Is there any way to play a Duke Nukem game on an XP PC

The only way I know of, is to use the DOSbox emulator. Otherwise it's almost impossible to get it to run correctly or at all.

DOSbox will also offer you Soundblaster 16 sound. If you even get it to run on XP WITHOUT an emulator, chances are it will be impossible to get any sound at all.

So download and try DOSbox. It will be a bit hard to configure it so it can run the game smoothly, but it's worth the time. Open the configuration file (it will have a name like dosbox-0.73.conf) and use the following settings:

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=true
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=original
output=surface
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=highest,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true

machine=svga_s3
captures=capture
memsize=8

core=normal
cputype=pentium_slow
cycles=max
cycleup=1000
cycledown=1000

(NOTE: as far as the CPU and cycles part is concerned, you have to choose what works better for your PC. There is no way to know that beforehand, so use trial and error.)

nosound=false
rate=22050
blocksize=256
prebuffer=8

mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default

sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=22050

xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=auto



Oh, and by the way DOSBox only has a command line like back in the DOS days. There is no graphical interface. When you start it, it defaults to some non-existent "Z:" drive. To make it use your real hard drive using the letter "C", type the following command:

mount c <game folder path>

For example, if Duke Nukem 3D is installed in a folder named "DOS games", type the following:

mount c c:\dosgames

And then type "C:" to get to your HDD folder.

Well, that's all. If something doesn't work, change the settings. Hopefully you will get it to run. I did. :-)