virtualbox.org

Hi. I was wondering if there's any way to make games playable on Windows XP? I have a game (Majestic Chess) that I haven't been able to play in years because it's only compatible with XP. After installing the Windows XP through VirtualBox, I tried installing Majestic Chess on my virtual machine. It *seemed* to install just fine, but when I click on the icon I get this popup that says it failed to open. Can anyone explain to me why this happens and if there's any way to work around it? I'd really like to play this game again without going out to *buy* another computer if possible. Thank you.

First, check that your game can run with OpenGL 2.1 or less. That's the max Virtualbox supports, also DirectX 9, I think.

If so, then try this:

1. Be sure you're running version 6.0.x of Virtualbox max. 6.1.x has removed the ability to do what you are going to try for XP guests.
2. enable 3D acceleration in the XP guest, then slide the video ram slider all the way up.
3. Boot the XP guest into Safe Mode and install Guest Additions in XP:

In the guest's Virtualbox window, Devices menu, Insert Guest Additions CD image, then run the installer in the guest's CD drive.

OK, So I enabled 3D acceleration and installed Guest Additions in safe mode, like you said. I also attached my hard drive under "settings" and "storage" and checked "Passthrough". But I think what actually did it was, in the guest machine, under "LAN settings" (I think), I had to enable the active program to run with the disc. It plays (which I'm super excited about, because I missed playing this game ), now I just have to figure out how to make it to where the screen doesn't black out when the game starts, or why the game won't display fullscreen. . . Might that have something to do with the video memory?

Glad you got the game working!

WhovianStirlingite wrote:figure out how to make it to where the screen doesn't black out when the game starts, or why the game won't display fullscreen

What is happening where the screen blacks out?

If the game changes the resolution of the guest to a smaller resolution than the guest was before, like DOS games might switch to 640x480, Virtualbox does not automatically scale the screen. (Some monitors also can be set to not scale the screen on physical PCs too, getting the same tiny game screen in the middle of the monitor.)

Virtualbox has Scaled Mode in the guest window's View menu, which allows you to increase a tiny window's size without changing the guest resolution.