Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

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MrFlibble
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by MrFlibble »

andreaborman wrote:Well I have tried the games on Windows XP. And it's the same as on Windows Vista,Windows 7 and Windows 8. The 16 bit games work,most of them do,but they won't display the icons. So you have to choose an icon from the shell file.
That is most likely the case of no embedded icons in the executable. WinXP, as well as older Windows versions, displays in such cases the generic executable icon which looks like a small blank window with a blue top border (judging by your screenshots, Win8 has a different, more detailed icon but the idea is the same).
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by andreaborman »

Moricons.dll on Windows XP..JPG
No,on Windows XP,the Moricons.dll and other icon shell folders have the same icons as on Windows 8.
And so does Windows Vista and Windows 7.

See my picture of my Windows XP. Andrea Borman.
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DOSGuy
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by DOSGuy »

andreaborman wrote:Well I tried installing a Dos game on Windows XP but it did not work. So I don't think you can run dos games without Dos Box on Windows XP.
Here's a list of 76 DOS games that run perfectly in Windows XP: http://wiki.classicdosgames.com/index.p ... ible_games.
Here's a list of 60 more DOS games that run without sound in Windows XP, but run perfectly if you use VDMSound to restore audio: http://wiki.classicdosgames.com/index.p ... ible_games.

There are thousands more, but I didn't get a lot of help compiling the list.
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by andreaborman »

DOSGuy wrote:
andreaborman wrote:Well I tried installing a Dos game on Windows XP but it did not work. So I don't think you can run dos games without Dos Box on Windows XP.
Here's a list of 76 DOS games that run perfectly in Windows XP: http://wiki.classicdosgames.com/index.p ... ible_games.
Here's a list of 60 more DOS games that run without sound in Windows XP, but run perfectly if you use VDMSound to restore audio: http://wiki.classicdosgames.com/index.p ... ible_games.

There are thousands more, but I didn't get a lot of help compiling the list.
Well I have tried some of those on Windows XP and it is the same as on Windows 7. They won't work without Dos box but setting up Dos box is complicated.

But most of the 16 bit and 9X games that are not Dos do work in all versions of Windows. I have not come across any that don't. And when they don't work it is not because of what version of Windows I am using. But because there may be a dill file or file missing in the zip install.

For example,I tried Salad Scribble on Windows XP but there is a dill file missing in the zip install. But it could work if another installer was found that did have the dill file.The message I get is cannot find VBRun 200.dll. So the dill file is missing in the file or install which is a zip install.

But it's the same problem on Windows 7 and Windows 8 with that game. Andrea Borman.
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MrFlibble
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by MrFlibble »

andreaborman wrote:For example,I tried Salad Scribble on Windows XP but there is a dill file missing in the zip install. But it could work if another installer was found that did have the dill file.The message I get is cannot find VBRun 200.dll. So the dill file is missing in the file or install which is a zip install.
This means that you don't have the Visual Basic Runtime Libraries installed on your machine. They're not supposed to be included in the game distributive, but you have to download and install them separately.

So no missing files in the archives.
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

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andreaborman wrote:Well I have tried some of those on Windows XP and it is the same as on Windows 7.
Unless you have the 64-bit version of Windows XP, you're the only one having this problem. Just unzip the files somewhere and double-click on the executable.
andreaborman wrote:For example,I tried Salad Scribble on Windows XP but there is a dill file missing in the zip install. But it could work if another installer was found that did have the dill file.The message I get is cannot find VBRun 200.dll. So the dill file is missing in the file or install which is a zip install.
It was quite common for games to not include the vbrun200/300/400/etc DLL. A quick internet search should get that file for you. If it's legal to do so, I'll just put the whole series on the site.
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by andreaborman »

Well I have now got Salad Scribble working on my Windows 8 and also on Windows XP. I found the dill file from another website,Download Central here-http://www.download-central.ws/

Download Central also has lots of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 games like this site. But as well as games it also has the dill file for the game. So when you want to download a game it will tell you what dill files you need and you can download the needed dill file direct from the site. And it they also tell you which system folder to put the dill file in. Usually Windows/System or sometimes Windows/System 32. Which is very helpful.

And most of the games work on Windows 8 as well as all of the other versions of Windows.

And I have now found a solution for playing Dos games on Windows XP,Windows Vista and Windows 7. I saw this post on the How To Geek Website here-http://www.howtogeek.com/?post_type=post&p=12771

And there is a free program called D-Fend Reloaded here-http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

And it enables you to play Dos games on Windows XP and later versions of Windows. But it is easy to use, and unlike Dos Box, you do not have to tap in commands or anything. D-Fend Reloaded included Dos Box but unlike Dos box all of the settings are configured for you. So all you have to do is install the game, or games you want from the list of games packages. And then to play the game you just click run game and it works automatically. So you don't have to do anything.

Also D-Fend Reloaded is a free program and free to use for as long as you want to. And D-Fend Reloaded works on Windows XP,Windows Vista and Windows 7. So now I am able to play Dos games on all three versions of Windows.

But unfortunately D-Fend Reloaded does not work on Windows 8. Despite my best efforts I could not get it working at all on Windows 8. But it does work on Windows 7 and all of the other versions of Windows.But not on Windows 8.

So it seems that D-Fend Reloaded is not compatible with Windows 8. And I don't know of another Dos program that would work on Windows 8. Maybe in the future they might update D-Fend Reloaded to work on Windows 8. But for now you will only be able to play Dos games on Windows XP,Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Unless there is another program for Windows 8 that I don't know about.

But you can still play most of the 16 bit and Windows 3.1 and 95 games on Windows 8. The majority of them all work on Windows 8. But you cannot play Dos games on Windows 8,that's all. Andrea Borman.
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by andreaborman »

Hugo Doss Game on Windows 8 RP cannot display full screen..JPG
Doss Game on Windows 8 RP cannot display full screen..JPG
Update-Doss Games work in Windows 8 release preview in Doss box only. But they won't display full screen.

I was not able to run D-Fend Reloaded at all in Windows 8 Release Preview.

D-Fend Reloaded worked in Windows 8 Consumer Preview,the previous Beta version of Windows 8. When I tried it on my other netbook that still has Windows 8 CP on it. And it displayed the Dos games in full screen and the Dos games work as they should do on Windows 8 CP.Just like on Windows 7,Windows XP and the other versions of Windows. But not on Windows 8 RP.

Although D-Fend Reloaded installed on Windows 8 RP,when I ran it it did nothing.So I uninstalled D-Fend and installed Doss Box instead. Note that D-Fend Reloaded comes with Dos box.

And I found that I was able to run the Dos games I tried by first extracting the Dos game file to my C drive.And then opening the game folder and copying and pasting the exe file into Dos Box.

For example to run Jill of the Jungle I copied the JJ File 1 exe and pasted it into the Dod box shortcut on my desktop. And it ran the game as you can see in my picture and the sound was there and everything. But Dos Box would not display the games full screen,like they did on Windows 7 and the other versions of Windows.

So the games work on Windows 8 RP, but the only thing is that they won't display full screen, just desktop mode. As you can see in my screen shots of my desktop on Windows 8 RP. And I do not know of a way to fix this. Any ideas? Andrea Borman.
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andreaborman
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by andreaborman »

Dos Box now stays in full screen on Windows 8 RP after configure file output settings are changed..JPG
To get Dos Box to stay in full screen on Windows 8 RP,change configure file output settings to either opengl or openglnb..JPG
Update-Re Dos Box not able to stay in full screen on Windows 8 RP-problem solved.

I have just found a solution on how to get Dos Box to stay in full screen on Windows 8 Release Preview.

After reading many posts on the web I came across a post that said that you should change the default set output in Dos Box from surface to another setting. To do this you need to edit the Dos Box configure file found in your start menu. Or it can be found in the Dos Box programs file in Programs folder in Windows Explorer.In Programs on C/Drive where Dos Box is installed.

To change the settings in the Dos Box configure file scroll down to where it says output and change the default setting from surface to either opengl or openglnb. And then click save file then exit configure file.The configure file lists several output options that you can change your Dos Box output settings to. As you can see in my picture.

Now my problem is resolved, and as you can see in my picture,when I press alt+enter Dos Box now stays in full screen on my Windows 8 RP netbook. And I can now play the Dos games in full screen on Windows 8 RP. The same way I can in Windows 7,Windows XP and Windows Vista without any problems.

And there is no way you can mess up Dos Box by editing the configure file. Because you can reset the configure file back to the default settings by running the the reset options batch file which is included in the Dos Box settings found under options in the start menu.Or in your programs folder.

But I only had to edit the configure file on Windows 8 RP not on any of my other versions of Windows. And as De-Fend Reloaded uses Dos Box to run the Dos Games. And De-Fend Reloaded also opens Dos Box in full screen mode by default. That could explain why I could not get De-Fend Reloaded to work on Windows 8 RP.

But now I am just using Dos Box only on Windows 8 RP but now that I have changed the output settings which tells Dos Box what ones to use. I can now play the Dos games in full screen mode in Dos Box.

So my problem is resolved and this post may help other Windows 8 users who are having the same problem. Andrea Borman.
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by MrFlibble »

Nice to see you're getting used to working with DOSBox :)

D-Fend Reloaded (which I mentioned on the previous page BTW) is a front-end for DOSBox, meaning that it provides a user-friendly interface for DOSBox and is not a separate DOS emulator. Whichever problems running DOSBox under Windows 8 you may have (which is understandable since Windows 8 is a new OS and full support may not yet be available) might be solved by moving a newer builds while keeping D-Fend as your interface for DOSBox.

Once you familiarise yourself with the DOSBox configuration file (as you can see it isn't too complicated, and most settings need not be changed anyway), you can forego the use of D-Fend or any other frontends entirely. You can make a separate configuration file for each game yourself as you see fit (most games will run fine on a single configuration though), and create desktop shortcuts for games that launch them in DOSBox with the appropriate configuration file.
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by andreaborman »

Well when I use Dos Box I don't start the game by using commands. I have not mastered that yet. Another way which is the easiest way is to copy and paste the exe file of the game from the folder with your mouse,into Dos Box. And then it will start automatically and run in Dos Box.

Windows 8 is slightly different from the other versions of Windows. That Windows XP start menu you see in my pictures did not come when I first installed Windows 8. I got that from a software called Classic Shell.Which gives you both the start button, and Windows XP and Windows 7 start menu, on Windows 8.

Most software doers not officially support Windows 8 yet. But most software made for Windows XP and Windows 7 works on Windows 8. But of course not all.

D-Fend Reloaded does not work on Windows 8 Release Preview,although it did in Windows 8 Consumer Preview.But D-Fend works on all other versions of Windows except Windows 8 RP.But the next version of D-Fend may be updated to work on Windows 8.

But Dos Box works on Windows 8 RP. And I have now edited the configure file as I explained in my last post. To get it it go full screen on Windows 8 RP, and it does.

So for the meantime,I can just use Dos Box on Windows 8 RP for my Dos games.Andrea Borman.
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by MrFlibble »

andreaborman wrote:Well when I use Dos Box I don't start the game by using commands. I have not mastered that yet. Another way which is the easiest way is to copy and paste the exe file of the game from the folder with your mouse,into Dos Box. And then it will start automatically and run in Dos Box.
Yup, the drag and drop method works too, it'll use the default DOSBox configuration which is useful for most programmes.

When I had only first started using DOSBox, I'd make a shortcut for each game with command line parameters to start it. The shortcut launches DOSBox and the commands tell it which executable to run. The downside of this is that in this case DOSBox automatically mounts the directory where the programme that it runs is located as the C: drive, which is OK in most cases but sometimes that'll conflict with the game's setup. So eventually I abandoned this practice and started just using DOSBox as a full virtual DOS machine.

Another and more reasonable way to run games - also via shortcuts - is to write all the necessary commands in the [autoexec] section of the configurations file. You can then just make a shortcut to DOSBox with a single parameter, -conf<configuration file name>, and it will run all the commands and the game itself following the instructions in the [autoexec] section in that configuration file.

This is useful, for example, if you want to run a game from a CD image, as DOSBox allows you to mount an image as a virtual drive. E.g. you can run the DOS version of Command & Conquer: Red Alert (good example because it's legally downloadable for free and is distributed exactly in the form of CD images) in DOSBox without the need to mount the image with an external programme. You can take a look at a sample config file for Red Alert here (that topic also covers some otehr stuff in the setup of he game too, but hopefully it helps! :)).
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Re: Most 16 bit and Windows 95 games work on Windows 8.

Post by Jeffpiatt »

32-bit windows NT versions have both the NTVDM and wow16 still in them including vista, 7, and 8. the 64-bit versions cut out the 16-bit VM code for security and because they just did not want to support it anymore. especially after google found an exploit in all of WinNT using the WOW16 code. with dosbox you at lest can slow the cpu speed down.
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