Modern Windows systems come in two flavors, 64 or 32 bits. While the 32 bit versions are only capable of running 16 bit and 32 bit Windows binaries (.exe files), x64 on the other hand can run 32 bit and 64 bit binaries, only. As most newer (gaming) systems running Windows have more than 4 GB RAM, they are equipped with the x64 version of Windows, allowing to address the full amount of RAM. (32 bits address space allows only to address up to 4 GB, making the rest lie to waste). But this also breaks old 16 bit programs. The 16 bit sub-systems was removed for x64 Windows systems, so for example old installers cannot be used any more. (An example is the auto-run installer of Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force.)
This makes installation of some games rather difficult. Some can simply be copied manually from their installation media. In other cases you can use the actual installer directly, as only the auto-run feature was 16 bit, not the installer. Other games require quite some additional work, making their installation a real hassle under Windows x64. winevdm emulates the 16 bit sub-system on x64 Windows, hence allowing for use of 16 bit binaries once again. You can get it at the Github page of the project. The installation is rather straight forward, as well as the use of it. As a recommendation, place the folder containing winevdm at a proper place, all users can access (e.g. c:\Program Files (x86))), if you are working in a multi-user configuration on your system.
[ Games Database ] [ Game Tech ]