How to retrieve old FrameMaker 5.5 files

re: I have some technical documents that I created in FrameMaker 5.5 back in the late 1990's. My question is: if I download the newest version of FrameMaker (2015) will I be able to open these old .fm files and save them as .fm files?

I will be very surprised if the answer is not YES.

re: When I called Adobe phone support I was told that you can't open FrameMaker 5.5 files with the current version of FrameMaker.

I hope you didn't pay anything for that call.

re: I also noticed that you can download trial versions of older versions of FM, such as 11, 10, 9, 8, or 7.2.  If I downloaded one of these older versions of FM would I be able to open my FM 5.5 files?

If Adobe has in fact dropped the ability of a newer FM to open an older FM's binaries, then yes, that would be a great work-around. I would re-save as both binary (.fm) and MIF to minimize further migration issues. If the .fm won't open, try the .mif.

re: As I side note, I am running Windows 7 64-bit operating system.  I have the original FM 5.5 application disk, but can't install it on my machine...probably because FM 5.5 was designed for 16-bit operating systems (?).

I'm running FM7.0 under XP Mode in Windows 7/64, but the odds of earlier versions being able to use this dodge get iffier the older they are. 5.5 might have some 16-bit or real-mode code that won't even run in the XP/32 VM on a 64-bit x86 CPU.

In any event, when opening 5.5 files under newer FMs, expect some odd dialogs, and the usual assortment of missing fonts and imported objects not found.