Already tried that last year and it does nothing. At least not on my copy of Windows 10 (Pro 64 bit). I cant get a single demo executable that I have to install using that. In the exit error screen it usually says that the program is not compatible with windows/architecture. While I distinctly remember running the same Heretic 2 demo executable on Windows XP ages ago.

Also found the quote: Only the 32 bit version of Windows 10 has a 16 bit sub system. For Windows 10 64 bit, you would have to run the application on a supported version of Windows in a virtual machine.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/is-it-possible-to-run-a-16-bit-program-on-windows/50497e46-707e-42b4-af7f-539037f5d0a0

Ok. I'm not so sure about EA being happy to sell/license B&W2 to GOG.
You have any evidence for that claim? Erm...$400.000 is not exactly "millions". Sorry, but that's a naive assessment of the situation.
Here's two things about (a) people voting on the wishlist and (b) people actually buying the game(s) they vote for:
(a) Lots of people will vote for nearly everything, regardless of if they actually plan to ever purchase the game.
(b) The majority of these 80k people who voted for B&W2, would - in case of a GOG-release - probably argue, that $10 is way too much money asked for a 13 years old game - and thus, would rather wait for a discount of (say) 50% or more.
Apart from that: let's imagine EA would license their game to GOG...that would mean, GOG would have to pay a certain amount of money upfront, PLUS a certain percentage of the sale price for every unit sold.
That would cut into GOG's gross profit (the $400k, that you assume to be sure money).
But hey, let's go nuts...let's assume EA would sell the IP to GOG.
Then GOG would have to pay even more money upfront...no percentage cut, of course...BUT we close the loop and return to points (a+b) of my statement in this paragraph: GOG would not automatically sell to 40k people - and GOG would definitely not sell 40k copies for a tenner, each.
So much to the plan of "making millions". Because EA is not so willing to sell/license their game to GOG as you obviously assume?

I guess I will just have to try and install The First Decade once I get home today and see which games work and which don't.

Sure do :) And please post fixes and workaround here if you can <3 It will be helpful for a lot of people.

Personally I am thinking of diving into PCem or 86box over a weekend and then see what works and what doesnt

https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/

https://86box.github.io/

EA

This is a company that tried charging people for gas when playing NFS.

Yeah. I'm not holding my breath here. XD

They'd get 100% of the sales if they bought the license like the OP is suggesting.

Which still requires EA to sell their IP to GOG first.
And depending on how much GOG would have to pay for the IP, they would need to sell amount X of games, only to amortize (= break even) the buying price.

So, buying the IP is not necessarily a good deal.

I don't think people realize just how absolutely naff these games were; and how much moreso poorly they will have aged.

Not to mention what an entire madness it must be getting to run, seeing as it was one of those games that existed while there were still multiple 3D standards out there.

I was merely stating that in the OP's fantasy world, that's how this works.

In a world where even basic arithmetic doesn't work properly, I wouldn't expect anything to work. That's a world where 2 + 2 = Friday and a car's top speed is the taste of purple.

A blueshifted cat would be impressive. Which reminded me of an old MIT Game, A Slower Speed of Light.

On a related note, Tucker Carlson has said he would be in favor of GOG selling this game so long as they agree to change the name of it to just "and White".

Oh wow, I didn't know we had a representative from EA here on the forum!
While you're here, can we get more of the classic Sim games here? I have a weird compulsion to play Sim Ant.

I want SimCopter.

And Evan_dAmien will give it to you! EA is willing to sell any and all of their properties for low, low prices. Hooray!