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Windows 2000/Me Compatibility List
Thinking of upgrading to Windows Me or Windows 2000?  Wondering if your Apogee games will still work?  The following is a list of games compatible with these operating systems. Officially, all the Apogee games (except Balls of Steel) are only supported in DOS, but most run well within the Windows environment.  First, some background information on the operating systems.

Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me):  This is Microsoft's next consumer OS based off of Windows 98 and 16-Bit DOS and it could be called Windows 98 Third Edition.  One of the biggest changes is the removal of Dos Mode.  In other words, one cannot press F8 at boot and enter the Command Prompt.  The OS is still based off of DOS but it is much more hidden now.  Good news is, most Apogee games run fine within Windows and booting to DOS mode is not needed in most cases. 

Update (9/5/00):   It is now possible to patch WinMe to access Real Mode DOS.  Visit this page for more information.

 

Windows 2000: Microsoft's NT technology combined with DirectX/Plug'n'Play is Windows 2000.  This OS contains no DOS or 16-bit code; any DOS games must be emulated.  Fortunately, this emulation works well with most games.  In the future, all Microsoft OS's will be based off of NT.

 

Note on Mo'Slo:  The faster your computer, the less chance a game will run without slowing your computer down first.  All Apogee games run fine on 486s, but Pentiums and greater have problems with many games.  If you see a "Runtime Error 200", this means your computer is too fast.  I have heard this bug only exists in games programmed in Turbo Pascal.  To fix this, use Mo'Slo or other software that slows down the speed of your PC.  To use Mo'Slo, type the following:

mo'slo game.exe   or   mo'slo /25 game.exe

The first command will run the game at 1% of your PC's speed and the second will run at 25%.  A good rule of thumb is to try 75% then 50% then 25% and so on until you find a sweet spot where the game will run on your system.   Once the correct percent is found, you can create a batch file to accelerate the launch process. Mo'Slo is compatible with both WinME and Win2000.

 

 

Game Windows Millennium Windows 2000 Notes
Alien Carnage X X Mo'Slo needed on most computers.  Random errors in menus. Illegal operation on exit.
Arctic Adventure

X

X

Mo'Slo needed.
Balls of Steel X X Note: 1.3 is needed to play in Win2K.
Beyond the Titanic X X WinME-"Run-time error F0"  W2K-"FCB Unavailable" Mo'Slo needed?
Bio Menace X X WinME-Memory listed as "xxxxxx" bytes.  Crashes seconds into the game.
Blake Stone X X X
Boppin X X WinME-Quits after the Apogee fanfare.
Cosmo X X X
Crystal Caves X X Mo'Slo needed.
Dark Ages X X Text does not display correctly.
Death Rally X X WinME-Make sure "Prevent program from detecting Windows" is not checked.  W2K - Runs too slow on some PCs.
Duke Nukem X X
Duke Nukem II X X X
Duke Nukem 3D X X 1.3D works fine, but 1.5 freezes at the main menu.  Only runs in VGA mode.
Hocus Pocus X X X
Commander Keen 1-3 X X X
Commander Keen 4-5 X X X
Kroz X X Runs too fast; Mo'Slo needed.
Major Stryker X X X
Math Rescue X X X
Monster Bash X X X
Monuments of Mars X X Mo'Slo needed.
Mystic Towers X X 7/01/00: This game will return a Runtime 200 error on faster systems.
Paganitzu X X The main menu text doesn't display in WinME.  Everything else seems to work.
Pharaoh's Tomb X X Mo'Slo needed.
Realms of Chaos X X X
Rise of the Triad X X W2K - Runs slow.
Secret Agent X X X
Shadow Warrior X X W2K - Only runs in VGA mode.
Stargunner X X WinME-Stuck on load.  W2K-Stuck at main menu.
SuperNova X X X
Terminal Velocity X X W2K - Only runs in VGA mode.
Wacky Wheels X X X
Wolfenstein 3D X X X
Word Rescue X X X
Xenophage X X X

Test Systems:

 

 

I'm actually surprised at the number of games that run under Windows 2000.  Even some that do not work properly under WinME work under 2000.  Another thing to note: SVGA under DOS games does not work in Win2000.  Also, a few of the newer games run too slow in Win2000; I'm not sure if this is because of the emulation or the timers in Windows.  I'll keep looking into this.  I was surprised most of the problems occurred with newer games (Stargunner, ROTT) instead of older games

I will continue to update this list if I find the correct Mo'Slo settings and make more games work.  One reason why more games do not run under Win2000 is because I tested it on a 500 Mhz system, which is too fast for many games.  Hopefully, the compatibility of Apogee games will improve as more workarounds are found.  Of course, you can always keep your 486!

 

Other options:

Another option for playing your old Apogee games perfectly without downgrading to DOS is to use VMWare.  This software allows a PC that is running NT or 2000 to run a "virtual machine" with Windows 98 or DOS in a window.  VMWare looks very promising, but you need at least 128MB to use it.  I'll be testing this in the future.

I'm also curious to see how certain Apogee games run under DOS Emulators in Linux, so this may also be tested in the future.

 

If anyone has any hints for playing these games under Windows Me or Windows 2000, let me know!

Lon Matero © 1996-2002