Can you think about any PC Games & Software incompatible with modern Windows versions? (whether you own a copy or not)

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Since nobody here wrote a discussion on certain PC games & software being incompatible with later versions of Windows, I decided to make one here.

 

We probably all know that old PC games & software dating back to the 1980s up to the late-2000s are mainly incompatible with later versions of Microsoft Windows, with reasons including but not limited to:

- software platforms being obsolete, which is notable with many MS-DOS games & 16-bit Windows applications, thankfully DOSBox & OTVDM can remedy these issues. Virtual Machine software can also remedy this, but it's stabilization is anything but flawless.

- reliance on third-party DRM protection for disc based games, mainly SafeDisc, SecuROM, StarForce & TAGES. In fact, Microsoft themselves even broke ties to those companies that produced these ill-fated DRM solutions by blacklisting them from Windows 10, and updates to Vista, 7, 8 & 8.1 to never let these games run without a NO-CD or NO-DVD crack. Fortunately, GOG.com provides DRM-Free games for you to try out.

- interference with other software programs, which would cause many components to break.

- APIs being rarely used in modern years, mostly with older DirectX APIs made before DirectX versions 9 & 10.

 

An example of a software title that I don't own a copy of is basically Sirius Publishing's MovieCD catalog. This was a short lived video format released in 1996 that allowed Windows 3.1 & 95 to play a full length movie on your PC, without needing any MPEG card. The format never had any success for a multitude of reasons:

- the DVD format was just around the corner to being released in North America (Japan got DVD in 1996), and was technically an inferior version of Video CD (VCD), a home video format very popular in Asia even back then.

- the AVI video files were encoded with the ultra-obscure, largely-undocumented, 
completely-incompatible & now unreverse-engineerable MVI2 or rather MotionPixels video codec (through it's subsidiary MotionPixels Inc.), which created a large number of compatibility problems with modern computers & operating systems, meaning that the codec can no longer run on any version of Windows newer than XP, even with compatibility mode.

- three different versions of the MotionPixels player were released, one for Windows 3.1, one for Windows 9x, and one for Windows NT, but these also have bugs that have never been addressed.

- the only things exclusive to it were a unique Anti-Piracy warning not to copy the CD-ROM & it's opening logo.

 

Even Phelan Porteous & Oddity Archive made a video about this forgotten home video format if your interested:

If you can think of any games or software that isn't compatible with later versions of Windows, feel free to comment right here on this discussion.

Edited February 19, 2022 by Wadmodder Shalton

[Nevander]

One that comes to mind is Shogo Mobile Armor Division. The installer program on the disc for installing the game is 16-bit. However, thankfully you can just copy the game off the disc to your hard drive and play it that way. For full functionality, you must run in Win98 compatibility or you get no music.

[cambreaKer]

terrorist takedown and terrorist takedown: payback. both of these games run on the same engine and are basically unplayable on windows 10, the games run at like, 2 fps and i don't think there is a way to fix that. a solution i found that worked is to just play the game in a windows xp virtual machine.

[Bucket]

The software I use to compose MIDIs, Cakewalk 6.01, was written for Windows 3.1/95/98 machines and will not work on 64-bit Windows.

But I run it on 32-bit Windows 10 so I'm not sure if that counts.

[Wadmodder Shalton]

3 hours ago, Bucket said:

The software I use to compose MIDIs, Cakewalk 6.01, was written for Windows 3.1/95/98 machines and will not work on 64-bit Windows.

But I run it on 32-bit Windows 10 so I'm not sure if that counts.

OTVDM should run this program flawlessly.

[Azuris]

That is what i fear with the Upcoming of ARM Chips and the switch to Stores.

Sure, it brings it Benefits to Maintain and Hosting, but it will kill Compatibility in long Terms.

 

Many complain that Windows is big and blown up, but it is because of Compatibility.

Most Programs has at least some Work Around to make them run on newer Windows Versions.

Games with toxic old DRM will work at least with a Crack.

But something out of the Store with restriced Accsess will be just dead.

Or it will have to emulate some Parts of older ARM Chips and work unefficent.

 

Edit:

The last Time i really had bigger Compatibility Issues was with the change from Win 98 to XP.

All that DOS-Stuff wasn't working.

 

The next bigger Issue in the World of Windows was with Vista.

I had newer Hardware, so Vista worked for me flawlessly.

Others with older Hardware had Compatibility Issues.

Edited December 28, 2020 by Azuris

[Redneckerz]

4 hours ago, Azuris said:

Edit:

The last Time i really had bigger Compatibility Issues was with the change from Win 98 to XP.

All that DOS-Stuff wasn't working.

No surprises there, XP moved to an NT based kernel versus one that would still accept DOS programs natively.

 

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Even Microsoft knew from their mistakes with Windows ME when they ditched the 9x kernel in favor of the NT kernel for accessibility for consumers since Windows XP onwards.

 

This is why we haven't seen any updates to Microsoft's NTVDM for years since then, but open-source projects like DOSBox & NTVDM64 has remedied the issue for playing MS-DOS based games & software on Windows NT based operating systems.

 

For many years we didn't have a Win16 emulator for 64-bit versions of Windows, meaning that the only way to play Windows 16-bit games & software was through Virtual Machine software such as Microsoft Virtual PC, PCem, VirtualBox & VMWare for years, but even those solutions weren't nearly as stable. That wasn't until otya128 released WineVDM (aka OTVDM) on GitHub for download, allowing 16-bit Windows applications to run on 64-bit versions of Windows.

 

So therefore, 16-bit applications won't be dead for now.

[MrFlibble]

Okaay.

 

So I was unable to properly run Priority: Survive (a freeware but closed-source StarCraftish RTS using the Allegro library) on Windows 8.1, but it also did have problems under Linux with Wine.

 

I also failed to run the demo versions of both Cossacks and Cossacks II under Win8.1. I tried DxWnd but it did not help.

 

The demo of Original War has noticeable framerate issues, but apparently they fixed that for the full version by adding the optional OpenGL renderer.

[Doomkid]

Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 was already having some trouble running on Windows 7 64 bit. Thankfully OpenRCT is around to make sure current gen OSes can play the game!

[Halfblind]

It has been a very sad year for computer games and software. By the end of this week both Windows 7 and flash will be EOL and completely depreciated. Last year Unity Web Player games can no longer be played in any browser because they migrated to the newer WebGL. I just learned about a few of these great games a couple years ago and sadly I can no longer play them anymore.

 

Heretic 2 - This game ran perfectly in Windows XP, but try installing it on any newer operating system and the game will crash when attempting any underwater segment. However, this was fixed with a fan made patch.

 

Drakan: Order of the Flame - Again this game ran perfectly in Windows XP. When running the game on Windows Vista and newer the game will crash while receiving any new weapon for your dragon and when going under some of the large wooden doors. Again this was fixed after installing like 3 or 4 fan made patches.

 

Star Trek: DS9 the Fallen - When installing this game on Windows ME it installed perfectly, but when installing it on Windows XP and newer one file can't be found on the disk at all. The only way to install it was to create an ISO image of the disk and run the installation through the mounted ISO.

 

Switchball - Perhaps one of my favorite puzzle games, but unfortunately I cannot install it and run it on a 64 bit operating system. It seems to be dependent on the 32 bit operating system architecture. To this day I haven't found any patches or 64 bit versions of the game anywhere. I would really like to finish this game someday.

 

I hope this is what you are looking for. Most of these I have found work arounds for, but many I have not. I haven't attempted to install them on Windows 10 yet, so that is still up in the air. Does anyone know if Freelancer can run in any newer operating system? Because that would be great to know. Unfortunately the games mentioned above have been abandoned by their developers too.

 

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Also, many older Adobe Flash projects are disappearing in 2021, but thankfully we have the Flashpoint project to preserve these games & animations.

[seed]

The first two Max Payne games come to mind right now, neither start without some fan fixes on W10 at all, and on 7 I recall reading they had issues with sound.

[ReaperAA]

The original Red Faction is very buggy and crash prone on windows 10 without Dash Faction. Dash Faction is a community patch that fixes the compatibility issues as well as bring many QoL features.

 

[Mr. Freeze]

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is a nightmare to get running on modern systems, something with how the fonts render crashes the game once you hit the main menu. 

[jval]

I have an copy of Star Wars Episode I - Racer (original CD-ROM bought back in 1999). The game was designed for Windows 98, and later a patch was available for Windows XP. .

Now, unfortunately, it refuses to play in Windows 10, I even tried some hacks from the net and I 've managed to get it start, but still it runs with many graphic glitches. Also it refuses to start in a virtual machine with Windows 98

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Episode I Racer released on GOG & Steam a few years, so it might work with modern systems I suppose.