In Mad's thread about 32 vs 64 bit Jenny100 asked me what games didn't run on my system. So to not hijack Mad's thread I'll post about it here.

In a previous thread I mentioned the following games do not run on my win7 64 bit laptop:
Arthur's Knights
Backpacker
Blown Away
Crystal Key
Dark Eye (1995)
Fox Hunt
Quest for Karma
Robot City
Victor Vector
Woodruff and the Schnibble (this reportedly runs with Scummv but I haven't tried that)

Nobody mentioned being able to run any of those games in that thread.

Since then I also tried the following games that don't run:
Ark of Time
Discworld 2
Gene Machine
Legend of the Prophet and the Assasin
Leisuresuit Larry 7
Morpheus
Opera Fatal
Timelapse
Toonstruck

I've only been able to run 3 older games using compatibility settings:
GAG
Louvre
Salammbo

Maybe those findings can be added to the Windows7 and games thread.
BTW, in that thread Echo is listed both under playable and unplayable...

Thanks for posting. I think most of those games can be run using DOSBox or another emulation program, though they won't work natively.

Arthur's Knights is probably the hardest to get working. I'm pretty sure it requires a 3D video card, so it probably won't run in Virtual PC. It might run in VMware or VirtualBox because they're supposed to have some 3D support. Or you could try running ***3D-Analyze*** inside the Virtual Machine.

Backpacker, Blown Away, Dark Eye, Fox Hunt, Quest for Karma, Robot City, Victor Vector, and Woodruff and the Schnibble probably all have 16-bit code since they were first published around 1995 or earlier and list Windows 3.1 compatibility. Woodruff and the Schnibble is listed on the DOSBox site as supported, though it may be easier to play it in ScummVM. The others should work inside Virtual PC with Windows 95 or 98 installed. Since they are Windows 3.1 compatible, they might also work in DOSBox with Windows 3.1 installed. (I haven't tried installing Windows 3.1 in DOSBox, though I believe Inland has.)

Crystal Key may have a QuickTime issue. Crystal Key came out in various versions, and the earliest ones needed patches. I think the later ones were updated with more recent versions of QuickTime. One of the early versions had an installation problem where the QuickTime install would overwrite part of the game, so you had to be sure to install the game after installing QuickTime.

Besides having 16-bit code, Ark of Time has a VESA problem with newer video cards. Many games from around 1995 used undocumented features of VESA modes that were common around that time. They did this to make the graphics look better. Of course once VESA was updated from version 2, it only supported the documented features of version 2, and new video cards only supported the later VESA. Ark of Time may also have a problem with newer sound cards. The easiest way around all three problems is to play the game in DOSBox.

Discworld 2 is another one that's listed as supported in DOSBox. I think it may have had the VESA problem too. (maybe someone else can remember)

Gene Machine lists "VESA-compliant" right on the box -- and of course it would be the old VESA it needs. Another one for DOSBox.

All the Leisure Suit Larry's are supported by DOSBox.

Legend of the Prophet and Timelapse are worth trying in Virtual PC. I don't think Legend of the Prophet requires 3D accelerated graphics and I know Timelapse doesn't.

Morpheus and Opera Fatal use old versions of QuickTime and may contain 16-bit code. Both should work in Virtual PC with a Windows 95 or 98 VM.

Toonstruck is supported by DOSBox.

So the only one of the above games that may be impossible is Arthur's Knights, though the others won't run natively and using VirtualPC will require a Windows 95 or 98 install CD.

Congratulations on getting GAG, Louvre, and Salammbo running. Those can be added to the compatible list.

By the way, if you've tried some of these that DOSBox claims are supported and they haven't worked, let us know that too.

Hi Jenny100, all those games are windows games. I haven't heard of running win games in dosbox. How does that work?

While there maybe vesa and quicktime issues, I never got that far. Most (maybe all, I forgot) won't even install. When I do setup I immediately get the windows message that says something like: can't run this program because of incompatibility with win 64 bit. Check with the manufacturer if a 64 bit version is available...
And compatibility settings don't change that.

Most of those games are actually DOS/Win3.1. If you look up the individual games (Like Leisure Suit Larry 7) in the DOSBox compatibility list, they give you some tips for running them. Otherwise just install as for a DOS game. Games that are compatible with both DOS and Windows 3.1 may have separate install files. Sometimes a later edition of a game will be Windows 95-only and won't work on DOSBox (with or without Windows 3.1 installed), but those can still be run in Virtual PC.

The games that aren't listed at DOSBox and which are Windows 3.1 games, like Backpacker and The Dark Eye, will require you to install Windows 3.1 inside DOSBox. VOGONS has a howto for that ***here***.

You can't run a game that uses 16-bit code on a 64-bit version of Windows without using something like DOSBox or VirtualPC, which separates the Operating system the game is running on from the "64-bitness" of the version of Windows on the main computer. Changing compatibility settings will not change that limitation.

Ah, thanks for the explanation, Jenny. I'm thinking a disclaimer in the Windows 7 and Games thread about DOS/Win3.1 games as you have explained it would be a good addition.

I don't think the games I mentioned run in dos, that's why I listed them (I don't have a problem running 'real' dosgames in dosbox) but I'll check again.
Apparently I need an actual win 3.1 version to use that in dosbox. If I have to buy and install another windows version I'd rather just have xp back.

If a game only runs on win7 if you use another win version inside vpc or something like that, I would say it belongs on the 'doesnt-run-in-win7' list. That's what that list is for isn't it?

I agree, HandsFree... That's why I'm thinking a statement that all DOS or Win 3.1 games will not run in Windows 7 might be the best way to cover it. Do these games run natively in XP or do you need to use something like dosbox to run them in XP too?

Running win31 games is apparently very different from running dosgames.
For me just downloading dosbox is no problem and that's the only thing I need to play dosgames. Running win31 games, as I understand it, requires buying win31 somewhere and installing it in a virtual environment. So I think it's fair to warn specifically for win31 games.

I don't have xp anymore so I can't check the others, but I'm sure I've played the following games in xp without any tricks (apart maybe from using compatibility settings for win98):
Ark of Time
Discworld 2
Fox Hunt
Gene Machine
Legend of the Prophet and the Assasin
Morpheus
Timelapse

Good information...

And, by the way, I went back to the original Windows 7 and Games thread which had grown huge, so we complied the games list into a single post and MaG locked it. Many of the games on the list were tested by other members here at GB. One person posted that Echo the Lost Cavern did not play for her at all. In another post, another person stated that Echo ran perfectly. Assuming this is the same game, two people had different experiences with it. As I am not familiar with the game, I listed it as it was posted by the other members. So, I'd have to say that game may or may not play depending on a user's particular computer setup.

I'm going to start testing games on Windows 8 later this fall when I have more time. It never stops! I guess this is why I built an inexpensive computer to house my old XP hard drive and keep a couple copies of 98SE around.