Old PC Games on Newer hardware

[CTC]

So I have been recently doing some reorganizing and I found a cd book case full of old games, command and conquer, age of empires, heroes 1-3, ceaser III, etc. So i thought i would be nostalgic and load them up and try them out but they do not run on Windows 7(I know, even that is dated). Obviously the system specs I have now are more than capable but they just won't launch.
So I was thinking of trying my luck at finding an old OS or even desktop to see if I could manage to have a vintage toy haha.

Anyone have any experience with my issue? Thanks.

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[V13]

Try to launch them in compatibility mode. May work with some of them

- Click on the shortcut of the game with right mouse button
- Properties
- Compatibility
- Check the run this program in compatibility mode box
- Try windows xp first , if doesn't work try win 7

May or may not do the trick but it does work for some old games i can confirm that

 

[V13]

Try to launch them in compatibility mode. May work with some of them

- Click on the shortcut of the game with right mouse button
- Properties
- Compatibility
- Check the run this program in compatibility mode box
- Try windows xp first , if doesn't work try win 7

May or may not do the trick but it does work for some old games i can confirm that

You can also dual boot. Install and boot into win xp when you want to play a game and boot into win 7 for your normal day to day uses or to play your other more recent games.

 

[Kestrel]

I haven't used it in years, but you could look into DOSbox too.

 

[PK Cronin]

I stopped trying to use old discs because it became too much of a pain to find a fix for each individual game. If you decide you want to play some older games and don't mind dropping a few bucks, gog.com has been great for me. I've gotten Lords of the Realm I & II, Corsairs, Caesar III, etc. and they all work really well. Age of Empires has been remastered and is on Steam, both 1 and 2, with new content. It's pretty good.

 

[SniperHF]

HoMM 1 and 2 probably need Dosbox.

Someone mentioned compatibility mode earlier and launching them with it. Not only should you launch in compatibilty mode but sometimes you need to install with compatibility mode as well. So explore the contents of the CD and find the install.exe and set compatibility mode.

One other random tip, sometimes older programs don't like being installed in the default windows tree of C:\Program Files (x86)\GAME HERE

I usually create a C:\Games folder or something like that to install in.

Don't forget to patch too. Your old games on CD are likely version 1.0 unless they were re-releases.

Next time GOG has a sale it might be worth keeping an eye there as mentioned earlier, it does simplify things.

 

[rbochan]

Virtualization is your friend.

 

[CTC]

thanks for the responses, I will try the compatibility more first, I even have old cd's for xp and windows 2000 so I could duel boot too and maybe that could work. Will see.

 

[Osprey]

Look up each game at PCGamingWiki.com. That site aggregates files and fixes to get PC games working. I've contributed there many times.

Something not mentioned yet is that a lot of older games (from the mid-to-late 90s) can't even be installed on 64-bit Windows because their installers are 16-bit. Many of those games have 32-bit replacement installers that people have made. You simply run them and they install the game from the CD. If a game has one, it's usually linked to on its PCGamingWiki.com page.

 

[aleshemsky83]

So I have been recently doing some reorganizing and I found a cd book case full of old games, command and conquer, age of empires, heroes 1-3, ceaser III, etc. So i thought i would be nostalgic and load them up and try them out but they do not run on Windows 7(I know, even that is dated). Obviously the system specs I have now are more than capable but they just won't launch.
So I was thinking of trying my luck at finding an old OS or even desktop to see if I could manage to have a vintage toy haha.

Anyone have any experience with my issue? Thanks.

Some good suggestions so far but the simplest one:

Enter the CD key into steam. You now own the steam version of those games and they will (usually) run better than whatever version you have.

Of course, this isn't always true, I bought Commandos on Steam and it was pretty broken, but theyve since updated it to run perfectly on windows 10.

 

[PK Cronin]

Some good suggestions so far but the simplest one:

Enter the CD key into steam. You now own the steam version of those games and they will (usually) run better than whatever version you have.

Of course, this isn't always true, I bought Commandos on Steam and it was pretty broken, but theyve since updated it to run perfectly on windows 10.

Steam doesn't carry all the old games though, so it'll be hit or miss.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Some good suggestions so far but the simplest one:

Enter the CD key into steam. You now own the steam version of those games and they will (usually) run better than whatever version you have.

Of course, this isn't always true, I bought Commandos on Steam and it was pretty broken, but theyve since updated it to run perfectly on windows 10.

You can do that? I totally did not know that...and I have totally bought games over again that I definitely had the CD key for.

Woops.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Steam doesn't carry all the old games though, so it'll be hit or miss.

True and in that case you might be able to do the same thing with origin or Uplay (I hadn't checked).

But yes op this for sure does work with steam. I put my supreme commander cd key into steam and not only did I get the game, I got the forged alliance expansion for free.