Windows 95 game on a Windows 7 Home Ed (64bit)

[Mytical]

Ok, I know about virtual pc if you have Windows 7 pro or better, and how you can (with those editions) activate compatibility mode. What I am asking is how to go about it with the Home Edition (64 bit). Specifically it is Magic the Gathering: Battlemage.

Can't seem to find a decent emulator or such..would DOSbox work?

[Cazzi]

May be a long shot but have you tried "compatibility mode"?
(R click on a shortcut to game, go to properties & compatibility tab)
There are various options in there to play around with, all the way back to Win 95. I've managed to get some oldish favourites working by trying out different settings in there.

Dosbox may be worth a try, the price is right after all
I've had the original floppy versions of Civilization & Lemmings going in that, but that was on 64bit XP, not win 7 unfortunately. I have it attached to my steam account these days for Hexen, Doom, Castle Wolfenstein etc

[Mytical]

Unfortunately for Home Edition the compatibility mode is disabled. May just have to bite the bullet and update to Pro. . Compatibility mode was first thing I tried. The option is there, but it is grayed out and nothing can be done with it.

[Cazzi]

Ah sorry, not used the home edition so was unaware of that

[Mytical]

*nods* neither was I when I got the Home Edition, hehe guess next time I do more research .

[lordlundar]

While doing the research, I'm going to suggest something that's going to sound really silly, but bear with me...

Above the drop down menu that's greyed out, There should be a check box. Have you tried selecting that first? It needs to be active to use the drop down menu.

[Pimento]

Hmmm with home edition i had no issues using compatibility mode, another silly thing but are you under the admin account?

[Chromatix]

An old Win95 game might well be running in 16-bit mode, or at least have a 16-bit installer. Unfortunately 16-bit mode is inaccessible under 64-bit Windows (or Linux, it's a hardware limitation once you turn on the 64 flag).

There is a way around it - a full PC emulator which runs the CPU the hard way, rather than just relying on what the host PC can virtualise. DOSbox is one of these.

[Mytical]

While doing the research, I'm going to suggest something that's going to sound really silly, but bear with me...

Above the drop down menu that's greyed out, There should be a check box. Have you tried selecting that first? It needs to be active to use the drop down menu.

Yep, the check box is grayed out also, and yes I am running in Admin mode.

[MadMike]

Do you mean Home Premium? That's what I have, and I've never had any problems selecting compatability mode. The only thing is, it very rarely seems to help.

[Mytical]

Weird. Something must be a little squirrelly with mine then. Cause while the tab is there, and the options are visible, they are grayed out. Even though I sign in under the Admin name..maybe I am doing something wrong. How can I make sure I am in 'admin mode'?

Edit : Not sure how accurate it is, but have found out it may be because it is 64x, not 32x. Apparently 16x in 64x is a lot harder?

[Cazzi]

When you R click on the icon, do you have an option to "Run as Administrator"?

[Mytical]

Yep, and even when I check that box, I can't do anything with the compatibility mode. It MIGHT just be specific to the game.

[Cazzi]

That sounds really annoying.

[roothorick]

Screw Virtual PC on its dumb little head. It has all sorts of dumb little requirements and it only supports certain versions of Windows anyway.

Win98 runs pretty nicely under VirtualBox, even with hardware 2D. Make sure you install the extensions, and you'll want a tool like Rain (drat, can't find it now!) so it doesn't eat all your CPU. If the game needs hardware OpenGL, you'll have to take your chances trying it under Windows XP; if it needs Direct3D, you're pretty much screwed, though there is one last thing you can try.

-E- I stand corrected, there's no support for Win98 in guest additions. It's also described as "slow". Try it anyway; if it's too slow, try compatibility options under an XP guest. Though really, I consider Home Basic to be a "problem"; you should consider an upgrade.