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I have fond memories of playing Outpost in the windows 95 era, and I pulled out the CD recently and discovered that it will not install on XP and above. I believe the problem is that it utilized DOS running underneath windows 9X. It won't install on a DOS emulator, however, because it uses the windows installer.

Is there an updated version of this game anywhere, or a way to emulate the environment it needs to install and run?

Barring that, can anyone suggest any newer games with similar gameplay? E.g. semi-realistic space colonization simulation (without combat).

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You could set up a virtual machine running Windows 95 using Virtualbox or VMWare or Windows 7's built-in Virtual PC. The only thing you'd need is a Windows 95 CD and installation key.

I have no idea how it will play out - graphics and sound may both be an issue, and require additional drivers - but I'd say it's worth a try.

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  • I happily played Wing Commander Prophecy on a virtual Win ME running on XP with VirtualPC - no problems at all with the OS or drivers, graphics and sound worked fine.
    – Rup
    Jul 20, 2010 at 22:25
  • I have considered this (although I failed to mention it). Hoping there might be an easier/cheaper solution, but this is a good last resort.
    – sjohnston
    Jul 20, 2010 at 22:26
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    It shouldn't cost you anything? The virtualisation's free, and you must have an OS CD kicking around from back then?
    – Rup
    Jul 20, 2010 at 22:29
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    @sjohnston A Windows 95 CD + license should be possible to get hold of for a very small amount of money on EBay or similar. But maybe the approach in @Thomas' answer works out as well.
    – Pekka
    Jul 21, 2010 at 10:54
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    I finally got around to doing this recently. Windows 95 in VirtualBox worked perfectly. No additional drivers required. Also, Windows 95 is essentially abandonware at this point, so most tutorials on getting it set up in VirtualBox include a Windows ISO and CD key as well.
    – sjohnston
    Dec 15, 2015 at 3:32
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According to The Outpost Universe installing on XP should be possible. Maybe their installation instructions will help you.

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  • According to that page, "If you are running Windows XP, try the compatibility wizard, I doubt it will work but its worth a try." This doesn't sound so promising, but I'll give it a go when I have the time.
    – sjohnston
    Jul 22, 2010 at 3:14
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    FYI - didn't work.
    – sjohnston
    Jan 4, 2011 at 19:54
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There were two versions of Outpost released: One for DOS, and one for Windows. You could try hunting down a copy of the DOS version, as that should play in DOSBox fine.

Otherwise, the Windows version states it runs on Windows 3.1 or higher. I know that you can install Windows 3.1 in DOSBox, so if you have an old copy of Windows 3.1 lying around, you could try that.

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