Good games that run on Windows XP?

[Scream And Fly]

Don’t forget Serious Sam! My personal favorite is Unreal with the expansion, and of course UT.

[Edmond Dantes]

Heh, its funny but I was actually addicted to Unreal Tournament a month ago.

See, I started out playing Unreal, but I found the main campaign boring, so wound up loading up a botmatch... and was like "Wow, this is awesome," and so installed Unreal Tournament since it was basically that, but better.

This on a PC that had no internet access whatsoever.

So now I wonder if I should load up Quake III Arena (which yes I do own--a friend just dumped it along with other PC games on me when he went off to college and never asked it to be returned. It's the "Gold" release which includes Team Arena).

Perhap I should build another PC and invite people out so we can have classic LAN parties.

[Scream And Fly]

Oh man, UT and LAN parties! So much fun. Many years ago we would get together 10 friends or so and meet up at one of our houses for an all-night frag-fest. Somebody brings the network switch and everybody brings their own Cat5 cable. Such good times. All night of Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, Half-Life deathmatch, Quake III, and Team Fortress Classic. I miss those days.

[Cornelius]

Did anyone play Master of Orion 3? I played a lot of MoO2, but never the sequel. I think the buzz was pretty negative when it came out.

[Edmond Dantes]

I recall reading about MoO3 in an issue of PC Gamer but I never played any of the games in the series.

Speaking of PC Gamer, last month I bought some old issues on ebay (circa 1995-2001, most near the 1995-6 point) and well...

Reading those is a trip and a half. Among the highlights include:

* Predictions about how going online will radically change the face of gaming (yup).

* A long letter (and response from PC Gamer's editor) which talked about the possibility of PCs playing console games (they specifically cited the original--and at the time, only--Playstation), possibly with enhancements, but both sides seemed to think this was just a pipe dream that would never come to fruition. Kinda got a chuckle out of that one.

* There was a brief mention in the 2001 issue that the editor had gotten heat for saying bad things about Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. My, how times have changed...

* One recurring advertiser in the back of the 1995-6 issues was a company that specialized in... pornography on CD-ROM? Like, some of it was literally said to be just CDs full of JPEGs, but some sounded like they were some sort of interactive. I especially wonder what "Vampire's Kiss" is. Also, apparently the anime Urotsukidoji was sold this way (I'm guessing it was a hyper-compressed quicktime movie on CD-ROM or something), and it wasn't the only one, though I didn't recognize most of the other titles. Seriously, I should scan this page.

[jb143]

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.

[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.

[Aswald]

There are many:

Deepica
Plumeboom: The First Chapter
The Golden Path of Plumeboom
Eternity
Wizard's Curse: Deadly Spell
Spunky's Supercar
Mahjong Dimensions: Tiles In Time
Gingertip's beautiful "Foxtail" (go to GOG and buy it!)
Inherit the Earth
Sanctuary Black
Elementals: The Magic Key
Ancient Wonderland
Azteca
Roller Coaster Tycoon
Exorcist 3: Stalker
Stargunner

Among many others. A number do depend on your hardware.

If you haven't already find and download "DOSBox 0.74." This incredibly easy-to-use emulator allows you to play MS-DOS games, like "Darkseed," the remarkable "Dreamweb," "The Legend of Kyrandia," "Dino Park Builder," "Bubble Bobble," "Arkanoid," and so many others. Since many great games are abandonware they are free to use.


Have fun!

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

SimCity 4 (make sure to get Deluxe Edition)
SimCity 3000
RollerCoaster Tycoon 1, 2 or 3 (take your pick)
The Sims 2 (the more expansion packs the better)
Mall Tycoon 1-2
Capitalism II
Oregon Trail 5th Edition