Can Windows XP play older games (descent 3)?

Question

Descent 3 was made for windows 95/98. Can it play on windows XP? If not, is there a patch or something I can download for it?

Answer 1

Here is the method how Descent 3 inclusive Mercenary should be installed in Windows XP:

Install Descent 3 (completely)!

Install Mercenary!

Copy patch 1.4 into the Descent 3 folder and execute it!

Install Mercenary once again!

Adjust video, audio and other settings in Descent3 Launcher (Descent 3 Setup)!

Start Descent 3 and adjust further settings (Player name, graphics, sound etc.)!

The double installing of Mercenary ist necessary in order to avoid the following error message when starting Mercenary: “Could not load MERC1.D3L”

You can download an unofficial patch 1.5 for Descent 3 from this site. However, it is not recommendable to use it with Mercenary.

Descent 3 looks often quite awful on TFT displays. This is caused by the fact that they can only display one resolution in optimal quality. For 17- or 19-inch displays it is 1280x1024. Owners of such TFT displays should extend the command line in setup menu by the following parameters (Descent 3 Launcher -> Setup -> Misc. -> Optional D3 command line parameters):

-width 1280 -height 1024 -aspect 1.25

After you have started the game for the first time, you have to increase the picture with the ‘+’ key. It is next to the backspace (<-) key.