Windows 95/98 games won't run anymore on XP.

[Manny Cav]

I have an old CD with 6 arcade game "remixes": Haunted House, Meteoroids, Missile Defender, Sharp Shooter, Slingshot, and Vandal, plus a bonus Pac-Man clone, Munch Man. The CD is called "Arcade Hits" and was distributed and published by "WizardWorks." The games were developed by Barentz, Inc., and Varcon Systems Inc. When I try to run Sharp Shooter, Slingshot, or Vandal on Windows XP, I get two error messages:

Unable to link to KERNEL32.DLL!

The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000142). Click on OK to terminate the application.

Those three games require "UniVBE" drivers and "HiColor (65,000 color) display modes." When I go through the original installation, the following message pops up concerning those three games:

UVBELib is about to detect the installed Graphics Adapter configuration.
In order to do so, UVBELib must temporarily shut down the Windows Display Driver , so your monitor will go blank for a few seconds.
If your computer hangs during this process, reboot your machine and try the "Manual Override" option.

The three buttons say "Auto Detect," "Manual Override," and "Cancel." On the older computers where these three games worked, the screen would go blank for a few seconds, and a test screen would show up alternating solid green or solid blue with some text. However, on XP, the screen stays black, the program hangs, and I have to struggle with the program, Task Manager, etc., to exit the program and get control of the operating system back. Then, an error comes up saying something about the Win 16 bit application being unstable and having to be terminated.

Is there a way to get these old games running again on XP? The other three work just fine.

[Loremaster]

Oooooh..... that's always nasty, trying to get old games working on WIN XP.

My best suggestion is to set up a flash drive with windows 95 or 98, and boot from it when you want to play old games.

Other than that, you'll most likely have to find a different solution for each game. It seems like DirectX is responsible. I remember for Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels I had to disable Direct3D, so you might try that.

[Manny Cav]

I've never had to disable DirectX or Direct3D before. How do I do that?

[Glassyman]

I don't remember if XP has compatibility options. See the properties of those applications and set compatibility mode on.

[Manny Cav]

I've tried compatibility mode lots of time. Never helps, unless there is a secret combination that I don't know and haven't used.

[Loremaster]

To disable Direct3D [WARNING! USE THIS ONLY FOR RUNNING THESE GAMES! DO NOT RUN YOUR COMPUTER NORMALLY LIKE THIS!]

Click Start>Run

Type "dxdiag" [without the quotes] and hit enter
click on the display tab
On the lower half of the menu, click "Disable DirectDraw Acceleration"
The other two should now be disabled.
Run your game


Like I said, this works for Space Hulk: VotBA, and it's a Direct3D issue there, but I'm not guaranteeing it'll work. If it doesn't, I'll shoot you to some people I know of.

[Manny Cav]

It didn't work.

I copied down the error message (that appears in the old style window) that appears during installation when it tries to perform the UVBELib auto detect after forcing it to close when it hangs.

The request to end the selected 16 bit task has timed out. The Win 16 Subsystem may be unstable. Press OK to terminate the Win 16 Subsystem or Cancel to leave it running.

It also comes with a DirectX installation that prompts at the end of setup. However, when you try to install DirectX as it suggest, this error message pops up, ending the installation.

DirextXSetup() failed. -13

Incidentally, the 3 games that require DirectX (these aren't the three games that require the UniVBE drivers that don't work) are, in fact, the three games that do work.

The help files direct me to http://www.microtronics.com/ and http://www.3dmatrix.com/_Arcade/index.htm, both of which seem to be defunct websites.

I also did some patch hunting, and I found one patch at ftp://ftp.atari.com/patches/arcadehits. It didn't make the three UniVBE games playable, but it at least made the "Game Command Center" accessible to play the other three games.

I also got a prognosis from another computer guy. He said that I could get them to work on XP, but it would require extensive hacking on Windows XP files that would void my chances of getting future XP updates.

[Atariangamer]

@Lore: How do you get Win9x running on a flashdrive? I'd love to be able to get an alternate OS on my comp-stick...

@Manny: for the kernel32.dll error, that is one of the main plagues with old games. For some (PC version of Sonic CD) there are fix programs that replace files and do things that tricks the program into thinking its running fine. My suggestion is to get a flash drive, install it on a win9x system, copy to flash drive, then paste into xp. you may have to edit the lines in some cfg files though (this has worked for me)

[Loremaster]

Actually, you can often find simple workarounds.

Try poking around www.ntcompatible.com a bit, and if they don't have a topic already then ask one. There's some pretty smart people on there.

[Manny Cav]

After "poking around," this is what I came up with. Except for the fact that the games and computer manufacturers are different (Mike2 was playing Cold Shadow and I was playing Arcade Hits), his and my problem mirror each other.

[Loremaster]

Then it looks like emulation is the way to go, unfortunately.

[Manny Cav]

I've always considered a dual boot between Windows XP and Windows 98, especially with Streets of SimCity, Chex Quest, etc., in the equation. I tried a dual boot once before, but Windows 98 refused to install on the partition drive I created, and decided to instead wipe my Windows XP installation, and even then, it wouldn't get past a driver check without a repetitive and persistent BSoD. Is there a way to set up a dual boot between XP and 98, and actually making 98 or XP installed in the directory it is instructed to? In which order should I do this first, should I decide to go through with it? And how do I install Windows 98 on a flash drive like that? Would an external hard drive or DVD-R work, because I don't have a flash drive?

[Loremaster]

External hard drive would be even better. I don't have any idea how to properly do it [I've never done it, but one of my buddies up here at Uni has, so I know it can be done]

You might ask Brain Candy, she's better with computers than I.

[The Slimeinator]

External hard drive would be even better. I don't have any idea how to properly do it [I've never done it, but one of my buddies up here at Uni has, so I know it can be done]

You might ask Brain Candy, she's better with computers than I.

Could it be possible that there is a creature upon this earth that is better than Loremaster at computer things?

[mob720]

Hmm. Maybe this program called Dos-box could help. I'm not really sure though, but it should work for the old CQ or something (I've never tried). If it doesn't, I'd go with the external hard drive, although I haven't tried that either.