14 réponses à ce sujet

[kglaser]

I don't like it, because it won't play my old games. (read:  that is the relatively unemotional, neutralized translation of how I actually feel.)
I tried to fix this.  I paid $90 to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional...which won't install. (translate: still damping down my rage for the purposes of this post...but if they don't remedy this within the next 24 hours,  --well, they just really should.)
I am not planning to send Microsoft a Saint Patrick's Day card at this particular point in time. (EDI: "That is an understatement.")

[Serillen]

Win 7 wasn't exactly built with backwards compatibility in mind and I cant really blame them truthfully. Even so there are ways around it like using virtual PC. I believe all win 7/vista users are able to download virtual PC with windows XP on it. If that doesn't work you can always use Dos Box if the game in question is listed under its compatibility section. There are also mods for some games that make them compatible, and as a worse case scenario you could repurchase them via GOG.com since those games have all been tweaked for compatibility before being sold.

[Eurypterid]

What games are you having issues with? I have a bunch of older ones installed on my Win7 64 bit rig and haven't had many issues with them. Just make sure you install as admin, set compatibility to an older OS version, and install outside your Programs or Programs(x86) folder. As Serillen noted, you can grab quite a lot of older games on GOG.com and almost all will work on Win7 (most of the ones I have installed are from GOG),



On a side note, it's not really reasonable to blame the OS if your older games aren't working well. Technology moves forward and it's unrealistic to expect complete backwards compatibility for everything.

[Dsurian]

...but its also silly to expect us to maintain computers (currently 2 computers running different OS's, 3 if you played (and still play) Atari games...and this number will likely just continue to rise) if we want to continue to play all our classic games. I mean, this should be one of the great "Pros" of a PC over most consoles, but developers of tech just don't seem to care anymore. ...= OP's argument valid.

And for the OP, if you installed 64 bit, that's to be expected unfortunately. Most of the time, a 64 bit OS will look at a 16 bit program/game and not know wtf it is....it's like someone with 150+IQ trying to understand what someone with 50IQ is talking about. Would advise using the 32 bit OS, and even then there could be any number of complications - for instance, my monitors default resolution is 1920x1080...if I play any older game with a lower resolution while I have open any standard program (say, Deus Ex 1 opening up at 800x640 while a modern internet browser is open), the game will stay minimized until I close the browser...this apparently has nothing to do with my OS, or even my graphics card or the drivers, but the monitor...and this is just one example...

[Chimervera]

I don't know about other old games, but here's a fix for KOTOR and KOTOR 2. I use it (on 64-bit Win7 Pro), so it should work! I found it by Googling "KOTOR fix Win7", so if you try that for your other games (substituting Vista for Win7 if you can't find anything since Vista had the same problem with compatibility) you might be able to get them all running again.

As for the OS not installing, I found this article on "The Most Common Windows 7 Upgrade Problems". There's extra info in the comments, too. Do you get any specific error messages when the install fails? If you put those into Google, you should be able to find someone else's report of the same problem and how they fixed it.

I hope this was of some help!

Modifié par Chimervera, 13 février 2011 - 06:47 .

[Deathwurm]

There are some things I'm pretty sure I'm unable to play because they appear on multiple lists about Windows7 Game compatability...

I've had some luck with backwards compatability, but I think this is one of those things that this Windows version is supposed to do but only kinda does.

I've had the most problems with Atari games for some reason.

[Jonp382]

I just got Windows 7 64-bit myself, and I'm having no issues with Planescape: Torment. Going to try Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights soon.

Modifié par Jonp382, 13 février 2011 - 03:27 .

[Moondoggie]

There are workarounds for most games. Some of them are a bit of a pain but that's the evolution of technology. We can't play videos now because we have DVD's, We can't play catridge games on new systems they went to CD rom and then DVD rom and now we have Blu Ray filtering in. Technology changes and moves on we get new O.S's 64 bit computing and unfortunately it means an end to backwards compatability without modding and emulators. But that is the nature of evolution we get new and better and that means the old gets left in the dust.

[Jonp382]

I personally have never tried an update to another version of Windows before. I went with the full purchase myself.



Not that I'm suggesting anything, but you already paid for the upgrade.

[vometia]

I'm rather glad Windows 7 has forsaken some of its backward-compatibility for the sake of performance and stability: a lot of the PC's gnarly problems are due to nobody really wanting to start afresh which has left it being one of the most unpleasantly complex architectures imaginable.  Well that's my sloganeering out the way, anyway; though other than a long-winded way of saying "actually I rather like it", it doesn't help much!

I guess a possible (if slightly inconvenient) solution is to either create a dual-boot system, assuming that the drivers are available, so an older version of Windows can be booted up to run incompatible (or awkwardly compatible) software, or to use a virtual machine environment (not sure if VMware still do a freebie system for end-users) to run a legacy system in a partition under Windows 7.  That could potentially provide a useful solution, but at the expense of adding another layer of complexity and potential awkwardness.

[Eurypterid]

Dsurian wrote...

...but its also silly to expect us to maintain computers (currently 2 computers running different OS's, 3 if you played (and still play) Atari games...and this number will likely just continue to rise) if we want to continue to play all our classic games. I mean, this should be one of the great "Pros" of a PC over most consoles, but developers of tech just don't seem to care anymore. ...= OP's argument valid.

I don't tihnk anyone 'expects' people to maintain 2 or more computers with old operating systems on them. That's for the individual to decide, if he thinks it's important enough to him.

Music used to come on 8 track tapes. Movies used to come on VHS cassette. Try finding players for those now. I believe there are still a few VHS players avaialble, but they're becoming harder and harder to find. In a very short time, they'll be gone. Then what options will people with that old media have? Well, they could keep an old VHS player for use with those old VHS tapes, while picking up a new BluRay player for all the new stuff. See where this is going?  As noted, technology moves on.. The OP's argument isn't justified with regards to old games, sorry.

Modifié par Eurypterid, 13 février 2011 - 05:51 .

[mousestalker]

Actually, there are a couple of companies making turntables for records again. For that matter I just read about an outfit that making records on vinyl. And I would cheerfully maim to have a western electric made princess phone. No one is making phones of that quality anymore.

If you really have a legacy game that will not play on modern operating systems, then look for a legacy machine and run a legacy os on it. You find such thing for very little money, oftentimes for free.

The reality is that between emulators, WINE and compatibility modes such situations arise less often than you would think. What is required is to learn more about your own operating system and computers in general.

For the OP, if you really want to install Win 7 Pro, save all your vital data off the computer in question, make sure all of your hardware is Win 7 compliant and then do a clean install.

One counterintuitive solution to using legacy software is to create a dual boot system. You can dual boot several versions of Windows or dual boot Windows and your favourite flavour of Linux (Ubuntu is very user friendly) and use WINE.

Modifié par mousestalker, 13 février 2011 - 07:36 .

[Eurypterid]

mousestalker wrote...

Actually, there are a couple of companies making turntables for records again. For that matter I just read about an outfit that making records on vinyl.

Heh, there's a reason I specifically avoided mentioning vinyl. Yeah, there's a vinyl revival going on where a number of bands are releasing their new albums on vinyl as well as CD. Kind of cool, actually, and makes me nostalgic. I may have to track down my old LP collection and pick up a turntable...

[kglaser]

Thanks for all the pieces of advice; I will review them and check out the various fixes. All replies are appreciated.

And I just feel that I have to say, I don't expect companies to continue making things backwards-compatible indefinitely. It's just the overwhelming variance between virtually everything working with just about no effort in XP, to virtually nothing working no matter what I try in 7.

[Noilly Prat]

I've recently installed Windows 7, and I've been playing a few older games on it.  I haven't tried out many yet, but I have poked around some forums a bit to get an idea about issues I may have running certain older games, and from what I've seen, there seem to be workarounds for most of them.

I've been planning to try out The Longest Journey, which I hear often disagrees with modern systems (though I think it's more of a graphics card issue than an OS issue), but I've heard of workarounds for this, as well.  In my experience, in general, message board nerds usually know everything.

On a side note, I've been playing a GOG-downloaded version of Gabriel Knight 1 in DOSBox in Windows 7 on a brand new MacBook, and it's running better than the old Mac version I used to play on my ten year old desktop Mac.  Which is kind of funny.

Modifié par Noilly Prat, 14 février 2011 - 03:21 .