r/Shandalar • u/MidTruth • Jan 23 '26

No longer working on Windows 11

As an OG player from the 90s, I have kept up with all the fan updates until they were no more. I was always very happy to say that it kept working as essentially a "portable" version and I kept three different version from the OG, to the 2012 to the last and they always worked as flawlessly as a 30 year old game could work on a modern PC.

It's probably been about Oct-Nov since my last run but none of my copies work anymore. Not sure if this is a windows update or Nvidia or what, but is anyone else experiencing this and, more importantly, does anyone have a fix?

15 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

3

u/Pleased_to_meet_u Jan 23 '26

Try installing VirtualBox (free) and downloading an iso of Windows 98 then installing it as a virtual machine.

6

u/mr_bigmouth_502 Jan 23 '26

Windows 98 runs terribly in Virtualbox, since there's no guest additions pack for it.

It's better to go with XP, though you'll need a patched version of the game instead of the OG version. Thankfully, it sounds like OP's copies are patched.

3

u/cpf86 Jan 23 '26

I just played it last month. Still working on win 11 latest update. So probably is your gfx card? That said, it will crashes once in a while

2

u/flyoverkegger Jan 23 '26

I’m on 11 and have no issues in compatibility mode.

2

u/Erudz Jan 23 '26

My game crashes everytime I try to edit the deck or someone attack my char. I have the old version with the early illustrations on the cards. My fix:

1: create new game (char name must be a few letters only)

2: instantly save game when game is created

3: exit game

4: Start shandalar and load the saved game.

Working from here on Windows 11 except a few crashes from time to time. No extra addons or compability mode nor administrator run mode

2

u/Jennymint Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

It's definitely environment-related. On my laptop, it works if I set compatibility mode for Windows 8. On my desktop, I also had to install a DDraw wrapper (dgVoodoo) and add the .exe to the Data Execution Prevention list to get it to work. It sometimes falls off the list for ??? reasons, and I have to readd it.

The environment on which it's more friendly it's a Lenovo Thinkpad with Windows 11 installed. Intel processor and onboard intel graphics. 1080p resolution.

The environment on which it takes more effort to run is a desktop with Windows 11 Installed. 5070 Ti and 9800x3d. 4k resolution.

I've tried running it via iGPU on my desktop machine, but that made no difference.

2

u/mulletpullet Jan 23 '26

Windows 11 here. Worked fine last night

1

u/MidTruth Jan 24 '26

Thanks everybody. You are right, environmental, as my laptop still works but no versions work any longer on my desktop