Windows 7 and Old Games

AgentofOrange

I'm new to G&T, and I have a small problem that I'd like to find some advice on with regards to technology. Do forgive me if this topic is ill placed.

My favorite game of all time, Baldur's Gate II, doesn't seem to want to work properly on my computer after I've installed a legal copy of Windows 7. I've tried various compatibility modes, but I still get strange errors within the game. These errors include graphics issues, mostly blocky shadowing and detail, sometimes strange colors. But I also get strange issues with the program, like when I try to access the "multiplayer" menu the game crashes entirely. I can't find any legitimate patches or upgrades that address the issue.

This seems to be a problem with a few of my older games, and I'm getting pretty frustrated about it because I love playing my old games. Is there something that can be recommended that I do?

Stormwatcher

BG2 can work on Win7, and installing the unofficial patches and the Widescreen mod usually help deal with those issues. I don't have the links here, but it's easy to find those at google.

It would help us help you if you described how exactly it's not working. Your computer specs would also be great.

Try turning off Catalyst AI if you have a Radeon... And check the BG2 config app, what graphical options did you turn on or off?

AgentofOrange

I downloaded the standard "update" patch to fix game play bugs, and I installed the "widescreen" mod. This seems to have settled the issue of blocky and mis-colored graphics (though now I seem to have a very inappropriate resolution to the actual view of the game), but I am still having the concerning problem of game crashes while I try to access the multiplayer function, my main goal through all this.

What happens, exactly, is that when I select the multiplayer button it brings me to the menu. I select the protocol to be "TC/IP", and hit okay. I then select New Game, name the game and password, and hit launch. The game then crashes, screen goes black. I go to task manager, and it states that BG2-SoA stopped working.

In all my years of computer literacy, I have never gained the foresight or wisdom to memorize my exact hardware specs. I've been building my own computers since 1998, but as soon as the cards are in the frame, my memory goes blank as to what on earth I put in there, and yes, I too find this to be fucking retarded. I'll come back to this, and share specifics later about my computer.

I did not mess with the game graphics options. I don't know where I can access the Catalyst AI.

Stormwatcher

Well, I don't know about MP... And you can set the widescreen mod's resolution to the correct native resolution of your monitor.

But I don't know if MP would even work nowadays, the methods employed by BG2 are probably really old.

Do you at least know if your gpu is ATI or Nvidia?

autono-wally, erotibot300

I can't get epic megagames firefight to run on W7 or vista. Last time I just played it in a win95 vm :P

Scrublet

Make sure you force antialiasing to be off. Might want to do that ansio too. Some older games won't render right with aa on.

Zell

Quick Google search tells me that you should run it windowed (alt-enter works) if you want to start a multiplayer game to make a custom party. Baldur's Gate II uses DirectPlay which isn't supported in DirectX10 so I don't know how well that will work if you intend to actually play multiplayer and it also requires all players to use external IPs (LAN IPs won't work).

As for the graphics, enable 3D rendering in the configuration program and disable all driver overrides for antialiasing and stuff like that. There is another solution involving disabling directdraw hardware acceleration but it is sort of difficult to do.

The solution to a majority of problems with Vista/Windows 7 and getting older games running is getting better Google skills. I run tons of old games and I've never seen a game I couldn't get working...

L Ron Howard

A solution might be to use Microsoft's free Virtual Machine software. Download it and install an older version of Windows that will work. If you're anything like most people I know, you've got copies of pretty much all versions of Windows since 3.1. You should be able to throw Win98, for instance, onto it and play it that way.
I use it myself, but with Windows 95, to play old DOS games, since I'm tired of playing around with DOSBox.

It might be a bit overkill for BG2, but it's an idea. Maybe install WinXP on the VM, and run it that way.


Or just Google harder, as Zell has said.

AgentofOrange

Activating 3D Graphics and playing in windows-mode does the trick. Thank you very much, I am glad, and a bit embarrassed that it was such a simple answer.

Zell

You don't have to run the game windowed, just hit alt-enter once ingame, you just need windowed mode to get past the multiplayer screens.

Also trying to get Fire Fight to work in Windows 7 this is what I did:

[1] Install the 1.2 patch (needed XP mode for this since I use 64 bit and it's a 16 bit updater)
[2] Copy the contents of the CD to an empty directory
[3] Copy the patch contents over to the directory with the CD contents overwriting the files already there
[4] Use ISO Recorder to create an ISO image of the folder
[5] Use TurboRip rip the CD to iso/wav/cue
[6] Replace the iso in TurboRip's rip with the one created with ISO Recorder
[7] Use the cue to burn (or mount) disc and play

Works nicely (CD audio too), but considering the problem seems to be the disc check in 1.2 not working properly, there should be a simpler solution, I just can't find it at the moment and I wanted to demonstrate that there's usually ways to get old games running in Windows 7.