16 bit Windows installer on Vista 64 \ VOGONS

16 bit Windows installer on Vista 64

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by RandBlade

Posted on 2007-09-25, 23:03

RandBlade Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: 2007-09-25, 10:27

Used DOSBox earlier to install and play a 16 bit game on Vista x64 bit edition. Trying to install a Win '95 game now and it won't work.

Trying to install via Windows gives the same error message the DOS game got (guess its a 16-bit installer), trying to install via DOSBox says it needs Windows to run.

Is there a workaround?

Game: Power Chess (Sierra)
OS: Vista x64 Premium
DOSBox 0.72
Nvidia 8800
Intel Core 2 6600
4GB RAM

Reply 1 of 3, by Reckless

Posted on 2007-09-25, 23:19

Reckless Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 556
Joined: 2003-08-07, 00:32

Virtual PC running Win95/9/XP ?

Reply 2 of 3, by DosFreak

Posted on 2007-09-25, 23:23

DosFreak Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 12963
Joined: 2002-06-30, 16:35
Location: Milliways

DosBox doesn't support Windows 95 games.

1. Use Uniextract to extract the data files.
Uniextract does not work on all installshield installers and sometimes even when it does it may not extract the files into the proper subdirectories. Even if it does some games (although few) still require the registry entries.

2. Install the game in a VM like VPC/Vmware/Qemu/Parallels. Once installed you can copy the files out of the VM onto the host and you can also make a copy of the registry entries if the game needs them.

3. If the game is also 16bit then you'll have to play it in a VM like VPC/Vmware/Qemu/Parallels since 64bit windows cannot execute 16bit programs.

4. DosBox can run 16bit Windows 3.1 installers and games just fine. So if you have any of those then you can use DosBox BUT you have to install Windows 3.1 IN DosBox and then run your program inside Windows 3.1 inside of DosBox.

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Make your games work offline