Impossible Creatures 2020

Impossible Creatures 2020

It’s December so time to fire up Impossible Creatures.

This year, I installed the game on my Macbook Pro running VirtualBox.

VirtualBox is free, you can find a WindowsXP .ISO file online, you can probably find IC ISOs of CDs too or if you own the game, on Mac, you can use Disk Utility to create ISOs from them to conveniently use to install IC in the VM created.

Here are the steps:

Install VirtualBox 5.2. This post explains why you should use this version: “To have 3D acceleration in XP you must run 6.0.x or earlier, using the VboxVGA card (note no S). And run the same version of Guest Additions for maximum 3D compatibility. (You might have to go back to 5.2.x)”

You will need to run the installer twice, the first will trigger you to give it permission to install:

-Run VirtualBox
-Select New
-Name the VM WindowsXP
-Select Version Windows XP (32-Bit)
-Select Memory Size of 512
-Create a virtual hard disk (VDI) of 10gig, Dynamically Allocated
-In a terminal window run: vboxmanage modifyvm WindowsXP — vram 256 (2 dashes)
-In VirtualBox, select the WindowsXP VM and select Settings…Display confirming that video memory is 256. Select Enable 3D Acceleration
-Install WindowsXP (link to WindowsXP ISO file found in this help video). Start Windows XP VM, when prompted, click on the folder icon to navigate to the Windows XP ISO file. Select the iso file and hit start to install Windows XP. You will need to hit F8 to accept EUL so you’ll have to go to Mac System Preferences…Keyboard and make sure the FN key will display Numbered Function keys. When prompted to format the virtual hard disk select NTFS file system (Quick). Be sure to select Central Time for time zone. Select No, not on a network, and enter Kleymeyer for WorkGroup. Go ahead and select automatic updates even though there won’t be any coming. Select Yes, computer will connect through local area network or home network. No to registering with Microsoft
-Once WindowsXP is installed, run msconfig from Start…Run…BOOT.INI tab…select /SAFEBOOT MINIMAL and restart Windows.
– After reboot, select VirtualBox menu Devices…Insert Guest Additions CD image…Check Direct3D Support and Install..select Continue Anyway when prompted..select I want to manually reboot later and run msconfig again and turn off SAFEBOOT and back on General Tab select Normal Startup…now reboot
-Select VirtualBox menu Devices…Optical Drives…Choose Disk Image..select ICDisk1.dmg…when prompted for Disk 2, select Devices…Optical Drives…Choose fDisk Image and select IC_Disk2.img and continue IC install. If install seems to hang (Creating icons…) drag install dialog to side and look for ICConfig warning message about DirectX…dismiss this if found and continue install
-Select View…Scale Factor…175%
-Select Virtual Screen1 800×600

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