Getting old games to work

[Tomoyo]

I decided to go through some old games, and I found SimCity 3000 and the Sims. Neither of them will work on my Windows XP, and the error is that it's not compatible with Windows XP. However, even after running the compatibility wizard, it still did not work.

Anyone have any ideas on how I can get them to work?

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Right click it, select Properties, then Compatibility tab and say "Run this program in..." and try whatever it's supposed to run in.

 

[Tomoyo]

Right click it, select Properties, then Compatibility tab and say "Run this program in..." and try whatever it's supposed to run in.

Tried that and it didn't work...

EDIT: Here's a screenshot.

 

[Chieftess]

If you have WinXP and Win98 (or anther combination), you may want to partition it (back up everything first!). Here's a site on making a partition for a daul-boot Windows system.

I find that DOS-Box doesn't work well in WinXP, BTW.

 

[Comraddict]

you can use virtual machine. and that error comes "bundled" with xp sp2

 

[ainwood]

Strange - The Sims should work fine under XP (It does here).

For SC3000, here it says that it works under XP.

 

[Paalikles]

Dos-box has been stable for me - try to get a nice shell for it - example being D-fend v2 (makes setting up dos-box to run much more easy.

You shouldnt have need for dos-box afaik. I m with Ainwood, although I do not have those games myself...

 

[Tomoyo]

I just looked and checked my SYSTEM32 folder, and found that the "AUTOEXEC" file does not exist. Could that have something to do with anything?

 

[Chieftess]

The autoexec.bat file typically resided in the C:\ directory.

 

[Mahler]

I use dosbox, and it works under XP

 

[Tomoyo]

It's not that I can't get them to run -- it's that I can't get them to install...

Dosbox won't work, since I need to actually get the game onto my computer, no?

EDIT: Hey, just wondering: Is it feasible to manual-install either of those games?

 

[Nobody]

i had a problem getting old games to work. I want to play conquest of the new world. but i cant

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I'm having the same problem, trying to run simearth (the pc version):

edit: maybe it has something to do with recent windows updates?

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Problem solved!
http://www.iamnotageek.com/a/413-p1.php

Why do I keep getting this error message C:\WINDOWS\System32\Autoexec.nt?

You will receive an error message that reads something like this:

16-bit MS-DOS Subsystem
path to the program that you are trying to start or install
C:\Windows\System32\Autoexec.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

Solution?

The easiest is simply inserting the Windows XP CD into the CD drive and clicking start --> Run and entering:

expand X:\i386\autoexec.nt_ c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt

Replace X:\ with your CD ROM drive letter.

Microsoft has provided a solution for this problem here. It is related to running DOS based or 16 bit applications in Windows XP. If you either do not have this CD for some reason try downloading it here. After downloading the .zip you will have to extract it to your windows\system32 directory. If this file does not work properly for you please check the feedback thread for assistance on your specific version of windows.

 

[Tomoyo]

OMG!

Thank you thank you!

 

[raen]

It's not that I can't get them to run -- it's that I can't get them to install...

Dosbox won't work, since I need to actually get the game onto my computer, no?

For installing I use VDMSound -> http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/

 

[The Person]

Wow, Sourceforge has everything.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

OMG!

Thank you thank you!

You're quite welcome