Any emulator for earlier versions of Windows?

RolandIRL

i'm running win7 and a couple of old games (like the original Tomb Raider) won't work on my machine. the compatibility settings for the .exe file doesn't do anything to help. is there any kind of emulator for earlier versions of windows eg 98 or XP that i could use?

thanks

Burgo

Could download Windows XP mode or use virtual pc/dosbox for older.

RolandIRL

XP mode doesn't work with games. it's only for business apps as the virtual pc doesn't have access to the graphics card. i tried it before with a couple of games but no luck
the games i have don't work in dos so dosbox is out

Zillah

Couldn't you just do a dual boot? Windows 98 couldn't possibly take up much space. (Just in case you don't know what that means, you can have several different operating systems installed on a PC and choose which one you want to use when you start it up)

humanji

Download Dosbox? It runs a lot of earlier windows games, but you may need to tinker with the settings.

Although, didn't they just release an updated version of the original Tomb Raider? That'll save you some hassle

Burgo

Zillah wrote: »

Couldn't you just do a dual boot? Windows 98 couldn't possibly take up much space. (Just in case you don't know what that means, you can have several different operating systems installed on a PC and choose which one you want to use when you start it up)

Instead of having to dual boot couldnt you just run 98 through a vm? Im just wondering would games work on it though?

cython

Burgo wrote: »

Instead of having to dual boot couldnt you just run 98 through a vm? Im just wondering would games work on it though?

As was pointed out, XP mode doesn't work because Virtual PC, and most virtualisation systems, in fact, haven't access to the GPU, and the virtualised one is nowhere near as powerful. Win 98 will have the same issue as XP in a VM, purely because the virtual hardware presented to the guest OS is so limited

RolandIRL

Zillah wrote: »

Couldn't you just do a dual boot? Windows 98 couldn't possibly take up much space. (Just in case you don't know what that means, you can have several different operating systems installed on a PC and choose which one you want to use when you start it up)

i was considering dual-booting XP, but my warranty isn't up yet and i don't want to make it void.
i'd rather not dual-boot anyway because if i only want to have a quick game of something rather than spend a few hours on it, it'd be annoying to have to restart and then have to select XP/98.

@humanji, i found something about a way to play tomb raider on win7 but i'm not sure if it's 64-bit compatible. does dosbox work in 64-bit? i can only see 32-bit installer.

i'm not sure dosbox will work with some more recent games (like Edge of Chaos). i tried installing EoC but it wouldn't work. the same thing happened with Halo but i just copied the Program File out of another XP computer. would there be anything for non-dos games?

btw thanks for the replies

Dublin_Gunner

whiteman19 wrote: »

i was considering dual-booting XP, but my warranty isn't up yet and i don't want to make it void.
i'd rather not dual-boot anyway because if i only want to have a quick game of something rather than spend a few hours on it, it'd be annoying to have to restart and then have to select XP/98.

@humanji, i found something about a way to play tomb raider on win7 but i'm not sure if it's 64-bit compatible. does dosbox work in 64-bit? i can only see 32-bit installer.

i'm not sure dosbox will work with some more recent games (like Edge of Chaos). i tried installing EoC but it wouldn't work. the same thing happened with Halo but i just copied the Program File out of another XP computer. would there be anything for non-dos games?

btw thanks for the replies

Win 7 64bit (and Vista, and XP 64bit before) should all run 32bit applications no problem.

They will install to the 'Program Files (x86)' folder.

humanji

Just looking online and I saw a thing that says that Microsoft released a Windows 7 patch that helps it run older games, called "KB976264". You could try and look for that on the MS site.

monkeypants

A dual boot is quite easy and I'm thinking of doing it again with my current laptop. Last time I used Partition Magic to make a new partition for XP and then some free application to customise the boot menu. Don't know if Windows 98 SE would work nowadays; last time I tried to load it onto a modern PC it never got past the "New hardware detected" popups. I suppose there's a lot of new stuff on modern motherboards that weren't around back then.

RolandIRL

humanji wrote: »

Just looking online and I saw a thing that says that Microsoft released a Windows 7 patch that helps it run older games, called "KB976264". You could try and look for that on the MS site.

it seems i already have that update so it mustn't be any help

looked around on the net and found a solution to play Tomb Raider so at least i've got that
i can't dual-boot for another few months til my warranty expires but was thinking of dual booting XP for just games.

i was just hoping that there was some equivalent to Dosbox for 98/XP in regards to an emulator.

Cuddlesworth

whiteman19 wrote: »

it seems i already have that update so it mustn't be any help

looked around on the net and found a solution to play Tomb Raider so at least i've got that
i can't dual-boot for another few months til my warranty expires but was thinking of dual booting XP for just games.

i was just hoping that there was some equivalent to Dosbox for 98/XP in regards to an emulator.

Dual booting will not affect a hardware warranty. Any software or OS installs won't.

RolandIRL

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Dual booting will not affect a hardware warranty. Any software or OS installs won't.

really? hmm, didn't know that. so i partition my hard drive and install XP, and something goes wrong with my laptop, Dell will have to cover it in the warranty? have i got that right?

thanks cuddlesworth

wayne040576

See this is why developing a game to run on it highest setting on a machine that most people won't have for a few years is a bad idea. Because by the time they have a machine powerful enough to run that game, the OS might not support it and the older versions of the OS may not have drivers for the new hardware.

I have a few games that I couldn't play properly when I first got them and now I still can't play them because they won't start (or crash) on my current system.

wayne040576

whiteman19 wrote: »

really? hmm, didn't know that. so i partition my hard drive and install XP, and something goes wrong with my laptop, Dell will have to cover it in the warranty? have i got that right?

thanks cuddlesworth

Make sure there are XP drivers for all of the hardware in the machine.
Also check that any games you intend to play won't fall over if there's more than 2GB ram in the machine.

monkeypants

whiteman19 wrote: »

really? hmm, didn't know that. so i partition my hard drive and install XP, and something goes wrong with my laptop, Dell will have to cover it in the warranty? have i got that right?

Doesn't matter what the problem is, the first thing a Dell tech is going to suggest is an OS reinstall. Even if your machine is on fire, he'll take the time to try and explain why a reinstall is necessary to rule out a software problem. There's no reason to tell them that another OS is installed/was ever installed.