update:
even tho my normal user account was created with administrator privilages, and even tho I manually went through several uninstalls and reinstalls and setting admin privilages on the executables, patching and over and over. The game(s) wouldn't run. I finally tried logging on to the main admin account and installed the game, went in and manually selected admin privilages on all executables, and the game was able to run...both on the default install location and a reinstall to a larger data drive. Don't know exactly why, but was only able to get the game to run by installing in the main admin account.
Hope this helps someone else that may buy and install this older game.