Old Games!

[Worm]

I actually began using Microsoft's Virtual PC program to run Wizards and Warriors. I did this because I loaded up my old Wizardry 8 save game to realize it's an unforgiving bitch, and that I had saved myself into a corner. It seems like it's the perfect solution for the few games that are between DOS and XP, and that choke on XP's compatibility settings.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fi ... _elephants
I honestly couldn't remember Babar, thanks wikipedia.

The best thing of course is that it's available freely, with no WGA check on Microsoft's website. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... fault.mspx
It's a pretty good catch all alternative to busting your ass to get something to run, or having a dedicated machine.

[AArdvark]

I suggest Topsy the elephant, of Coney Island fame. Be sure to check out the Tom Edison ending.

[youtube][/youtube]


THE
WHATS THAT SMELL
AARDVARK

[Worm]

My party doesn't appreciate that kind of humor, vark.

Also, my party can't wear any armor, this is gonna be a frustrating play through.

[AArdvark]

Don't trample the bearer of bad news, please.



THE
MOUSE-LIKE
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I'm downloading this right now in order to try out "The Space Bar" by Steve Meretzky.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Not only did the autorun.exe file for the Space Bar tell me the game is only for Windows 95, but after installing it I was informed that the 128 GB I have on my C: isn't enough. I know this is due to them flipping counters and shit, but seriously. The Segasoft guys were fucking incompetent.

[hygraed]

The Segasoft guys were fucking incompetent.

Did you ever play Rocket Jockey? The back of the box promised networked multiplayer, but when you opened it up there was a little paper inside with a cutesy message to the effect of "There actually isn't any multiplayer! Whoops!" They promised to patch it in, which they eventually did like eight months later, by which time nobody gave a shit about the game anymore.

That doesn't matter though because Rocket Jockey was fucking awesome.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The Segasoft guys were fucking incompetent.

Did you ever play Rocket Jockey?

I did! It was on my list there in the 30s if I remember correctly. Great game. And I remember that note as well, haha.

That doesn't matter though because Rocket Jockey was fucking awesome.

Absolutely. I can't get it to run on XP in any way, shape or form. It's so much fun I should get a Windows 98 machine going for it.

And by, "the Segasoft guys are incompetent": I should clarify that. It's my understanding that the publisher pretty much handles the installers when it comes to commercial games. I knew that the Space Bar was developed by Boffo Games. It was included in a two-pack with Rocket Jockey, so I got them both at the same time and it drove home the point with me that SegaSoft was the publisher. So that's all I meant: the guys doing the installer for the Space Bar probably wanted to stop people who had Windows 3.11 from trying to install it. But you can do it two ways: you can check for Windows 95 and if the bit isn't there, not allow the installer to continue, or you can see if something unique for Windows 3.11 is there and then disallow it. The decision they made was of course the wrong way to go.

That whole era of PC games is going to be the real lost one, I think. We can DOSbox things from the 386 era fairly well. I doubt we'll ever see a similar movement for games like the Space Bar, Rocket Jockey and others that came out in 95-97.

I did get the Space Bar to run, though. It only shows up in a 640x480 window that you can't drag anywhere. When I try to move the mouse around to look at things, it spins too quickly. Whoops.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

My party doesn't appreciate that kind of humor, vark.

Also, my party can't wear any armor, this is gonna be a frustrating play through.

OK, so you downloaded Microsoft Virtual Machine. Did you find a Windows 98 disc and install Windows 98 onto your VM, or is there a pre-existing disk image floating around out there for that?

[hygraed]

Absolutely. I can't get it to run on XP in any way, shape or form. It's so much fun I should get a Windows 98 machine going for it.

Not necessary. Just throw your disc in, and instead of installing from the disc, run this.

[Worm]

OK, so you downloaded Microsoft Virtual Machine. Did you find a Windows 98 disc and install Windows 98 onto your VM, or is there a pre-existing disk image floating around out there for that?

Virtual Machine can mount an ISO file itself. So yeah, just get it off a torrent site. However, if you can find an XP installer, do that.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Absolutely. I can't get it to run on XP in any way, shape or form. It's so much fun I should get a Windows 98 machine going for it.

Not necessary. Just throw your disc in, and instead of installing from the disc, run this.

Holy SHEET. I've been searching for years for something like this! Good God, man! I can't believe how clutch this is. It just works!

(OK, it crashes when I try to use my PS2 joystick, but that happens to other people on the Internet and the game runs just fine with the keyboard.)

I cannot explain how awesome this is. Rocket Jockey is BACK BABY! hygraed, you are the finest person in the world and you made my week. I was playing until 3:00am last night.

[hygraed]

Glad I could help. For what it's worth, RJ works great with my Logitech Dual Action gamepad.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Is that a USB pad? I think when I get my MAME machine done (still waiting on the frigging roller I bought off eBay on 9/18) I am going to setup Rocket Jockey as well, and the MAME machine will have a keyboard encoder. But yeah, that's weird that it doesn't like the PS2 adapter.

[hygraed]

It is USB. I never even installed the drivers for it; I just plugged it in and Windows picked it right up.