How do I play Battlebeast on Windows 64 bit?
 

I used to love Battlebeast as a kid, but my Windows 7 won't make the game work anymore because it's a 64 bit system.
Is there any way to make it work? I would really love to play this again...

Runs in W3 -> dosbox 0.74+Win3x

http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=27770

Or if you're up to it:
VPC2007+dos+W3
VPC2007+W98SE

Or find yourself an older PC-laptop ...............

I've used Win3x and it works like a charm!! Well, I did get a bunch of weird error messages when launching the program for the first time, but Battlebeast works!

But now I have another problem. I've tried to use that same program to play "Metal & Lace - Ningyou Tsukai 2", but after I've installed it and tried to launch it, it always tells me this:


Cannot find DDRAW.DLL


What's this?? Where do I find that file and where do I put it?

DX error, means that DX isn't or properly installed or more probably : DX ver isn't right for that game......
Now, how to fix that:
First of all: Should be a 'readme' stating what DX ver you need to play the game.

There should normally be a suited DX 'install' or 'update' on your game's install media.
Check, if yes install DX from game media.
(be sure none of the win3 windows windows-sys files aren't flagged read only !!! )
If that dooesn't do it it gonna be a bit more complicated, you'll have to hunt for a newer DX ver that's isnstalled and install that, not simply copy-paste files but install newer DX ver in win3.

Mmmh, nope, can't find any update/install thingie to fix the issue.
Not to mention that I'm so noobish I can't understand why you say DX while I say DDRAW.DLL :cry:

Heelp! :(

Perhaps I can try to upload the game (it's abandonware after all), and you can check yourself what's the issue?

Djees man, do you want me to explain the whole ins and outs of windows ...?????? Do you want a 5000 pages long tech blah blah explanation? You won't get it from me. :picard:

I say DX because ddraw.dll is part of DirectX , AKA as DirectX Application Program(ming) Interface (API) etcetera etcetera......
Started as DX 1.0 ..... and had a lot of updates since then...........
If you wanna know more: google, wiki, programmers sites, ......... and more, happy reading and learning.

If your game needs ddraw.dll: install the right ver of DX and you're all set.

Again: install it, not just copy/paste.

[Edit]
Ah well : http://www.oldversion.com/windows/directx/

[Edit²]
Now that I think about it, is Ningyou Tsukai 2 a game that even can run on Win3 or does it needs Win9X .....?????
If it's a Win9X game you'll need VPC2007+Win9X, not dosbox Win3.

I have no idea and info on the net is scarce, so better look for the game's readme or similar ......

[Edit³]
The rare info on the net about this obscure game seems to indicate it's a W9x game, if so you're screwed, won't run in Win3.
Yeah yeah some can if you do tricks with win32 and similar, but reading gufetto's posts till now, good luck getting him to do so ... no pun intended.

Well, that wasn't very nice of you to act like I'm a retarded just because I happen to not be an expert of tech stuff.
I'm a high school teacher; imagine if I were to act like you did whenever one of my students asks a silly question or doesn't understand something.
I always say that when the student keeps not understanding, the teacher must try to see if perhaps their explanation wasn't good enough.

Now, for example, how is linking me to an old version of DirectX going to fix my problem? Surely a very stupid question for someone like you who happens to know a lot about computer stuff. But not everyone is like you, and perhaps they want to learn.

I'm using basic logic to assume old DirectX contains the DDRAW.DLL. Now, here's another very stupid question: installing that old DirectX won't bring other issues to my machine, will it?

(I'm a she, by the way. And I'm pretty sure I can learn to do tricks with win32 and similar... if I get a good explanation.)

- I'm not your teacher.
- I told you why I mentioned DX regarding your ddraw.dll problem.
- 'High school teacher' doesn't make you smarter than someone else.
- etcetera .. you had answers, and as I said: no pun intended.

Only problems can occur in dosbox, that is as long you followed the basic instructions and work on your virtual C in dosbox, dosbox can only access what YOU mounted as virtual C, nothing else.
Of course if you do a mount c c:\ you're taking risks, and as we're talking altering sysfiles here, even old ones, you can indeed harm your 'machine' as you seems to call your PC.

You seems to have a reading problem, 'high school teacher ' or not, you already had an answer.
The whole internet is filled with instructions - explanations about this subject, you'll have to dig your way through it if you want to understand it.
In very short and incomplete style:
->There are several DirectX versions, mostly newer are coping with older ones and include the instructions, but not always/obligatory.
So sometimes to get a game/soft running that needs a specific instruction set from an older one you'll need to install the correct version.
-> It can, (can, not will) screw things up for newer versions, however Win7 /8 seems to cope with them problems.
-> as long you mount a folder as virtual C in dosbox and work within dosbox nothing bad will happen with your 'machine' as dosbox can only access/alter files in that virtual C folder. Dosbox can't alter files on your 'machine' itself.

And once again: dig in your game install files, pretty sure there is a readme or similar, and in those days it was usual to include the needed DX version install files (can be named 'redist' ....)
Other possibility: you downloaded incomplete installation media?

Still remains the question: can this game run in W3 or does it need W9X? I have no idea.
High school teacher seems to like asking stuffs and seems to expect longwinded detailed answers but doesn't like to answer simple questions ....

Don't take Dosraider personally. He's like that all the time.

Dosraider, what did I tell you about biting newcomers?
Right, this solution... won't work.

Dosraider linked you to DirectX because he assumed it was possible to set it up in Windows 3 ran in DOSBox.

As he seems to have realized later, though (and should have from the start - now it's our turn to :palm: at him :p ), that is not the case - DirectX was developed for Windows 95 and above.

Installing that version of DirectX is flat out impossible on modern Windows versions, which come with DirectX already bundled.

Metal and Lace 2 can run on Windows XP - I've done so myself some years ago - so the first thing you should try is running it in compatibility mode (context menu on the game's executable -> Properties -> Compatibility).
If that doesn't work, there is another solution: you'll need Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and a setup disk for an older Windows version - anything from 95 to XP. MSVPC allows you to create a virtual machine and install an older version of Windows inside that, then run the game in it.

*cough* Dosraider, you seem to forget that not everyone's a techie, nor has over a decade's experience in running very old games on modern systems. Things you and I consider obvious and take for granted are far from either to a typical computer user.

Hey, I didn't intend to mention that I'm a teacher to imply that would mean I am smarter (I wish that were true, but I know all too well some teachers are stupid).
I was just saying that because of my job I kinda know how to explain things, and one of the requirements is patience and never acting as if the other person is less intelligent only because they know less about you on a subject.

You're not my teacher; but you're explaining me something (and I am very thankful for that!), and so I was saying perhaps you should explain it with less of an attitude. But never mind. You're still helping me!


Well, if it helps, I used to play it on a W9X system back in the days, but now I've installed it on that emulated Win3.X and at least the installation went correctly. It only asks me for that DDRAW.DLL file when I try to launch the game.

I can't find any readme file. But I've downloaded the game off the internet because it's been a lot of years and I don't remember at all where my game copy is. It does look like it's the full, working game, tho.

Now, please bear with me, as I'm probably thick-minded on these things, but... you mention that mounting c: on dosbox after installing the old DirectX, in a way that looks like you're implying that I should install that DirectX not on actual windows, but only on the dosbox folder? Is that so? If so, how do I do it?

Yeah, you're right, of course, sometimes I think that chemo I got made a chaotic sponge of my brain, no Dx in W3, damn. Prob confused with WinG and that horrific direct draw .... ah well, good thing once in a while someone calls me back a bit, THX for that. :mhh:

If it asks for ddraw.dll it means DirectX is needed.
First thought it could be a version problem but as Fifth correctly stated no DX in Win3, minimal W9x, first DirectX files were shipped with W95 and onwards.
Just to be complete: some half baked attempts were made to get DirectX working in Win3 but they all failed, as Win3 still relied on the old MsDos heritage of using DMA etcetera long story, and MS never supported bringing DirectX to Win3, maybe for good reasons (and they wanted to promote-sell W95...)

Take a look at the tutorial section, those are written for a reason, to help beginners, not much use that I repeat everything here .....

Ah well, repeat same stuff ance again?
Basics:
You always mount a FOLDER as virtual C:, what folder where folder depends a bit of that OS you're on, again: tutorial section.
You always run those old files IN dosbox, that way your main system is safe as dosbox can only access-alter-read-write-whatever do with files on the virtual C
How you do that? Move-copy the files in your virtual C folder, launch dosbox with that folder mounted as virtual C and run files in dosbox.
(Also means: close dosbox and restart after adding things into virtual C via Windows, cache needs refresh, or read manual, there are other ways)

Nope it probably isn't the full install media but missing a lot.
There is no game released with a least a 'readme' with tech info about OS-sys requirements.
As said before, early games always included (or mostly) the needed files to run the game, as in those days it was too costly to have to download MBs of extra files, and conn wasn't really reliable neither, so there were on the CD.
Etcetera, makes your downloaded thing is a (poor?) rip.

Possible remaining solutions:
Or comp settings as Fifth said, but I doubt it will work, W7 64 is kinda nitpicking about those matters.
Or VPC2007/W9X or Xp ..... probably your best shot.

Oh man, I think I'm screwed. :(
I don't have any setup of Windows XP or anything, that OP just came bundled with my old pc.

(Because yes, it's confirmed: I asked my brother and the game run on Windows XP.)


That's such a bummer. I thought perhaps I could get the game to work on that Win 3.X emulation since it gets installed. :cry:

Depending of what ver of W7/64 you have you maybe can get XPMode for free from MS ... however in my opinion XPMode isn't really suited for gaming purposes ... a bit too restricted.

On the other hand VPC2007+W98Se or maybe even better VPC2007+XP should work.
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=28390
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=25508
It ain't that hard to set up a VPC2007 virtual PC, just follow instructions.

..... however, problem could be you have a rip, dunno if game has software/D3D mode, D3D won't run in VPC or really badly, software mode usually do run fine for gaming, if software mode has been ripped .... aie, screwed again....

BTW, did you at least try what Fifth said about compability? Ya never know ....
Problem is I can't find any relevant info about this game, even not on Dosfreak's comp list ... PC Game Compatibility List

As you mentioned 'downloaded', I may hope you scanned that download for nasty things with an updated avir-malware-spyware/somethingware scanner, yes?

And honestly, you didn't lose your precious time setting up dosbox/W3, is handy to have around and most W3 era games run fine in it....

[Edit]
Of course proposed solution of getting some old XP laptop still stands and can be an easy way out.
Dunno how it is where you live but here in Belgium those things are getting dropped by piles in the trash, many of them still working OK, just completely outdated ..... and as MS will drop support shortly, plenty ol'small office gear is to salvage nowadays.
Even if a laptop isn't really my thing for gaming, plug in an external keyb+mouse and you're set.
If you have enough room an ol' XP desktop is even better .......
Just think about it for a sec.

Yes, I forgot to mention: I did try the compatibility trick, but it didn't work. Would've been too simple to be true. :P

Trying to come up with a solution, I realize the pc game is actually a port from a PC38 version. So I assumed if I found the original PX38 rom and played it with a PC38 emulator, it'd work.

It wasn't easy to find the rom, but it appears to be in this torrent:

http://torrentz-proxy.com/31b33735c0...cae4c4ee2280cd

http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=320480&showfiles=1

Here's the problem, tho: there's about 280.000 files or more in that torrent, and there's no option to deselect them all when I try to launch it. Is there a way to deselect them all except Metal & Lace 2?

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE:

I've downloaded another, bigger version of the game, which isn't ripped but the real deal... and it works.

BUT: I still get the error. I launch the game, it works perfectly, I select my character, but once the fight begins the game closes and I get "Direct Draw error"...

Ok, it won't let me edit my post for some reason, which is annoying, because I had edited it and wrote a lot of stuff.

I've tried everything, even going into regedit and altering stuff, but nope.

So here is the link to the full game upload:

http://www.filestube.to/eqXqebudKuKS6tl3qnp76n

The game also contains a folder called directx but I can't get it to work. If I copy the folder inside the game folder, everything crashes.
I've tried to just install the directx in the installer, but the installer refuses to do so.

Can someone, perhaps, take a few minutes to download this and give it a look? :(

Come on, seriously, 5 parts download via mediafire will take what .... 5 days ??? Don't push it will ya, provide some serious download from host with 1 link and maybe , and that's a big maybe I'll take a look.
That game isn't really appealing :omg:

But already have a good idea what's going on: Win7 64, if the game installs in /prog files (x86)/, now those are protected in win7 64, try to install in something as /users/your name/mace/ or something, if you have a D partition even better, try on D partition.
If fails, now it's probably that '64' that is to blame and you're screwed indeed.
VPC2007 it will be.

One last remark, I wouldn't be so eager to try to install all kind of old apps and obsolete sysfiles on my new PC.
VPC2007 is more secure.

[Edit]
Just thought about the fact you prob don't know but in Win 64 16b softs won't work.
As the game is I think W9X installer is most likely 16b or has partial 16b code sections.
Happens more with W9X softs.
Some -(in fact plenty)- even had dos based code somewhere, devs laziness you could say.

What? It took me literally five minutes to download the entire game. What are you saying?

In any case, I've tried to make a .bat file which orders to kill explorer.exe when launching the game. Still no changes. It's good, however, that I am learning a lot of tech stuff in two days, given that I had no idea how to make a .bat file or how to access regedit before.
BUT I AM SO LOSING MY PATIENCE. :dislike:

Odd thing is, by accessing my directx data I can see DirectDraw: Enabled....

I get: no parallel downloads allowed from same IP, must be a location restriction or whatever, dunno and won't spend time on that advertising infested site t osolve it. ( can be my 'popup blocker' interferes, who knows, and no won't disable it, not interested in god knows what sex live cam ads .... *sigh*)....

If you're really so eager to play that game, why don't you try VPC2007+Xp ????? Honestly: that would be my first move anyway.
Or VPC2007+W98SE .....
But I guess VPC+XP would be easier for you, W98 had its own headache suppliers ......

Also, you buy a 64b OS and want to play obsolete games that were designed for W9X on it ....., it's like going with a new car to the shop and want them to mount your granddads old spare tires on your new shiny car ... just saying

[Edit]
Asked a mate with mediacrap account to down game for me.
Result:
http://thumbnails110.imagebam.com/30...1307956409.jpg
Runs flawless in VPC2007+W98SE ( and will be the same in VPC2007+XP).
So that will be your easiest solution.
FYI: install updated DX from 'directx' folder on CD BUT:uncheck D3D acceleration option, VPC doesn't support that kind of hardware.
All in VPC of course.

Depends on the torrent client you are using. There definitely is an option to do that in uTorrent.
Disc images for Windows 95, 98 and XP are relatively easy to *ahem* obtain if you know where to look.
The problem isn't with not having DirectX or not having it enabled.
It's with the game relying on a different - much older - version of the API .
You could try disabling DirectDraw and seeing if that changes the game's reaction - it's known to fix similar issues with certain old games, but there is no certainity as to whether it will work here (and obviously you'll want to set it back on after you've finished playing the game)

Ok, apparently, using Windows 7, you can't disable the direct draw acceleration since it's an integral part of the OS. That seems to be where my problem comes from!

I've managed to make two icons who will enable/disable direct draw acceleration, and they're on my desktop.... but I haven't clicked them. I'm afraid it might crash my computer. :no:

I guess it's either emulating an entire OS for a single game, or giving up.... that sucks!! I am strongly against the idea that new systems can't allow old programs to work!!!

I would not mess your system for a game, it's less trouble if you have to install Virtual PC or Windows 3.1 on DOSBox or whatever.

This could be the longest troubleshooting conversation ever on Abandonia, :p and that's a lot to say. At this point you have invested so much effort that you really deserve to have a good solution, so even though there isn't much for me to add, because you already have expert help (with an attitude in Dosraiders's case), I feel compelled to add my two cents.

I think at this point your best and easiest choice is to use a virtual PC (and hope you're done after that). It isn't as hard as it looks, here you have an easy tutorial:
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=28390

I also have some tips to try to run old Windows games in modern versions, but it's more an art than a science, and if you don't manage with these few simple tips, I really think it's less trouble to resort to a virtual PC.
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=17501

I recommend to install Windows 95/98 on the virtual machine, as that version can also run Windows 3.1 programs with no compatibility issues. I don't recommend XP for this.

Ok, here's what I did.
I downloaded the PC98 version of the game, plus every PC98 emulator ever. Supposedly they're complete with bios, although I'm not sure I know how to load them.

Aaand guess what? IT KEEPS NOT WORKING. This is ridiculous!! This game is mocking me, I swear!!

Usually, when I mount the .fdi file, it tells me to "insert disc 1 in drive 2". I've tried loading the game in drive 2 then, but nothing changed.

I've uploaded here all of the emulators plus the Metal & Lace 2 rom is both versions (but I think the .fdi version is probably better).

http://junoh.altervista.org/pc98emus&tools.rar

It's only 38 mb, so if someone would like to download it and give it a try. I just can't get the darn thing to work!!! :dislike:

ANOTHER UPDATE:
I got the PC98 version to work. You need some ludicrous system of loading disc 2 on drive 1 and simultaneously disc 1 on drive 2. Then, after the game start, swap disc 1 with disc 3.

But I discovered the PC98 version is nowhere as good as the PC version... Worse graphics, no voices, and I still didn't find a way to setup controls. :wacko: