# Booting a 1994 computer game on Windows 7



## KirbyCowFox (Jan 12, 2011)

For Christmas I got a PC game from my childhood called Scavenger Hunt Adventure: Photo Safari.  Looking back, the game probably sucks, but I still want to try playing it again for the lulz.  So I stuck the disc in my PC and just observed how the computer reacted, at first it seemed as if it would work and installed just like any disk.  But after the bar hits 100%, the entire program freezes.  Then after I try running the program, it says "Sound driver not loaded or the multimedia extensions not found".  I've tried reinstalling it several times and keep hitting the frozen Windows 7 screen.

I tried running it off DosBox but that failed miserably, saying that it was a Windows program and was way too young for the program.

From what I could find of the game's technical requirements, I came across this on a PC game market site(they were selling the game).

* [FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial]   System Requirements:  DOS 5.0 or higher: 386/25Mhz or higher, 2X CD-ROM drive or faster, 4MB RAM, SVGA 256-color only. Supports: SoundBlaster and most Windows Multimedia sound cards. Does NOT work in Windows XP/Vista.

[/FONT]*[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial]After seeing the "Does NOT work" part my heart kind of sank.[/FONT][FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial]So yeah, I'm out of ideas.  I probably misunderstood something totally simple because I'm not a computer savvy person in the slightest.  If anybody can help I'd really appreciate it.  If it doesn't work then oh well, it's not like I lost any money on the disc.
[/FONT]


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

http://www.dosbox.com/ 
You want DosBox.  It's a dos emulator for running DOS games on modern systems.


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## KirbyCowFox (Jan 12, 2011)

AshleyAshes said:


> http://www.dosbox.com/
> You want DosBox.  It's a dos emulator for running DOS games on modern systems.


 
I tried Dosbox, it gives the message "This program must be run under Microsoft Windows".


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

I'd try Win98 or 95 on a virtual machine.


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## AshleyAshes (Jan 12, 2011)

KirbyCowFox said:


> I tried Dosbox, it gives the message "This program must be run under Microsoft Windows".



Are you sure you don't maybe have the Windows 3.X version of your game?  I'm assuming you mean that you game made that complaint rather than DosBox itself however.  Because I can't think of any reason a Dos game would report 'This program must be run under Microsoft Windows' unless it was a Windows program that was able to be aware that someone launched it out of DOS.


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## Runefox (Jan 12, 2011)

Yeah, probably not a pure DOS game if it is a DOS-based game. It definitely needs SOME part of Windows to work properly. A virtual machine is a difficult option because as far as I'm aware, there is no support for it in any VM software I know of, which basically means you're not getting any more than VGA/16-colour video, while the game requires SVGA/256-colours. There are unofficial drivers for VirtualBox, but having tried them (after much screwing around to get them to work), they cause more issues than they solve.

It may actually be possible to install and run Windows 3.1 in DOSbox, however. There are tutorials for that floating around on the internet... I don't have any links off-hand.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 12, 2011)

Runefox said:


> Yeah, probably not a pure DOS game if it is a DOS-based game. It definitely needs SOME part of Windows to work properly. A virtual machine is a difficult option because as far as I'm aware, there is no support for it in any VM software I know of, which basically means you're not getting any more than VGA/16-colour video, while the game requires SVGA/256-colours. There are unofficial drivers for VirtualBox, but having tried them (after much screwing around to get them to work), they cause more issues than they solve.
> 
> It may actually be possible to install and run Windows 3.1 in DOSbox, however. There are tutorials for that floating around on the internet... I don't have any links off-hand.


 I haven't been able to get past 800x600 with 16 bit color on DosBox with Win 3.1. Perhaps Win95/98 would be a good choice since it is DOS based and supports the resolution and colors needed to play the game.


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## Runefox (Jan 12, 2011)

Leafblower29 said:


> I haven't been able to get past 800x600 with 16 bit color on DosBox with Win 3.1. Perhaps Win95/98 would be a good choice since it is DOS based and supports the resolution and colors needed to play the game.


 
Actually, 800x600 @ 16-bit colour is great. 16-bit colour = 65536 colours. Windows 9x I don't think runs in DOSbox (3.1 does), and running it in a VM, again, beyond hacks to get higher display resolutions that rarely work out for the better, there isn't any support for anything beyond 640x480 / 16-colour (which is 4-bit colour).


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## KirbyCowFox (Jan 12, 2011)

> Are you sure you don't maybe have the Windows 3.X version of your game?   I'm assuming you mean that you game made that complaint rather than  DosBox itself however.  Because I can't think of any reason a Dos game  would report 'This program must be run under Microsoft Windows' unless  it was a Windows program that was able to be aware that someone launched  it out of DOS.



Yep, it is Dosbox that says that it needs to be run under Windows.  I'm just going to assume that the game just flat out isn't compatible, if that's even possible.


> There are unofficial drivers for VirtualBox, but having tried them  (after much screwing around to get them to work), they cause more issues  than they solve.  It may actually be possible to install and run Windows 3.1 in DOSbox,  however. There are tutorials for that floating around on the internet...  I don't have any links off-hand.



Hmm, I'll try looking that up.  Does that require a flashdrive like how you can boot up older versions of Windows through a way?


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## Tao (Jan 13, 2011)

You could try running the program as an older version of windows. Right click the .exe, go to properties and go to compatibility. Alternately, there's a site called goodoldgames.com that sells old games that work with new computers. You can try that if all else fails.


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 13, 2011)

Runefox said:


> Actually, 800x600 @ 16-bit colour is great. 16-bit colour = 65536 colours. Windows 9x I don't think runs in DOSbox (3.1 does), and running it in a VM, again, beyond hacks to get higher display resolutions that rarely work out for the better, there isn't any support for anything beyond 640x480 / 16-colour (which is 4-bit colour).


 Hmm then it must be 16 color. I rarely use Win 3.1 so my memory isn't too fresh..


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## FF_CCSa1F (Jan 13, 2011)

I usually install Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 inside of Dosbox if I want to play a game like this. It tends to work quite well.


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