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

Hi guys, I'm new here and desperate for help of how to get Gothic 1 running. I read on here that it is compatible with Vista but everytime I try it says that there's an access violation. I'm fairly inept when it comes to the technicals but I really wanna get it running. I'd appreciate any help.

Quick search on the net showed 2 things you could try:

- install DirectX 9 (search www.microsoft.com for it, it's free and installing it does not disturb DirectX 10 that comes with Vista)
- install it on another system with Windows XP and then just copy the install directory and files over to the computer that has Vista on it.

Also, you should patch the game if you haven't done so already. It is possible to run Gothic on Vista, as I just tried without any problems.

Thanks for the quick reply, I don't have access to XP unfortunately, but I think I figured out the problem, in that I've been dumb enough to be trying it on a laptop which I think might be why it doesn't work. If anybody else has any other ideas I'd be open to them. The version of Gothic is the one that came with the Gothic Universe pack so it's all patched and upto date.

Has anyone managed to run the Atari game "The Temple of Elemental Evil" under Vista? I have been able to play "Baldur's Gate" thanks to the advice from various people in the forums. I'm grateful for all the help, but I thought it was time to take a break from the game, as I've begun to talk like Khalid! I can't remember much about ToEE, but I hope to find a better role model if someone could help me run the game once again.

Mike Frankum said:

Has anyone managed to run the Atari game "The Temple of Elemental Evil" under Vista

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I installed and ran it fine with no real problems, including the Co8 packs. It crashes on exit every time, but never during play.

txa1265 said:

I installed and ran it fine with no real problems, including the Co8 packs. It crashes on exit every time, but never during play.

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I installed it, and it told me that the installation had failed some type of disc verification, so I removed the game then re-installed as administrator, but now the game just gets a little further, shows a spinning disc icon, then ceases to run. It doesn't crash as such, it just goes back to the desktop without any error message or anything. Oh dear, it's b-b-back to being ka-ka-Khalid for me!

Confirmed that Temple of Elemental Evil works for me under Vista. My problem was, as usual, of my own making. I installed patch 3, which obviously screwed everything up. Turns out it was for US versions only. I'm in the UK. Duhhh! Does anyone know of UK patches?
Anyway, sorry for posting in wrong forum again. ToEE DOES work under Vista.

hi, I need some info. and I hope this is the right place and I do it right, I screwed up a couple of times earlier. I need to know if the following older games will work/play ok/good on vista 64 os. 1) ARCANUM
2) BALDURS GATE 2 COLLECTION/COMPILATION
3) NEVERWINTER NIGHTS DIAMOND/ DVD
4)FATE-STORE BOUGHT VERSION
5) SILVERFALL
6)DUNGEON SIEGE AN DUNGEON SIEGE LOA
7)ICEWIND DALE 1 AND ICEWIND DALE 2
8) THE TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL
9) MAGEKNIGHT APOCALYPSE
10) DUNGEON LORDS CE
11) DIVINE DIVINITY AND BEYOND DIVINITY.
I hope I get the answers I seek/need, I am sort of worried because no one has posted on this thread recently, please if any one sees this encourage others to take a look and give feed back and any info. they have on these games and vista! thanks!

torbadon said:

I hope I get the answers I seek/need, I am sort of worried because no one has posted on this thread recently, please if any one sees this encourage others to take a look and give feed back and any info. they have on these games and vista! thanks!

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That's because everyone here hates Vista.

@torbadon: if you already have Vista, why not try those games and see what happens?

If you have the old OSes you could try installing Virtual PC (freely available from Microsoft), I've one installation running Win98 (admittedly under XP) and I've play Fallout 1 on that one. It runs fine, without the graphical glitches mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

torbadon said:

hi, I need some info. and I hope this is the right place and I do it right, I screwed up a couple of times earlier. I need to know if the following older games will work/play ok/good on vista 64 os.

.... 1) - 11) .....

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If these all games are 32 bit. and I think they are, you shouldn't have any problems. 32 bit. software works fine under Vista x64 using WoW64 subsystem. I' ve been using Vista x64 on my home PC, which is also a gaming machine , for almost a year and I haven't encountered any 32 bit. application which I couldn't run except for some really old games like MYST when installator controls version of OS for Win9x (compatibility mode doesn't have to help..).

Otherwise you would have to try these games under older Microsoft operating system using virtualization. You can try a free solution provided by Microsoft as lghartveit pointed out or for example (paid) products by VMware. But you must realize that when you virtualize, you generally virtualize your hardware as well so result doesn't have to be perfect (various sound glitches etc.).

You can also try to run old 16 bit. games using DosBox emulation software or ScummVM for old adventure games...

edit: then there is another possible solution: to use some linux distribution (as second OS or virtualize it) and try to run older Windows games using Wine or Cedega ...

Wiz 8 and vista

Well, I actually got Wiz 8 to run with vista using the game compatabilty mode, windows 98.
BUT, I tried adding Flame's final mod and it picked up some parts, like new items, but not the new monsters.
Any thoughts on why it would run some of the mod and not others?

I'm trying to install Gothic 2 Gold on Window's Vista Home Premium, but every time I click "install" on the autorun menu the applications goes to the familiar "not responding." This is really annoying, as I want to play it.

Have you tried the different compatibility settings?

Mageoffire said:

I'm trying to install Gothic 2 Gold on Window's Vista Home Premium, but every time I click "install" on the autorun menu the applications goes to the familiar "not responding." This is really annoying, as I want to play it.

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Try starting the setup file in xp compatibility mode (right click the setup file and chose this option). Make sure you're administrator as well - that's also an option that you can enable if you right click on the setup file.

I cant get gothic 2 to work on my quad core amd pc that has vista 64 sevice pack 1,
it loaded ok-aparently, but when I try to start it I get a message from windows that
somethings not working and that it was being shut down(gothic 2) and that windows would search for and notify me of a solution, but it never does, thats all-it
repeats that every time I try to play the game, I have tried compatibility modes -xp, and 2000, neither help, running game as administrator doesnt either. I play lots of
other older games on vista 64 without problem. I COULD use some help!!

I'm trying to get Riven to work and so far after some googling I've gotte at least somewhere but its not perfect. I'm running Vista x64.

I will post some instructions shortly when I get time.

In short, there are two versions of Riven, the original and the 10th Anniversary edition. The original has a patch, and there is a third party patch to get it working. I don't know if the 3rd party patch is pointless in light of the original.

The 10th anniversary ed Riven has some of the same problems in Vista as the original so some of the workarounds on the net are still valid. For example, there seems to be issues with quicktime so putting the drivers for an older version of QT in the Riven folder will fix the display. Also, adding all the MHK files to the data directory will run them off the hard drive instead of the disk.

There is a known problem with the original and corrupt saves every 5th or 6th one but I do not know yet if this is a problem with the 10th anniv. ed. This is the main problem the official patch is supposed to fix.

Hi, I am trying to run the original gothic 3 under vista but cant get it to play at all, i get an error message and told to run support/drivers.setup from cd but that wont run so now i'm stuck. I have intel core 2 quad 2.33 ghz, 6 gb ddr2 ram, nvidia 9500 gt 1 gb ddr, large hard drive etc, running vista home premium 64 bit. Does this mean that I cant run the game or can I download patches. Tried to look on gothic site but couldn't find it not in german! Hope someone can help as I like the game and was really keen to see it on new fast machine.

Not an RPG, and an old game: Heretic 2.

It crashes when the game proper is about to start. the eventlog indicates a problem with the "Client Effects.dll". I've googled for a solution, and I find one reference which says ..."Client Effects.dll, otherwise the game will crash.... But the link is dead! SO WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH that dll? (removing it does not help) WAAAAH!!!

I'm running Vista64. I've had no problems with other games.