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General discussion (archive)How to run Castle of the Winds on Win7-64bit?(16 posts)solved(16 posts)solved
(16 posts)solved
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 19, 2013
I've tried compatibility mode, D-Fend, DosBox by itself, and I've got nothing. Played this game every few years for the past 20 years or so, and now that I've got the itch again Win7 has to go and eff it up for me...the nerve!

The game is available here. Surely, I'm not the only person who wants to play a Win 3.1 game on a modern computer?
This question / problem has been solved by Arkoseimage
Posted December 19, 2013
This guy used the Windows Virtual Machine running in XP mode - have you tried that yet?
Posted December 19, 2013
This is a 16-bit Windows game so won't work directly on DOSBox or 64-bit versions of Windows. The best option is a virtual machine with a 32-bit version of Windows. If you have Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate you can download Windows XP Mode for free, otherwise you'll need a valid version of Windows to install manually in VirtualBox or the like. Any 32-bit version of Windows would work for this game.
Post edited December 19, 2013 by Arkose
Posted December 19, 2013
Downloading WinXP Mode right now...kind of a big file, gonna take a while, but I do plan on trying it. I was hoping there was a quicker way to get the result I wanted, but hopefully this will do it.
Posted December 19, 2013
Jeez....I spent the time downloading it & installing it, and I get this message:

Windows XP Mode is not available on this edition of Windows.
Posted December 20, 2013
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ChaunceyK: Jeez....I spent the time downloading it & installing it, and I get this message:

Windows XP Mode is not available on this edition of Windows.
What a shame.
Posted December 20, 2013
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ChaunceyK: Jeez....I spent the time downloading it & installing it, and I get this message:

Windows XP Mode is not available on this edition of Windows.
Virtualbox + Lubuntu + wine :)
I've just checked and it works well in wine, so you should try it.
Post edited December 20, 2013 by blotunga
Posted December 20, 2013
Windows 3.1 runs perfectly under DosBox and so also many of the old Windows 3.1 games. The problem is that unfortunately you need Windows 3.1, which means you luckily have preserved your old floppys somewhere (I guess that's very unlikely) or you need the get them elsewhere (eBay, etc.). If you don't worry about the grey area of the internet you can also find some ready-to-run packages. You only need the right keywords for your search...
Post edited December 20, 2013 by DukeNukemForever
Posted December 20, 2013
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DukeNukemForever: Windows 3.1 runs perfectly under DosBox and so also many of the old Windows 3.1 games. The problem is that unfortunately you need Windows 3.1, which means you luckily have preserved your old floppys somewhere (I guess that's very unlikely) or you need the get them elsewhere (eBay, etc.). If you don't worry about the grey area of the internet you can also find some ready-to-run packages. You only need the right keywords for your search...
Wine runs perfectly on any Linux distribution and it's free :)
Posted December 20, 2013
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ChaunceyK: I've tried compatibility mode, D-Fend, DosBox by itself, and I've got nothing. Played this game every few years for the past 20 years or so, and now that I've got the itch again Win7 has to go and eff it up for me...the nerve!

The game is available here. Surely, I'm not the only person who wants to play a Win 3.1 game on a modern computer?
I have run a couple of 16bit Win3.x era games (like Uninvited (Windows version)) on Windows 3.11 running inside DOSBox. Worked fine, with digitized sounds and all.

EDIT: Ninja'ed.
Post edited December 20, 2013 by timppu
Posted December 20, 2013
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blotunga: Virtualbox + Lubuntu + wine :)
I've just checked and it works well in wine, so you should try it.
Gonna try this next, fingers crossed. :-)
Posted December 20, 2013
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ChaunceyK: Gonna try this next, fingers crossed. :-)
If it doesn't works out of the box then you should try winetricks.
Posted December 20, 2013
I don't know how true this is because I'm not a researcher, but I read on another forum that you can install AND run Windows 3.1 from DosBox. Kind of like, you're still inside DosBox as you see Win 3.1 running. It sounded interesting, but again, I can't verify it.
Posted December 20, 2013
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ChaunceyK: Gonna try this next, fingers crossed. :-)
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blotunga: If it doesn't works out of the box then you should try winetricks.
Here's the message I got when trying to load Lubuntu onto VirtualBox...

This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU.
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.

...so I'm guessing I downloaded the wrong Lubuntu .iso?
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Arkose: This is a 16-bit Windows game so won't work directly on DOSBox or 64-bit versions of Windows. The best option is a virtual machine with a 32-bit version of Windows. If you have Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate you can download Windows XP Mode for free, otherwise you'll need a valid version of Windows to install manually in VirtualBox or the like. Any 32-bit version of Windows would work for this game.
Wait a minute...I couldn't get WinXP working under Windows Virtual PC, but it seems to be working under VirtualBox. Only thing is, I can't get the mouse to work in it.

[EDIT] I got the mouse working, now to figure out how to put CotW on there.
[EDIT2] Yes! I've got it working completely!! WinXP on VirtualBox, and CotW is loaded & ready to go!!
Post edited December 20, 2013 by ChaunceyK
Posted December 21, 2013
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ChaunceyK: Here's the message I got when trying to load Lubuntu onto VirtualBox...

This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU.
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.

...so I'm guessing I downloaded the wrong Lubuntu .iso? Wait a minute...I couldn't get WinXP working under Windows Virtual PC, but it seems to be working under VirtualBox. Only thing is, I can't get the mouse to work in it.

[EDIT] I got the mouse working, now to figure out how to put CotW on there.
[EDIT2] Yes! I've got it working completely!! WinXP on VirtualBox, and CotW is loaded & ready to go!!
congrats
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General discussion (archive)How to run Castle of the Winds on Win7-64bit?(16 posts)solved(16 posts)solved
(16 posts)solved