On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 09:24:03 -0700, "hsemhsem"
Ayup, it sounds like a DOS game
This is fairly classic mileage with DOS apps that NT (XP is of NT
lineage) doesn't like; silent failure.
Try running it in one of the Compatablility modes. If that doesn't
work, try accepting the fact that many older DOS programs just won't
work in XP!
In which case, you could try running it from DOS. DOS can't run on
NTFS, so you'd have to run it off FATxx in some way - e.g. a bootable
CDR that creates a FATxx RAM disk, copies the game there, and runs it
from there. You wouldn't be able to save anything, though.
You may find the game still doesn't work, for some other reason - e.g.
processor speed is beyond the bounds expected.
FYI, many older DOS games tried accessing the hardware directly
(especially Video) and XP will not have that.
This was a speed thing. The combination of Win3.yuk and hardware
limitations of the time meant that most games were still written for
DOS and accessed the hardware directly; that is why Sound Blaster was
the dominant sound card standard at the time (compatibility fear).
Windows 3.yuk added WinG, an API that facilitated reasonable speed for
games within Windows; The "Hover" game from the original Win95 CD is a
good example of WinG in action.
But the turning point was DirectX; for the first time, game developers
could get better results coding for Windows than DOS. This became
even more compelling when DirectX provided a standard API for 3D
acceleration and allowed system-wide code to use new processor
features like MMX, 3DNow! and SSE without the game coder having to
embrace all the different hardware possibilities directly.
Really old DOS games coupled playing speed to processor speed, rather
than reference to the real-time clock. These games may well run on
modern hardware, but far too fast to play!
Other early games tested the hardware speed to derive timing
constants, and then used these to pace the game itself. These games
may run oddly (some parts fast, others slow) or not at all, if the
timing test loop (or play pace logic) didn't scale up to today's GHz.
Final caveat: DOS doesn't support Long File Names, and will break
these if updating such files, and it doesn't support HDs over 137G in
capacity. Running DOS on volumes that lie beyond 137G, or span this
compatibility boundary, may utterly corrupt your HD's contents !
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http://cquirke.blogspot.com