Wizardry 8 – How to Get Working with Virtual Machines

Wizardry 8 – How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 1 - steamlists.com
Wizardry 8 – How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 1 - steamlists.com
Are you having issues trying to play Wizardry 8 on Windows 10? Do crashes, low frame rates for no reason, and not being able to start the game ring a bell? Well I was in the same situation as you until I found out a way to make the game playable on Windows 10, not using Windows 10 at all by using a virtual machine! In this guide, I’ll show you how to setup a virtual machine to finally get Wizardry 8 up and running fine. You can even you this machine for other games that don’t work well on Windows 10. Warning: You need a decent PC in order to have a good frame rate while playing the game under a virtual machine, cause emulation of anything needs some power to work right.

 
 

1. Getting the Software

 
I’m using VMware for my virtual machine because it has support for 3D acceleration. You can Google “VMware” to find the site or use the link https://www.vmware.com/ to get to their site. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
Downloading the virtual machine software is easy, just highlight the “Downloads” section, then highlight “Free Product Downloads”, and you’ll find and click on “Workstation Player”. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
Next, download “Try Workstation 16.0 Player for Windows” to get the installer, after that run the installer and install Workstation Player. Now we can move on to the next step. 
 
 

2. Making the Virtual Machine

 
Now that you installed Workstation Player, start it up. You should see an option to the right that says “Create a New Virtual Machine”, so click on that. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
The Virtual Machine Wizard will ask you if you want to install from an installer disc in your disk drive (if you have one plugged in), an ISO image of the installer disc, or install the OS later (although I recommend not doing that thanks to Easy Install). 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
The next window is information for “Easy Install” so you don’t have to put in your product key, version of the OS, name, or password during the install process. Unless you pick the third option before, then you shouldn’t see this screen. If you have a product key with your installer disc/ISO file then put it into the box on top, if you don’t then just click next. A box may pop up to tell you that you are installing without the product key, but if your ISO doesn’t need it then click next. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
The next window will have you input the name of the virtual machine and the location of virtual machine’s files. I recommend having the location be placed in a different drive rather than your main drive. Please note that the Wizard will not make a folder for the virtual machine by itself if you change the location. So if you want to put the files somewhere else then do what I did and make two folders, one will be called “Virtual Machines” (or “VMs” if you want to keep it simple) and there will be a folder inside that one whose name will be what your OS is called. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
The next window will be for the amount of space you want to put into your virtual machine and whether you want the virtual disk as a single file or multiple files. I recommend sticking with the recommended size it tells you and splitting the virtual disk into multiple files. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
You’re almost done with the setup process, but we still need to do some more things. Uncheck the “Power on this virtual machine after creation” option, then click on the “Customize Hardware…” box. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
Look at each of the devices and change some options around to make the virtual machine to your liking, but make sure that the “Accelerate 3D graphics” option in Display is checked. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
After that, click “Close” and then “Finish” to watch the it create the virtual machine. After a while you should see it under “Home”. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
 

3. Almost Done with the Setup

 
Now that the machine is set up, we’re one step closer to playing Wizardry 8 (or whatever game that isn’t working for you on Windows 10). Now go click “Player” on the top bar, then click “File:, then click “Preferences…”. When the window pops up then click on “Download All Components Now”, this will help you activate file sharing with your virtual machine. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
Click “OK” and then right click your virtual machine and click “Settings…”, then click the “Options” tab. Then click “Shared Folders”, pick the options “Always enabled” and “Map as a network drive” then add a folder that can connect with your virtual machine. The setup is similar to the previous one, so click “Browse…” and choose/make a folder for sharing (I made mine on the desktop) then click Next and also enable “Read-only”, after that click “Finish” When you go back to the Virtual Machine Settings window, click “OK” at the bottom right. 
 
Wizardry 8 - How to Get Working with Virtual Machines 
 
You’re finally done with the setup! Now click “Play virtual machine” or double click your virtual machine to start it up. Just sit back and watch the computer set itself up. 
 
 

4. Troubleshooting and Other Annoying Stuff

 
After the virtual machine finishes its setup, use Internet Explorer to look up a different browser to use (so that way you don’t have to deal with Internet Explorer). 
 
This is because there might be a chance that you won’t be able to install VMware Tools (which is under Player > File > Install VMware Tools…) so you may have to look up an ISO of it instead. You’ll need to look around for VMware Tools ISOs on “other sites”. You can do this on either your legit computer (you can do the same “use ISO image option” by going into the Virtual Machine Settings) or your virtual machine (as long as you have a virtual drive for it). 
 
After you setup VMware Tools for your virtual machine, go to My Computer and find your shared folder (make sure you put the game’s folder or the GOG installer exe inside the folder). After dragging the folder to your desktop (or wherever you want to put your games) and playing with the settings for a bit, you can now enjoy playing Wizardry 8 or any other game that has a hard time working on Windows 10! 
 
 

5. FAQ

 

  • Why did you make this guide, instead of waiting for Nightdive Studios to fix it up?

 
Well since Nightdive Studios are too busy with other projects right now to worry about. Plus I don’t think the source code for the original game is with the current IP holders, Drecom, which makes fixing up Wizardry 8 for modern OS’s harder than other titles that they brought back. So this is the best option as of right now. 
 

  • Any other Wizardry games that I should play first?

 
While you can enjoy the game with out playing the previous entries, I would recommend playing Wizardry 6 and/or 7 so you could get the hang of how the game plays. If you wanted to play a “Wizardry Renaissance” game then I would recommend “Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls”, but keep in mind that this game is more inline to the older Wizardry games than to 7 or 8. 
 

  • Can I play Crysis with a virtual machine?

 
Yes you could…It probably wouldn’t play that well unless you had a really good PC… 
 
Thanks for reading! 
 

Written by Chickenrio

This is all about Wizardry 8 – How to Get Working with Virtual Machines; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!
 
 
 
 


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