Vista and Older Games:- Problems and How to Solve Them

Unable to run game after clicking the play button of arcanum

Took me two weeks to work out how to install Arcanum as I kept receiving a message telling me that the software contained malware so my anti-virusa wouldn't let it fully install so I was missing the play option -that problem is now solved after sorting out my AV...But my new problem is now that I have fully installed Arcanum when the auto-play menu appears and I click play...my system boots up and then nothing happens...
So what do I do oh wise ones??
The fact that I use Vista - is that a problem?

Cheers, caylez
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2010
Messages
2
Does Windows 7 run old games (eg: PS:T, Beyond Divinity, etc) better than Vista 64?

Most of my games are 2D sprite RPGs & adventure games and have tried the above games on my Vista machine, along with troubleshooting, yet still having problems.

(I've had this machine for about 6 months and can't believe the problems associated with running my beloved software. Wish I still had my XP rig.)
 
Joined
May 22, 2010
Messages
6
noosk, does your hard drive have more than 1 partition? You could always get yourself a copy of XP and set up your rig to dual-boot.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,017
Location
Florida, US
No, am getting Windows 7 installed soon so will go from there. If problems continue will get a copy of XP and partition the HD. Thanks for your reply.
 
Joined
May 22, 2010
Messages
6
Baldur's Gate and MM7

Baldur's Gate has worked great for me on Vista 64-bit. However, I can't get MM7 to run on it. I'm not the techiest person around, but if I glean enough info from various sources, sometimes I can figure it out. Has anyone run MM7 on Vista 64-bit? It sounds like, whilst reading these posts, that 64-bit is controversial in running older games…?

So, am I "screwed" on running this game? I tried various compatibility modes, but it seems to just exit out as soon as it shows the intro image, and tells me it has stopped working. I uninstalled it, and then reinstalled it, only for it to freeze up trying to install it again! I finally got it to install, but it once again exited out as soon as it began to load the intro.

I love this old-school game, so if anyone has any advice, that'd be great!
 
Joined
Jul 20, 2010
Messages
3
Update On Running MM7 on Vista 64-Bit

Ok, so I somehow finally managed to get Might and Magic 7 to run on Vista 64-Bit. After freeze ups with the game installing, as well as an error that the uninstall got ruined and this game couldn't be uninstalled if I wanted it to be, I just did the following:

  • I opened up the Compatibility Option
  • Made sure the Run as Administrator was not checked
  • Made sure it was running as Windows XP
  • I did not start the game clicking on any shortcut or getting it to start from the CD directly. Instead, I double-clicked within the folder of 3DO the MM7.exe and not the other one.

This started the game and I didn't touch a thing. I let the intro begin and run its course. I was able to create characters, but not change the portraits—only the names and voices.

While playing I noticed the names were changed back to the original they start with by default (that is, the fighter is called Zoltan by default; I tried to change it but it didn't stick). I slowed down the speed of my movement by choosing Smooth in the Control Options.

Other than that, everything else seems to work. I just started out, and did my first battle with the dragonflies, and it all functioned properly. Spellbooks worked properly, reassigning the keys worked properly, and so on. If I find any further issues, I'll update accordingly.
 
Joined
Jul 20, 2010
Messages
3
When you update, could you kindly avoid using that purple type colout.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,805
Location
Australia
Baldur's Gate, Lands of Lore Guardians of Destiny, Diablo

Baldur's Gate
Works fine in Win7 with compatibility mode set to XP. I assume the same can be said for Vista, but I haven't run it in that environment. Otherwise I get broken NPC's and some broken mechanics like reputation.

Lands of Lore
Will not install on win 7. The work around is to copy the installed game directory from your hard drive on a previous O/S (I dual boot xp/7) to some form of removable media. Then simply copy it to the local disk on your win7 or vista partition. Once complete it will run perfectly. Well that is as perfectly as it will run.

The game came out when autoexec.bat and config.sys files were used to configure run and change sound and video settings (among other things). Currently if you try to install LoL: GoD onto an XP partition it will work but the cut scenes (select few) suffer from choppiness. This is often remedied (only slightly) by changing the compatibility in XP to NT 4. Some movies get better but slowly lag increasingly as the movie nears completion. Also changing the compatibility to NT breaks (some) zone changes that require cut scenes to move between them causing them to be inaccessible. Playing the game in DOS mode (which will run in xp) resolves these issues completely but (depending on your hardware) you won't have sound and DOS does not support hardware video acceleration. Direct X is suspect but the only way to test that theory is to test the game on a fresh OS that has DX6 or earlier (win2k or earlier).

Diablo
Will run on Win7. But regardless of the compatibility mode you will experience rainbow effect on the UI and around some animation and on load screens. Compatibility mode does not seem to alter this. I suspect that DX is the main cause here. On my win7 partition I have DX9.0c for some games and 10.1 for others. What's interesting is that win7 only has 10.1 pre-loaded. So it's assumable that on a fresh install you could load an older version of DX and test the game. I will be re-installing soon and will reply with an update. Diablo seems to run flawlessly on XP (without compatibility settings).

These are the only games I've had any trouble with. IWD seems to run great and so does BG2 and ToB. I also run AoE2 without any issues.
 
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
1
update on Riven for Windows 7 64. Freezing issues are pretty common but I've reduced this but running it in XP SP2 compatibility mode on the 10 year anniversary edition. I'm also using QT Lite which I can't say is not a problem - although QT 6.3 (real) had freezing issues as well.

Steam customers were advised by Cyan last year to set Apathy to 1 so it would only run on 1 core.

I'm not sure how to try something like this in a standard install.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
5,209
Location
The Uncanny Valley
Is this sticky thread still relevant?
I would say yes as quite a few older games still don't work on Win 10. One example would be older CD/DVD that I own wont even install anymore.:(
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,073
Location
Spudlandia
What about the solutions? My last post was 2011 - a long distance from Windows 10 which most people use now and no one has posted here since then.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
5,209
Location
The Uncanny Valley
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,073
Location
Spudlandia
My understanding is secure rom games (many came on dvd during those magical years) will not run on windows 10; I think most other games are ok.
-
However having said that soon - within 18 months give or take a little unless you are a corporation with paid support for windows 7 - windows 10 will pretty much be your only option so say good bye to those older secure rom games on dvd....
 
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
7,758
Location
usa - no longer boston
As long as my Windows seven program remains functional, I don't see me migrating to Windows ten. If it dies at some point, I suppose I'll be forced to change, but I will not enjoy it.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,685
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
Just don't access the web with it and you will almost be fine. I suppose you will also need to either shutdown windows stuffy services or firewall everything off (which is common these days with home routers).

As long as my Windows seven program remains functional, I don't see me migrating to Windows ten. If it dies at some point, I suppose I'll be forced to change, but I will not enjoy it.
 
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
7,758
Location
usa - no longer boston
I've been uinstalling the "Windows XP Mode" aka the Windows XP Virtual PC recently, but there is a thing I just can't understand : I'm not able to access any web site from that virtual PC.

Apoart from that I really shouldn't do it - it's to me a matter of being able to access the Windows Update site … It said, however, when I wanted to do a shutdown, it would be installing 54 updates … I don't have any idea where that system got them from apart from that "Boits" update driver, maybe …

Am I just dumb or is this by design not to be able the internet with this system ?

Purpose is that I want to install a few older games there (especially Zoo Tycoon), which wouldn't run on my 64 bit Windows 7 system.

Edit : Suddenly, after installing these updates, the Misrosoft Update in the system works ...
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,893
Location
Old Europe
Back
Top Bottom