Virtual PC can be installed under Windows 8.x - just rename the executable to something other than setup.exe (e.g. Mysetup.exe).

Tried that. It installed, but crashed immediately when I tried to do anything with it. I had to install the Windows Phone and the update to get it to behave.

Oh dear, it turns out VMware Player doesn't play other games I installed al all .....

Installation runs deceptively smoothly, but games like Odyssey, China, Egypt II and Aztec (DVD versions) immediately crash on start-up.

In all cases, I get 'DirectDraw invalid mode' (DDERR_INVALIDMODE) error messages, and some more investigation reveals VMware doesn't support Direct3D acceleration at all for a Windows 98 guest, only later systems - 2000 and XP!

This makes VMware as an emulator pretty much useless for playing adventure games of the late Nineties/early 2000s, I guess!

I think I need to return to Qemu again, a really cumbersome program to start off with, but where you can set and tweak all installation parameters individually and manually! And once I'd gotten all of these right on XP, I could play most of these games!

Rich

P.S. But first of all I need a rest

After my little much-needed rest, some more VMware Player hints.

Another problem with playing vintage games on WMware Player is that they mostly have a fixed screen resolution of 800x600 pixels.

Though you can set the window running the guest system to any display size you want, when you start the game, it reverts to a small window of 800x600. You can set the VMware window to full screen mode, but then the game size will stay fixed, and you get huge black borders around your game screen.

See image for this anomaly.

In the free Player version, there is no facility to scale the screen (in VMware Workstation, there is a 'Stretch Guest' option), which means that every time you want to play the game, you have to set the display size of your (underlying) host system to 800x600!

There is, however, a program you can install to start VMware Player in a fixed, adjusted display of 800x600 by downloading the 12 Noon Display Changer 4.3.2.

From here: http://12noon.com/

If you follow the instructions found here:

https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-16772

you can create another 'VMware Player Game shortcut' on your desktop and specify as its target (mind you, this is on a Windows 8.1 host):


The initial rescaling of your screen looks truly terrible, but that way, you can still enjoy your old games in a Windows 98 or XP virtual machine!

And of course, if you shut your guest session, your host display will revert to its normal state.

Best,

Rich

P.S. The problem remains of the lack of DirectDraw and Direct3D support in the Windows 98 guest.

I just has a new gaming computer built and I attempted to load my latest Tex Murphy game and surprise it mentioned that there were missing files and could not continue installation. I have Windows 8. I had no problems with this game with windows xp. If anyone using windows 8 has had good luck installing with windows 8 please tell me what to do.

Can you tell us what missing files it mentioned?

I will get back to you because I became so frustrated and disappointed I just stopped installation. Today is labor day and I want NO drama.

I was so happy when I got my new custom built computer but the happiness was short lived when I began to install/reinstall my games. My guy would not install WXP as my o/s because xp was not supported as of July 2015 and Windows 8.1 was the wave of the future. I had bought Phantasmagoria at GOG a few months ago and wanted to install and play it on my new computer. It has three levels om install so I download part 1 and wanted to continue but oh no I got the following: The file could not be located in the installer folder. Please make sure that the file is in the correct folder or specify the current locationI found that the file in question is Binary file 813kb @ http://cdn.gog.com. That is important but I don't know what to do with it. Has anyone using 8.1 found this to be a problem or is it just me. I miss my old Windows XP

I am not sure what you mean by "three levels" and I wonder if you've misunderstood what the files are. I don't have this particular game, but it sounds like there may be one exe file and 2 bin files for data.

You have to have all installation files downloaded in order to install.

You can't install the first file, then the second file, then the third. You need all three in order to install anything.

You may have had a similar problem with the Tex Murphy game.

I can't add anything to what Jenny said - you must have all three files downloaded and in the correct folder before you can install anything.

This has nothing to do with what Windows operating system you have. This is how GOG manages their game downloads. If you continue to have problem, you can always contact them for help.

Are you using the GOG downloader to download the game?

Marian, I thought of that as soon as I posted earlier. If you use the GOG downloader, that will download all three parts into the correct folder and you don't have to do them individually.

Right. The option to use the GOG downloader is a bit hidden now in menu choices, but we can direct lexxy to that option if needed.

I used the word level when I meant 1of2/3/4/5. I have attempted using galaxy and so far so good. It seems to be taking a long time to download but I am sure it will be worth it. Thanks everyone for your input.

Let us know how it works out!