Marian says, it might help to know which game it is.

When GOG doesn't list a game as compatible with Windows 8, they won't support it on Windows 8. That means they won't give you any help with it if you are using Windows 8 or 8.1 and you're on your own if it doesn't work. A few people may be able to get it working anyway, but most won't be able to.

Good evening!

Sorry about not specifying the game. I did a search on GOG for some of the games listed on the Hall of Fame. Still Life, from 2005, is listed as playable on Win XP, Vista, 7 and 10, but not 8. So are Ultima Underworld 1 and 2. Hmmmm.

Jim

I have read others say that they can get Still Life running on Windows 8 with the Still Life Vista patch (which you can find online). It's possible that GOG does not incorporate this patch with their version and that's why it's not listed as being supported.

Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 use DOSBox, which works with Windows 8, so I would be very surprised if those were not supported.

Good evening!

Most of the first eleven games I bought from GOG use DOSBox, as does the original Leisure Suit Larry (LSL) 1, so I would be surprised, too.

Jim