mgroves

Jones in the Fast Lane

One of my favorite Sierra games of all time is actually not a typical point-and-click adventure game. It's more a board game, actually. It's called "Jones in the Fast Lane". It was released in 1991 and again in 1992 with better graphics and sound on a CD.

The object of the game is to get your character from being uneducated and unemployed to having a high paying job and a full education. You can actually set your goals (like a handicap) to be as high or as low as you want, and you can even compete against other players (taking turns), or against the computer's namesake character of "Jones".

I have attached a playable copy of Jones to this blog. Jones was actually intended for DOS/Windows 3.11 computers back in the day, and does not run correctly by itself. However, I've packaged it with the DOSBox emulator so that you can play it in Windows 2000/XP without any problems. Just download the zip file, extract it to your hard drive, and double-click the "runjones" file. I also have the manual available for download. If you have any problems, please email me or post a comment below.

Disclaimer: It is probably not legal to download Jones (or put it on my site for download in the first place), but the game is over 13 years old, and I don't think Sierra ever plans to re-release an updated version. I couldn't even find a copy of it on eBay. If Sierra tells me to take it down, I will take it down, but I wouldn't feel too guilty about downloading it if I were you.

Published on Friday, May 26, 2006 at 12:41pm and tagged and . Share your thoughts by commenting on this article.

57 Responses to Jones in the Fast Lane Article comments Feed

1

Stephanie

I can not get it on the computer it will not let me!!! I want to play soooooo bad!

Posted at May 26, 2006 on 6:52pm

2

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

Easy, Seabiscuit. I'll give you a call.

Posted at May 26, 2006 on 7:16pm

3

Myself of http://www.myself.info

Where can i download the game?

Posted at September 25, 2006 on 1:55pm

4

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

Check back shortly. I just redesigned the site so the 'attachments' aren't all working yet.

Posted at September 26, 2006 on 1:58am

5

monkeypup of http://monkeypup.org

Sounds like the game Life. Can't wait to try it!

Posted at October 20, 2006 on 11:20pm

6

jeremy

just seeing how i get it to come up on my comp, i already downloaded it from your site but i cant figure out how to work it holla back

Posted at December 2, 2006 on 7:49pm

7

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

What happens when you run the "runjones" file?

Posted at December 3, 2006 on 3:34pm

8

J

Awesome man! Thanks for the putting the game here. It was the only place I could find it.

Posted at January 2, 2007 on 5:09pm

9

nadav

Thanks for the game!!!!

Posted at January 23, 2007 on 6:50pm

10

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

I'm glad you are all enjoying it. I know I wasted many hours of my life playing this game.

Posted at January 24, 2007 on 1:14am

11

Derrill

Thanks for putting this up. We own a copy from way back when that we couldn't play on our current computer, so getting this version isn't illegal at all. We played this all the time as a family back in the day.

Posted at February 2, 2007 on 2:12am

12

Nathan

Hey, I loved this game when I was younger and have been trying to find one with sound for a while. I got this one set up to where it has the same music, but still no speaking from the business owners. Is there anyway to get them to be able to speak their lines instead of just popping up with the text? How they said things was one of the reasons the game was so awesome!

Posted at February 4, 2007 on 3:08pm

13

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

The version you are talking about is probably the CD-ROM version that they released. I don't have that one, and I actually never got to play it.

Posted at February 5, 2007 on 3:47pm

14

April

I dont understand how to get this to run

Posted at February 15, 2007 on 3:28pm

15

April

ok I got it to run now how do I get it into full screen mode

Posted at February 15, 2007 on 3:39pm

16

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

April, it's running in a program called "DOSBox", so you should refer to the DOSBox documentation to see how to do that. It's probably an "F" key you have to hit or something.

Posted at February 15, 2007 on 4:42pm

17

April

Where do I find the DOS Box Documentation

Posted at February 16, 2007 on 2:34pm

18

Tony

i cant get the game to run...whats wrong with this

Posted at March 7, 2007 on 2:05pm

19

fredphelps

Yeah Nathan is right, listening to the shop clerks dialogue is the entire reason I wanted to play this game. Anyone figure it out?

Posted at March 13, 2007 on 12:31am

20

Dima

great. i finally find it.
looking fot old interesting games i can play with my doughter (9 years old). Foun Jones + Settlers 2 :-)
Thanks

Posted at March 21, 2007 on 4:00am

21

veronica

I have been playing Jones forever, love that little guy, now my kids play jones sometimes as well. It really is the prototype of the sims etc. Just out of interest several years ago I went looking for jones on the net and contacted Sierra, who eventually replied that they had never heard of the game , H aha , just a quick tip, if you buy the dictionary, atlas and encyclopedia, then buy the computer-you can start your study from 7 not 9. I used to know how to get it down to 6 any Jones lovers out there who can help me? Enjoy all

Posted at April 25, 2007 on 12:47pm

22

marko

where is the zip file on this page or whateve i cant fiund it and want too play
; /

Posted at June 10, 2007 on 11:24pm

23

Laurana

I can't find the link either and I have been trying all night to find a copy of the game.

If someone can help me. I would be very grateful.

Cheers.

Posted at June 30, 2007 on 11:44am

24

lookin4jones

where can i find/download jones in the fast lane? every site i find to download the game, there is something that prevents the download from completing. this game is amazing, please help :)

Posted at July 1, 2007 on 7:55am

25

Laurana

So I am a wannabe nerd. Far far from it. I have down loaded the zip file.

THANK YOU Matt!!

Now, my computer is giving me a hard time trying to install the game.
It does not like my sound card.

*sighs in all my newbie glory*

Cheers
Laurana.

Posted at July 2, 2007 on 3:12am

26

scarlett

it worked ! but i can't get the full window for it, it just opens in a small window and there is no option to maximize can u help me with dat? thanx for putting it up !brings back a lot of childhood memories

Posted at July 26, 2007 on 3:45pm

27

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

I believe DOSBox has a full screen, probably a function key or command line parameter or something. I would suggest consulting the documentation.

Posted at July 26, 2007 on 4:04pm

28

Shane

Thanks for putting this download up! I guess this blog must be real popular now! Just for all Jones fanatics trying to find the download, its up the top of the page... Cheers

Posted at August 6, 2007 on 3:26pm

29

Matt

Sweeet. Thanks a lot for putting this game up and with dos box. This game is so old but so much fun. Thanks you and thank god for the internet.

Posted at August 12, 2007 on 1:33am

30

Rebecca Weber

when i double click the run jones file it doesnt do anything please help!

Posted at August 22, 2007 on 3:14pm

31

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

Make sure to extract the zip file first.

Posted at August 22, 2007 on 6:26pm

32

David Brewer

alt + enter for full screen

Posted at August 27, 2007 on 3:09pm

33

Machine

Thank you very much. You rock almost as much as being a butcher in your second job earning $14 an hour!

Posted at September 24, 2007 on 11:20am

34

fisharefood

hey... the music works but the speech just wont!!! =( may i know how to fix it?

Posted at November 7, 2007 on 11:16am

35

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

There is no speech because this is not the CD-ROM version.

Posted at November 7, 2007 on 12:17pm

36

stephanie

we ordered the enhanced cdrom version with no real computer tech knowledge... how do we get it to work on our Windows XP...HPpavilion a11514/intel pentium 4/window vistacapable computer? or do you have a sight that can walk us through it... it was a gift from me to my husband and now we do not even know how to run it.Anyway you could help us?

Posted at December 11, 2007 on 3:16pm

37

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

Well, my guess is you will need to use DOSBox for that (which is what I included in the above download). It's a DOS emulator.

Using DOSBox can be tricky if you're not used to doing stuff like that, but getting it work natively in Windows XP is much more of a challenge, I think.

You can find more information about DOSBox: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net

Posted at December 11, 2007 on 4:42pm

38

John

I think that stephanie should upload and send the copy of the cd-rom version with the voices to you so you can do the dos-box thing and make it available for us as a DL on this page. Or anyone that has the voices version please send it to mrgroves.

Posted at December 21, 2007 on 7:57pm

39

minywheats

agreed

Posted at December 22, 2007 on 12:30am

40

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

Even if Stephanie was willing to send it to me, I would not put such a large download on mgroves.com for the public. I would recommend a file sharing site like RapidShare to her instead.

Posted at December 23, 2007 on 1:58pm

41

minywheats

you still have to hook us up

Posted at December 23, 2007 on 9:49pm

42

darma_w

how wonderfull oldies game... look like sims prototype :D
thnkzz Matt G.

Posted at December 28, 2007 on 9:16am

43

andreas

you rock man!! hehe. Finaly i can play one of my all time favoritte games again. i have spent alot of time finding it and all the download sites have just rejected everyting
i ever tryed. Until you came along and put a quick and safe way to download it. THANK YOU!! :)now i can relax and
enjoy the game. im never gonna delete it ever again. must be 13 -14 years since ive played it. Cheers!!!

Posted at February 27, 2008 on 12:37am

44

minywheats

welcome to Mgroves.com, bastion of pirates, theives and conservatives

Posted at February 27, 2008 on 1:18am

45

paul

i finally got jones downloaded, but it wont let me run it, when i have the whole file open what do i do from there to make it run? i would greatly appreciate some help with this i love the game and have been trying for 10 years to play it.

Posted at March 9, 2008 on 10:13pm

46

jonesinforjones

thank you sooo much every one, especially mgroves for making this availible to the masses. for all the guidance on this page. me being not that great with technology getting it to work on the mac took a couple hours. alas i can get my jones fix.

P.S. i love the disclaimer (first thing that comes up when you run jones). thanx again

Posted at March 15, 2008 on 8:09pm

47

jonesinforjones

Paul there is a link in the middle of the page for dosbox. I found it very helpful in running the prog. try that.

Posted at March 15, 2008 on 8:13pm

48

Jessica

Hi. I tried downloading the game...when I click on the "runjones" (after extracting it) the DOSbox program starts up and then I don't know what else to do...

thanks!

Posted at April 13, 2008 on 12:41am

49

Rach

i have downloaded the zip file but am unable to open the "runjones" file, have tried various applications... any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

Posted at July 18, 2008 on 11:03am

50

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

It's just a batch file, it should run by just double clicking it. I'm assuming you have Windows--I haven't tried it with Vista.

Posted at July 18, 2008 on 5:06pm

51

Rach

i have a mac... sorry should of mentioned that in the first message

Posted at July 19, 2008 on 1:49am

52

mgroves of http://www.mgroves.com

Yeah, it's meant for Windows. I assume there must be a version of DOSBox for Mac, but I can't really help you since I don't have a Mac.

Posted at July 19, 2008 on 3:21pm

53

Tracy

Thanks so much for this!! I'm on Vista ∨

Posted at February 24, 2010 on 12:21am

54

Ricardo

I can't blieve! I found it and it works! Thank you very much!

Posted at March 4, 2010 on 8:29pm

55

Martin Clearmn

Just bought the game but am unsue of how to install it. I have a windows Vista, but each timeI playthe CD-ROM, it play as an abum playing music. How do you get the game to work?

Posted at April 16, 2010 on 6:20pm

56

Martin Clearmn

Got it installed, Vista doesn't allow a full screen but took my PC to Best Buy's geek squad, now (after $34.00) I have the game full screen and is working fine. Love th game but so far, Jones always wins. He knows which business to pick for which job, but will keep trying to beat him.

Posted at April 19, 2010 on 4:16pm

57

K Wikkle Fikkle of http://www.ucalgary.ca/

Y'all like Jones in the Fast Lane, huh?

Well, I'm just about to blow all y'all minds.

JONES IN THE FAST LANE...
FREE...
ONLINE.
FLASH.
NO INSTALL NEEDED.
Ohhhhh yeah.

http://home.broadpark.no/~kboye/jones/jones.html

Posted at April 29, 2010 on 8:51pm

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