Mincemeat has been successfully helping fellow fans in the CIC Tech Support Forum get Wing Commander games running in Windows for years, but we have neglected to mention his custom compatibility tweaks in the news. The CIC's own Tech Support section includes a variety of tips, but when adjusting the stock compatibility mode settings isn't enough, Mincemeat's 'superpatch' is ready to adjust Windows' hidden compatibility mode settings even further. The new version 0.3 of the patch includes special settings for Kilrathi Saga WC1&2, WC4 for Windows & DVD, the Prophecy 3dfx Test & Demo and Privateer 2. Mash's Patch is the recommended fix for KS WC3. Grab the superpatch package here (6 kb zip). Detailed instructions are included. Have fun! -- Original update published on June 6, 2010
what about windows 7 I have 64 windows 7 and WC4 on CD - it won't even let me run the cd cause it says that it's incompatible - do you know what I can do? thanks
Do you mean you can't install it? Did you set the compatability mode on the installer? Did you try no compatability mode, but running the installer with the "super patch" ?
The CD version of Wing Commander IV is a DOS game so I suspect 64-bit Windows will not support it. You can use an emulator called DOSBox, instructions as per here. Alternatively you can download the Windows upgrade from here and do a manual install.
Thats an intriguing problem, the dos wc4 shouldn't be "incompatible" any more than the windows wc4 from a 32/64 bit point of view. I'll have a play this evening and see if i get the same results, but i suspect its a win7 issue than a 64 bit one.
On the contrary, I've just found the official Microsoft stance on this issue. 64-bit Windows is not compatible with DOS applications at all. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282423
The best solution in this instance is to install the game in dosbox. Then you can either get it running in dosbox or use the win95 patch along with whatever other compatability modes or superpatches do the trick.
I stand corrected - thats dissapointingly lazy from MS. I appreciate that it's a lot of effort to include that backward compatability, but given that they made a fuss out of how good the compatability was in win7 it's annoying that they've removed dos support like that.
You mean besides the fact that the DOS instance is operating within DOSBox, which itself is a Windows (or Mac, or UNIX/Linux) program?
