Good games that run on Windows XP?

[Cornelius]

Just out of curiosity (and because I have several of these games on my backlog), is there anything that keeps these from running on a Windows 10 system? Most of my older software runs just fine so I never gave it too much thought. I know you have to install any DirectX components that aren't included anymore but that's not too big of a deal. Is there any gaming reason to keep an XP system around? Other than maybe hardware issues, such as old controllers not working anymore.

As a rule, no, not in my experience. I've recently run StarCraft and Diablo II. The former can be downloaded from Blizzard free now, so they have it working. DII I had to set compatibility mode and put to 16-bit, then there was some wrapper or glide thing that was recommended and super easy. I've also run Neverwinter Nights 2(?) without much problem. Diablo 1 took a bit more doing, but even that wasn't too bad.

[jb143]

I figured as much. I got the free Starcraft a while back, and all my Steam games still ran. I just wasn't entirely sure if most games would work in general.

[Edmond Dantes]

I've never heard of an XP game that won't work on later versions of Windows (hell for a long time modern-ish games were backwards compatible with XP IIRC).

Like was said most of it might be down to program issues. I know Riven: the Sequel to Myst will have graphical glitches if you install a version of Quicktime higher than (I think) Quicktime 5 or so--I had to go to Reddit for help on this once but wound up mostly soft-troubleshooting (see the responses). But then I think Myst III actually requires Quicktime 6...

I think some games also have speed issues where the comp can be just too fast. This mostly happens with really old MS-DOS games tho, but I know the PC version of Sonic & Knuckles (which was for Win95/98) has this issue too. That version also changed some of the music for some reason--I need to reinstall it to hear all the differences but I remember the Sonic 3 levels near the end having a lot of different music.

....

As for why have an XP machine, to be honest its because I mostly do older games and thus don't have need for modern OSes, but also because older OSes have little conveniences--like if you accidentally bork your installation, you can just wipe the C:\ Drive and reinstall (which isn't that big of a deal actually). Nowadays with DRM and Windows "licenses" I tend to not experiment as much because if I screw something up, I'm likely stuck with it. I remember having Windows 8 for awhile and absolutely hating how nothing was familiar and it even integrated with the BIOS which just bothered me to no end (you literally could only access the BIOS thru the OS, which is just wrong on so many levels. Fortunately removing the OS also made BIOS usage more traditional).

It's largely a matter of older OSes being simple and convenient and I don't have modern hardware (outside of this non-gaming laptop) anyway.

[Niku-Sama]

you should be able to get away with MechWarrior 3 and expansions on that hardware in xp.

but yeesh ti4200?

[Nz17]

First of all, yes, yes you should install and play Quake III Arena. It is excellent, and people still play it online frequently even today.

Second, I still run Windows XP on my main computer, and even "modern" games like the completely-up-to-date 2018 release of Team Fortress 2 runs just fine on WinXP. It is surprising how many new and recent games will run on XP even if they don't claim as such.

Third, search GOG.com if you want good DRM-free games that will run on Windows XP. Some of them won't, but they will state as such in their requirements and those are rare.

Fourth, are you principally interested in physical copies of the games (CD's / DVD's) or downloads? Knowing which will make recommendations simpler.

[gbpxl]

Did anyone keep their old computers from the 90s? I think we trashed ours every time we upgraded. It's harder to play those games on original hardware compared to console and portables from the same period

[jb143]

I still have my first PC from 94 or so. I keep telling myself that I'll set it up as a dedicated dosbox one of these days but lack of time (and DOSBox) has kept me from it. I mostly have the next PC I got around 97 but it got parted out over the years.

[Gameguy]

Did anyone keep their old computers from the 90s?

Yeah, we kept our old computers instead of getting rid of them. Ours from the 90's is an actual tower, but everything else bought new was a laptop as they took less space. I'm not sure if everything is still running properly but I'm planning to test it all out again and have it set up to actually use. It's been years since I've played old games properly on actual old PCs.

To the original topic, it's kind of hard to think of Windows XP specific games that run well. It's hard because I found Windows XP barely ran well on it's own.

[Edmond Dantes]

Ok, was offline for a long time and forgot to check in on this topic...

you should be able to get away with MechWarrior 3 and expansions on that hardware in xp.

but yeesh ti4200?

What's wrong with the ti4200? It had good recommendations on places like Vogons (and I was told at the time that it was the best that would work in both 98SE and XP, though I've now heard contradicting info but the later cards that apparently still work are only slight improvements).

First of all, yes, yes you should install and play Quake III Arena. It is excellent, and people still play it online frequently even today.

Second, I still run Windows XP on my main computer, and even "modern" games like the completely-up-to-date 2018 release of Team Fortress 2 runs just fine on WinXP. It is surprising how many new and recent games will run on XP even if they don't claim as such.

Third, search GOG.com if you want good DRM-free games that will run on Windows XP. Some of them won't, but they will state as such in their requirements and those are rare.

Fourth, are you principally interested in physical copies of the games (CD's / DVD's) or downloads? Knowing which will make recommendations simpler.

That last one is tricky as I've played a lot of downloaded games, usually freeware and GOG purchases. Was an excellent puzzle game called Hex-a-Hop that I was hooked on for a bit.

But for the sake of narrowing it down let's say "commercial games that had a physical release back in the day."

Altho I also found that the fangame Mega Man Unlimited runs just fine on this doohickey, and using a Playstation-to-USB controller makes playing it indistinguishable from playing a console Megaman game...

[Nz17]

A ti4200 sounds good to me!

I actually was casually playing Hex-a-Hop for quite a few years. That's a good pick-up-and-play game all right!

Funny enough, I also use a Playstation-to-USB adapter for my current computer gaming. It works really well for the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night-esque game Timespinner, and Timespinner (which releases this month on September 25th) is compatible with Windows XP or newer as well as Linux and Mac OS.

Do you know that Steam still runs on XP? It might even run on 2000 still. Why do I mention this? A few years ago, Steam's refund policy changed. Now the general rule is, if you play a game for less then two hours, then you can get a full refund. So, as there are so many thousands of games on Steam which are compatible with XP, you can just buy what you find interesting, download them, and try to run them. In the minority of cases where they won't run, just request a refund. Simple as pie!

[pacman000]

Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2

Puzzle Bobble 2 (by Interplay, if memory serves.)

[Gamevet]

I have an XP machine from @2001. It has 750MB of RAM, a DVD drive, a 2Ghz Celeron CPU and an FX5200 Ultra. It ran games like Halo, Half Life, StarCraft, Star Wars: Jedi Knight, Star Wars: Empire at War and Unreal just fine. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was a buggy mess, that crashed way too often. I ended up getting an Xbox to play KOTOR, because of how poor it ran on PC.