Old Games on Windows 7/Windows 8

[SimplyJen]

Is it possible to play some older games like from the late 90s & early 2000s on Windows 7 or 8? I am looking into buying an older laptop for some of my old games.

I'm not interested in pirating or cracking in order to play them. Windows 10 does not play nice with SafeDisc or SecuROM which I currently have. I read somewhere that It can be turned on/off by command with Windows 7 and 8 but with 10 you have to mod/crack it. I don't want to spend the money on a cheap laptop only to find out I can't turn it on/off with Windows 7 or 8.

*I know I can easily buy a Windows key and make a second OS drive but I'm looking for a laptop to carry around just for these old games.

 

[dudio]

There is Compatibility Mode that you can try, hopefully that works:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/game/how-install-old-games-in-windows-7-3608557/

 

[why_wolf]

Depending on the game you may need to run the games in an emulator like DOSbox. Alternatively you can check out gog.com and see if they have what you want already.

 

[SimplyJen]

Sadly compatibility mode mode doesn't cut it. It's the first thing I tried when upgrading to Windows 10.

 

[bitwright]

Try searching vogons.org. They're an old games forum, and might be able to help you out.

 

[USAFRet]

Quite a few are available within the Steam ecosystem.
This is Quake 1 (1996), on my Win 10 Pro system.

 

[Karadjgne]

Windows 10 has no native DX9.c. It only supports natively DX10 or higher games. To get around this download the DX9 end-user runtimes.

DX9 end-user runtimes

This just adds DX9 to your DX library. It doesn't overwrite any existing DX since all the files are actually differently named.

Just finished Neverwinter Nights (2002) and working on NWN2 currently, so this works.