Stupid question regarding windows 7

Hi,

I recently upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

And I want to play alot of the older games I grew up with. i.e. Age of empires 2, Heroes of Might and Magic 3, etc.

I can install the games fine, and even play them, but the 2 inches of my screen closest to left are cut-off on alot of older games. I've tried altering resolutions, compatibility modes etc. I've been able to fix some, but the 2 games I mentioned above just wont give me those 2 inches back..

To clarify a little more, it's as if the whole picture has shifted 2 inches to the right, and my monitor is already at max H-position to try and correct it, but wont go far enough lol

I'm sure theres an easy fix, I'm just not realizing it right now lol

help anyone?

thanks guys

 

Do they do the same thing if you play in windowed mode instead of in full-screen?

 

Thanks for the quick reply Mimsy

Those 2 games unfortunately dont seem to have an option to run in windowed mode. I tried setting that from within the game, there was no option for windowed mode.

So I went into properties and tried using the windowed mode option there, but it had no effect. I tried every compatibility mode from 95 up to XP SP3, and tried running as Admin.

I also tried ctrl + enter, and alt + enter, I couldnt remember which was windowed mode lol

I'm thinking using microsoft virtual PC with XP mode might work, but I've never used MS virtual PC yet and am reading up on how to go about that.

I figured I'd ask the best their opinions here first before I tried anything drastic to get my old games working lol..

 

Alt-Enter should make it windowed.

If it doesn't, try this:

Right-click on the shortcut, and click "Properties" at the bottom of the menu. On the General tab, in the Target field, type "-windowed" or "-w" at the end of the file path. So you start with

Target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\nwn2main.exe"

and you end up with:

Target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Atari\Neverwinter Nights 2\nwn2main.exe" -w

That should launch the game in windowed mode.

 

thanks,

that worked on age of empires 2.. Heroes 3 is still giving me heck. but I'm going to try backing up win7's directX 11 back to version 7 and see if that will help any. the game was based on version 7 so it might help? just stabbing at balloons here...

 

Word of caution: Never try to remove any installed DirectX version. It has its tentacles everywhere and you can break your Windows install to the point of FUBAR if you try.

Second, if you haven't already, install Dx9 from here and see if that makes a difference. If it doesn't, then you can try installing 7 from the game disc, but try 9 first.

DirectX 10 and 11 are supposed to be fully backwards compatible, but as with everything else computers, what should be happening and what actually happens aren't always the same. Especially not when you don't include all the necessary files for full backwards compatibility...

Also, and I apologize if this is rude, but I have to ask: Did you intend for your avatar to be a ToU violation warning? If you did, it's hilarious. LOL

 

lol Fubar.. i've been there too many times..

and yep the avatar was on purpose, the bad part is I had to upload porn to PB to get it lol

It's getting late here, but ill start the back-tracking of directX tomorrow and see what I get..

Everything on my PC is backed up daily and I have install discs ready to go. I got smart after so many fubars

 

That makes you practically unique in the PC world LOL

Good luck with the Dx thing. Start with 9. I've been able to load a surprisingly large number of surprisingly old games since I installed it to my Win7 system. Let us know how it goes!

 

ok downloaded and installed DirectX 9.

went through all the steps tried with dx11 to get windowed mode, as the screen was still cocked to the right.

same situation as 11, nothing works, is there anything else I should try with 9 before moving on to trying an earlier version still?

 

If nothing works in Dx9 either, check to see if the installation disks came with DirectX on them. If they did, reinstall the game and install the DirectX version they came with when prompted.

And if you haven't already, see if it helps to reinstall the games with all exe files running in comparability mode.

 

Ok, I have game discs with everything from DX 2-10 lol.. I'll slowly work my way back starting from 9.

I didnt try running the setup.exe's in compatibility mode, that might be worth a shot.

if all else fails.. dos box :| lol

 

If all else fails... :innocent

I personally don't mind paying $10 for the convenience of someone else doing all the conversion work for me, but I know not everyone is like me. Still, might be worth a look.

Try running the setup.exe files in compatibility mode first though. They were built for a time when they would automatically be given full Admin rights.

 

lol, thats the exact version of heroes that I have, it says it's compatible with windows 7 x86 and x64. which is why im kind of eeked that this isnt being compatible what so ever :banghead

after trying directX, and before trying dosbox, I think I will backtrack the graphics drivers on my computer (using system restore to test them and re-trace my steps if needed), and possibly switch back to on-board graphics and use the old drivers that came with the on-board and see what happens. A friend of mine who's really into old games said to try it out when all else fails, do you think it's worth a shot? lol

 

Oh. Yeah, I can definitely see the frustration there... my sympathies. Reinstall with all exe files running As Administrator and in compatibility mode didn't work then?

If it didn't, have you tried the fixes suggested in this thread? I don't own the game, unfortunately, or I'd try them out myself for you.

 

yep tried everything running as admin, and set to '98 compatibility mode which is what is recommended.

I did not find that thread yet though, looks like those guys figured it out, I will check it out

 

Good luck! Let us know if you find a solution, so others who come here looking can see it.

 

thanks you very much, and I will update anything of relavance I figure out. So far this is the only game I've tried to install on Win7 Ult x64 and not been able to get working. and I must have tried between 20-30 titiles from the mid-90's so far.

the funny thing with this Heroes game as well, I have heroes 2, 4, and 5 installed and working perfectly..

heroes 1 is just too old and not compatible, heroes 2 wasn't supposed to be compatible, it's from the DX2 era, but it does, and flawlessly lol.. it's a good 3 years older than heroes 3.

It makes no sense to me, but what do I know, I'm just the user lol