Anyone know how to run Shandalar on Windows 11?

[luckylavs]

Has anyone actually gotten this Shandalar game to work on Windows 11 -- and want to share the steps involved?
I've tried everything I can think of -- I spent the whole day trying to get this game to work, I wound up installing 3 different versions of Shandalar: Shandalar 2012 Gamma, Shandalar 2015, and the Shandalar ISO on the Microprose Magic the Gathering 2010 edition. Which this girl talks about here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ElS9C7qik

One more thing: I also tried installing the full game from my original Microprose MTG CD, but that one won't even install -- it says that "This program can't be run on your operating system." And then closes. The other versions will install, they just don't launch. Nothing happens.

With respect to Shandalar 2012, I installed Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 along with its the Service Pack, and even the update to the Service pack. I've installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2010.

With respect to all versions -- I have tried administrator mode, all types of compatibility settings -- from Windows 8, to XP Service Pack 2, to 95 and everything in between. I have tried using the compatibility troubleshooter. I have tried setting 640x480 res, disabling fullscreen optimization, using legacy display ICC color management, reduced color mode 8 and 16 bit, changing DPI settings. I have tried installing the game to the root C:\, to subdirs of C:\, to my external drive G:\. I have tried rebooting my machine to see if that fixes any problems (because I read that suggestion in a note online somewhere), but same result. I also tried installing "Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit" and setting my processor count to 8, just in case the issue was my computer had too many cores. And that didn't work either. Guys I have UAC to lowest and no anti-virus software.

At this point I'm crying uncle. I could use someone with more technical knowledge/skills to help me through this. I read online that "Windows 11" is just Windows 10 with visual upgrades. I know some people on here got this game to run on Windows 10. So I'm thinking getting it to run on 11 should also be possible. At least in theory...

Thanks in advance.

[Aswan jaguar]

It doesn't load at all? No error or warning? I guess you have tried what CirothUngol says here about the error "The Application Was Unable To Start Correctly (0xc00007b)" : viewtopic.php?f=76&t=7342&start=225#p255982

[luckylavs]

It doesn't load at all? No error or warning? I guess you have tried what CirothUngol says here about the error "The Application Was Unable To Start Correctly (0xc00007b)" : viewtopic.php?f=76&t=7342&start=225#p255982

Correct -- I get no error or warning whatsoever. Just a black screen then kicks me back to the desktop.

I just tried that CirothUngol process last night -- the one that you linked to -- but to no avail That process took a long time because I had like 20 or so Visual C++ Redistributables I had to individually uninstall. Plus, the "All-in-One" package takes quite a long time to install. But once the installation was done, I restarted my computer, installed Shandalar 2012 -- tried running it 2012 -- same issue. Restarted it again -- same issue. No luck either with Shandalar 2015.

BTW -- the installer batch file for 2012 gamma version, after it installs -- says "Batch file not found". I think there is a line in the batch file that tries to delete it after installation, but can't find the batch file which causes me to wonder if something isn't running correctly in the batch file. It doesn't matter if 2012 is installed in my C:\, a subdir of C:\ or in my external HDD G:\ But I do see the earlier extraction process run correctly in the command window.

Just for comparison -- I found an old version of Shandalar 2012 on my HD -- the delta version. I tried installing that one and looks like no issue with the installer. I get to a menu screen in the command window, I press "S" to start shandalar, but I see a black screen for a second or so, then it just takes me back to desktop. So that one doesn't work either

I tried everything I could think of to get this running on Win11 -- but it looks like it won't... If anyone can help, please let me know. I'm dying to play this game again.