I looked around the forums a bit and couldn't find any topics explaining how to get (some) old DOS games running under XP without DosBox. Granted, I didn't look very hard and might be repeating what others have already said, but hey - at least its a non-spam way to get my post count up :D

So here's what you can do to setup your game for running under xp:

1. install/unzip the game into a folder
2. right-click on the exe file (there may be several in the folder, im talking about the exe file which starts the game) and click Properties
3. from the window that pops up, go to the Program tab
4. Here, deselect "Close on exit" - this is for some games which open a black window that dissapears after half a second and nothing else happens. With this setting off, the window stays open and contains a message telling you what exactly went wrong that prevented the game from running properly: not enough memory, couldnt find a file, etc.
5. Click "Advanced", and in the window that pops up, enable "Compatible Timer Hardware Emulation"
6. Close this window and move to the Memory tab
7. enable "Protected" mode and "Uses HMA" mode.
8. For all memory settings (conventional, expanded, extended, DPMI) choose the maximum value setting
9. Apply your changes and close the window
10. Try running the game

One thing you definitely shouldn't try is Compatibiliy Mode! :not_ok:


The above steps work mostly for games that would run directly under Win9x systems. Really old games (with 4-8 colours and a filesize under 20kb) will probably need DosBox :whistle:

To the compatibility mode -
It's a last resort, and in certain cases it does work.
It tries to naturalize resources to a certain platform, and to some extent it does work.
I got Blood and System Shock 2 to work that way.

On my system they both work using the steps I wrote out :)

Well, I saved myself all the trouble by just going into compatibility mode, :bleh: .
I tried this out with a game and it worked, so I'll use it if I encounter any problem.s.

nice one nikson! running games your way means an extra belt of speed.

DosBox or VDMSound, nothing else. Some very - I mean VERY - old games will run perfectly in pure XP, though (Mechwar springs to mind)

I can't seem to get TD2192 to work when I do this. Know what else I can try?

yes, DoxBox :P

How do I do DosBox? Isn't that the thing that comes up when you try to run it? (I'm not too good with computers). If it is that, it doesn't work.

"The thing that comes up" is DOS, not DOSBox.

Download dosbox here, pick Windows if you're unsure.

K. Thank you.

The main problem with Windows XP is that DOS emulation is terrible. A game that runs at full speed under DOSBox will in many cases feel like slow motion in Windows XP. This "problem" depends on the way the game is coded, but why use WinXP when DosBox gives you a complete "shielded" enviroment (AFAIK there's no way an old DOS virus or a faulty/hacked program can fry you harddrive with dosbox).

The main reason you would use XP instead of DosBox is so that you don't have to do all the mounting and drive changing and directory searching every time you want to play the game.

that why some people made frontend. which stores the settings and modifies dosbox.conf for you when decide play game X

True. But since front-ends dont come standard with DosBox, people have to go hunting for them and figuring out how to use them.
I never said getting games to run in pure XP is better. It's just an alternative.

For the lazy ones (those that don't want to type too much, like me :D ): get dosbox and d-fend; d-fend is a nice graphic user interface for dosbox.

Got a lot of old games working under XP this way, like 99%

i have xp and try your steps....now a big old game :kosta: transport tycoon deluxe work at me again. THANKS MAN

Dfend is on the DosBox site so finding a frontend isn't all that hard.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Smith @ Oct 29 2005, 07:02 AM) [snapback]173796[/snapback]</div>try this: http://www.openttd.org/
It's open source port of Transport Tycoon Deluxe with added possibility to play online! :)

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nikson @ Oct 26 2005, 12:04 AM) [snapback]172330[/snapback]</div>You can always set up your dosbox.conf in the [ autoexec ] part. You'll do it only once and it will work every time you run DosBox.

I got special directory on my hdd for old games which is mounted automaticly by dosbox.conf at startup. Later i need to change dirs, but it's how DOS worked.This is something that shouldn't change in my opinion.

I looked for this thread quite a while.
It helped me a lot when I tried to run Albion and Settlers 2 Gold.
Can't we make a sticky out of it? Or at least out of the basic information this thread contains? :huh:

A game I'm reviewing - a 1988 model - ironically refuses to work in Dosbox, VDMsound or with Frontend, however it works fine in XP. The problem is that I can't take screenshots while running the game in XP. PRTSCR refuses to work. I could try one of those screen-shot programs, I guess.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wendymaree @ May 12 2007, 02:22 PM) [snapback]290016[/snapback]</div>you could try loading up the accessibility solutions on screen keyboard and using the print screen on that

Ok...I think I know what you mean. Thank you! :)

I'll try that with Elder Scrolls: Arena. Anyway, the mouse don't work there in the character creation screen. Any clues?

How about starting a thread about it in Troubleshooting forum? You're more likely to find a response there.

I pinned this because I've noticed that there have been many topics that could have been solved simply by just running the game first without trying dosbox!

Hi to you guys,

so I'm having trouble running Transport Tycoon Deluxe For Wins, on XP SP1

I've follwed all the procedres, .REG, patches, reboot and without success.
I have a dos pop-up when I try to launch TTDFW that disapear half a second after.
The language set was OK
I tried the tips on this thread telling to ckeck out for the program tab in properties of the .EXE and I don't have this tab... :wallbash:

So I'm out of solutions and I really want to play it... :sos:

So thanks in advance to all of you who can help me.

post in troubleshooting, this will get probably deleted.

and by the way, why didnt you do what i told you to do in abandonia games discussion? ->run game via cmd.exe and tell whats the error message

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Eddie30 @ Aug 1 2007, 06:29 PM) [snapback]302321[/snapback]</div>yeuch!!, get SP2 now :)

and no don't believe the nonsense posted on multiple forums (hmm sure that includes this one :P ) SP2 will NOT break your computer especially now when SP2 has been out so long .

this may also be why you don't have the compatability tab

i think i also had compatibility tab on sp1, but you dont need any for this game

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nikson @ Oct 25 2005, 11:04 PM) [snapback]172330[/snapback]</div>That's the best bit.
Feels like you're doing something something technical.

Bookmarked btw... as a kind of respectful nod to the top tipz at thread's conception.

Ive been using compatibility mode until recently when i finally realised the advantages of dosbox but, is using compatibility mode potentially harmful to my pc? I thought it was the correct way to run some games but a friend told me that permanent problems can arise from using it. Any thoughts?

No thoughts to post about compability mode it 'cause there are none.
It simply won't hurt your PC.
If your early Win (95-98) game can run on it no problem.
For some really recalcitrant W95-98 games that can't run even using compability use VPC.

For dosgaming: Dosbox is the first way to go, not compability.
And for those rare games that won't run in dosbox, use a port or VPC.

I got an XP..it's nice that this works on most of the games...

but I got no sound now :(

For me, I just got the patch, and placed it where my TTD was, then clicked on the patch .exe file, and I got into TTD

the normal TTD .exe file wont work, but the patch .exe file works for me

Thank you for this guide! I've been able to run most games the usual way with DosBox, but Oregon Trail always opens with the graphics all funky and overlapping each other. I hope following your steps will fix this. :)

damn i read the title and i thought it was about how to make DOSbox blow someones hardrive up, it could have been epic lulz (and looked like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj5SHrGoJT0), but no, it was just how to make games work without DOSbox, and what about the people marroned on the crappy island of vista? ever think about them? of coarse not, no one ever remembers the vistonians :no: (just because this topic was made before vistas release in no excuse)