this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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Easiest way to get old Windows games to run? (self.retrogaming)
submitted 3 weeks ago by leisesprecher to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
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I'm trying to get an old Windows game running for a friend.

It seems to be a 16bit macromedia app and I kind of got it running in a Win 98 VM using Virtualbox. DOSBox seems to get confused by it being a Windows app.

Thing is, the friend is very much not good with tech and I want to set everything up for him to "just work". Installing VBox might be a bit too much.

Apparently, you can install Windows inside DOSBox, but is that really stable and usable for layman? Are there any other approaches?

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[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Super basic, but have you already tried using the compatibility mode? If it runs in a Windows 98 VM it should theoretically work with compatibility mode set to Windows 98.

Native solutions are best, if they're effective.

[–] leisesprecher 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Doesn't work, unfortunately. It seems to be a 16bit app.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 2 points 3 weeks ago

Ah, I didn't realize that was a limitation.

So here's an article about packaging a 16-bit application with winevdm, an open source 16-bit emulator, into an MSIX which makes it installable and launchable as if it were a single application: Running 16-bit applications on Windows 10 64-bit.

Definitely a more complex process though.

I also suggest looking for the software on myabandonware.com because they collect community-built fixed versions of older applications, especially games. If anyone has made a fixed version for this game, it will probably be there.

[–] IHawkMike@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I could be way off base here, but I'd probably start with the 32-bit version of Windows 7 to hack it into working.

First, you want a 32-bit OS -- unless you can get one of the 16-bit OSes virtualized well, but I have no experience with that. 32-bit Windows has NTVDM for running emulated 16-bit apps. 64-bit Windows only has the WOW64 (Windows-on-Windows) emulator for running 32-bit apps.

Also, Windows 7 has a large collection of shims and compatibility layers built in, plus a ton of tweaks you can do with the Application Compatibility Toolkit. I don't know if there are ACT limitations with 16-bit apps though since I haven't had to do any serious work with it since the XP -> 7 upgrade wave.