How do I play a 32 bit game on my 64 bit computer?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #15, I look at various ways to run a 32-bit game on a 64-bit
computer.

Running 32 bit on a 64 bit system

There are a number of different approaches to this problem and it really,
really depends on the characteristics of the game.

It is possible; I don’t know if you tried, but it is possible that the game
will just work. I know that I run 64-bit Windows on both of my primary machines
and they play games just fine.

I play World of Warcraft; I’ve mentioned that before and the game runs just
fine on 32 bit or 64. I really don’t see an issue there.

Not all games run on 64 bit

Now, not all games are like that; I understand that. Games often take a more
advantage of hardware specifics than your average run-of-the-mill application
does.

Some of them do that in ways that aren’t necessarily portable between 32 and
64 bit.

Virtual machine

The first thing I would suggest is to see if the game will run properly in a
virtual machine.

There are several alternatives; I believe Virtual Box is the one that’s free
from Oracle (of all places). You could set up a 32-bit version of Windows in a
window in 64-bit version of Windows. Then you could try running your game in
there.

The concern I have with that scenario (and the reason it may or may not
work) is that the game may rely too much on hardware specifics or direct access
to the hardware to work at all. If it does work, it may work so slowly as to
not be playable.

I think it’s worth trying because I find this the most flexible
alternative.

You can leave your Windows 64-bit running and just fire up that 32-bit
virtual machine when it comes time to play the game.

Dual-boot system

The other alternative (and it’s not something that I touch on very often…
I try and avoid it if at all possible) is to set up a dual boot
machine.

You could:

• On one hard disk, have 64-bit Windows installed
• On the other hard disk, have 32-bit Windows installed

That way, when you want to play your games, you need to reboot and select the
32-bit version of Windows to start.

Personally, I find that very cumbersome. I don’t talk about it much at all
on Ask Leo!

Dual-boot scenarios… In the long run, most people find that solution to be
so cumbersome as to be unacceptable.

I strongly recommend you start with a virtual machine solution.

Use an old machine

The other solution that comes to mind is if you’ve got an old machine (a
second-hand machine) that meets the specs for the game, it might be worth it to
set up a second machine to play this thing.

It really depends on what your personal scenario is, what your personal
resources are.

Contact the developer

Finally, the last solution (of course) is to get a hold of the game
manufacturer.

64-bit is definitely growing in popularity, by leaps and bounds, and the
game manufacturer needs to be addressing that. They should be pressured to
update.

If they’re still in business, if this game is current, if they’re still
around, then they should be getting a lot of pressure to get their game to work
on 64-bit Windows. Because ultimately, that’s where everybody’s landing.