Problems with Older PC Games

[perdue3]

I have been dusting off a few of my PC games lately and have noticed a trend that I am not happy with. All of my older PC games seem to have some problems.

I have 4GB of RAM and plenty of Free Space. I run an NVidia 8600GT and my comp can handle any game I throw at it including Aces High, World of Tanks, Rise of Flight and any other game I happen to run. But my older games like Red Baron II, European Air War, and Blitzkrieg seem to have the same problems. Common problems include color flaws, gameplay speed is off, and some game features do not work like mouse movement.

Anyone know of a way I can be able to play these games? Is there something I should turn off or on that would enable these games to run better? Or am I just SOL with these classic older PC games?



perdweeb

[Blooz]

These older programs were not written for the current OS and using such fast hardware.

If you can get the game to install on the hard drive, right click it's icon, select Properties, click the Compatability tab and set it up so Windows can emulate the older OS for this program.

It's not always going to work because you're only emulating the older OS but it's worth a try.

[bbosen]

I've had very good luck with a well-known, free program called "DOSBOX". Google it.

Works well under Windows XP and under LINUX. I assume it also works under Windows Vista and Win7, but have not yet tried it there.

But all of my old DOS programs and games seem to run perfectly with it, and it has some extra commands that let me adjust execution speed.


-Peabody-

[ImADot]

Hehehe.  I remember some very old games that didn't use the system clock to calculate their timings.  The faster your processor, the faster the game played until it was impossible to even do the easiest of things.

[perdue3]

Neither of those worked. The compatabilty mode worked a little but was like stop and go in Gameplay.

I have also tried shutting down one of my processors while running the game, still no help 


perdweeb

[Chalenge]

I have bought several of the older games that guys have mentioned here on the BBS from "Good Old Games" or GOG.com and Red Baron and Red Baron 3D were two of them (didnt interest me because of their primitive format but I tried them). I recall I had to do some tuning to get them up and running but they did work.

[Blackwulf]

Some older games also were written before USB keyboards and the newer versions of DirectX so they don't pick up on some keyboard commands at all, or act flaky.  I have an older game that has that problem, and would love to find a fix.  Compatability settings will let it run, but you can't crouch or use weapons effectively due to the keyboard thing.
I have actually been thinking of finding an older system at a flea market or something just to run older games.

[Meatwad]

I was going to say dosbox also. It worked great for when I was playing Arsenal.

See if the local radio station has a classifides section and ask if anyone has an old 486 or P2 computer.

I have leisure suit larry 6 that I havent been able to play for a long time

[68ZooM]

i tried some of my older game, novalogic titles... landwarrior series, and F16/F21 and Comanche4 they all worked real good, still having alot of fun with the F16 and F21 just to much fun dropping a Nuke in one of the offline missions

[Reschke]

DOSBOX works great for all my old games and many of them are the same ones that you mentioned. I have an i7-920 with 6GB RAM and a GTX260 and don't have any trouble in Win7.

For more compatibility help try looking over @ Simhq.com. They have a bunch of forums for games like the ones you mentioned and a whole crew of guys that post there are great about helping someone get the old ones working again.

[FiLtH]

  I have a tons of old games and once in a blue moon I try one out. IF they work, and they usually dont, I usually find the memories of the game, more fun than playing the game today.

[cattb]

You could try VMware or something similar. Then load a older OS and your old games. VMware is free. I think there is virtual pc and virtual box and I am sure others.
VMware, the older 1.XX version before the 2.0 is pretty easy to setup and run.

[DeltaFox]

I still have my 1985 era Commodore 64 and its games, and some pretty good Microprose simulator games and it still runs.  And also have my old IBM 386, Model 70 with its DOS games and it still runs.  But I don't have room to set them up unless maybe someday I will put rooms in the attic, an old Victorian house, with high roof pitch and dormers.  Neither of the older PCs are Internet ready; they could be if I wanted to spend the money to do it, but what for?

My new PC I built is Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit and some of my older 32 bit games will not run in 64-bit mode.  Have not tried the Virtual XP, yet---I think that may be a solution, but not for the DOS games.  I did get another copy of Windows 7, but just the Home edition and 32-bit OEM from New Egg to set up Aces High on it and no antivirus.  I need to put a supercooler in it and rework the disk drives one of these days.  The Win 7 32-bit should run my older Windows games.  This PC has room for 5 hard drives.

I'm a hoarder, if stuff still works, I save it for a rainy day.  It is my machinist's mentality of saving scrap items to someday rework stuff to be useful.

I did not know about the useful items like DOSBox and such.  I enjoy reading the Aces High BBS just because of its learning potential from guys' experience base.   

Some older games also were written before USB keyboards and the newer versions of DirectX so they don't pick up on some keyboard commands at all, or act flaky.  I have an older game that has that problem, and would love to find a fix.  Compatability settings will let it run, but you can't crouch or use weapons effectively due to the keyboard thing.
I have actually been thinking of finding an older system at a flea market or something just to run older games.

[Sol75]

Not familiar with DOSBOX, but I would say the best thing would be to virtualize it.  VMWare is good, and I use it daily for several clients' servers.
Granted, in virtualization, I have pretty much moved on to Hyper-V, I don't think that is an option for a home user

[Yeager]

Ive been thinking about trying Janes Longbow 2 again.  I doubt I can get it to work.  Man I was in absolute heaven with that helo combat sim.  Loved it.