Program cross installation?

[saltedfish]

If the title wasn't obtuse enough, let me paint the picture here:

I have an old game that I'd like to get running on my machine again. However, Service Pack 2 contains a change that ruins the games installer. After asking around, someone suggested using a virtual machine.

This leaves me with two options: (1) Use the virtual machine to emulate Windows XP SP1, and use that to install the program from the guest OS to the host OS and (2) Simply running the game from inside the VM.

My initial thought was to try option (1), but after searching the forums, it doesn't appear that anyone has ever tried it. Is this even possible? Or if it is possible, would it be too buggy/cumbersome/prone to failure that I shouldn't even bother?

After the search on your forums here, it dawned on me (Reverse Occam's razor?) that I could just run the game from inside the VM, in other words, option (2). My question then becomes has this ever been done? What kind of system stress would I be looking at? Everything that I've read indicates that VMs are generally small and don't suck up a lot of system resources. But creating a guest OS that can run a game (the game in question is an FPS. It's an old game, but would still require some power to run) would indeed require most of the systems resources. Would this be a problem?

I am also left with the issue of finding an XP install disc that does not come with SP2...

Thanks in advance for any and all replies to this matter.

[Sasquatch]

An XP disc that doesn't have SP2 or higher, maybe the one you used to install your system? Only applies when it's not a pre-build OEM version.

Now, you can try option 1, but if there are system files needed, it won't be as portable as you may think. However, if it is a 'portable' game, in other words, no system files and special registry keys are needed, you can try to install it in a live environment on your Host directly using Wine. You can try the same with a VM, but Wine is very, very slow inside a VM. No idea why it is exactly.

The second option is possible. Old games like Unreal Tournament (the classic one) runs inside a VM with decent performance. Just be sure to install the Guest Additions in safe mode and enable 3D.

[MarkCranness]

Option 2 is not only possible, but also well worth trying.
Many games work well: 3D Acceleration Support -- Games & Apps status

[saltedfish]

However, if it is a 'portable' game, in other words, no system files and special registry keys are needed...

Not sure what this means exactly. Can you give me an example of a portable and a non portable game? My hunch is that it is non-portable, since iirc it does have to add itself to the registry. Is this what you're referring to?

Option 2 is not only possible, but also well worth trying.

Hot damn, I'll look into this. Thanks for the prompt replies, both of you.

[Sasquatch]

Not sure what this means exactly. Can you give me an example of a portable and a non portable game? My hunch is that it is non-portable, since iirc it does have to add itself to the registry. Is this what you're referring to?

Easiest examples are Unreal Tournament Classic (portable) and Unreal Tournament 2004 (semi-portable, license key is in the registry).

[saltedfish]

Hmm.. Yeah I don't think the game in question is portable at all. Looks like I'll have to try running it inside the VM.

Until I get working on it, we can consider the case closed for now. I'll let it sit for now until I find a pure Win XP disc.

[Sasquatch]

If it's just a few registry entries, you can easily export them and import them on the system you want to run the game on. That's what I did with UT2k4, I reinstalled Windows a couple of times before and all I did after it was import the registry key that had the license key in it, and the game started without problems.
Now, this doesn't guarantee for all games. I had one other game, FEAR, that needed some directX files to be present that weren't there by default.