Playing older Windows games on a modern computer?

[savageone]

It's unfortunate that there really isn't a solution that solves everything, it's always been a problem with PC gaming though. The best thing to do is just build an older PC for yourself and install Windows 95 and/or 98. Then in some years you're gonna want a Windows XP system in addition (probably).. If you want even older games Windows 95 might not even work that well.

Personally I find that to be more trouble than it's really worth.

For older PC games I try either a Virtual PC (using windows 98 of course) or Dosbox. But I always search for workarounds for modern OS systems first, or just try it for myself if I find nothing. For instance I'm currently on the RC build of Windows 7 and playing the Thief games flawlessly, which seems odd because those games are notoriously incompatible with versions of Windows after 98 and require a lot of workarounds. But all I did was install the games and the codec for the movies, and they worked great. I added in a modern resolution patch to run them at 1680x1050 as well, really nice stuff.

[Kim Possible]

I've been trying to run Might and Magic VII on my Windows 2000 laptop, but it keeps wanting an older version of DirectX, even though I have a newer one, and no matter how many times I install the older version it cannot detect it.

Sad thing is, I just wanted to take another spin around the game for old time's sake.

Would any of the above pointers be helpful in this capacity?

[j_factor]

I play some older PC games on my computer:

X-wing Vs. Tie Fighter
Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic R

And the trick I use if some games don't want to work is:

Right-Click the game icon
Do Properties>Compatibility Tab.

Check "Run this Program in compatibility mode for:"

Select from the Drop Down Menu -Windows 98/Windows ME (Or Windows 95 depending on how old the game is)"

Check - "Run in 256 colors"

Check - "Run in 640x480 Screen Resolution"

You shouldn't have any more problems running old games after that. A lot of old games have problems with not running in 256 colors and some have trouble with not running in 640x480 as well.

Yeah, I know about that. It still doesn't work for everything. Like I said in the OP, it doesn't work for Lose Your Marbles.[

Depending on the type of game and how graphics intensive it is, you might be able to use Virtual PC or VMWare Workstation (Virtual PC emulates some things that VMware can't and vice versa; plus, Virtual PC is totally free). I've tested many Windows 95/98 games without a hitch.

I'll give that a try, thanks.

edit: Uh, it looks like Virtual PC is only for running XP under Windows 7? I have Vista (64-bit Home Premium with SP2).

[Ed Oscuro]

edit: Uh, it looks like Virtual PC is only for running XP under Windows 7? I have Vista (64-bit Home Premium with SP2).

Get an older version, I believe that's the issue I ran into too.

[j_factor]

Okay, I got the previous version of Virtual PC. I created a virtual PC, with Windows 98. But then when I run it, I just get a black screen with text, like when you turn on a computer with no OS. Where's Windows?

[savageone]

Okay, I got the previous version of Virtual PC. I created a virtual PC, with Windows 98. But then when I run it, I just get a black screen with text, like when you turn on a computer with no OS. Where's Windows?

You have to actually install Windows 98 from your old CD (if you have one), it's not just magically there of course.

[Push Upstairs]

Voodoo cards rock.

Yeah, I have a Voodoo 3 in mine. The video card and sound card that came with the computer I found were giving me some compatibility issues along with drivers being hard to find.

VooDoo and SB Live! cards had drivers far, far easier to find on the 'net.

[Darkman2K5]

VirtualBox is also a free VMware program and it recently introduced support for DX8 3D acceleration, with video memory up to 24mb. I havent personally tested this feature out myself, but the program itself is pretty good and easy to figure out. Might be worth trying to see if it will run all those old games.

[Jorpho]

VirtualBox is also a free VMware program and it recently introduced support for DX8 3D acceleration, with video memory up to 24mb. I havent personally tested this feature out myself, but the program itself is pretty good and easy to figure out. Might be worth trying to see if it will run all those old games.

There seem to be many complaints that VirtualBox is substantially slower than VMware or Virtual PC as far as Win9x goes.

Does the DirectX acceleration even work in Win9x? VMware's 3D acceleration only works if you're running XP in the virtual machine, apparently.

(I might suggest QEMU, but it seems VirtualBox is pretty much QEMU anyway.)

[Push Upstairs]

I could not get VirtualBox to run Win98 well. I could only get it to run at 16 colors and (I think) no sound. But VBox doesn't have guest additions for Win98.

[Darkman2K5]

There seem to be many complaints that VirtualBox is substantially slower than VMware or Virtual PC as far as Win9x goes.

Does the DirectX acceleration even work in Win9x? VMware's 3D acceleration only works if you're running XP in the virtual machine, apparently.

(I might suggest QEMU, but it seems VirtualBox is pretty much QEMU anyway.)

I think you might be right about that, I havent really looked into the matter. I've gotten Windows 98 to work with sound, but not more than 16 colors, a workaround does exist, I believe the help topics in the program point you to it, they havent made guest additions for WIN98 yet.

[j_factor]

You have to actually install Windows 98 from your old CD (if you have one), it's not just magically there of course.

Ahh. Well shit then.

[aaron7]

Usually I can find a patch for XP for games I want to play (Doom, Duke3d, etc).

Otherwise I use my P233MMX gaming PC

[Jorpho]

You have to actually install Windows 98 from your old CD (if you have one), it's not just magically there of course.

Unless of course you download an (illegal) pre-configured VM.