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VMWare, Windows 10, Windows XP and Command and Conquer Generals

steelo
By steelo
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Hi guys,

 

Over the weekend, I installed VMWare (with the enhanced SVGA) and created a Win XP and Win 10 VM with the hope that I'd be able to play older multiplayer games with my friends on the same PC (different monitors). I am not using GPU passthrough and understand that I will most likely be limited to older games. This was more to see it work than anything else...

 

Warcraft 3 seems to work 100% fine, however I've tried installed one of my favorite games, C&C Generals and Zero Hour and it seems to install alright. However, whenever I attempt to start up the game, the splash screen will appear for about 30 seconds and then...nothing. I've tried this on a Win10 non-vm machine, Win 10 vm and Win XP vm with the same results. I've looked online and it appears that this is a widespread problem, but it's not clear whether this is related to the game not being compatible with 64 bit CPU's. I haven't played this game in years and I believe I was using Windows XP on a AMD Athlon X64 (64 bit) CPU. This does not run on my non-vm Win 10 OS, so I'm leaning towards compatibility issues. I've also tried running under 'Administrator' in Win XP compatibility mode (SP 2 and SP3) with the same results...

 

Does anybody have any other suggestions that I can try? I'd really love to play this game again =(

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11 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

Build a decent XP machine from parts bins/attics.

I would in a heartbeat, but I'd have to start off from scratch and buy everything. I really, really wish I still had my old Dell that it ran on just fine =(

 

I'm wondering if C&C remastered worked out these compatibility issues. However, I'm skeptical paying for it because I fear that the VM video settings will cause it not to run at all. I'd really like to be able to play LAN games on the same PC.

 

I keep reading online that 64 bit CPU's cause issues with C&C Generals...however, my old Athlon X2 was 64 bit, so I don't understand that logic.

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8 minutes ago, steelo said:

but, my old Athlon was a 64 bit processor, so I don't understand that logic.

64-bit CPUs only matter if you have a 64-bit OS, and next to no one had XP 64-bit. That's probably where there wasn't an issue.

That said, I'm pretty sure I've ran Generals on my current (Win 10 64-bit) computer (a while ago, admittedly).

Main System (Byarlant): Ryzen 7 5800X | Asus B550-Creator ProArt | EK 240mm Basic AIO | 16GB G.Skill DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-14 | XFX Speedster SWFT 210 RX 6600 | Samsung 990 PRO 2TB / Samsung 960 PRO 512GB / 4× Crucial MX500 2TB (RAID-0) | Corsair RM750X | Mellanox ConnectX-3 10G NIC | Inateck USB 3.0 Card | Hyte Y60 Case | Dell U3415W Monitor | Keychron K4 Brown (white backlight)

 

Laptop (Narrative): Lenovo Flex 5 81X20005US | Ryzen 5 4500U | 16GB RAM (soldered) | Vega 6 Graphics | SKHynix P31 1TB NVMe SSD | Intel AX200 Wifi (all-around awesome machine)

 

Proxmox Server (Veda): Ryzen 7 3800XT | AsRock Rack X470D4U | Corsair H80i v2 | 64GB Micron DDR4 ECC 3200MT/s | 4x 10TB WD Whites / 4x 14TB Seagate Exos / 2× Samsung PM963a 960GB SSD | Seasonic Prime Fanless 500W | Intel X540-T2 10G NIC | LSI 9207-8i HBA | Fractal Design Node 804 Case (side panels swapped to show off drives) | VMs: TrueNAS Scale; Ubuntu Server (PiHole/PiVPN/NGINX?); Windows 10 Pro; Ubuntu Server (Apache/MySQL)


Media Center/Video Capture (Jesta Cannon): Ryzen 5 1600X | ASRock B450M Pro4 R2.0 | Noctua NH-L12S | 16GB Crucial DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-22 | EVGA GTX750Ti SC | UMIS NVMe SSD 256GB / Seagate 1.5TB HDD | Corsair CX450M | Viewcast Osprey 260e Video Capture | Mellanox ConnectX-2 10G NIC | LG UH12NS30 BD-ROM | Silverstone Sugo SG-11 Case | Sony XR65A80K

 

Camera: Sony ɑ7II w/ Meike Grip | Sony SEL24240 | Samyang 35mm ƒ/2.8 | Sony SEL50F18F | Sony SEL2870 (kit lens) | PNY Elite Perfomance 512GB SDXC card

 

Network:

Spoiler 
                           ┌─────────────── Office/Rack ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
Google Fiber Webpass ────── UniFi Security Gateway ─── UniFi Switch 8-60W ─┬─ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Veda (Proxmox Virtual Switch)
(500Mbps↑/500Mbps↓)                             UniFi CloudKey Gen2 (PoE) ─┴─ Veda (IPMI)           ╠═ Veda-NAS (HW Passthrough NIC)
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╩═ Narrative (Asus USB 2.5G NIC)
║ ┌────── Closet ──────┐   ┌─────────────── Bedroom ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
╚═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╤═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Byarlant
   (PoE)                 │                        ╠═ Narrative (Cable Matters USB-PD 2.5G Ethernet Dongle)
                         │                        ╚═ Jesta Cannon*
                         │ ┌─────────────── Media Center ──────────────────────────────────┐
Notes:                   └─ UniFi Switch 8 ─────────┬─ UniFi Access Point nanoHD (PoE)
═══ is Multi-Gigabit                                ├─ Sony Playstation 4 
─── is Gigabit                                      ├─ Pioneer VSX-S520
* = cable passed to Bedroom from Media Center       ├─ Sony XR65A80K (Google TV)
** = cable passed from Media Center to Bedroom      └─ Work Laptop** (Startech USB-PD Dock)

 

Retired/Other:

Spoiler

Laptop (Rozen-Zulu): Sony VAIO VPCF13WFX | Core i7-740QM | 8GB Patriot DDR3 | GT 425M | Samsung 850EVO 250GB SSD | Blu-ray Drive | Intel 7260 Wifi (lived a good life, retired with honor)

Testbed/Old Desktop (Kshatriya): Xeon X5470 @ 4.0GHz | ZALMAN CNPS9500 | Gigabyte EP45-UD3L | 8GB Nanya DDR2 400MHz | XFX HD6870 DD | OCZ Vertex 3 Max-IOPS 120GB | Corsair CX430M | HooToo USB 3.0 PCIe Card | Osprey 230 Video Capture | NZXT H230 Case

TrueNAS Server (La Vie en Rose): Xeon E3-1241v3 | Supermicro X10SLL-F | Corsair H60 | 32GB Micron DDR3L ECC 1600MHz | 1x Kingston 16GB SSD / Crucial MX500 500GB

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7 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

64-bit CPUs only matter if you have a 64-bit OS, and next to no one had XP 64-bit. That's probably where there wasn't an issue.

That said, I'm pretty sure I've ran Generals on my current (Win 10 64-bit) computer (a while ago, admittedly).

Do you, by chance remember if you had to run it in any compatibility mode? I've tried just about every compatibility setting, as well as installing it within a Win XP VM...

 

Maybe a recent Windows update setting the game simply doesn't like. This was a downloaded copy I found, although I also tried my original game CD (albeit quite scratched) with the same results.

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22 minutes ago, steelo said:

Hi guys,

 

Over the weekend, I installed VMWare (with the enhanced SVGA) and created a Win XP and Win 10 VM with the hope that I'd be able to play older multiplayer games with my friends on the same PC (different monitors). I am not using GPU passthrough and understand that I will most likely be limited to older games. This was more to see it work than anything else...

 

Warcraft 3 seems to work 100% fine, however I've tried installed one of my favorite games, C&C Generals and Zero Hour and it seems to install alright. However, whenever I attempt to start up the game, the splash screen will appear for about 30 seconds and then...nothing. I've tried this on a Win10 non-vm machine, Win 10 vm and Win XP vm with the same results. I've looked online and it appears that this is a widespread problem, but it's not clear whether this is related to the game not being compatible with 64 bit CPU's. I haven't played this game in years and I believe I was using Windows XP on a AMD Athlon X64 (64 bit) CPU. This does not run on my non-vm Win 10 OS, so I'm leaning towards compatibility issues. I've also tried running under 'Administrator' in Win XP compatibility mode (SP 2 and SP3) with the same results...

 

Does anybody have any other suggestions that I can try? I'd really love to play this game again =(

 

You dont need a virtual machine to play generals and zero hour. I have them on origin and they play just fine. I even mod them to play in widescreen, 1080p.

I remember having the installer disks years ago and I used to get the same problems as you so it's not your vm. It works in origin though.

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27 minutes ago, steelo said:

VMWare

 

27 minutes ago, steelo said:

Win XP vm

I assume it's WinXP 32bit edition, and not the 64bit edition you used?

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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1 minute ago, Digideath said:

 

You dont need a virtual machine to play generals and zero hour. I have them on origin and they play just fine. I even mod them to play in widescreen, 1080p.

I remember having the installer disks years ago and I used to get the same problems as you so it's not your vm. It works in origin though.

I checked origin's website and it doesn't look like generals is still listed?

 

If it's still, by chance on there....that sounds like the option I'll have to go with then. Thanks!

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3 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

 

I assume it's WinXP 32bit edition, and not the 64bit edition you used?

Good point...LOL. I'll have to double-check...I'm 75% sure it is though

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1 minute ago, steelo said:

I checked origin's website and it doesn't look like generals is still listed?

 

If it's still, by chance on there....that sounds like the option I'll have to go with then. Thanks!

You need to buy the ultimate collection. This one.

 

https://www.origin.com/gbr/en-us/store/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-the-ultimate-collection

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Just now, steelo said:

Good point...LOL. I'll have to double-check...I'm 75% sure it is though

try another vm with win10 32-bit, I guess that is the only option left?

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12 minutes ago, Digideath said:

You need to buy the ultimate collection. This one.

 

https://www.origin.com/gbr/en-us/store/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-the-ultimate-collection

Ah, there it is! I was searching by command and conquer - generals. I'm going to try one more thing and verify WinXP is the 32 bit version and also try the 32 bit version of Windows 10...Not sure if that'll make a difference since I've tried compatibility mode to no avail.

 

Thanks!

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Signed up for origins for one month (it doesn't look like it's recurring because I don't have any saved payment methods)

 

Hopefully, this works and I get my C&C fix for awhile...LOL

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