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Paw Paw And Jack!
So there we were back in late 1999.
Paw Paw wasn't easily persuaded that there could be any other game in the world that would replace or even compare to "Jack Nicklaus Signature Edition Golf", and there wasn't anyone in the known universe who could tell him differently.
My soon to be wife (his daughter) and I sent him different versions of Nicklaus golf games in the mail from New York, other Professional Golf Pro supported programs we found, and even went as far as attempting to BS him into believing that this outdated simulation of his was not at all as "advanced" or as fun to play as the other golfing games out there....
All to no avail!
Window's 98 and Window's 2000 were the Microsoft Operating Systems of the time, and having problems with the internet and other compatibility issues, Harv was finally coaxed into upgrading his old computer's OS to at least WIN 98 ME from the old 95. After finding a local computer wiz to upgrade, he found that the installation for JNSEG wouldn't install properly, as it was a DOS game created in 1992 and didn't work well with the new configuration.
Fortunately at around this time Leann and I returned to Kentucky to pick up her things to bring back to our new home in New York, and stopping over for a few days at Harv's home, most of the weekend was spent creating a DOS boot disc and .bat configuration to get the game to at least work. At first the old game would load but play very slowly.....Then the sound drivers weren't there and needed to be installed in DOS.....then the resolution wasn't functioning correctly, etc. etc. etc.
By the end of the weekend I was seeing three monitors in front of my eyes, but with every available configuration I could find and adapt, Pappy's game was back!
Now if this was the end of the story, everyone would be content and life would move on....
But no.
Bill Gates just had to make a new OS called WIN XP and yes, Harv found that many of his old programs and internet usage wasn't making par!
So he once again gave in, turned over his old computer to his grandson's wife for parts, and shelled out a few hundred dollars for a new HAL.....
With Windows XP....
And yes folks.....NO DOS.
Or at least a poor excuse for what used to be the language known as the "Disc Operating System."
But once again poor old Pappy found himself getting that famous error, "Abnormal Program Termination" after he installed the game and wanted to play.....
And it was back to the drawing board to get it to work for you know who!
After a full day of attempting to execute this old 1992 DOS game in a WIN XP environment, I somehow managed to get the game loaded and functioning a few times before XP decided it wasn't going to happen anymore. Over and over again the "Abnormal" error would come up and we stared at a black window with a cursor blinking in it and nothing else....
Blessedly after searching on the net for a solution I was able to find some people using a DOS emulator called "DOSBOX", and after some tweaking, Pappy was back to hitting his birdies on his favorite course, "English"....
But that's not all.....
The power of the internet is really something!
During the time I was searching for an answer to solve the obvious fact of Microsoft not caring about DOS, or for that matter earlier programs working within their operating systems, I came across a site which was never completely taken down. The pictures were long gone and it was obvious that the server just kept the original html file there because the page was a sub directory file of the main taken down long ago (I clicked on the "home" link and it wasn't there), I came across "Chris".....Chris was a guy who loved Jack Nicklaus Golf Signature Edition so much that he used to run a bulletin board on the game back in the early 90's and had posted many of the courses the various member's used to develop in the program's archaic course designer. I took the chance that the email he still had up there would be one he might be using today, and sent an email asking if he still had any of those old files....
Wouldn't you know it!
The next morning as I sat down to check my messages, there was an inbound note from "Chris"...
Not only had he saved the old games, but he graciously snail mailed about 10 floppy discs full of courses which I have since unzipped and loaded to Harv's game directory....
And.....
My game directory as well...
Because you know what....
I tried those very games we attempted to persuade Harv all those years ago were so much better than JNSEG and honestly....
"It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark."
- Howard Ruff
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