Help me Tendo City, You're my Only Hope...

[Darunia]

I may or may not have posted here before about this topic.

My favorite old school game is Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 (LucasArts, 1997.) It ran beautifully on my laptop, and good times were had by all. Except for the myriads of stormtroopers who were dispatched.

It will not run on Vista.

This is the thread I opened on Vista help forums:

In January I bought my new Gateway DX4200-09, with Vista. Since then, some of my favorite old games do not function. Particularly, one of my very favorite games of all time: Jedi Knight (Dark Forces II), from LucasArts, 1997. When I put the disc in, the install prompt comes up, same as always, but when I try to install it, I get this message (and I quote,)

"The Jedi Knight Setup program was unable to launch. You can install Jedi Knight by running SETUP.EXE directly from the Jedi Knight CD-Rom disk #1."

So, no problem.. I just went into explorer and opened the appropriate file, but THEN I get the real error:

"The Program or feature "\??\D:\install\setup.exe" cannot start or run due to incompatibility with 64-bit versions of Windows. Please contact the software vendor to ask if a 64-bit Windows compatible version is available."

They can land a man on the Moon and split the atom, but they can't make a version of Windows that will run old software?

Any solutions?

[alien space marine]

I may or may not have posted here before about this topic.

My favorite old school game is Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 (LucasArts, 1997.) It ran beautifully on my laptop, and good times were had by all. Except for the myriads of stormtroopers who were dispatched.

It will not run on Vista.

This is the thread I opened on Vista help forums:

In January I bought my new Gateway DX4200-09, with Vista. Since then, some of my favorite old games do not function. Particularly, one of my very favorite games of all time: Jedi Knight (Dark Forces II), from LucasArts, 1997. When I put the disc in, the install prompt comes up, same as always, but when I try to install it, I get this message (and I quote,)

"The Jedi Knight Setup program was unable to launch. You can install Jedi Knight by running SETUP.EXE directly from the Jedi Knight CD-Rom disk #1."

So, no problem.. I just went into explorer and opened the appropriate file, but THEN I get the real error:

"The Program or feature "\??\D:\install\setup.exe" cannot start or run due to incompatibility with 64-bit versions of Windows. Please contact the software vendor to ask if a 64-bit Windows compatible version is available."

They can land a man on the Moon and split the atom, but they can't make a version of Windows that will run old software?

Any solutions?

Get a Mac (Joke)

[Weltall]

I think certain versions of Windows 7 can emulate XP in some fashion.

Vista is an abomination. And, seriously, good luck with the Gateway. Between myself and my parents, all of us relatively computer-savvy, we had three Gateways which survived a grand total of four years.

[Darunia]

Anything more constructive?

[alien space marine]

Anything more constructive?

Buy a old computer that runs windows 98

[Weltall]

As far as I am aware, you're boned, I'm afraid.

[Darunia]

Buying another computer, even an old one, while unemployed, to play one old game, is impractical. Could I change the version of Windows? There's nothing I can do to rig Vista to play the game?

[Weltall]

I don't think so.

There may be some method by which you can install a second, older OS (say, XP) and dual boot, which would definitely solve your problem, but I personally have little knowledge on the concept.

[A Black Falcon]

Your problem is not Vista. It is 64-bit Windows. Many older games use 16-bit installers, even though the games are 32-bit. 64-bit Windows will not run 16-bit applications. Thus, don't bother playing lots of older games on it.

That is, I have 32-bit Vista, and have been running it since the day I got this computer almost three years ago, and it plays the vast majority of my older Windows games with minimal problems. A few do have issues, a couple even don't work, but most play. In the case of Jedi Knight, the game works, with only one error -- when you start up the game the screen is black. The game is actually there, but you can't see anything. This also happens when you're ingame and pause to the menu -- the screen goes black. You fix this by, if I remember right, alt-tabbing out and then back into the game... presto, you can see.

So yeah, your problem is 64-bit, not Vista. You'd have no more luck on 64-bit XP.

I'm not sure if there are workarounds... there might be something, but as I don't have 64-bit Windows, I've never tried to look it up really...

[etoven]

You could run a older OS inside a virtual machine.. I might be able to swing you a copy of (VM where workstation). Do you have a copy of window 98 or 95 you can install on a virtual machine?

Other than that Ryan is right, I think everyone who is still using Vista needs to just try to forget about those horrible times, and move on to Window 7. I hear Microsoft is about to abandon window vista soon, in terms of support and updates anyway. You should upgrade now and save the headache later. Windows 7 is just a awesome sandwich, I'm sure it's emulation mode will play your game.

[A Black Falcon]

Vista isn't horrible and never has been. I think it's good and have liked it since the beginning.

I know I mostly skipped XP, but still, Vista isn't bad. I think a lot of the problem was people upgrading computers that weren't really powerful enough for it, while I got it with a brand new PC... and aside from the usual "some mostly older games don't work now" issues that happen with every new OS, and are fairly rare apart from the DOS issues which I think are as much or more NVidia's fault than Microsoft's, it's just fine. Aero Glass is really cool looking, too... :)

Also etoven, if he upgraded to 7 64-bit, as I said, the problem would be entirely unchanged. The problem is 64-bit OSes not supporting 16-bit executables, not anything about Vista, XP, or 7 in particular.

Maybe a virtual machine could help, if it was possible to install in one and then play in normal Windows and the game actually worked, because VMWare as far as I know does not support DirectDraw which is of course vital for games that require it, but otherwise, I don't know what can be done...

[etoven]

I know I mostly skipped XP, but still, Vista isn't bad. I think a lot of the problem was people upgrading computers that weren't really powerful enough for it, while I got it with a brand new PC... and aside from the usual "some mostly older games don't work now" issues that happen with every new OS, and are fairly rare apart from the DOS issues which I think are as much or more NVidia's fault than Microsoft's, it's just fine. Aero Glass is really cool looking, too... :)

This simple fact is that windows 7 runs 10x better than Vista with 1/2 the system specs. People should not need the more powerful hardware to run Aero, which has been proven with 7, which runs Aero with non of the bloat. Besides, it's a mute point, Microsoft is abandoning vista soon anyways. "7 is Vista fixed" - those where Microsoft's words. They are not going to try fix vista anymore with patches, the patch is 7. Vista may work OK for the causal user, but as a person in the field, I can tell you it has major problems. Even Microsoft admits it. My teachers hate vista, the tech community hates it, many end users hated it. This is why there is windows 7, Microsoft didn't hire 20 engineers from apple to fix Vista because it would be easy.

Also etoven, if he upgraded to 7 64-bit, as I said, the problem would be entirely unchanged. The problem is 64-bit OSes not supporting 16-bit executables, not anything about Vista, XP, or 7 in particular.

Windows 7 runs 16bit programs in a 64bit environment threw an emulation layer called windows legacy compatibility layer. Vista tried to force end users to use 32 bit code, but that was only in Vista, Microsoft has sense abandoned that idea with 7.

Maybe a virtual machine could help, if it was possible to install in one and then play in normal Windows and the game actually worked, because VMWare as far as I know does not support DirectDraw which is of course vital for games that require it, but otherwise, I don't know what can be done...

This is not so, VMWare supports direct draw and any another feature available on a physical machine running the same hardware.

[Darunia]

So upgrading to Windows 7 (will/will not) help?

[etoven]

So upgrading to Windows 7 (will/will not) help?

There's no need to upgrade, but I recommend it, simple because Microsoft will be cutting Vista loose soon anyway. But if you must you can use a virtual machine.

[Darunia]

Well I already got something called Virtual Box, but I don't own any old copies of Windows...

[Darunia]

The problem has been rectified.

In case any of you were curious:

I copied all the vital game folders directly onto the harddrive (so now I don't even need the CD) and voila. It was the launcher that was fucking the deal up.

[A Black Falcon]

As I said, the problem was the installer. I thought so.

It's great that the game works without an actual install though... :)

Oh, do you have the same blackscreen problem I do (as described above), or not? I'd be interested to know.

[Darunia]

Yes I did but I rectified it.

Now, I'm on the problem of disc two. I beat all the levels on the first disc, but when it prompts me to insert disc 2, I do, but it won't recognize it. Like, at all. I can't even "Explore" it through Explorer anymore--Windows does NOT recognize any disc at all. The same with disc 1. Neither disc exists.

Someone on a games forum had this to say:

=kheimon;2706049]Anyone having problem with inserting CDs and so on, please copy JK_.CD file onto the "RESOURCE" subdirectory of install directory and replace the contents with an hex editor, write these bytes:

0x84 0x32 0x97 0x69

(Obviously you first have to copy all the cutscenes stuff from both CD1 and CD2)

The part I don't understand is, what the hell is a 'hex' editor? Anyone know?

[A Black Falcon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_editor

Yes I did but I rectified it.

How so?

[Darunia]

Check this out ABF:

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=186129

[A Black Falcon]

First, right-click jk.exe (wherever you installed Jedi Knight), set it to Win XP SP2 compatibility mode, and check Disable Visual Themes and Disable Desktop Composition.

If you're using a GeForce, get the latest official drivers, then in the NVIDIA Conrol Panel, create a custom profile for jk.exe under Manage 3D Settings then the Program Settings tab. Disable Antialiasing, Transparency Antialiasing and Comformant Texture Clamp for jk.exe (everything else works, but antialiasing will make JK crash every time, sadly).

Now, you may luanch JK and see nothing but hear the mouseover sounds of the buttons if you move the mouse. Alt-tab out of JK, then tab back in, and the menu will appear. Unfortunately, going between the 3D and the menu will always require this, so it will be a pain doing all your settings again if you forget something and have to go back into the menu, or when you're joining/leaving games. Otherwise, the game actually runs! I run JK in 1080p now compared to 320x400 when I first got the game... LOL!

I have no problems getting the game to run though, so I don't think the first two paragraphs apply to me... it runs without compatibility mode or any of its options needed (at 1280x1024 or whatever specifically I'm running it at). I just have the problem listed in the third paragraph, and that appears to confirm that yeah, there's no fix for it. It's kind of annoying, but oh well...

The second paragraph would only apply if you're using a custom NVidia setup that forces in anti-aliasing and stuff, right, so you'd need to make exceptions for this specific title? I don't do that (use the NVidia software to force stuff to antialias), as it causes compatibility problems too often, so I don't need to worry about that stuff either.

I notice the alternative of forcing it to run windowed when in the menus, but that's not much better than having to alt-tab... I really prefer games to be fullscreen.

[Darunia]

I agree with you, but the only way I found was altering the shortcut DNA to make it play cutscenes and the game menu in the window. Otherwise, as far as I have found, you can only alt-tab back and forth all day. It runs well enough that I beat the game today, going start to finish in well under 24 hours, including a sizeable 10-hour nap in the middle. So yea... I think windowing it is the only available alternative at this juncture.