I honestly don't recall when I played the game, so I can't say which service pack I played it under.

The additional SP3 security features have never caused an issue (so far a folder placement is concerned) nor have I ever seen a specific reference to it by Microsoft.

If it doesn't require anything more than the emulated S3 Trio provides (hardware wise), then VPC will work just fine (but that's a pretty old technology). None the less most games that require DX will run just fine on it.

Mine is the boxed version of course

Thanks for the info Jenny and InlandAZ. I think I will give VMWare Player a try. So far, XP Mode hasn't worked for me at all, so I will most likely delete it. All it is doing now is taking up space. It certainly couldn't hurt to try a different program.

I also have the boxed version of Runaway. You are right, Jenny, it doesn't need a 3D card. The game runs just fine on my '98, and it doesn't have one. I'm not sure about any copy protection, however.

Mj2c, do you have Windows 7? All I had to do in order to make Still Life work was switch it to Windows NT 4.0 compatibility mode. It ran perfectly after that.

Believe it or not whenever I was reading "Runaway" I was thinking "Still Life":) It's SL I couldnt get to work in Vista/W7. I actually played both Runaway games earlier in the year on Vista so imagine they would work in w7 also. Doh!

It's no problem. Have you tried running Still Life in NT 4.0 compatible mode? That's what worked for me in Win 7 anyway.

Yes I tried every combination but no luck. Eventually got it to work via VirtualBox and it runs great on that.

UPDATE - Okay, I tried both Virtual Box and VMware, and it looks as though you need to have a copy of XP to install with these programs. Unfortunately my old XP had software issues, which is why I upgraded my machine to Windows 7 rather than purchasing a new machine. So it looks as though this may not be an option for me. As for XP Mode, it does not seem capable of running any of the games I installed on it, most likely because it was created for businesses rather than games.

So, sorry to ask once more, but does anyone have any more suggestions? I really would like to get this game working on my current system.

Both VMware and VirtualBox work on Vista, so I'd be surprised if they didn't work on Windows 7. You might try installing them by right-clicking the installer and choosing to run it as an administrator.

XP Mode is similar to Virtual PC -- Any game that requires a 3D video card probably won't work on it because it only emulates an old S3 Trio video card.

Yes, what Jenny said. My grandson is able to run his 2001 Counter Strike Condition Zero game by using compatibility mode on 64-bit Windows 7. It suggests XP SP2 and when we select that, it plays just fine. What other games have not played for you?

Both VMware and VirtualBox seem to want me to install my own version of XP, though. Am I reading their instructions incorrectly? It wouldn't be the first time if so. I suppose I could try running it as administrator and see if that makes a difference.

The only version I have of XP is contained on my old installation disks, and they've had so many software issues that I am wary of using them.

Draclvr, Runaway is the only game that won't play for me. The only other game I've had slight issue with is TLJ - I had to disable the 3-D acceleration pre-patch to make it work. I miss the better looking shadows, but the game itself runs now, so that's all that really matters.

Yes virtual machines need guest an operating system installed on them. What happens is, it will be installed on a virtual disk (basically a big file) that VirtualBox
uses as if it was a real harddrive. It has no effect on you host system (win7).

Venus, if you have actual installation CDs for XP, I wouldn't be a bit afraid to install it in a guest operating system. I suspect your issues with it had nothing to with the operating system itself. That way you could have the best of both worlds with Windows 7 and XP on the same computer.

I have my old XP hard drive set up in my computer and it's so nice to be able to boot it up when I need to.

For Runaway, I'd use Windows 98 inside Virtual PC rather than Windows XP. Windows 98 doesn't require "activating."

Also, if your XP disc is branded (made for a specific brand name computer like a Dell or HP), it may not work in a Virtual PC environment.

Good idea... and you can find legal copies of 98SE for around $40 on places like Amazon.

As far as I`m aware xp doesnt need activating straight away. I think, just like Vista and Windows 7, you have 30 days. Enough to play the odd game.

Thanks a lot for the info, everyone. Actually, now that I think about it, I believe the XP disks I have are recovery disks. I don't know if I want to risk using them, even in a virtual machine. Does anyone know what these disks might do if I try to install them this way?

I'll think about buying a copy of '98 SE. I have an old Windows '98 machine that I can run the game on now in the meantime. I was just hoping I could get it to run on my more current machine, as I like to reserve the '98 for really old, floppy based games.

Also, I believe I read somewhere - don't remember where now unfortunately - that the three Runaway games are eventually going to be released together in a boxed set on DVDs. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but this may be a somewhat cheaper solution than buying a '98 SE for only one game. So I suppose I will wait a while for the time being.

Thanks again for all your input, everyone, I really appreciate it. Even if it didn't give me an immediate solution, it gave me some options to think about.

If they're the type of "recovery disks" that aren't really XP install CD's, they'll probably just refuse to install anything because they can't detect the proper hardware.

Thanks, Jenny. That makes sense. So I would have to buy XP irregardless it seems. Well, I will just wait and see if the three Runaways are released together for the time being.

Actually, does anyone know about Good Old Game's version of Runaway? Is it updated to work with 64-bit Windows?