virtualbox.org

Just discovered Virtual Box as I have been trying to get my Strat O Matic game working on a new computer running Windows 10 64 bit. I'm not as tech savvy as others here. Looking for solutions. My basketball game worked on my old computer which was still running Win XP for 19 years. Switched to the new computer and was able to get the baseball game running (its also 32 bit) but the basketball game, once opened stops short of starting a game. I get a access violation error in module sombk.exe. I tried all known fixes running in compatability mode in XP service pack 3, run as administrator, shutting off AV program when installing, creating exclusions, uninstalling and reinstalling, contacted Microsoft tech and reinstalled windows 10 64 bit, did a clean boot disabling everything but essential program and tried again. No matter what, same access violation error.

Leads me to investigating virtual machine / virtual box. If anyone can help with some questions and guidance it would be appreciated

Does creating a virtual machine running Win XP and installing the game in this sound or look like a possible solution?

I believe I read that maybe my AMD Ryzen CPU might not be compatible or capable of creating a VM...is this false?

Having never used or seen a VM, can i download the game into the VM?
Ami able to send and recieve files from the VM?

The game is not really a graphics loaded game but a stats based game.

Again just looking for guidance.

Being a new user of Virtualbox you should read at least the first section in the help manual. It explains all about how to set up and run a virtual machine (a 'guest') on your physical PC (the 'host').

Graphics-intensive games don't work well in virtual machines, because all of the 'hardware' the guest operating system (OS) uses is simulated, or virtual (except for the physical CPU chip). Even the video card is simulated. So some games have a hard time running in a guest.

However, since Virtualbox is free, and XP will run for 30 days before being activated, it will cost you nothing but time to find out if you game will work. You will need an XP install CD. If your old PC is a big manufacturer's like Dell or HP, the XP CD from that computer may not work in a guest, because the big manufacturers lock their CDs to the hardware of the computer which prevents the CD from installing in other computers. Be prepared for that.

If you get a running XP guest, install the Guest Additions in the guest, and enable a Guest Additions Shared Folder, then you can copy the game installer into the guest OS.