Age of Empires I, II, III in Windows 7 VM?

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by tajmahal, May 25, 2011.

  1. tajmahal

    tajmahal Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    Hello,

    I tried to run several games of the Age of Empires series in Parallels Desktop 6 and I am having (different) problems with each of them.

    Age of Empires I
    - black box around mouse cursor
    - the percentage number shown when creating units/buildings has graphics issues, making it unreadable

    Age of Empires II
    - black box around mouse cursor

    Age of Empires III
    - when SmartMouse is enabled or set to Auto, the mouse cursor will leave the VM window, making scrolling in the game impossible
    - when SmartMouse is disabled, the mouse cursor is invisible

    I tried the following VM configurations, both of which had exactly the same problems:

    - Windows 7 64-bit Boot Camp VM (when booting via Boot Camp, everything is fine, though)
    - Windows 7 32-bit regular VM

    Does anyone have any of these games running in a similar configuration without the problems I described? I would be glad for advice.

    Regards,
    Tobias
     
  2. paxer

    paxer Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
  3. tajmahal

    tajmahal Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    What configuration do you have? Windows version, Mac?

    I have tried Windows 7 32-bit, 64-bit and Windows XP 32-bit on a 13" MBP (early 2011).
     
  4. paxer

    paxer Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    Windows 7 64bit, iMac (latest)
     
  5. ritland

    ritland Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    Where you ever able to fix this problem? I have the same issue with AOE II and gameranger. Thanks!
     
  6. tajmahal

    tajmahal Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    No, unfortunately. I had a lengthy conversation with Parallels support which ended with them telling me they would report my issue to their engineering team which would be looking into it. That was about two weeks ago, so I am hoping the next version of Parallels Desktop will fix the bug.
     
  7. tajmahal

    tajmahal Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    Huh, what do you mean?

    The problems are obviously due to Parallels Desktop, as the games will work fine when I start the very same virtual machine through Boot Camp.

    I just noticed there is yet another update for Parallels Desktop. I will try that and I hope that the issues are finally fixed. I will post the results here.
     
  8. Legoless

    Legoless Bit poster

    Messages:
    6
    As I am also looking for a solution for this problem.. Age of Empires 1 starts up, but the colors are a bit odd. Same with AOE2.

    But you guys must know, Bootcamp is NOT a virtual machine!
     
  9. waressl

    waressl Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    There aren't any significant speed differences between the two. [​IMG]
     
  10. Legoless

    Legoless Bit poster

    Messages:
    6
    It is when it comes to 3D applications.. DirectX 10.0 and 11.0 are still unsupported... But I am happy with the way Parallels work. :)
     
  11. SakibS

    SakibS Hunter

    Messages:
    102
    Parallel should work for that. We will be happy to see games are working in parallel.


    ________________

    SakibS [​IMG]
     

Share This Page