Good games that run on Windows XP?

[Nz17]

Well, you could always buy computer games from eBay. There's a lot of XP-compatible software for sale on there, and most of those games don't require an Internet connection, just the DVD / CD to always be in the drive. That is, of course, unless you make ISO copies of the CD's / DVD's and use Daemon Tools to create a virtual DVD drive and then have the images mounted via Daemon Tools so that, to the program's CD checker, it appears that a real disc is in a real disc drive so you don't need to actually have the CD ever-present and spinning in the drive.

As far as Internet connectivity, I'm guessing you can't just run a CAT-5 Ethernet cable to your machine?

With regards to video playback, have you considered using SMPlayer or VLC? VLC is easy to set up and has a friendly interface, but SMPlayer has better performance. Either way, even their newest versions are, last I checked, compatible with XP, but if they are not, let me know and I'll find older releases that are. Make sure that frame-dropping is enabled and you should have really good video playback with them. Either VLC or SMPlayer should give better playback than Media Player Classic with the CCCP.

[Edmond Dantes]

I'll try VLC, but thing is the files that tend to have problems tend to be like.... it seems like if the file is either 1080p or else 400+mb then it'll have problems playing on this machine. Now, the machine has 512mb of system ram and a 128mb video card so I'm not sure if that's the problem or what.

Then again, if I load a DVD movie with Daemontools and play that, MPC has no issue, and DVDs are far bigger than 500+mb so.... not sure how that works.

[Gameguy]

I'll try VLC, but thing is the files that tend to have problems tend to be like.... it seems like if the file is either 1080p or else 400+mb then it'll have problems playing on this machine. Now, the machine has 512mb of system ram and a 128mb video card so I'm not sure if that's the problem or what.

This is the exact type of experience I've had with XP, when watching any videos online above 240p it would play back choppy or worse. I maxed out the RAM to 512mb too. It's just a bloated OS that sucks up all resources.

As for DVDs, they can be played on Win 98 hardware so they better play fine on XP.

Also I remember trying to play the PC version of Shadow of Destiny and even though my hardware all surpassed the minimum requirements, it ran so poorly it was unplayable. This is a game from 2002, I used this PC from 2005-2009ish. I could play other games but it was common for me to have issues in some way.

[Nz17]

Edmond, the problem isn't the file size of the videos, it is the bit rate (the number of bits per second) and the level of compression. Basically, a low-compression DVD plays back fine with your setup, but a high-compression video file that requires a lot of CPU power to decode that ends up decompressing into a high-bitrate video stream is probably just too demanding for the hardware.

Personally, I still run XP, and the YouTube videos run just fine with it even at 480p, 720p, etc. I don't usually try to view anything at 1080p or higher because my monitor's resolution is only 900p.

Then again, I spend most of my time on the same machine booted into Linux, so I am using Window XP and Windows in general less and less.

And, as for running Steam with Windows XP, it looks like that is going to end with the end of this year. It was just announced that starting January 1st, 2019, Steam will no longer be compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. It's too bad as XP is where I run most of my Steam apps and games. I guess this is just like years ago when I was saddened when Steam dropped support for Windows 98 and Windows ME. Otherwise Half-Life (1) would have continued to run just fine on my old computer! Alas.

[Edmond Dantes]

And, as for running Steam with Windows XP, it looks like that is going to end with the end of this year. It was just announced that starting January 1st, 2019, Steam will no longer be compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. It's too bad as XP is where I run most of my Steam apps and games. I guess this is just like years ago when I was saddened when Steam dropped support for Windows 98 and Windows ME. Otherwise Half-Life (1) would have continued to run just fine on my old computer! Alas.

Half-Life 1 _still_ runs fine on Windows 98 in my experience. But I got the game before it got Steamed (somehow I actually wound up with two physical copies... the first was the Adrenaline Pack which I bought new at Wal-Mart, but later the same pack but now including Blue Shift got released, and a friend who went full digital-only gave me his copy of those discs. So ummm.... I guess I have extra discs of HL1, TFC and OpFor which I don't need...)

Why the hell did Team Fortress Classic need a separate CD when its literally just an update patch (indeed its auto-installed if you skip the TFC disk and install the OpFor disk)?

On that note... one thing that bothers me about Half-Life is it seems some of its mods actually require Steam now. Back in the day you could go to ModDb and get stuff like They Hunger (which I thoughtfully backed up on a CD-R) and others which only required the latest at the time patch (which I also backed up on a CD-R--I was in the habit of backing up downloads in case the internet went down, and actually still am, I just use external HDs now). Nowadays though? I can't say for sure any mod will work on a non-steam version (they don't tend to say so upfront). I remember trying to play Afraid of Monsters and it decided to be an asshole. Like geez... Half-Life 1 runs in 98SE and XP, its mods should too.

I mean at least Doom WADs tell you when they need a specific source port.

....

So, wound up getting addicted to one of my favorite Windows 98SE games (well, originally a DOS game but there was a slight updated version for 95/98 PCs). You'll probably recognize it from these quotes:

"Skooboo. Zugzug. They're destroying our city!"

Orcs are so adorable.

[Rickstilwell1]

Did anyone ever try running X-Men Legends II on these specs? I never installed it on my old tower, but I am assuming that if Marvel Ultimate Alliance ran too slowly then the average pre-built XP computer from that era would struggle as well. But maybe an upgraded one would work fine. I do have Windows XP installed on a hard drive for use on my Samsung AMD laptop though with SATA drivers. That is much higher specs than what you are comparing to though. But I bet when I swap that hard drive in to my laptop, it should run anything at all that is compatible with XP.

[Edmond Dantes]

I've never heard of X-Men Legends 1 or 2... well, I heard of the first one but I thought it was a console exclusive, surprised there's a PC version.

Anyway, lately I'm looking into adventure games. There was this company I used to see on store shelves all the time, The Adventure Company, whose games all came in these distinctive black boxes. I remember ignoring them because they somehow screamed "budget" and all seemed like Myst clones, but now they're all easy to get... and in fact, I found one by accident in Goodwill recently (Echo: secretso f the Lost Cavern) which it turns out, will run on this Dell but not my older PC, so its just what I'm looking for.

Myst IV and V will only run on my XP comp too... Myst III will run on my older 98 machine, but my XP machine has a better graphics card allowing me to enable some minor enhancements. Finally I can enjoy the entire Myst series....