How could I play this game? (see detail)

Look at the box for system requirements. Does it say it works with XP? If so, then something is interfering. Maybe your antivirus is trying to protect you. That’s just a guess, but games generally do funky non-standard things things inside your computer, like direct access to protected areas of memory, etc. You may have to tell your AV to let this program have unrestricted access.

Now, I’ve never played this game. Is it a recent game? Or an older game? If it’s an older game, you may be SOL or have to spring for a used computer with Win 98 on it or something…

One thing I can tell you is that XP doesn’t play well with games, even games designed for it. And especially if it’s an older game written for, say, Win 95 or Win 98. And don’t even try to play a old DOS game in the XP command line window…it just ain’t gonna work.

You don’t have a virtual cd drive active do you? If so you should try disabling it. And make sure you have the right disc inserted. Not the installer disc or something.

You did buy the game, didn’t you?

update your cd rom drivers… if that doesnt work, there are sometimes ways to play the game without the cd, but depending on the game this might not be legal. be sure to check if it is before you attempt it.

Also, how many drives do you have? I think this is a fairly recent game, but older games expected to find files under D:/ (which would normally be your first CD drive). If you have 2 HDDs, ie C and D, then the files are obviously not in D. In those cases you’d have to rename your drives or something. But I think Zoo tycoon is fairly recent, ie after 2000, right?

@All,thank you for responding!.
@Jack79 I have 2 drives. I’ve done that and nothing’s wrong with my drivers. And yes,It’s kinda new(2004).

Solution: Get a Mac.

@ElleBee… or run Linux, take the money you save, and buy yourself a new house!

@odali Personally, I use “No CD patches” all the time.
It may be against the letter of the law, but as long as you paid for the software and have the original CD in your possession then the case could be (and actually has been) made that that falls under Fair Use in much the same way that transferring a CD to your MP3 player, so it obeys the spirit of the law.

@jerv I agree with you here, however there are some games that expressidly say editing or modifying this software in any way even in order to play without the disc are strictly forbidden, or something like that. I think it does have a lot to do with being able to give someone the disc to use if you dont need it to play, however I agree you should be able to use the software as you please if you have bought it. I was more stating for the OP to be careful if he peruses this route for correction of the problem.

@odali True. Of course, I don’t see those software-makers springing for external optical drives for those of us that have laptops without internal optical drives either.

It’s also been proven that such measures only impede the rights of legitimate users and do nothing to prevent piracy. Accordingly, serial numbers and internet activation is becoming more common than disc-based copy protection.

@jerv You’ve my full agreement here.