The Parallels What Games Work Thread (**NOT DIRECT3D**)

Ok,

I've searched this forum and I can't really seem to find anything which resembles what I'm about to write. I thought we should have a thread about Games Support in Parallels.

First things first and I'll make this absolutely crystal clear

THIS IS NOT A THREAD FOR GAMES WHICH *REQUIRE* DIRECT3D. THESE ARE STILL UNSUPPORTED AND WILL NOT WORK. THIS IS ONLY FOR GAMES WHICH DO NOT REQUIRE DIRECT3D TO FUNCTION. If you want Direct 3D games then bootcamp is your only option

I literally tried this just as a punt to see whether it would work and it at least to me seems that if a game doesnt require Direct3D Parallels will run it silky smooth. If you have any pre 2002 games before the onset of Direct3D as a requirement not an optional extra try them out and see if they work!!!!

My setup ->
Macbook 2Ghz with 2GB of RAM
60GB hard drive
Parallels Windows 98 SE Machine with 4GB HDD and 512MB Ram
Windows 98 has been Windozed Updated to the hilt with every available update and DirectX 9


Games That I've personally Tested So Far - I'll try out more as I have time.

Blade Runner - Has a whinge about unsupported hardware but works fine silky smooth
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Deus Ex - Works a charm. Surprsingly it detects the Parallels Video Adapator as having Direct3D support . But anyhow it works a charm. You might want to resize your screen before launch if you want full screen play.
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Dungeon Keeper - Opening Movie runs a bit choppy but in game play is silky smooth and fast
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Final Fantasy 7 - Squaresoft/Chocobo logo's are a bit choppy but the opening movie is fine. Game is playable bar some control issues.
STATUS : PLAYABLE
Final Fantasy 8 - Opening Movie runs silky smooth, in game play rocks, theres some control issues which I think can be resolved by reassigning the controls for the game
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Grim Fandango - Loads straight up, no graphical corruption, silky smooth
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Jedi Knight 2 - Silky smooth at 1024x768. Only minor graphical corruption on loading screens.
STATUS: PLAYABLE
MDK- Silky smooth and fully playable.
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Monkey Island 4 - Escape from Monkey Island - Works silky smooth but you have to in the advanced config change to OpenGL and 32bit colour and before you launch the game switch to 640x480 to get it full screen.
STATUS: PLAYABLE WITH CONFIG ALTERATION
Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh - Works fine, you might wanna lower the vid res before launching tho if you want full screen fids.
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Quake 2- Opening ID Logo a bit choppy and CD soundtrack doesnt play but exceptiong that silky smooth on software renderer at 1024x768
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Wing Commander Prophecy - Movies are a bit jumpy every now and again but otherwise silky smooth and fast
STATUS: PLAYABLE

Games that other people have tested
Baldurs Gate I - Minor user interface corruption and map doesnt autoscroll but perfectly playable.
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Baldurs Game II - Map doesnt autoscroll but perfectly playable.
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Bicycle Casino - Works fine
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Civilization 3 - Game Installs but fails on copy protection
STATUS: NOT playable
CSi - Perfectly playable
STATUS: PLAYABLE
NHL '97 - Works fine
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Quake 2 - Works fine at 800x600 on XP SP2
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 - Works
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 - Opening Movies dont work but in game is fine albeit perhaps slightly jittery
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Sim Tower - Speeded up play is too speedy but without that playable
STATUS: PLAYABLE
Windows Spider Solitaire - Works fine
STATUS: PLAYABLE


Regards


-mrploddy

 

Okay, I'll bite...

Baldur's Gate:
- Minor corruption on the user interface, but works fine otherwise;
- Map doesn't autoscroll when mouse crosses windows boundaries -- use arrows on the numeric keypad to scroll map.
STATUS: Playable

Baldur's Gate II:
- Map doesn't autoscroll when mouse reaches windows boundaries-- use arrow keys to scroll map.
STATUS: Playable


Haven't tested it yet, but I would expect Icewind Dale I & II to work as well.



K.

 

Hi All,

Worms Armageddon & Worms World Party do not work under Windows XP Home SP2. It is expected, I presume, since they are DirectDraw games which, as far as I know, is unsupported in Paralles (yet ?).

I play them under Wine which is run on Ubuntu in Parallels

Cheers,
Evghenii

 

Werent Worms and Worms Armageddon both games which were released during the Windows 97 days ?. FF7 / Quake 2 / FF8 are all pretty intentsive games and I would be VERY surprised if they didn't use direct draw.

I'm thinking your problem might be more the operating system than parallels.

-mrploddy

 

Well, I intalled all patches available for both Worms Armageddon and WWP in order to make them compatible with WinXP (unless SP2 changes something drammatically). Meanwhile, Worms 2 demo works but without mouse control. I recall the same issue few years ago under real WinXP SP1. Therefore, I do not think it is WinXP problem, however I did not install Win98 because installation was too slow compared to WinXP. Well, I would not think that DD games not working on Parallels is completely unexpected, they do not support DD. Keep in mind that Quake 2 uses OpenGL dirver, as far as I know. It even runs on ReactOS.

Evghenii

 

I'm sat in a computer lab in deepst Preston so I'm away from my games CD's. I'll try some more when I get home. Any suggestions as to something good to try. I do have a reasnoably broad range of oldish CD based games. Wing Commander 4 perhaps(although I can't remember if that needs D3D) or some of the Sierra Online family of games.

I just remember that WinXP broke a lot of games. For example Dungeon Keeper refuses to load on XP so what does that use?

-mrploddy

 

Civilization III installs OK, but its CD-based copy protection fails to see the CD. I haven't tried an ISO image, but I'm guessing that would be even less likely to work. Doesn't disk-based copy protection present a problem for a lot of games under Parallels, or am I being naive?

 

Windows Spider Solitaire works fine!

However, Windows Minesweeper doesn't work very well with the Apple Mighty Mouse, which can't seem to handle a simulaneous left and right click!

 

I noticed that too, but I think it could be a Mac OS X thing. I (try to) play UT2004 -- not in Parallels of course -- on my MBP with a regular USB 2-button mouse, and it can't register a simultaneous right- and left-click either.

 

What's simultaneous left/right click used for in Minesweeper? I can play it with a wireless Mighty Mouse with no problems, and without having to use dual-button clicks (Win98 version).

 

Just tried out Jedi Knight 2 over the weekend. Gonna try some more of the Lucas Arts back catalogue and Sierra as well over the weekend. See how many I can add to the list.

-mrploddy

 

Left-right click on a number in a space seems to reveal squares that COULD have mines or be free. If there's only one revealed, it has a mine. If enough mines have been identified to satisfy the requirement for that number, other possibilities are cleared.

Inquiring minds want to know badly enough to try it.

 

I installed Bicycle Casino on Parallels. All of the games play well.

 

NHL '97 works in Win98, didn't try it in WinXP. The install process for that game is hilarious, it's all metalic industrial factory graphics and sound...man, they don't make 'em like that anymore.

NHL '96 wouldn't install, but I forget the errors it showed. NHL '98 did install, but it's 3D, so no dice.

 

I hope the Parallels team is watching this thread because at least from where I'm standing they're sitting on an untapped gold mine of marketing Parallels as a retro gaming platform for all your old games that you never thought you'd play again.

Theres over 20 games certified as working so I'm sure theres gonna be more. I highly doubt that only these 20 ood games are the only ones that work.

-mrploddy

 

Company of Heroes does not work.

"Failed to find a supported hardware rendering device."

Perhaps it works on MacBook Pro?

 

Jedi Knight II

I can't get Jedi Knight II to install on an XP installation of Parallels. When I run "setup.exe" it gives me this message:

[16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem]
The NTVDM CPU had encountered an illegal instruction.

Any ideas?

I've got:
MacBook 2.0 ghz, 2 GB RAM
Running Windows XP Pro
Parallels 1970

 

Tested on WinXP SP2 running on first-generation Macbook Pro with 1.5 GB memory.

Working:

Pharaoh (Impressions Games) + Cleopatra Expansion
Mounting a ripped ISO also suffices for the game's CD media check at startup.
Slight bug: video cut scenes play without picture. Clicking the mouse ends them and returns you to the game.
Recommend disabling Parallels Tools so that mouse is captured. Otherwise scrolling is tricky.

Honeycomb Hotel (Everett Kaser Software)
Sherlock (Everett Kaser Software)
Probably all of this company's games will work; they are not exactly demanding of resources.

 

Railroad Tycoon

Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon has been made available for free download from 2K Games. Being cheap, I thought I'd try it in Parallels as it's an old DOS-based game. It downloads and installs, and when I try to run it the intro movie plays. But then it dies, trying to make a web browser connection, and leaving a DOS window on screen saying it can't find a file.

Has anyone had better luck with this? Am I missing something stupid?

It's available here for anyone who wants to try it out.

 

StarCraft and Broodwar works with some glitches within the game. But still playable