I don't have that game, but my bet is that it's looking for extra memory beyond the 640K that is NOT being managed by HIMEM.SYS (XMS) or EMM386 (EMS). I'm not sure if that's possible to emulate in Win2K/XP and/or VDMS.

Originally posted by HunterZ ...it's looking for extra memory beyond the 640K that is NOT being managed by HIMEM.SYS (XMS) or EMM386 (EMS).

Eh? XMS is eXtended Memory System, so it should work. Problem is, it will be insanely fast.

Either try it with DosBox or track down the Windows remake by Origin.

Wing Commander only requires EMS as far as i know. Runs fine in win2k although somewhat faaaast 😀

Running in dosbox won't work since there's a problem with the keyboard not working when creating a new player.

Nicht Sehr Gut wrote:

Eh? XMS is eXtended Memory System, so it should work. Problem is, it will be insanely fast.

Actually there is a difference. Extended memory is what you have if it isn't being managed by HIMEM.SYS. XMS is a standardized interface to it that is provided by HIMEM.SYS, which has the side-effect of reserving it all for use via XMS only (i.e. it gets "managed" exclusively by HIMEM.SYS). I remember that there were a few old games that did have issues with this, but can't remember any specifically so take me with a grain of salt 😉

Originally posted by HunterZ Actually there is a difference. Extended memory is what you have if it isn't being managed by HIMEM.SYS. XMS is a standardized interface to it that is provided by HIMEM.SYS, which has the side-effect of reserving it all for use via XMS only ...

Oh give me a headache why doncha'... Nothing like having the technical equivalent of affect/effect. I believe this is what you're referring to:
Some older programs use the Interrupt 15h interface to allocate extended memory rather than using the XMS (eXtended-Memory Specification) method provided by HIMEM.

http://home7.inet.tele.dk/batfiles/msdos7/