[FreeSpaceFreak]

From my experiences, FSO in a Linux VM is too slow to enjoy.  OK for testing, not OK for playing.

Well yeah, like any game in any VM right? I tried running a Windows 98 game on a WinXP virtual box a couple months ago. Designed for 1998 hardware (GPU with 8MB RAM and DirectX 6.0), yet still it's sluggish. For the record, FSO runs like a breeze on my (non-virtual) Linux machine.

Either way, suggesting Linux and Wine just for extracting the VPs from the CD archives seems way overkill to me. If it truly doesn't work on Windows 8 (and is not just blocked by crappy virus scanners or w/e) this seems a much more reasonable suggestion:

There's another thing to try. Use 7zip or a similar program to extract the files from the .cab archives on the disc, copy them to a new directory. Then copy all .vp and .mve files from the CDs into that same folder.

[galonrever]

Cheers guys. Seems 7zip didn't want to extract the .cab files, so attempting a few other things. Hopefully it works.

[jr2]

Is there a way to convert 16 bit apps,  or perhaps someone has made a wrapper to replace the one M$ removed?

[Fury]

That is not the problem here though. Windows is kind enough to let you know when you have a problem with 16-bit application.


It is far more likely that galonrever's disc-drive is having problems reading the disc. In fact, I would suggest checking event log for any errors at the time of attempting to launch FS2 setup. Log of administrative events can be found in Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Event viewer --> Custom views --> Administrative events. If there was any sort of error Windows could recognize, it would get logged here.

Furthermore as was previously suggested, he could try to copy contents of the discs to local hard drive. Any read errors during copy process would also get logged to administrative events. Just make sure you copy each disc to their own folder.

Now, if you were genuinely asking that, then the answer would be more complicated. If you want to convert 16-bit apps to 32-bit, then you would need source code, lots of effort and time. As for wrappers, no. But you can run either emulators or virtual machines. Well, emulators in this case would be self-contained minimal virtual machines, usually made to run old MS-DOS apps (see DOSbox). To run newer Windows 16-bit apps, your best bet would be to either install linux virtual machine and run them in Wine, or install Windows XP virtual machine. Virtualbox would be the best free choice to run any virtual machines. Windows 8 Pro comes with Hyper-V which you can use instead. I couldn't get networking to work with it no matter what I did though, so I'm still using Virtualbox myself.

[galonrever]

Well, nothing's worked so far, so think I'm just going to let this one slide for now. Cheers for the help though guys, much appreciated - hope it helps someone else who has these problems

[Phantom Hoover]

*Piracy is bad, mkay?*

* - Rev. P*

[Mongoose]

Yeahno, we don't suggest stuff like that here.

[Yarn]

The retail FreeSpace 2 installer does in fact run under 64-bit Windows 7, at least for me. Either the installer actually is 32-bit, or Windows 7 includes a hack so that certain 16-bit installers can run. In any case, if setup.exe on disc 1 does not run at all and you can't use a virtual machine or another computer to run it, you may need to get the GOG.com version.

Seems 7zip didn't want to extract the .cab files

That's because those are InstallShield cabinet files, and virtually nothing except InstallShield can open them.

[Arkansaw]

Don't bother with Windows 8 really. At both work and play it is giving me unnecessary problems that I didn't encounter with Windows 7

[The E]

This is not a thread about the pros and cons of Win 8. Please do not try to turn it into one.

[Arkansaw]

No problems running fs2open on Windows 7 whatsoever, is that enough?

[The E]

And no problems running FSO in Win 8 (once you got it unpacked and all).

[Fury]

No problems running fs2open on Windows 7 whatsoever, is that enough?

You apparently have not paid any attention to this topic beyond first post. As has been said by plenty of people, Win8 does not have any more problems with FS2/FSO than Win7 does. The problem that galonrever is having probably has nothing to do with Win8 itself, but as he has provided minimal amount of information as to what exactly he has tried and with what results it is hard to ascertain true cause of the problem. He hasn't even told us whether event log has any errors logged or not.

Anti-Win8 ship sailed ages ago and you're just making yourself look stupid trying to pursue it.

[jr2]

Would that be the one that M$ just jumped on?  I don't mind Windows 8, but I guess a lot of other people do.

Of course this is irrelevant to the topic, I was just mentioning it for those who may find that stuff interesting.

[Fury]

MS has yet to be clear and precise as to what changes Windows 8.1 (aka Blue) will exactly entail. Until then, what ship they jumped on is anyone's guess. But one thing is sure, they own the ship. This is also off-topic and should be discussed in its own topic if you feel inclined to continue.

[Vertigo 7]

just a suggestion gal to get around the immediate problem and get a hold of the necessary game files to play fso, if you're running win 8 pro, go into add/remove programs and windows features and add in hyper-v, create a VM with any windows OS you can get your hands on and install in a 30 day trial version, run the FS2 installer there and copy over the files you need. Feel free to delete the VM and such when you're done.

However, as fury has said, Win 8 shouldn't be giving you fits from installs. I've had some odd behavior out of Win 8 from a fresh install and had to use the refresh option to get it to work... I have no idea why it solved the problems I was having, all I know for sure is the problems magically went away, course if there's a hardware issue then this wont solve anything.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

This wont delete any of your personal files but you will need to reinstall any applications and OS updates if you chose to go this route.

[Fury]

I tried Win8 Hyper-V once. I couldn't get networking to work on host and vm no matter what I did. Googling about the issue revealed that it is common problem. I also found numerous tricks to get it working, but in my case nothing helped. If you want to go vm route, I'd recommend Virtualbox instead. At least it works for sure.

[Vertigo 7]

Networking in hyper-v is a bit confusing. You have to create a virtual switch before you can give your VM a nic. In turn when that's done, it will allow you to share a single nic between your host and VM's for interwebs and all that good stuff or you can limit it to local onry. I had to disable and re-enable my nic after it was setup to make it work right but it hasn't given me any trouble since.

[Fury]

Yes I know. That wasn't confusing at all. The problem was, once a virtual switch was created it killed all networking on host. And this is off-topic conversation now.

[cy387_lk]

I know this is a zombie thread. But still. For those who still suffer with this issue: The original installer does work you just have to wait about 5 or so minutes.

To avoid scares:
- As you launch the setup file it shows the installer preparations at 100 for a minute or so and then the installer windows close themselves.
- Then you wait for a few minutes and the setup program will start. Just don't kill the installer process manually as an act of desperation before the actual setup starts.

I've attached the evidence image.

Regards

[attachment kidnapped by pirates]