Month: March 2025

Broderbund’s The Playroom is an educational game designed for young children, originally released in the late 1980s and later updated for CD-ROM in 1996. It features a variety of interactive activities meant to teach basic skills like counting, spelling, and problem-solving. The game was part of a series that included The Treehouse and The Backyard, each offering engaging environments for early learning.

My dad installed this game on our computer when I was a child, and I played it often. Now with a son of my own who is becoming interested in computers, I wanted to play the game with him on a more modern PC than what I had in 1996.

Installing The Playroom on a modern Windows 11 PC presents some challenges, as the game was designed for much older operating systems. To get it running, I used otvdm, a lightweight compatibility layer that allows 16-bit Windows applications to run on 64-bit Windows. Installation worked smoothly, but when I tried to launch the game, I encountered an error stating that The Playroom MPC requires a 256-color video driver.

Of course, Windows 11 supports far more than 256 colors, but the game’s outdated compatibility check prevented it from running.

To bypass this limitation, I used IDA (Interactive Disassembler) to analyze the executable and locate the code responsible for the error message. I found a conditional jump instruction that triggered the message when the color depth check failed. By modifying just a single byte, I changed it to an unconditional jump, effectively skipping the check altogether.

In my version, I changed byte 0x285F9 from 74 to EB.

After this small patch, The Playroom launched successfully, proving that sometimes, a simple tweak can bring classic software back to life on modern hardware.

Before, with the check in place:

After, with the check patched out:

Playroom is now working on my Windows 11 machine.

Golden Tee Live machines previously connected to the Internet/ITnet via a Sprint modem. The Sprint service was discontinued a few years ago. However, some older machines still have the modem soldered directly onto the I/O board. The modem attempts to connect to the Sprint towers during boot, but the connection is always unsuccessful. The result is a frustratingly long delay during startup as the game waits for a connection that will never happen.

The current solution has been to physically remove the modem by desoldering it from the I/O board. While effective, this approach comes with its own set of challenges. It requires disconnecting the I/O board and removing it from the machine, having soldering skills, and a fair amount of time to properly remove the component. For many, this can be a cumbersome process.

Fortunately, I’ve come up with an alternative solution that doesn’t require any soldering: a simple software fix that you can apply using just a thumb drive.

The Software Alternative: How It Works

Instead of physically removing the Sprint modem, we can trick the Golden Tee system into thinking the modem has already been removed. Golden Tee runs a Linux-based operating system, and one of the ways to disable the modem is by blacklisting the modem’s driver. By doing this, the game won’t try to load the Sprint modem driver during boot-up, and it will skip the long connection attempt to the now-defunct network.

I’ve created a script that you can load onto a USB thumb drive like an ordinary Golden Tee update. When you run the update, it adds the necessary “cp210x” (the modem driver) to the blacklist. This allows the system to boot more quickly, without waiting for the non-functional modem to connect.

Why You Should Consider This Solution

While desoldering the modem is a solution, it’s not always the easiest or safest option for the average arcade owner or operator. Removing a component from the I/O board requires a certain level of expertise with soldering equipment. Mistakes can easily lead to damaging the board, rendering the system unusable. For many users, this can be a daunting and risky task.

The software solution I’ve developed is a low-risk, hassle-free method that eliminates the need for soldering skills and disassembling the entire machine. It’s a much cleaner and safer solution that can be done in minutes with just a USB thumb drive and a few simple steps.

How to Create the USB Drive and Apply the Software Fix

Here’s how you can implement this solution in just a few easy steps:

1. Prepare Your USB Drive

First, you’ll need a USB thumb drive. It’s essential to format the drive as FAT32, which is the format that Golden Tee systems can read.

Steps to Format Your USB Drive in Windows:

1. Plug the USB drive into your computer.
2. Open File Explorer, right-click on your USB drive, and select Format.
3. In the format window, make sure to select FAT32 as the file system. (If your drive is larger than 32GB, FAT32 might not appear. You can use a third-party tool to format it to FAT32.)
4. Set the Allocation Unit Size to default (usually 4096 bytes).
5. Click Start, then confirm that you want to proceed with formatting.

2. Download the Update Script

Next, you’ll need to download the update script.

1. Download the update file to your computer.
2. Once downloaded, copy the file to the root of your FAT32-formatted USB drive.
3. Rename the file to update.bin

3. Load the Script onto Your Golden Tee Machine

Now that your USB drive is ready, it’s time to apply the update to your Golden Tee machine:

1. Safely eject the USB drive from your computer and plug it into one of the USB ports on the Golden Tee machine.
2. Power on the machine. The system should automatically detect the update file on the USB drive.
3. The process will run automatically, and once it’s complete, the game will reboot.
4. Remove the thumb drive.

4. Enjoy Faster Boot Times

Once the update is applied, your Golden Tee machine should boot much more quickly. The system will no longer wait for the non-functional modem to connect, and you’ll be able to jump straight into gameplay.