Playing DOS games in XP

[Sachin]

I was wondering if anyone here had any advice on playing a DOS game (namely Privateer) in XP. I've already tried to change that compatibility mode and the DOS settings (I set all the memory options to auto) but neither attempt worked. I know that I could repartition my hard drive and set up another OS on the new partition... but that might be going a bit too far. I'd rather not format my hard drive to satiate my craving for this game. Another idea that I've heard is to buy another box with a different OS but, being a poor college student, I can't afford it.

This is the error message that I get when I try and run the exe:

Protected mode driver is not responding to EMS function calls.
Make sure your EMS driver is not configured with the NOEMS option.
If it is, replace the option "NOEMS" with "RAM".

I guess in the older versions of windows you could change the boot files, but I don't think there are any in this version.


If anyone can help with this I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thanks

 

[Yharn]

i remember finding something like a DOS emulator for win XP that allowed that. I'll have to try to find that again.

 

[bandworthy]

http://www.ece.mcgill.ca/~vromas/vdmsound/

gets some games going although in xp getting a dos game to run is more luck then anything, Although theres an increase in d3d conversions/mods of older games which will then run happily in xp, such as

http://www.jaj22.demon.co.uk/download.html

for Elite Frontier first encounters. And

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

which is a free open source conversion of Star Control 2
If only something like this was done for x-com(ufo) enemy unknown sigh......

A dos partition may not help you, newer sound cards dont like dos, newer pc's are becoming completely incompatible with dos now. So lets hope fans keep making classics compatible.