Originally posted by Unregistered Stargunner, by Apogee Software. I quickly found out it wouldn't run at all under XP.

Looks like it's mostly bad news. I'm betting your lack of a display comes from having VESA 2.0 support enabled in the setup program. NT/2000/XP don't support as many VESA screenmodes as DOS. Some cards are more compatible than others, but it seems most (if not all) GeForce cards have trouble with this. Try disabling it in SETUP and see if you get a display after the animations.

Now for the bad news. In all my tests, horrible audio lag appeared within seconds and got worse as time went by... But audio seems to be the least of the problems. The only key it seem to recognize was the space bar, menus failed to appear like they should have, and the mouse seemed completely inoperable.

The exact same install worked fine in Win98SE. Mouse, keyboard, audio, all worked like they should. Looks like this title "Hates NT".

I tried multiple variations with VDMSound and played with kHz within the SETUP program to no effect. Attempting to use XP's native SB-emulation caused both the setup program and the game to lock-up hard. Even disabling audio completely didn't help as I still couldn't access menus, keyboard, or mouse control.

Unless someone else knows of a miracle cure, I'd say this is a "Dual-Boot" candidate.

I'm thinking right now of buying an old pentium to run this game, it's so good...

That is another option.

it's like playing Gradius (you know that blastathon on NES and SNES?)

Which is actually a conversion of the arcade original, starting back in 1985.

http://www.classicgaming.com/gradius/home.html
Check under the games link and compare the differences between the different systems for the same game.

Thanks a great lot!

Your answer, even if it didn't solve the problem was what I expected to hear. I feared I couldn't play the game on my comp, that fear seems to be founded, but I think I'll get over it.

I tried to install it on my parent's 700 Mhz comp running in win98se, successfully, but the sound setup doesn't work. I am nonetheless able to play the game, without sound. They have a SB live (it might be the reason from what I read...), so I figure that if I install VDMS on their comp it should work.

Thanks again!

**oh and I forgot to add: it seems that in the setup, I can't disable VESA 2.0. When I click on it, it just displays some text but nothing is changed.

Originally posted by Unregistered I feared I couldn't play the game on my comp, that fear seems to be founded, but I think I'll get over it.

I'm a big advocate of the dual-boot. It doesn't require having a separate computer for titles that "Hate NT". The only real problem with a dual boot is trying to set it up after you install 2000 or XP. Then it's a headache. Stargunner is a good example of why I set mine up. I couldn't run it in XP, 60 seconds later I was playing it in 98SE just fine.

win98se, successfully, but the sound setup doesn't work. ... They have a SB live (it might be the reason from what I read...), so I figure that if I install VDMS on their comp it should work.

Just remember that it's an alpha and doesn't have the GUI features available in the NT version.

it seems that in the setup, I can't disable VESA 2.0. When I click on it, it just displays some text but nothing is changed.

It actually performs a VESA check when you click on it, so you may have to click two or three time before it sets it to "Disabled".

Stargunner works flawlessly with Windows XP system!!!

You may need to be an old dos diehard to figure this out.

Finally Got Stargunner to work under windows XP. You must have a bootable fat 32 partition to accomplish this. I have XP installed on a fat 32 40gb hard drive. If your C:\ drive is formated NFTS, this procedure will not work.

If you have a 40gb or larger drive you will need a windows 98 startup disk to format you drive fat32. Windows XP setup will only format the larger drives NFTS.

My system is a 1.2 Althon with the original SBlive. Download sblive emulation software from http://www.listen.to/sblive (Live! center) and follow their instructions accordingly. You may have to look around a bit for the software on their website.

Obtain a windows 98 startup disk and configure autoexec.bat and config.sys according to the sblive dos emulation obtained above. Also read your Stargunner help file for recommended auto and config settings.

One very important file included with the sblive emulation software is DOS4GW.EXE. Once booted up with your startup disk, this file must be run with the stargunner setup.exe and stargun.exe to properly configure and play the game.

You may have to play with sbeset within the dos emulation software to configure the proper IRQ and high dma. IRQ 7 and high dma 5 worked best for me, but may me different for you.

This process has also worked great for Duke Nukem 3D, and DOS4GW is not needed. I did have to re-configure different IRQ and high DMA for this game with sbeset.

You can now produce all sound with true 16bit fidelity and play many of your favorite games again in dos when needed.

Hats off to the people who developed the VDM software as this works great with a lot of my games. The above is only needed for those stubborn games, e.g., Stargunner.

Any questions please respond to this thread.

Theo

That solution is technically closer to dual-booting than playing the game "with XP"

Yes, you are definitely right, except no other operating system needs to be installed other than Windows XP.

Except that another operating system IS installed -- just on your floppy.

Also known as the "Poor man's Dual-Boot".

Just wanna know, is there an easier way, parhaps, to get stargunner to work? Iam a big retro fan, (arnt we all?) and yes i must admit, iam kinda lazy, and have the most outdated computer (i think out there) Just to give ya an update on my system specs... Its a Sony Vaio, 128mb ram, 1300mhz p4, 1.30Ghz, 40.2 gb (btw, quick question, is it possible to format my disk as a fat32?) Had 2000 as a base os, but been running xp on it for awhile, has sp 1&2, Soundblaster live! series (WRM, what eva that is) and an Ati All-in-wonder 128 Pro AGP. Would think it could run at least some of the oldes without any speical programs, but guess not. Anyways, what i wanna know, is there a way u can change up dosbox's setup to match the recommended requierments for Stargunner? Might be pointed out to another topic that relates to this question on the fourms. Forgive me i did try the Search, although the search dosn't always point to the direct answer. And sorry for the long post. Just got alot to say at the moment. Also, i had a win98SE disk at one point but i lost it. Do ya know where i could get another one?

guess nobody is gonna answer me, oh well. Just wanna play stargunner. Guess i gotta revert back to 98

If your computer isn't fast enough to run the game with DosBox then you can try the game in Windows XP without DosBox. If that doesn't work and you don't want to try emulators like MS VPC or Qemu then yes, you'll have to use Winders 98.

Well, where do i find these emulators? Also, How do i set up dos box to Stargunners system requierments?