savannahs11 wrote:
Creatures and Creatures 2 both run much more slowly than Creatures 3 and Docking Station. You can only explore areas that your Norns have been to. In Creatures, there's no way to scroll freely, but in Creatures 2, there's an implement that enables infinite scrolling. You can also use the Ecology Kit's Location tab to visit areas your Norns have explored. The icon looks like a flower.

GimmeCat wrote:
There should be no slowness as you describe with simple actions like picking up objects. If interacting with the environment feels laggy, there is definitely something else going on.

The Creatures series is very old by this point and it could be an issue inherent to Windows 10, or perhaps your antivirus interfering, or... could be any number of things. Generally, the best way to play these games is through VMWare or other emulated environment running Win95 or 98 for maximum compatibility.

Lurhstaap wrote:
I personally have not noticed slowness with Windows 10, but then again I tend to run Creatures games with little or nothing else running on the machine at the same time.

Allekha wrote:
I also have Windows 10 and C2 tends to lag a lot, to the point where I think I'm going to get out my old Windows 7 laptop to play it again (it runs fine on that) or figure out how to run a virtual machine. C2, alas, has always been the fussiest of the games, so it's not a huge surprise that it's tricky to get working properly on a modern OS.

Note that GOG does not list Windows 10 or even Windows 8 as a compatible OS for the Albian Years, though you can always try reporting issues to them and hope they fix it eventually.

Mandymom wrote:
Compatibility mode might work.

GimmeCat wrote:
DOSBox is for emulating DOS programs and Creatures is strictly a Windows game. So no, that won't work.

VMWare is good, I've used it (no current need to, as C1 and C2 run fine for me on Win7). It's like having a little enclosed computer on your desktop, totally isolated, a 'sandbox' environment. Older versions of Windows are so simple by comparison these days that most computers should have no problem running it.

You'll need a copy of Windows to install on it, of course. VMWare doesn't come with it automatically. You can use a physical installation disc, or else a ripped ISO.

Mandymom wrote:
IDK what to tell you if you can't use VMWare. Is the lag making it hard to play the game?

Allekha wrote:
You might want to try looking up a beginner-level introduction to what a virtual machine is and how to use it if the site is confusing to you (I glanced at it and yeah, it's not the place to learn what those are).

I haven't used one before (yet), but my understanding is that it's essentially a sandbox in which you can run another operating system within your own OS. For example, if you wanted to try out Linux without having to install it or make a USB stick/CD to boot from. Some people use them to play around with viruses or those phone support scammers without harming their own computer. Or, in this case, you could run software (i.e. Creatures 2) on an older version of Windows where it works properly (Windows XP, for example) without having to install that OS on your computer.

I know other users have mentioned getting Creatures 2 running on a virtual machine, so it should work if you can figure it out.