How to Play Purple Moon Games

Bo Pezanski — Trust us, you don't need to be Bo to get these games running.

Due to their age and unknown legal status, finding and playing Purple Moon's games nowadays can be a little tricky. This page was created to help those who want to acquire and play the games on modern hardware.

Acquiring the Games[]

At the time of this writing, the entirety of Purple Moon's library of games can be considered abandonware. The actual copyright holder of the property is unknown. While the company and its assets were sold to Mattel in 1999, they have not done anything with the series since 2000. It is not acknowledged on Mattel's website and the games are out-of-print and not available for purchase on their various storefronts. There is also a chance that they may have quietly sold the rights off to another person or company. With all that being said, there are two ways to acquire the games.

Buying used copies. There are several sellers on both Amazon and Ebay who offer physical copies of the games at cheap prices. Second-hand stores like Goodwill may also have copies.
Downloading them. All of the games except Starfire are available as ISO files on the Internet Archive. (These can be either burned onto a physical CD or mounted on newer Windows operating systems. Google if you want to know more on how to do either.) Note that having abandonware up for download like this is technically illegal. If the current copyright holder ever comes forward and enforces their claim on the series, this may not be an option in the future.

Torrents and direct downloads in other places may also be available.

Installing and Running the Games[]

Disclaimer: The editors of this article are not responsible for any damages made to your computer by following the steps listed below.

Due to their age, Purple Moon games will not install and run on modern computers without some technical workarounds. There are no patches available that can fix this. Some knowledge of your computer's backwards compatibility features or a virtual machine are necessary.

Backwards Compatibility Features for Windows[]

Newer versions of Windows have compatibility options that can be set to allow some older programs to run on the newer system. These can be accessed by right-clicking on the executable (.exe files), selecting "Properties", then selecting the "Compatibility" tab. Using these options may be necessary to install and run the games on some newer machines. The ones you will want to change are:

Compatibility Mode: Windows 98 or Windows XP (any service pack) will usually work.
Reduced Color Mode: Some of the games will only run in 256 color mode. Others don't need it. If the colors look weird in-game, try changing this.
640x480 Screen Resolution: Most of the games don't need this, but will display in a small box on your screen without it.

If you need to use these options to install a game, the file for the installer can be found on the disc and is usually named some variation of "SETUP.exe". The installers will not autorun and may display a message stating that they cannot be run for whatever reason. Feel free to exit out of this message and try messing with the compatibility options.

16-bit, 32-bit, and You[]

Like a lot of programs from that era, Purple Moon's games appear to use installation programs with 16-bit loader stubs. While this was a convenient option that allowed for multiple binaries to be packaged with a game back in the day, many newer systems will not run 16-bit programs. This means that while the game itself may run just fine on a 32-bit or 32-bit compatible system, you would need to find a way to get the game's files onto your system without the installer to play it. (For reference, most modern processors are 64-bit, but can usually run 32-bit programs without problems due to some backwards compatibility.) This can be as easy as copy/pasting the files on the disk to a folder on your hard drive or as hard as reverse-engineering the installer itself (if the program is a custom made one). Thankfully, Purple Moon chose an older version of InstallShield as their installer of choice. So the latter option is not necessary.

New School, Tricky Decision, Secret Invitation, First Dance, and Secret Paths in the Forest all use version 3 of InstallShield. The games can be made to install on newer Windows OSs by copying the contents of the CD or ISO (if you are using an ISO, you can extract the files in it using WinRAR or 7-Zip) to a folder on your system, adding a newer version of the setup32.exe file to the WININSTALL folder, and then setting that file's compatibility to run it in Windows 95 or 98 mode. (Setting the compatibility mode for the other exes on the disc to Windows 95/98 probably wouldn't hurt either.) The file needed to do so can be found at this link on toastytech.com. (Note: You want the version 3, not the version 5.) See the link below to Katie Cadet's tutorial for more indepth instructions on how to do this.

Installing QuickTime and DirectX[]

All of the installers will ask to install either QuickTime (usually used to play movies) or DirectX (used in some mini-games). Unless you are using a virtual machine or a really old computer running Windows 95 or 98, there is a very good chance that you have much, MUCH newer versions of these programs installed already. Skipping this step and using newer versions of both programs is recommended unless you run into problems. For games that use video scenes, such as Secret Paths in the Forest, you may need to change the compatibility mode of QuickTime and other media players, along with selecting the option for 256 color mode. Otherwise, the game will still play as usual but you may be unable to view the stories and see animations throughout the game.

Registering Your Game[]

Ignore the prompts to register your game during installation or when starting them. Purple Moon's site no longer exists. You wouldn't be able to register even if you wanted to.

Operating System Compatibility[]

Windows 98[]

While a few of the games are meant to run in Windows 95, they all appear to be capable of running with few or no issues on a machine or virtual machine running Windows 98, provided it meets the minimum system requirements for each game.

Windows XP[]

XP's compatibility features appear to be sufficient enough to install and run every game with the possible exception of Camp Adventures, which may crash during mini-game segments. This may just be an issue with DirectX and not the game itself.

Windows 8 and Windows 10[]

Adventure Maker, Secret Paths to the Sea, Camp Adventures can be installed and ran without workarounds. Though setting them to run in 640x480 mode is recommended.

The QuickTime installer for Starfire Soccer Challenge will not initiate. The rest of the program will install fine, but may be unplayable due to this issue. Manually installing a newer version of QuickTime from another program or their website may also fix this.

All of the other games will not install due to having 16-bit loader stubs. Use a workaround mentioned in the link above or a virtual machine to play these.

If the workaround method is used, New School will have graphical glitches on menus and the backpack screen. These can be removed by clicking on something. It will also have no sound. This can be fixed by using InDirectSound or by buying an internal or external SoundBlaster sound card and configuring it with Creative ALchemy. See Katie Cadet's tutorial link below for more information.

Mac OSs[]

All of the games are compatible with older Macintosh systems.

Virtual Machines[]

A virtual machine or "VM" is an emulator that allows a user to run a separate operating system on top of their main one. (You're running a computer on another computer!) While they are normally used for various business purposes, they can also be used to run old computer games. They are a good alternative if you don't feel comfortable messing with things on your main computer, you just don't want to go through the effort of getting your compatibility settings correct, or you just can't get the dang things working.

Oracle VirtualBox and VMWare Workstation Player are two free VM programs that are capable of running Windows 98, which will run every game in the series with little issue. Workstation Player is the more user-friendly of the two and provides a wizard with default options when setting up new VMs. While it will run them, VirtualBox was not designed with older OSs in mind and requires more setup. Though some people swear by it over Workstation Player. If you have the "Enterprise", "Pro", or "Education" version of Windows 8 or 10, you can also enable and use Hyper-V.

If you decide to use Workstation Player, be sure to download and install the additional VM Tools package when prompted. (This will greatly increase the machine's speed if it lags after its intital installation and its color display choices.) If there is no sound, you will need to manually install Sound Blaster drivers, which can be found here . (Drag the exe file onto the VM's desktop to get it onto the machine, then install it from there.) If the sound in any of the games, especially New School and Forest, is glitchy, try turning off Hardware Acceleration. (This setting can found by right-clicking on the speaker icon, select "Adjust Audio Properties", clicking "Advanced Properties" under "Playback", then selecting the "Performance" tab.)

To use these programs, you will need an installation disc and registration number for Windows 98. Both can be found around the Internet, as it is no longer supported by Microsoft. But for copyright concerns, we will not be providing a link to one.

A Word on DOSBox[]

DOSBox is a popular, well-supported emulator that is used to play old computer games created for MS-DOS. Unfortunately, Purple Moon's games are not DOS games and most likely will not run in it. While it is possible to install and run Windows 3.1, 95, and 98 on DOSBox, it was not intended for that purpose and compatibility for them is limited. (This is especially so for Windows 98 at the time of this writing.) You are welcome to try it, but don't consider this a viable option.