Windows 7 x86 Old Games?
- Thread starter Sandi1987
- Start date
Solution
bigpinkdragon286
Splendid
- Oct 3, 2012
- 4,648
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- 28,590
Typically, this is on a per game basis, but generally yes. Some games may require you run them in compatibility mode, some games may not work at all.
If old games are really that important, it might make more sense to actually piece together a retro PC and just run a version of Windows that is more suitable to the age of the games you are trying to play.
If old games are really that important, it might make more sense to actually piece together a retro PC and just run a version of Windows that is more suitable to the age of the games you are trying to play.
bigpinkdragon286
Splendid
- Oct 3, 2012
- 4,648
- 35
- 28,590
Picking up an old computer that somebody is throwing out or donating should be a low cost, possibly even free option. This could be run along side your current PC, and you could switch between the two using a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch, and not even have to get new peripherals. This is likely the most foolproof method of running old games.
VGA KVM
DVI KVM - (Possibly won't find DV out on equipment old enough to run your intended games, but this is the best interface if you do.)
HDMI KVM - (Probably won't find HDMI out on equipment old enough to run your intended games. Might work through DVI-to-HDMI adapter.)
Another option would be to get hardware virtualization going on. provided your current PC has enough spare resources and compatible IOMMU groups, you can run a full install of Windows XP and possibly another full install of Millennium Edition (9x kernel), with hardware support, so pretty much full speed, along with keeping your current Windows 10 installation. The benefit of this would be faster hardware, less computers hanging around, and all of the copies of Windows would be able to run at the same time, so you could switch between Windows 10 and your old games without any downtime.
I'm not affiliated with this company, but they provide software that allows you to set up the hardware virtualization if you go that route. The basic license you would need is $59.
LimeTech
Also, here's a great tutorial from YouTube on how to set up the virtualization.
Virtualized Gaming with unRAID OS - Tutorial
There will always be some downsides to running old software on new equipment. A lot of old games use software timed loops, which means some things just won't work on fast equipment. Even the Windows 9x kernel had to be patched to work on high frequency CPUs, so expect that, even if you get all of your old games to run on Windows 7, you can still have other problems to sort out.
Finally, you might try a gaming service such as Good Old Games. You can filter games based on the OS you want to run them on, and you might find that they have updated versions of games you're looking for that will work with your Windows 7 PC.
VGA KVM
DVI KVM - (Possibly won't find DV out on equipment old enough to run your intended games, but this is the best interface if you do.)
HDMI KVM - (Probably won't find HDMI out on equipment old enough to run your intended games. Might work through DVI-to-HDMI adapter.)
Another option would be to get hardware virtualization going on. provided your current PC has enough spare resources and compatible IOMMU groups, you can run a full install of Windows XP and possibly another full install of Millennium Edition (9x kernel), with hardware support, so pretty much full speed, along with keeping your current Windows 10 installation. The benefit of this would be faster hardware, less computers hanging around, and all of the copies of Windows would be able to run at the same time, so you could switch between Windows 10 and your old games without any downtime.
I'm not affiliated with this company, but they provide software that allows you to set up the hardware virtualization if you go that route. The basic license you would need is $59.
LimeTech
Also, here's a great tutorial from YouTube on how to set up the virtualization.
Virtualized Gaming with unRAID OS - Tutorial
There will always be some downsides to running old software on new equipment. A lot of old games use software timed loops, which means some things just won't work on fast equipment. Even the Windows 9x kernel had to be patched to work on high frequency CPUs, so expect that, even if you get all of your old games to run on Windows 7, you can still have other problems to sort out.
Finally, you might try a gaming service such as Good Old Games. You can filter games based on the OS you want to run them on, and you might find that they have updated versions of games you're looking for that will work with your Windows 7 PC.
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