Trying to play several old games through Dosbox... \ VOGONS

Trying to play several old games through Dosbox...

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First post, by Veggieleezy

Posted on 2012-02-26, 17:12

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I'm fairly new to the whole emulator/Dosbox process, so I'll try and be as specific as possible with my problem.

I'm currently trying to play some games that I found at Goodwill (Carmen Sandiego's ThinkQuick Challenge, Pajama Sam 1, Tonka Garage, and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, all original jewel case discs) on my computer (running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit).

I've installed Dosbox and I think I've mounted everything properly. My e-drive is my disc drive, I've got a folder set up for the games to go into on my c-drive. I did the following steps to try playing one of the games. I put the disc in, opened Dosbox, and typed the following commands:

z:\>mount d e:\ -t cdrom
z:\>mount c c:\oldgames
z:\>d:\
d:\>

From here I tried to type setup but I got the error message "This program requires Microsoft Windows."

What do I need to do from here? Did I do something wrong? Am I missing something I need? If I need to download something, where do I put it? Bear in mind I'm still very much learning how to do this, so any help is appreciated.

Reply 1 of 20, by filipetolhuizen

Posted on 2012-02-26, 18:05

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DOS Box is only for DOS games and programs, you're trying to run a Windows program inside a DOS environment. You need to run the setup in real Windows.

Reply 2 of 20, by Veggieleezy

Posted on 2012-02-26, 19:00

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Ah... That saves some time, then... I'll need to find an old Windows emulator, I guess.

Reply 3 of 20, by jaqie

Posted on 2012-02-26, 19:12

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virtualbox plus windows 95 would be your best bet.

Reply 4 of 20, by Veggieleezy

Posted on 2012-02-26, 19:20

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Sorry to have put this in the wrong place. Would this possibly allow 32-bit or lower games on my 64-bit system?

Reply 5 of 20, by jaqie

Posted on 2012-02-26, 19:20

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virtualbox plus win9x would, yes.

Reply 6 of 20, by Veggieleezy

Posted on 2012-02-26, 19:24

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Cool, thanks a lot. Can I get those at the same time, or would they cancel each other (Virtualbox plus 95 and Virtualbox plus win9x)?

Reply 7 of 20, by jaqie

Posted on 2012-02-26, 19:29

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9x means windows 95, 98, and windows m.e. your choice.

virtualbox is a freeware computer emulating software, you can run whatever os you want inside of it, and you can have multiple "virtual boxes", even running at the same time if you wish.

Reply 8 of 20, by Veggieleezy

Posted on 2012-02-26, 19:30

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Thanks muchly! You've been very helpful! I'll give it a try!

Reply 9 of 20, by filipetolhuizen

Posted on 2012-02-26, 20:34

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32 bits games and programs will work under x64 OS. 16 bits only under VM.

Reply 10 of 20, by Veggieleezy

Posted on 2012-02-26, 20:40

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Which kind of virtual disk do I need? Or does it really matter?

Reply 11 of 20, by Veggieleezy

Posted on 2012-02-26, 20:55

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Also, do I need the disk for the OS? It's asking for "Select Installation Media" and says "Select the media which contains the setup program of the operating system you want to install"

Reply 12 of 20, by jaqie

Posted on 2012-02-26, 22:18

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I'm going to say, RTFM. Read the manual for virtualbox.

Reply 13 of 20, by Veggieleezy

Posted on 2012-02-26, 22:50

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...riiiiiight... ...I knew that, I was just testing you...

Reply 14 of 20, by leileilol

Posted on 2012-02-27, 00:37

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You can try to run the 32-bit games in Windows 7.

Some of these are 16-bit Windows games, so if you own those games there's a chance of Windows 3.1 floppies lying around as well so find those, install those. If you can't find those you'll have to buy those. Windows 3.1 runs in DOSBox okay, if you know what you're doing and is a better choice than:

jaqie wrote:
virtualbox plus windows 95 would be your best bet.

No video support beyond the VGA driver. Not a good choice at all, especially since the games mentioned use 256 colors at the minimum.

Of course, you could also try to upgrade to Windows 7 x64 Professional to get the XP VirtualPC support for 16-bit stuff as well.
You could also snag the older VirtualPC 2007 to run Win9x in that (ignore Win7's "DONT RUN THIS ITS OLD!" warnings), it supports it much better than VirtualBox (has 256+ colors!) and also should be a tad easier to use.

There's no one way to get these games to work (I'd like to repeat that virtualbox definitely is not one of them), emulation is a world of trial and error experimentation. 😀

long live PCem

Reply 15 of 20, by jaqie

Posted on 2012-02-27, 00:58

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leileilol wrote:
No video support beyond the VGA driver. Not a good choice at all, especially since the games mentioned use 256 colors at the minimum.

You are *SEVERELY* out of date. I have run DX10 and DX9 games within it.

Here you see me running TWO instances of borderlands on one pc, one within vbox one within the host OS.

I have even mapped a second USB keyboard and mouse to the vbox itself, and it works great.

Reply 16 of 20, by leileilol

Posted on 2012-02-27, 01:08

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jaqie wrote:
leileilol wrote:
No video support beyond the VGA driver. Not a good choice at all, especially since the games mentioned use 256 colors at the minimum.

You are *SEVERELY* out of date. I have run DX10 and DX9 games within it.

Here you see me running TWO instances of borderlands on one pc, one within vbox one within the host OS.

Win9x can't run Borderlands. Windows 2000/XP is not Windows 9x. Borderlands is also not 16-bit and is irrelevant.

I am not out of date. It's common knowledge VirtualBox doesn't support Windows 9x well when you're only limited to a VGA driver.

I don't know what your righteous attitude and technobragging is all about, but I already use VirtualBox for Windows XP and i'm well aware of what it can and can't do for this situation.

Last edited by leileilol on 2012-02-27, 01:12. Edited 1 time in total.

long live PCem

Reply 17 of 20, by jaqie

Posted on 2012-02-27, 01:10

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Dude, I don't know what you're smoking, but it works just fine. I have a whole host of oses running through it and run all kinds of games through it. I really suggest you stop posting misinformation and trolling.

Reply 18 of 20, by leileilol

Posted on 2012-02-27, 01:25

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jaqie wrote:
Dude, I don't know what you're smoking, but it works just fine. I have a whole host of oses running through it and run all kinds of games through it. I really suggest you stop posting misinformation and trolling.

Good for you.

If you want to justify your unneccessary overdefensive hostile behavior, then let's see a screenshot of Windows 95 in 256 colors from VirtualBox.

long live PCem

Reply 19 of 20, by jaqie

Posted on 2012-02-27, 01:27

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/me stops feeding the troll.

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