Game refusing to run at low resolution

[jim]

My mum recently got herself a netbook - a Dell Mini 10 I believe - and found out the hard way that the only PC game she's ever played won't work properly on it. It's the original DX-Ball by Michael Welch, released in 1996, and unsurprisingly has minimal system requirements (we were all playing it on my old all-in-one Win95 Compaq Presario).

However, it doesn't seem to like the low screen resolution available on the Dell Mini, and just refuses to start. I said I'd look into some solutions - I know it works on DOS and thought maybe DOSbox or similar could help - but I've got exams coming up and just don't have the time right now to do the research.

Does anybody have any smart ideas about what I might be able to do to force compatibility?

[dangel]

Could get the newer http://www.blitwise.com/superdxb.html ?

[jim]

Yeah I considered that, and if it was me I would do... but she's adamant that it's the only PC game she'll ever play so I'm a bit stuck on that one

Maybe as a last resort I'll give it a crack though.

[dangel]

Shareware one to try - get her hooked

[CX23882-19]

Have you tried setting the program compatibility mode to "Windows 98"? Some older games don't like XP/Vista because they detect it as "Windows NT" and they're coded to not run on any NT based OS, which at the time of their release might have been Windows NT 4.0, which was completely unsuitable for gaming unlike Windows 2000 and later.

[Jonnster]

I use Dosbox all the time for issues like that and it works very well. Very easy to use too.