Ska Studios » Vista and the Old Games

Vista and the Old Games

It has come to my attention that Vista doesn’t play well with my older games, i.e. everything before The Dishwasher. ZSX3/Manic Space, which I’ve ran on Vista successfully, uses DirectX 8.0, but the older ones (ZSX 1 + 2, SCZ) use DX7, and I’ve had no luck with that.

Here’s a nice technical discussion/flamewar on the msdn boards about the topic.

The gist is that some developers are feeling spurned by Microsoft for dropping support for old technologies, but Microsoft has stated that the technology has reached its planned end-of-life, and it’s time to move on. I tend to side with Microsoft on this one–technology does not age like classic novels. It is a shame to see old games die, but honestly–we shouldn’t have to bury each new OS release in piles of legacy support.

So, long story short, if you want to play SCZ, ZSX2 or ZSX, use a Windows 2000/Me/XP box. If anyone figures out how to get the older ones working on Vista, let me know.

August 29, 2007 posted by James

Filed under: Developing,Manic Space,Microsoft,Vista,Windows,ZSX,ZSX2,ZSX3

6 Comments Comment away!

1. i-luv-games | September 1, 2007 at 4:02 AM

Hi James,

It’s great to hear ZSX3 does work on both XP and Vista. I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve also made a review for ZSX3 on my new indie gaming site located at http://www.i-luv-games.com

Please check it out and let me know what you think. Also please email me if you get a chance because I’m currently looking to add previews and features for games on my site so I’m getting in touch with a number of indie developers to try and help promote indie games and give the site a little exposure.

Take care.
2. indigobrown123 | April 5, 2008 at 3:07 PM

I left this comment elsewhere but I thought it might be more helpful here.

Running ZSX on Vista produces the following error:
Run-time error ‘429′:
ActiveX component can’t create object

I finally managed to get it to work. I had to do the following steps (these should fix problems for most VB6 games):

1. Download and Install VB6 runtimes:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7B9BA261-7A9C-43E7-9117-F673077FFB3C&displaylang=en

2. Download and Install AllRuntimes.exe (as Admin):
http://www.spacejock.com/Runtimes.html

3. Download and Register dx7vb.dll (as Admin)
http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files_new.php/dllfiles/D/dx7vb.dll/5.03.2600.2180/download.html
Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Right-Click ‘Command Prompt’ -> Run as Administrator
regsvr32 dx7vb.dll

4. Download and Register dx8vb.dll (as Admin)
http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files_new.php/dllfiles/D/dx8vb.dll/5.03.2600.2180/download.html
Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Right-Click ‘Command Prompt’ -> Run as Administrator
regsvr32 dx8vb.dll

After that it all worked. I am not sure how many of these steps are necessary but the game works after I installed and registered that lot.
3. spacejock | January 7, 2010 at 4:20 AM

I’m the guy who had the ‘allruntimes.exe’ on my site (spacejock.com) , and I just found out why people keep emailing me to ask where it went.

I’ve just put it back, but while I’m here I just thought I’d mention I’m a VB programmer with years and years of experience. If you want me to build an innosetup installer for SCZ which (should) work on newer versions of windows, just let me know.

Alternatively, if the source is available I might be able to modify or upgrade it.
4. Nicolas | March 12, 2010 at 8:18 PM

Well spacejock, if it’s not too much trouble that sounds like a you would be doing the zombie gaming, indie gaming, and classic gaming communities a HUGE favor. I am always happy to see that people like you(Those who understand complex computer problems but are still straight-forward and understandable)are so generous, A million thanks!
5. Nicolas | March 12, 2010 at 9:27 PM

Well now it seems that indigobrown123′s method failed completly for me, so i am probally not going to get SCZ working without the innosetup installer spacejock mentioned. Anyone else have the same problems?
6. Ekorad | August 24, 2010 at 2:05 AM

I’ve done what indigobrown123 said but when i start the game i can hear the menu sound but i see just white and when i press Alt + Tab i can see an error: Run-Time Error: 430: Class does not support automation or does not support expected interface