Yup, while the games are 32bit and can run on a 64bit Windows, their setup can't run because it IS not that complex and I guess they just recycled existing 16bit installers...

Who recycled? Microsoft? Is there any big problem with 16bit code? Why it wasn't alone for legacy software support?

The game developers. It wasn't a problem until we moved to 64bit

I presume the reason Blood 2's setup.exe gives a different error from its autorun is because Windows 10 might be particularly configured to recognize that specific version of setup.exe. See for instance http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10988 , specifically the second post.

As for Turok 2, is the setup on the CD a 16-bit application? (According to http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/Window … bitWindows.html , a 16-bit application will not have a "Version" tab in its Properties – though that seems to have been replaced with the "Details" tab in versions after Windows XP.)

There's an InstallShield wrapper. Don't know if anyone tested it in Windows 10, but I've used it a lot in Windows 8 and never ran into a problem.

vorob wrote:

For example Blood 2 setup.exe shows this error:

https://pp.vk.me/c621727/v621727184/3713e/xYafsbu4HMQ.jpg

Might have something to do with Safedisc.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/08/17/wi … sc-securom-drm/

vorob wrote:

And its autorun says that 16bit appication can't work in 64bit os.

Keep in mind that often games shipped with a 16-bit autorun, but the installer was a separate program. If the autorun does not work try to launch the actual installer.

The solution to 16-bit installers depends on the installer in question. As noted some of the InstallShield installers have workarounds. For other ones it may be possible to manually install the game. To do this you need to know what all the installer does. Resources may need to be unpacked or concatenated. System files or codecs may need to be installed. Registry entries or configuration files may need to be written. All of this assumes that there are no compatibility issues, like a reliance on antiquated APIs or outdated DirectX, etc in addition.

For some games you can simply install it in a VM and copy the game over to the host machine. If it does not run you may need to do more. To do this you need to know what the original installer did. Sometimes there is an installer script the directs the installer that you can use to determine what needs to be done. Using a utility like TrackWinstall to create a log of all changes made by the installer helps.

Lastly, a few have created modern replacement installers for certain games. You can always Google to see if there is new installer for your specific game.

And what's the problem with 16bit application in 64bis os? Why 32bit work ok and 16bit are not?

It's not a "problem", it's Microsoft's decision for a number of reasons. They just dropped support for 16bit applications in 64bit Windows.

Also note sometimes, a 16-bit installer will execute - Windows will check that if it knows the stub is InstallShield/Acme and will replace the 16-bit stub with a 32-bit one.

Porting NTVDM to amd64 would involve some hacky CPU stuff IIRC. They could replace it with an emulator a la NT 3/4 on RISC machines, especially as they have Virtual PC now instead, (instead of licensing SoftPC) but that is a lot of work either way, for little gain. The MS solution is to run 32-bit Windows in a VM.

To get slightly more technical, when AMD developed AMD64, they decided (for some reason) to remove support for virtual 8086 mode, which NTVDM requires to function.

Yes, this means that the only way to run 16-bit code under a 64-bit OS without emulation is to set up a 32-bit virtual machine, and put that virtual machine in v86 mode.
Back in the early days of 64-bit, the VM extensions may not have been standardized enough, or not mature enough to make such a solution possible. I'm not entirely sure what the reasons were for Microsoft's decision, but at any rate, they chose not to implement this solution, nor a 16-bit emulator.
I guess it's a balance between the effort they had to invest into such a solution, and the demand for the feature.

Early amd64 CPUs lacked virtualization, especially on the Intel side, where most opted for the cheaper versions without VT.

collector wrote:

For some games you can simply install it in a VM and copy the game over to the host machine.

I can confirm that Turok 2 as well as Serious Sam First & Second Encounter work this way. I had initially installed these on an old Windows 98 PC. I merely copied their directories to my newer Windows 7 PC and they ran perfectly.

There are some that may need Registry entries, but some can be made by the game itself.