Help a computer illiterate peasant play an old cd-rom

[u/FlyGlobal7690]

Ok hear me out -

I found this old CD-ROM of Barbie Fashion Show. I resurrected an old HP Windows 10 laptop that still has a disc drive. I managed to run it in compatibility mode for almost 2 weeks, when suddenly today as soon as I get the game running past the login screen I get a message pop up saying “error reading JPEG file”, and then the whole thing crashes. The thing is, the CD-ROM also comes with a demo of Barbie as the Princess & the Pauper and it still runs fine.

I have tried looking up solutions and have downloaded all this stuff - DOSBox, DOSBox-X, 7-zip, Oracle VirtualBox, PowerISO. I have no idea what I am doing. I am just a dumb millennial mom trying to let my kids live out some of my childhood memories. Have mercy and explain it to me like I’m 5. Is it ruined?

[u/Feisty-Jeweler-3331]

I can help you setup an 86box emulator for this. But first I would like to know what's the system requirements of that program.

Can you share photos of disc and it's cover from all sides please?

[u/FlyGlobal7690 → u/Feisty-Jeweler-3331]

https://reddit.com/link/p9a4pmi/video/85ke3blk60ph1/player

For some reason this was the only way I could send images. Either I am really so dumb or the app just is weird. New to all of this. Anyway there it is.

[u/Feisty-Jeweler-3331 → u/FlyGlobal7690]

It's weird... Been getting worse progressively...

Hmm the game is bit more modern than I expected. I think it worth the try to install windows XP in virtual box and install the game inside it!

[u/Bayou-Billy]

Try uninstalling and reinstalling. Is the disc scratched up? If it was working fine before for two weeks, I don't think it's a problem with how you're running it. Compatibility mode doesn't just stop working after 2 weeks. Might be a bad disc or an issue with the laptop.

[u/FlyGlobal7690 → u/Bayou-Billy]

The disc is a little scratched but the fact that it was working for some time makes me think the scratches were not significant enough to cause the crash… I did just try uninstalling and reinstalling, but it still somehow had our saved profiles from the first install and then crashed again.

[u/Bayou-Billy → u/FlyGlobal7690]

Try another game on that laptop too if you haven't

[u/kschang]

Error reading JPEG is an error reading the disc itself, usually.

[u/SpeedBo]

Since it was a 2004 game and works on WinXP you should be able to get it working on Win10 alright. I'd try out dgVoodoo2. It is a API wrapper that is designed to make older games work on newer computers. I tested it on my computer and it seems to work fine in this game.

You can download it here: https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2/releases but because of issues that they talk about in the update notes you should get the older version here: https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2/releases/download/v2.87.3/dgVoodoo2_87_3.zip

Once you download it you'll need to move a few files to where the game is installed.

1. Move the "dgVoodoo.conf" and "dgVoodooCpl.exe" into the game directory. The default location is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Barbie(TM)\Barbie(TM) Fashion Show(TM) CD-ROM".
2. Back in the dgVoodoo2 folder open up the "MS" folder and then the "x86" folder. In there you'll see four .dll files. Grab all of them and move them into the game installation directory with the first two files.
3. Last thing run the dgVoodooCpl.exe program (that you moved into the game directory). In it switch to the "DirectX" tab and turn off the checkmark next to "dgVoodoo Watermark".

That's it your game should run now.

[u/FlyGlobal7690 → u/SpeedBo]

Re: dgVoodoo2… I tried downloading and it’s being blocked bc the computer thinks it’s a virus????

[u/SunnyHelianthus → u/FlyGlobal7690]

It's being blocked because you didn't download it from the Microsoft Store. Just bypass the block. It should be just fine and dandy.

If your CD is faulty, just use this ISO image from archive.org. Users report that it works just fine.

https://archive.org/details/BarbieFashionShow

[u/SpeedBo → u/FlyGlobal7690]

The newest version was incorrectly flagged as a virus that is why your system (incorrectly) thinks it is one. The older version that I directly linked to shouldn't have that issue. You can read about it on their patch notes with the first link.