Well, my cunning plan has gang afley, as they do...

Anonymouse · 07-09-2016, 13:32

Ahem. To explain: I tried installing X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, one of my favourite games ever, on my laptop running Windows 8.1 - it wouldn't even try, as it's a 16-bit application and I was trying to run it on a 64-bit operating system. Oops.

Okay, I thought, try some kind of emulator; so I installed VirtualBox and a virtual version of XP. It works, but it's unsatisfactory because a) there's a lag between visual and sound effects, and b) the screen is still only 640 x 480...on a 1600 x 900 screen.

Thus was born the cunning plan: put together a minimal-spec setup and install Windows 2000 on it!

It went well up until yesterday, when I got the NUC (Next Unit of Computing) setup together (once I'd realised it wouldn't boot up because the RAM wasn't properly seated in the socket, duh!), that the plan went awry: it wouldn't boot from the Windows 2000 CD. It wasn't until I went into the BIOS that I discovered why:

These days, a 'minimal-spec' PC won't run anything less than Windows 7. The BIOS apparently won't accept anything except 7, 8 or Linux (though I imagine there's an upgrade for 10). Oh, dear.

So the plan's been somewhat modified: buy a copy of Windows 7 (32-bit version, duh!) and run the game's setup file in XP mode, and see if that works. If not, I'll try VirtualBox and/or DOSBox on it. I don't want to give up; I love that game!

BenMcr · 07-09-2016, 13:49

I'd think DOSBox is probably your best bet on your current machine, before trying to build a new old one!

tweetiepooh · 07-09-2016, 14:30

You can try GOG. They list that title for £7.79 including the "Balance of Power" expansion pack. Shown to work on Win XP, 7,8,10. I have Wing Commander, it runs with DOSBox on Win 10 and works pretty well. So you can probably get it to run with DOSBox yourself if that's how they did it.

rhyds · 07-09-2016, 17:49

I second GOG, £7 is sod all to have a fully working version of a game and support for when it doesn't

Anonymouse · 08-09-2016, 17:27

Mmm, it's a bit late - I've already got the min-spec PC!

I'd never heard of this site. What have they done to the game to get it to run on modern systems?

Also - thanks again, guys! I've signed up and downloaded the game - as well as X-Wing Alliance!

rhyds · 08-09-2016, 18:18

What they do is bundle the game with all the emulation software it needs already set up. For example their copy of theme hospital comes with DOSBox included and its just click and play. Other games that rely on stuff like 3dfx or Glide 3D rendering will have a copy of nGlide included which lets the game run. There's also the money back guarantee

MadGamer · 09-09-2016, 08:21

Speaking of Theme Hodpital, I picked up a copy from GOG, how I was instantly taken back to my childhood

rhyds · 09-09-2016, 12:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadGamer

Speaking of Theme Hodpital, I picked up a copy from GOG, how I was instantly taken back to my childhood

Bloaty head!

djmagnifique · 09-09-2016, 16:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadGamer

Speaking of Theme Hodpital, I picked up a copy from GOG, how I was instantly taken back to my childhood

Theme Hospital HD remake available here, you do need to have the orginal/gog version to make it work.

http://forums.corsixth.com/

Anonymouse · 13-09-2016, 15:38

Well, however they did it, it works perfectly, with only an occasional minimum of slowdown. I'm impressed. Thanks, guys - I've got my starfighter fix back!

I'm still going to set up the min-spec PC with Windows 7 and use it as a games PC, though.

ThunderPants73 · 01-10-2016, 14:05

Loved Theme Hospital.