Compatibility issues

[Ack]

Hey guys, a friend recently asked me if it was possible to get Oregon Trail 2 to run on Vista(she doesn't want to have to downgrade). Does anybody have any experience running Oregon Trail 2 in compatibility mode?

[dlmvii]

Wikipedia says

System requirements

* Windows: 486 or higher; Windows 3.1 or higher (in 386 enhanced mode). Will work in Windows95; DOS 5.0 or higher; 256 color SVGA; 4M of RAM (8M recommended); 12M Hard Drive space; mouse; double speed CD ROM; Windows-compatible sound card. The game should run perfectly on Windows XP. The game also can run exceptionally on Windows Vista.

Thought I'm not sure if they mean exceptionally well, or as an exception to the rules, or something else.
Also, it's wikipedia, so who knows if this is the case.

[Ack]

That makes me wonder, because she said she'd already tried and hadn't been able to.

[fast]

If you really have to push it, dosbox can make it work.

I am going to wager a guess that it is a bum directory she is playing with.

[Ack]

I've discussed DOSBox with her, but since she's not familiar with DOS, it's a bit of a hard sell.

[marurun]

I think you'll need to make sure all the directories that make up the path are 8 char or less. Put it in compatibility mode. Maybe even investigate tweaking settings for Win95 programs on-line. Does Vista allow some DOS-specific functions (autoexec.bat, config.sys) to be faked via a configuration?

[fast]

Can you get me the copy she is trying to install? Or can you just bring it this weekend?

[Ziggy]

Why not just run a virtual PC with Windows 98 SE in it?

[MrPopo]

I've discussed DOSBox with her, but since she's not familiar with DOS, it's a bit of a hard sell.

You can set up a batch file that will launch DOSBox and Oregon Trail, and then when you exit it will close DOSBox. That's what Valve did when they release the id pack on Steam. I'll try and remember to look up the structure of it when I get home. That way you can just create a shortcut to the batch file and it will be relatively transparent.

[sneth]

once you have DOSbox setup, it's pretty easy