lee292 wrote:

Something tells me I can't just go to Windows File Manager, navigate to the CD and click on the install file.

Um... Why don't you try it and find out? This is confusing. What exactly were you expecting?

You've mounted your CD-ROM drive, right?

I'll try that and see what happens. Not at the Mini Mac right now.

I got Windows to recognize the CD drive, but when I tell the only executable file, GHScrabbleInstall.exe, on the disk to run, the screen blinks once and then nothing happens.

Isn't this a Win32 game?

collector wrote:

Isn't this a Win32 game?

lee292 wrote:

successful in installing Windows 3.11, which the game's cd label says it's compatible with.

But wait a minute. How can you see "GHScrabbleInstall.exe" in DOSBox? That's a long file name; you shouldn't be seeing that.

Can you provide a screenshot of Windows File Manager displaying this name?

He should see "GHSCRA~1.EXE" in Win3x. I believe that the game was released in the early '00s, so that there is some chance that it might run if he has Win32s installed, but I doubt it. This was the era of 32-bit games with 16-bit installers. Also, the fact that it uses an installer with a long file name means that it was never intended for Win16. 9x at least.

collector wrote:

He should see "GHSCRA~1.EXE" in Win3x.

Well, unless he has something really weird in this installation of Win3.x. And there might be another installer in a subdirectory.

I do see "GHScra~!.exe" in DOSBox. If this version of Scrabble is a 32-bit app, it may be the reason it doesn't load, although the disc label says it's supposed to run on Windows 3.1. Partitioned my Mac's HD and used DOSBox to install Windows 3.11, thinking I could boot directly and install the game, but no dice. Boot manager won't even acknowledge the partition exists! In my version of OS X, Boot Camp won't run anything older than Windows 7. BTW, Scrabble runs quite nicely on my Windows 8.1 laptop.

That's a very weird way to use Windows 3.x in Dosbox on a mac.
If you want to use Windows 3.x, you only need dosbox, not another partition...

Anyway, give Wine or Crossover a try to play it on OS X...

Yes, DOSBox does not work that way.

lee292 wrote:

BTW, Scrabble runs quite nicely on my Windows 8.1 laptop.

Is your laptop running the 64-bit version of Windows 8.1, or the 32-bit version? (The System control panel will tell you.) Because 64-bit versions of Windows generally can't run any software that would run under Windows 3.1.

I got Windows to recognize the CD drive, but when I tell the only executable file, GHScrabbleInstall.exe, on the disk to run, the screen blinks once and then nothing happens.

If you start up DOSBox and try to run that file without starting Windows 3.1 (that is, by executing GHSCRA~1.EXE), what happens?

If it says "This program requires Microsoft Windows", then there might still be some hope. If it says "This program cannot be run in DOS mode", then it is a 32-bit program and either the disc label is lying, or there's another installer somewhere on the disc.

Did this game come with any documentation with instructions as to how to install it in Windows 3.1? Perhaps there is a readme.txt in the root directory?

Jorpho, mine's the 64-bit version, which explains why Scrabble won't load with Win 3.11. I've. tried running the install program in DOSBox and it does give me the "cannot be run in DOS mode" message, so it is a 32-bit program. I'll check for a README, but I don't remember seeing one on the disc. It doesn't look good, guys. Looks like if I want the game to run on my Mac, I have two options. Buy the latest version of Windows and use BootCamp, which would be silly to spend $120 to play a $10 game, or buy a Scrabble game that will run on later editions of OS X. There's one available that will run on Mountain Lion, but what I've heard it isn't as good as this one. *sigh*

lee292 wrote:

Jorpho, mine's the 64-bit version, which explains why Scrabble won't load with Win 3.11.

To be clear, nothing running in DOSBox knows if your system is 64-bit or 32-bit. Your 64-bit version of Windows will have no effect on the ability of DOSBox to run Scrabble with Win 3.11.

Looks like if I want the game to run on my Mac, I have two options. Buy the latest version of Windows and use BootCamp, which would be silly to spend $120 to play a $10 game, or buy a Scrabble game that will run on later editions of OS X.

There are numerous other options. VMware Fusion, for instance, or the OS X version of Wine.

Lee292, are you ignoring my posts on purpose? Try Wine or the more polished Crossover (which is Wine, only with support and gui, but paid).

Tried WineBottler, but it hangs. Maybe I'm not doing something right.

Tried WineBottler again, and this time it created a package and the Scrabble icon showed up on my taskbar, but when I clicked on it, it disappeared. I tried clicking on it in my Apps folder and got a message that there was no disc in Drive D: (of course on a Mac there's no drive D:)

You can assign a folder as D:/ in Wine. Also works with Volumes...

Thanks, Dominus! I'll look into either renaming my SuperDrive as D:\ in Wine or copying everything on the CD to a folder and assigning it to D:/ I'll do some looking around on how to do that and keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed...

Please forgive my ignorance, but all I've found is a lot of stuff in Linux forums. I found something like "mount /dev/hda2 mnt/windows" which I assume is a Unix/Linux terminal command to mount a partition on one's hard drive as "windows". Can someone walk me though how to assign my SuperDrive as "D\:"?

Run control.exe in Wine. One of the Wine control.exe tabs habdles drive letter/names/serial.