Windows 95/DirectX 2 game too slow on Windows 10

Question

I managed to archaeologically dig out a game that I really enjoyed when I was younger, Laser Kombat. The problem is that it runs at literary half an fps and thus it is nigh unplayable. Are there any suggestions as to how I can make it work on my machine?

Section from the game's readme.txt:

'Laser Kombat requires Windows 95, 98, NT, or 2000, with DirectX 2.0 or later. You must have graphics capabilities to display 800*600 pixels in high-color (16 bit) mode.'

Laptop Specs:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4200U CPU @ 1.60GHz 2.30GHz

RAM: 4.00GB

System: 64-bit OS, x64-based processor

Things I tried:

• Running in compatibility for 95, 98, XP, Vista, 8
• Running as administrator for all the compatibilities above
• DOSBox does not work for this game

Additional information:

This game worked fine on a Windows XP (SP 3) desktop I used to have.

Answer 1

I would highly recommend installing a Linux distribution such as Xubuntu in dual-boot with your current OS and running the game in Wine. Wine is a tool for running Windows programs in Linux, it is somewhat like an emulator, it often works much better than modern versions of Windows for running old software. I use this method for any game made for Windows XP or earlier. It does not work all the time but it works almost all the time and works for almost everything that uses DirectX 8 or lower.

If you decide to go with this route, I would also recommend adding the game to the compatibility database as there doesn't seem to be any information on Laser Kombat. You would be helping out anybody else who wants to try to run the game in the future.