Java HotSpot Virtual Machine

I cannot run Dining Philosophers or Star Field or Nuclear Plant applets from the Applet Archive section of http://sun.java.com/applets/. I have tried running them with both JRE 1.3.1 and MS VM. I do not have any other version to test them with and there is no source to try and recompile but it seems a little strange that older applets will not run and from java's own site? Can someone try on same VM and confirm or deny. Also, this error is not well documented in API, anyone knows where would one get more information on it?

<code>
this is from java -version
java version "1.3.1"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.3.1-b24)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.3.1-b24, mixed mode)

java.lang.ClassFormatError: stars (Arguments can't fit into locals)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass0(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:486)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:111)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.findClass(AppletClassLoader.java:142)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:297)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(AppletClassLoader.java:108)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:253)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadCode(AppletClassLoader.java:373)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(AppletPanel.java:579)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(AppletPanel.java:515)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(AppletPanel.java:293)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:484)

---------- with MS VM:

Microsoft (R) VM for Java, 5.0 Release 5.0.0.3802
Error loading class: stars
java.lang.ClassFormatError
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: stars
at com/ms/vm/loader/URLClassLoader.loadClass
at com/ms/vm/loader/URLClassLoader.loadClass
at com/ms/applet/AppletPanel.securedClassLoad
at com/ms/applet/AppletPanel.processSentEvent
at com/ms/applet/AppletPanel.processSentEvent
at com/ms/applet/AppletPanel.run
at java/lang/Thread.run
</code>