From: Best Virtual Machine to Emulate Windows 95 for Windows gaming

Mike wrote on 2017-11-21, 09:49:

For the longest time, I have wanted to play the old games I used to be able to play back when I had a 486DX. I made a thread about this at an earlier period of time, but I guess I wasn't exactly crystal clear on why I wanted to emulate Windows 95. I'm planning on purchasing the OS CD's and installing it in my machine, but I am unsure which virtual software to use, and how to emulate Sound Blaster 16 on there, and possibly emulate 3D acceleration, though 3D acceleration in a virtual box is not on the top of my priority list, since those Windows games I'm looking to play did not really require that. Amazing how GOG was able to allow me to play System Shock 2, and how Dosbox can virtually play any DOS game that I please, but there are several games that I acknowledge may require a few extra steps. I hope I was able to explain myself clearly, and any assistance on how to get this rolling would be appreciated!

I have a patch that might help you, for me it enabled me to run Cold Shadow on Windows XP, possibly will work on later versions of windows also.

https://github.com/WesUnwin/coldshdw_patch

Your contribution is much appreciated.

Do you know where WDIR62F.DLL and PMPRO62F.DLL originally came from? Perhaps your fix could be useful for other games that were built similarly.

Also, if the compatibility problem relates to 16-bit code that got blown up, how did GOG get it working?
https://www.gog.com/game/maui_mallard_in_cold_shadow

(It would be neat if the SNES version got an MSU-1 patch to use the redbook audio from the PC version, but that would be a completely different matter.)

Perhaps GOG is just running it in Dosbox running Windows 9x (Dosbox running Windows 95 in my case what got me the best performance, don't remember which version it was or what build)? That's the way I used to ran Cold Shadow (from my Disney's Classic Video Games 2 CD-ROMs). The same for the first set of games(although I know that UniPCemu can run them as well(at least from the first game (Alladin, Lion King, Jungle Book), didn't check the second game(Cold Shadow, Toy Story and Burper(had to check my game case for that last one, didn't remember which one it was(a Timon & Pumbaa shooting game of sorts if I remember it correctly)))).

Jorpho wrote on 2020-08-31, 01:53:

Do you know where WDIR62F.DLL and PMPRO62F.DLL originally came from? Perhaps your fix could be useful for other games that were built similarly.

SciTech MGL library, some other Windows games around the time use these (WinQuake, Hexen II, Outlaws, Grand Theft Auto) mainly for fast buffered 320x200/320x240 and (rare) support for exotic video modes, kind of like a Windows-based UniVBE and functions as a directdraw alternative

superfury wrote on 2020-08-31, 02:37:

Perhaps GOG is just running it in Dosbox running Windows 9x

That would require them to somehow have a license to redistribute Windows components, which is completely unthinkable. If they're using an open source alternative like BoxedWine or WineVDM or something, then it would be interesting to know which one.

leileilol wrote on 2020-08-31, 02:45:

SciTech MGL library, some other Windows games around the time use these (WinQuake, Hexen II, Outlaws, Grand Theft Auto) mainly for fast buffered 320x200/320x240 and (rare) support for exotic video modes, kind of like a Windows-based UniVBE and functions as a directdraw alternative

I know there have definitely been patches released for Outlaws. Did those patches include a similar fix, or is Outlaws somehow immune?

Outlaws only provides MGL as an alternative option if you can't get DirectDraw going (which for certain older video cards without DX driver support, was the case)

leileilol wrote on 2020-08-31, 02:45:

Jorpho wrote on 2020-08-31, 01:53:

Do you know where WDIR62F.DLL and PMPRO62F.DLL originally came from? Perhaps your fix could be useful for other games that were built similarly.

SciTech MGL library, some other Windows games around the time use these (WinQuake, Hexen II, Outlaws, Grand Theft Auto) mainly for fast buffered 320x200/320x240 and (rare) support for exotic video modes, kind of like a Windows-based UniVBE and functions as a directdraw alternative

How's that if these .dll s work in another game. For me GTA1 works fine with these MGL .dlls. If I use the GTA dll in Cold Shadow, is there chance of it working?\Until now I found the game is rather laggy on the 320*240 modes

Hey thanks for this post. I've been planning on installing this, and your title caught my eye in advance. Very useful.

I had bought this game back when it was new, thanks for the patch!

I copied both files to gime dir but I still get a 0xc0000142 error. The event viewer has mentions of WDIR62F.dll 🙁

If you have this game installed on Windows 3.11 (edit: or 9X), this utility I wrote a few years ago starts the game and sets it to fullscreen on startup.

Because unless the game is in fullscreen a) the default window is TINY b) the scrolling isn't smooth at all.

It also stops the game from always starting with a tiny window, which is annoying.

It also works well inside DOSBox.

It assumes that the game is installed at this location :C:\DISNEY\COLDSHDW (as is the default)

xcomcmdr wrote on 2020-09-04, 10:07:

If you have this game installed on Windows 3.11, this utility I wrote a few years ago starts the game and sets it to fullscreen […]
Show full quote

If you have this game installed on Windows 3.11, this utility I wrote a few years ago starts the game and sets it to fullscreen on startup.

Because unless the game is in fullscreen a) the default window is TINY b) the scrolling isn't smooth at all.

It also stops the game from always starting with a tiny window, which is annoying.

It also works well inside DOSBox.

It assumes that the game is installed at this location :C:\DISNEY\COLDSHDW (as is the default)

I was playing on Windows 10, and the file you made for Windows 3.11 surprised me 🤣 🤣

I just like to use DOSBox any time I get the chance to 😁

xcomcmdr wrote on 2020-09-04, 10:07:

It also works well inside DOSBox.

You mean DOSBox with Windows 3.x, or DOSBox directly?

DOSBox with Windows 3.X, of course. It's a Win32S game.

OMG Its on GOG!!! Finally my answer to my 20 year old problem!!!! I can play this on an Xbox One controller!!! So happy!!! 😀 Thank you for all of your answers folks! Going to a time warp back to 2001!

Mike wrote on 2021-06-12, 03:41:

OMG Its on GOG!!! Finally my answer to my 20 year old problem!!!!

I'm not sure why you bumped this thread after nine months, but it's nice that you're happy, I guess?

But while we're on the subject, I learned a while ago that there is, in fact, an MSU-1 patch for the SNES version, though the copies of the music distributed with it are reportedly kind of lacking and it is better to substitute fresh rips from the PC version, even if they aren't necessarily looped properly.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-06-12, 04:13:

Mike wrote on 2021-06-12, 03:41:

OMG Its on GOG!!! Finally my answer to my 20 year old problem!!!!

I'm not sure why you bumped this thread after nine months, but it's nice that you're happy, I guess?

But while we're on the subject, I learned a while ago that there is, in fact, an MSU-1 patch for the SNES version, though the copies of the music distributed with it are reportedly kind of lacking and it is better to substitute fresh rips from the PC version, even if they aren't necessarily looped properly.

To answer your post, I was looking at a bunch of 8-bit hardware, and I thought about posting something on here about it, but I thought of looking at my last posts just to see what happened, and then discovered that Cold Shadow was on GOG. I've been mostly playing on consoles, and not necessarily paying a lot of attention of what's going on in the PC world of things. I used to be nuts about getting DOS games to work, but not only has DosBox become my go-to for playing all my DOS games, but the hardware and software needed to run a lot of the older stuff is too expensive from the pandemic, so was glad to get something like Cold Shadow running without breaking the bank. Going to actually post about the old hardware next.

For anyone who got it from GoG, what does it run Cold Shadow in? Dosbox is required of course, but running what OS(Windows 3.x? 9x? Something else?) inside it? Esp. with Windows licensing if required in this version?