Have you tried running it on an xp box?

I m home premium can t install XP virtual on my laptop, need to be proffesional, entreprise or ultimate edition.

You can always upgrade to professional.

Hello,

This is a great forum - I had no idea so many people like me still prefer to play these old games.

Tankred, I also remember Fields of Fire: War Along the Mohawk. I don't know if you bought a new CD or a complete pack with the manual. I have the original. The manual states it was published in 1998 by Empire Interactive (http://www.empirestrategy.com) with the game copyright Edward Grabowski Communication Ltd. The website address has long been taken over by another company, nothing to do with games software and there doesn't seem to be any support on Empire Interactive where the title is listed as "War Along the Mohawk". It does list Grand Prix Manager 2 (1996) as being another game by Mr.Grabowski, but I don't have this one and so can't tell whether the same problem occurs with this. Possibly not as it was published by a different company, Microprose?

I don't have Win7, but still use XP Pro SP3.

I tried a complete install on XP but could not track down any patches.

It won't install under DosBox as you found.

Although it installed under XP, it wouldn't play, so I thought I'd post the results here in case anyone else has found a workaround.

It installs 2 versions: an 8-bit version and a 16-bit version. The system requirements are: Pentium 90 or higher with 16MB Ram (32MB recommended), MS compatible mouse, CD-Rom (quad speed or higher), Win95, DX5 or higher, 1MB Video Ram or higher, screen resolution 800x600 or more.

If run 'normally' in XP, I get the message "not a valid Win32 application".
If the 16-bit version is run in W95/98 compatibility modes then nothing happens at all. I mean nothing: don't know where the program disappears to, but I don't even get an error message.
If the 8-bit version is run in W95/98 compatibility modes then I get a rather snotty message "do not pirate games!" I thought this could be because it can't see the CD from the hard disk, so tried running the program from the CD and received the old "not a valid Win32 application" error. Oddly the CD does run the repair install program, but it makes absolutely no difference when you try to run it again.

Being very non technical, I'm now stumped.

So if someone on this forum would like a challenge, perhaps they will find this information useful ?

tankred wrote:

This program cannot be run in DOS mode
...
I have windows 7 service pack 1, home premium, and this is either 8 or 16 bits.

Pretty much any program that says "This program cannot be run in MS-DOS mode" is a 32-bit Windows application. Such applications cannot be run in DOSBox directly.

There is no such thing as an 8-bit PC application. There might be programs that use 8-bit color, but they otherwise pretty much run exactly the same as any other application.

MrEd wrote:

The website address has long been taken over by another company, nothing to do with games software and there doesn't seem to be any support on Empire Interactive where the title is listed as "War Along the Mohawk".

http://web.archive.org is very useful for viewing webpages that no longer seem to exist.

If the 8-bit version is run in W95/98 compatibility modes then I get a rather snotty message "do not pirate games!" I thought this could be because it can't see the CD from the hard disk, so tried running the program from the CD and received the old "not a valid Win32 application" error. Oddly the CD does run the repair install program, but it makes absolutely no difference when you try to run it again.

Some old CD-ROM programs insist that the CD be placed in the first CD-ROM drive. That is, if you have multiple drives named D and E, you have to use the CD in drive D. The other possibility is that the game is using some strange kind of copy-protection that is incompatible with Windows XP; in that case you might be able to find a "crack" to disable the protection.

I'm not sure what might be causing the "not a valid Win32 application" error, unless the disc is scratched or unreadable – which might also cause the problem where the program can't seem to find its disc.

Hello Jorpho,

thanks for the reply.

Yes the game when installed had the 8-bit and 16-bit options which I think did refer to the graphics, so sorry for any confusion.

I appreciate that Tankred was trying to get the program to run under Win7, but earlier suggestions were to try it in a virtual XP box. I might be wrong, but I assume that if it won't run in normal XP, then it won't run in an XP box?

My PC has only a single hard disk and a single CD drive. The disk is in good condition. Perhaps it is down to some kind of copy-protection, then? I just find it very strange that it will install and repair (so it must be able to read the disk), but then not run, even from the CD.

Following your suggestion I have had a look on http://web.archive.org. It was only pulling back black screens for www.empirestrategy.com, but it did bring something more readable back for www.empireinteractive.com, though unfortunately the game is not mentioned on there at all.

Any more ideas?

MrEd wrote:

I appreciate that Tankred was trying to get the program to run under Win7, but earlier suggestions were to try it in a virtual XP box. I might be wrong, but I assume that if it won't run in normal XP, then it won't run in an XP box?

The only way I can think of that it might run in a virtual XP box but not a normal XP installation is if there's some weird hardware incompatibility, but that's so unlikely as to not be particularly worth considering.

Any more ideas?

I assume you've Googled around to see if someone else has come up with a solution? You might be able to use some additional options from the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT).

Sometimes running the game as a user with Administrator privileges (if you're not doing so already) is worth a try.

If all else fails, it is also possible to install Windows 95 or 98 in VMware Player or Virtual PC, and thus run Windows 95 or 98 from within Windows XP.

EDIT: I do note that http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/fieldsf.htm seems optimistic about the game running in XP. That suggests it might be a hardware problem.

What sort of video card hardware are you using?

Thanks very much for your suggestions Jorpho,

My video card is a 1MB GeForce 210 Silent on a Dell Optiplex790 running XP SP3.

I have followed your advice and installed MS Virtual PC 2004 with the additions pack. Then installed Fields of Fire. On first run it popped up a reminder about needing 800x600 in 256 colour mode, so I adjusted that and then tried again. This time it came back "you are running the 16-bit graphics version in 256 colours, please adjust your screen resolution to high colour (16 bit)" My fault for running the wrong option, but when I tried to run the 8-bit version it worked fine.

I'd like to say I have now settled down for the rest of the night and played a game, but I'm so shattered after wrestling with VirtualPC, I'll wait until I can better appreciate it. I'm sure computers used to be much simpler. I have at least another 2 games which don't seem to like XP, but I'll need to do some more research and try to get further with them.

The link http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/fieldsf.htm shows the right game, so it is odd how they seem to have it working on XP without problems. I'd really like to know how! If you've not played the game it is well worth it.

Thanks again,

MrEd wrote:

I have followed your advice and installed MS Virtual PC 2004 with the additions pack.

So you installed Windows 95 or Windows 98 in a virtual machine? (Just curious.)

On first run it popped up a reminder about needing 800x600 in 256 colour mode, so I adjusted that and then tried again.

Did you try those options when you ran the game in XP without Virtual PC? Specifically, did you reduce your screen resolution to 800x600 and reduce your color depth to 16-bit? (You could also try running the 8-bit version in 256 colors by using the appropriate check box in the Compatibility tab.)

I have at least another 2 games which don't seem to like XP, but I'll need to do some more research and try to get further with them.

Sometimes there are easy fixes.

Hello Jorpho,

I installed Win98SE in the virtual machine. I did think about putting Win95 in it just in case, but in the old days I didn't have any game which could run under Win98SE so couldn't see the point in going further back. I still have all the old original disks so once I'd worked out how/when to release/capture images it seemed to go OK.

I didn't try to reduce screen resolutions under XP, but I have now tried the experiment and it didn't work. Changed to 800x600, 16-bit colour then tried to run the 16-bit version in native XP and received the message "FOF16.EXE is not a valid win32 application". Also tried running in W98 compatibility mode and had the same message. So changing the screen resolution did make a difference, but not enough to allow me to run the program. So it is still a mystery how http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/fieldsf.htm claims it will run under XP.

I've finished going through my games box and the tricky ones I've yet to install are Magic the Gathering (Microprose 1997), the original Shogun Total War +Mongol Invasion, and the original Medieval Total War +Viking Invasion. I'm sure there are other threads for these which I need to check out when I have time. Railroad Tycoon 2 Gold gave me a few problems ... like FoF it wouldn't run once installed. I struggled to find patches, but it appears they aren't necessary as Gold is v.1.54 even though RT2_TCS.EXE reports v.1.01 in properties. The workaround was to install under VirtualPC2004, then copy the folder onto XP; set the program to run in Win2000 compatibility mode at full resolution (the 800x600 option scrambles the text), and it works fine. No idea how or why! Oddly, RRT2 wouldn't run properly in VirtualPC2004. I suspect I will have similar problems with the remaining 3, however I have now been able to get 35 old games running on an 18-month old PC which is more than I ever managed to do on the 10 year old one it replaced. I just hope that after all this effort they are as good to play as I remember.

MrEd wrote:

I didn't try to reduce screen resolutions under XP, but I have now tried the experiment and it didn't work. Changed to 800x600, 16-bit colour then tried to run the 16-bit version in native XP and received the message "FOF16.EXE is not a valid win32 application". Also tried running in W98 compatibility mode and had the same message. So changing the screen resolution did make a difference, but not enough to allow me to run the program. So it is still a mystery how http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/fieldsf.htm claims it will run under XP.

One last suggestion: did you try running the installer under compatibility mode, or only the installed application?

I've finished going through my games box and the tricky ones I've yet to install are Magic the Gathering (Microprose 1997), the original Shogun Total War +Mongol Invasion, and the original Medieval Total War +Viking Invasion. I'm sure there are other threads for these which I need to check out when I have time.

There is definitely considerable enthusiasm for Microprose Magic the Gathering, though I haven't looked into it for a long time. (I think a virtual machine was still recommended in that case.) I'm not sure about the others.

It doesn't make any difference running the installer under compatibility mode.

If I remember correctly Magic the Gathering was always a rather buggy game. It must have been a tremendously complicated piece of programming with all the different cards so it is a shame that after all that effort they didn't update it with a single, simple patch. So far I've found 6 different patches and lots of different instructions. The issues seem to be partly in the graphics and partly with the networking. I'm not bothered about the multiplayer side, but if I can get the graphics stable then perhaps I can play the main module.

Both STW and MTW were fairly fussy with the video card. STW (2000) was originally for W95/W98, but the expansion pack (Mongol Invasion) is for W98 only and uses DX8.0a rather than 7.0a. Mongol Invasion seems to modify the gameplay for STW quite considerably. MedTW (2002?) claims to be W98/2000/XP and goes from DX8.1 to DX9.0 (Viking Invasion). I didn't get either to work on my previous computer under XP, but that doesn't mean with a little more effort? Some people seem to report it doesn't like XP SP2 or SP3, but is OK on the original! So I could try compatibility modes? Rome TW has plenty of patches and works fine, so you would have thought they could have patched STW and MTW in the same way to make all 3 run on equivalent hardware? That doesn't seem to be so. Anyway, see what I can get done next week. Thanks for your help so far.