A Search for Older Chess Software

I used to own a chess tutor software but can no longer find it. What's worse is that I do not know the name. A desription might suffice. The instructional part was made up to mimic a Kings court with the Queen being the instructor. You were able to play games against different levels of the court (Dukes etc) each of whom had differering levels of chess ability. There was a running commentary as well as comments at the end of the game all given by the Queen. You could challenge the King and finally the Queen. If you were not extremely careful,  the Queen woud stomp all over you. This game had a lot to teach.

I loved the format of this and have forgotten  the name. I don't think that anyone makes this anymore but I would bet I could get a version if I knew the name. Any help would be appreciated.

I don't know about the levels of the court, but the rest of the description almost sounds like Sierra's Power Chess 98. I never had the program, but I've read other descriptions. Unfortunately, I don't think it runs on anything newer than Windows 98, which is why most people no longer bother with it.

Dosbox works well for old sierra stuff.

I've used DosBox, but only for running Dos programs. If the program only runs on Win 95 or Win 98, wouldn't you actually have to install the Win95/98 OS on your PC?

Hmm, not sure about that.

I found a download for powerchess 98, but it's an iso file? I don't know what to do with that, else I could test it.

An ISO file is an exact copy of the installation CD. If you burn it directly to a CD it should auto-run when inserted into a drive.

LOL, thanx all. But that just sounds like too much trouble.

If someone else wants to try, the link is here:

http://www.pc-download-game.com/download-power-chess-98/

You guys have all been great! That is indeed the one.
I can make it run by loading Win 98 in the backgrouand. I'm embarrassed by these all being 20 months ago but I have been away from this for a while.

Thanks to all.

try downloading Virtual PC 2004 (its free at microsoft... google it), fix all the problems, and let the Queen teach u the Giuoco Piano!

So to restate Power chess will work on
Win 10 with dosbox?

I suspect not. I think you'd have to set up a VM with Win98 (or Win95?). I know you can run a Win 3.1 program in DosBox, but you actually have to set up a copy of Win 3.1 inside DosBox. I've never heard of anyone running a Win95 or Win 98 program from DosBox.

Actually I have found a site that installs

win 95 in win 10 here. I just do not know which file to select that would fit my pc.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1N9jDeHzok 

Well, I'd never heard of that one, and I had to do a bit of digging for info. For one thing, it's not the real Win95. It's an Electron app Win95 emulator written in Javascript. (So it's browser based, and I suspect the performance wouldn't be as good as a VM.) I don't know if it would run Power Chess. Supposedly, it can run a number of apps typically used on Win 95, but I don't know if it can run all apps.

How about this:

with VirtualBox

If compatibility mode doesn't work and you can't find a patch or source port, you'll have to use Windows 95/98 itself. As mentioned, a Windows 95/98 emulator does not exist. So you'll have to set up a Windows 95/98 system. However, you don't have to search for an old computer in your basement for this. You can create a virtual machine on your current computer. You can do this with VirtualBox. Within that virtual machine you will install a fresh copy of Windows 95 or 98. Sounds easy, but it really is a job for computer nerds with advanced knowledge. Remember to uncheck VT-x/AMD-V activation at system - acceleration to avoid system failure when installing Windows 98.

VirtualBox doesn't officialy support DOS based operating systems like Windows 95, 98 or ME. These operating systems run very slowly on VirtualBox with default settings. CPU load is constantly 100% and video settings don't get any better than 16 colors with a maximum resolution of 640x480. You can try and install an additional video driver to boost performance. Better choose 32 bits Windows XP if possible. When you need DOS, use DOSBox.

When you have installed the desired operating system on your virtual computer, please make sure that you also install the VirtualBox Guest Additions to enable the graphics driver and therefore 3D hardware acceleration. Note that the Guest Additions are supported by Windows NT and later OSes (Windows 95, 98 and ME are NOT supported). You can install Guest Additions by starting your guest operating system and then click the menu item Devices (on top of the VirtualBox windows) and choose Install Guest Additions.  From here: https://www.dosgamers.com/windows95-98/win95-games  Not the same approach is it?

@Nimzowitz - That seems like a reasonable place to start, if you want to take on that challenge. There's also another similar procedure from HowToGeek:

https://www.howtogeek.com/329301/how-to-install-windows-95-in-a-virtual-machine/

IDK which procedure is better. I've never set up VMs, so I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines. :-)

Meh. Dunno. Windows 11 June 24th in theory is coming out so.........

Hmmm. The original guestion was from 2013 and the OP probably isn't around anymore, but anyway.

Windows 95 programs run quite well in linux (eg. mint or ubuntu) using Wine. So I would recommend installing linux in a VM instead of trying to find a windows 95  .

Wine can run many programs really well from windows 95, 98, 2000, xp, vista and 7. And ofcourse many windows 10 programs work too 

Also many old sierra games work in DosBox too. (if they are secretly dos programs that pretent to be windows programs)

Well, that's just when MS will make the official announcement. Not sure when it's actually going to be available. But it's just gonna be the same pig with new lipstick... ;-)

In other words, the intro of Win 11 shouldn't be a factor in deciding whether to start messing around with VMs. But it sounds to me like VMs are a considerable amount of work; I wouldn't blame you if you decide to pass on the project.

WINE inside a Linux VM might work, but that's two layers of emulation (or non-emulation in the case of WINE, haha), so it would probably be a significant performance hit. You'd be better off running Linux natively (might have to dual boot) with WINE running in Linux.

However, running WINE in Linux is still a bit of a security concern, although the risk might be acceptable. The bad news is that I just checked the WINE compatibility list, and Power Chess 98 is listed as "Garbage" compatible.