Running RPG 2003 games on Windows 10

[LucaBicono]

A few days ago, a friend of mine suggested I try out the Lisa series, starting with The First, before moving on to The Painful and The Joyful. I downloaded the former, and figured I wouldn't have a problem since I tried it out a few months ago on my old Windows 7 laptop and it ran fine. When I try to launch in Windows 10, however, it crashes with the error code: "DirectDraw Error (DD_ERR UNSUPPORTED)". I have tried running it as an admin, as well as in compatibility mode for XP, 7, and 8, to no success. Is there any way to run it in Windows 10, or will I just need to suck it up and use my laptop again?

 

[Reapergurl]

@LucaBicono My only suggestion is to find the latest drivers for your OS. I myself have only tried Win10 in a demo project, and I personally favored Win7 over it so...


Yeah, I cannot help much other than Driver Update 101.

 

[Jonforum]

use https://www.virtualbox.org/


is the only way to run old software on modern OS

 

[Andar]

"Direct draw Error unsupported" sounds as if that is not a regular driver problem, but a DirectX-API problem.


And if my guess is right, then you're out of luck.


Because an unsupported directdraw function means that the functionality of that had been removed from the DirectX version running on your computer, and nothing but going back to an older DirectX will bring that back - and if your DirectX is still the one shipped with W10, then you won't be able to get to an older one (only if it was updated later, nothing can go older than the default version of the OS).


For performance reasons it is neccessary to remove old commands from the API from time to time - usually several years after their introduction, something like DX11 removing functions introduced by DX6 or DX7, but thirteen years ago RM2003 was programmed on a much older DirectX-version...

 

[Reapergurl]

Speaking of Direct X...


I think there's this program called WineD3D or something like this.


It basically allows people to play much older games and run older software on newer OS.


I've never used it myself but I do have the program somewhere...

 

[Spoopy]

@Reapergurl Wine is a emulation layer to run Windows applications on Linux, WineD3D must be the DirectX module.


@LucaBicono As Jonforum mentioned, use a VM like VirtualBox or VMware Workstation, then install WindowXP on it. Just note the drive size during setup, some VM literally will create a fake hard-drive at the size you set it at. So make sure you have enough space, 10Gb-20Gb will be fine if you're only going to play small games. Just make sure to enable any performance/display acceleration settings as well. Sometimes the way the fake hard drive as been set up can mae a huge impact in performance. I'm running Final Fantasy 7 PC Edition and some of my old pc games on 98/XP VM's, otherwise if you use Linux, just run it on Wine like Reapergurl mentioned.

 

[Reapergurl]

@Spoopy, @LucaBicono, This here is precisely what I was talking about. If WineD3D doesn't work, You can try a Virtual Machine.


I've used Virtual Machines before; it can be convenient for some things but I wouldn't use it all the time. For one, with a VM (my experience), it uses more RAM than just with your standard OS. Another is the switch between VM and your normal OS.


I'd actually create a disk partition instead, and install an older OS on the partiton (Win 7 is still a great OS even for much older games and it is better for FF VII PC in my honest opinion).

 

[Spoopy]

@Reapergurl I use Arch Linux as my primary OS, running Win 10 through Qemu-KVM. I don't own Windows 7, and kind of wish I did. I upgraded from XP to 8 then 10 with the free upgrade, but honestly 8 and 10 feels more like bloatware+spyware.


I consider Vista even better than the two, mainly because I've tweaked it to run on 135mb of ram. Which is great for VM's. With 8 & 10 after a complete tweak and disabling most of the unneeded components, I still ended up with 700mb minimum usage. It makes me wish that XP was still supported, could even get it to run on 32mb of ram. I only use Windows for Adobe and games that really struggle to run on wine.


I still can't understand why Adobe won't bring their products to Linux, after all Mac OS is BSD based, very similar to Linux. My system is old and only supports up to 4GB DDR2, but my Arch setup is clean and minimal, so I hardly feel any issues on VM's, the OS only uses 170-512mb depending on load, so I can keep VM's at 2GB+. However my setup is not for most people, it took me 2 years of trial and error to tweak all the write components. I even tailored my systems kernel for my processor. no extra junk. I need a girlfriend lol.

 

[Reapergurl]

@Spoopy Ultimately, when choosing between Linux and Windows (sorry Apple but you've failed me once too many times), I had to choose an OS that would serve all of my highest needs. A lot of software is NOT written for Linux (RPG Maker is one of them as far as I know), but so are a lot of software I use for gaming.


I've tried Win 8, and no Start Button means pass all around (I use the Start Button hold command a lot).


XP is technically still supported, just not officially. You have to get certificates, and those aren't easy to come by (and are easier to fake which means nothing).


I wonder, how one could tweak RAM usage; that could be really useful. Hell, I'd like to know how to stop Windows from bottlenecking my 4 GB of RAM to 2.99 GB.


"I need a girlfriend lol" <--------- I'm right there with ya on that, but at the same time, I've enough drama in my life; oh yeah and it's going to get worse come the 20th.

 

[Andar]

@Spoopy, @Reapergurl,


please keep to the topic. The original poster wanted help for his problem, not a discussion on the merits of different OS. If you want to discuss that, start a new topic in "Off-Topic" area.

 

[Millefeuille]

I run Windows 10 and tried downloading Lisa. I had no problems launching it, but it did cause some flickering as my monitor adjusted. This means there is definitely some solution out there for you. I'm on a fairly recent install of 10, and only have several programs installed, as well as all of the OS updates. My DirectX version is '12'.


Anyway, moving on. The first thing I can tell is that the first game wasn't made with the official RPG 2003 software, but due to its age that isn't a surprise. This is good news for you, because if you own the official release of 2K3, you can simply load up the project files into the editor and choose to update the runtime using the newer GDI support rather than outdated DDraw technology. Assuming the creator of Lisa didn't add anything fancy, the conversion should be (mostly?) painless. If you have any questions about this process, feel free to send me a PM.