Classic Game List

Introduction: From the responses I got when asking for classic game recommendations it seems that many people hold enjoy playing more classic games much like I do. This thread is here to help people experience all these old classic games.

Compatibility: Many of these games will not just install of the CD and run fine. Due to issues with multi-core processors, GPU problems, and many many other reasons. Luckily many games are easily modified/patched etc to perfectly playable and sometime improve upon the original game engine. I will not be posted mods that change the original game play or ad user generated content. In general I will focus on Windows 7 compatibility, if you have something to add for Vista or XP feel free and I will try and go back and edit the game entry for you. No promises that these tricks/updates/patches will work, some of these games just may never run smoothly ever again but I'll try and give you all the information (or least the most relevant) I can find.

Format: Game Name (pretty obvious), Compatibility (I will try and find links to helpful forum posts/patches/etc and post them here, I will also try and mention if installs fine from the CD/DVD which some of the more recently released games still might), Availability (Basically where you can find this any notes on them, sometimes games run better if installed off of media instead of downloaded but then again sometimes the reverse is true), Genre (Should be obvious, I will try and sort them by primary genre but if you want an extra entry here please let me know), Info: Just a wikipedia or official game page so you can get an idea what this game is all about , Tested If someone post that they have tested a game and gotten to run I will link to their post so you can see . Such as Thief II: modded using DDFix and Widescreen patch, Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit, Nvidia GTX 570m, i7 2620, etc...

Helping! Feel free to provide your own entries using the above format, I will copy them with a tag giving you credit, and then post them into the main post here. Also please provide any feedback you can about things working or not. There is no way I have enough time or cash to try and figure out all these games.

DOSBox Windows 7 simply does not support the old 16bit games of yesteryear. This program will help you emulate DOS and be able to play many of the old games. Link to the official site, it does run on windows 7. Feel free to ask questions I'll try and find you an answer.

I will keep this thread updated as long as people show interest in this.
Last Update 6 Oct 11


FPS/Stealthy FP

Monkey Island 1/2/3

Compatibility: Running on windows 7, many people can play straight from download. Other have problems. Check to make sure .NET is installed and updated, also try messing with the resolution. For more information see here Secret of Monkey Island series - Steam Users' Forums
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and steam (recommended)
Genre: Adventure
Info: Monkey Island (series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

FPS/Stealthy FP


Thief: The Dark Project


Compatibility running on Windows 7: Thief Series: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (Technical / Purchasing / Etc.))
Available on: Amazon, Ebay
Genre: FPS, Stealth
Info: Thief: The Dark Project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Thief II: The Metal Age

Compatibility: running on Windows 7 Thief Series: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (Technical / Purchasing / Etc.) )
Available on Amazon, Ebay
Genre: FPS, Stealth
Info: Thief II: The Metal Age - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Thief: Deadly shadows

Compatibility: running on windows 7 thief 3 windows 7 be advised still iffy) Available on Amazon, Ebay, and Steam
Genre: FPS, Stealth
Info: Thief: Deadly Shadows - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Dues Ex

Compatibility: Running on Windows 7, should run fine from a normal disk install
Available on Amazon and Ebay
Genre: FPS
Info Deus Ex - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

Half Life 1

Compatibility: running on Windows 7, should install fine no mods needed
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and Steam
Genre: FPS (
Info: Half-Life (video game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Quake III

Compatibility: running on Windows 7: should run fine but this may solve problems Just got Quake 3 running in Windows 7 x64 (OpenGL))
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and Steam
Genre: FPS
Info : Quake III Arena - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Doom Series

Compatibility: running on windows 7: Doomworld Forums - READ THIS! Doom on Windows / Steam)
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and Steam
Genre: FPS
Info: Doom (video game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Painkiller

Compatibility: running on windows 7: should run fine but here is a link for support Refund Possible on Painkiller? - Steam Users' Forums )
Available on Amazon, Ebay, GOG.com, and Steam
Genre: FPS
Info: Painkiller (video game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

Call of Duty 1

Compatibility: Running on windows 7, Mr MM has posted the game installs fine from CD running on Win XP SP2 compatibility mode.
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and Steam
Info: Call of Duty (video game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Call of Duty 2

Compatibility: Running on windows 7, Mr MM has posted the game installs fine from CD running on Win XP SP2 compatibility mode.
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and Steam
Genre: FPS
Info: Call of Duty 2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Magic Carpet 1 & 2

Compatibility: Running on windows 7, use DOSBox (included on GOG edition), IWantMyMTV has reported that it runs fine on DOSBox
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and GOG.com (1st game only)
Genre: FPS
Info: Wikipedia Wikipedia for 2nd game GOG.com link

System Shock 1 and 2

Compatibility: On windows 7, for game 1 use DOSBox (thanks to IWantMyMTV) or follow steps found here, for game 2 follow look here
Available on Amazon and Ebay
Genre: Action, FPS
Info: Wikipedia

RPG

Baulder's Gate Series

Compatibility:running on windows 7 Newbie guide; modding BG1 if you buy BG1 + BG2 from GOG - Baldur's Gate - Forum - - GOG.com
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and GOG.com
Genre: RPG
Info: Baldur's Gate (series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Neverwind Nights

Icewind Dale

Compatibility: running on windows 7 Mod Guide - Icewind Dale - Forum - - GOG.com
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and GOG.com
Genre: RPG
Info: Icewind Dale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Icewind Dale 2

Compatibility: running on windows 7 Mod Guide - Icewind Dale - Forum - - GOG.com
Available on Amazon, Ebay, and GOG.com
Genre: RPG
Info: Icewind Dale II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Knights of the Old Republic

Compatibility:running on Windows 7: KOTOR 1+2: Vista Fix & Windows 7 Report - LucasForums
Available on Amazon, Ebay, Steam
Genre: RPG
Info: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Knights of the Old Republic 2

Compatibility: running on Windows 7: KOTOR 1+2: Vista Fix & Windows 7 Report - LucasForums
Available on Amazon, Ebay, Steam
Genre: RPG
Info: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ultima Underworld 1 and 2

Compatibility: Running on windows 7, use DOSBox (thanks to IWantMyMTV)
Available on Amazon and Ebay
Genre RPG
Info: Wikipedia


Space/Flight Sims

Tie Fighter

Compatibility: If you are using the original Tie Fighter or the Collector's Edition then please reference this excellent thread by Charles P. Jefferies. If you are using the a Tie Fighter came from the X-Wing Collector's Series or the X-Wing Alliance then use this patch
Available on Amazon and Ebay
Genre: Space Simulator
Info:
**Special Note** When buying please give this consideration "The Collector's CD-ROM edition and the Collector Series edition of X-Wing and TIE Fighter have many dissimilarities. Besides the use of new graphics and sound engines, the Collector Series edition omits many of the small movies and animations found in the Collector's CD-ROM and original floppy disk editions. Furthermore, the Collector Series edition does not use the iMUSE interactive MIDI soundtrack from the original game release and the Collector's CD-ROM edition, which is instead replaced by the static Red Book audio-based John Williams movie soundtrack."


Strategy

Age of Empires II

Compatibility: running on Windows 7: Windows 7 fix for messed up colours - Age of Empires II - Neoseeker Forums
Available on Amazon and Ebay
Genre: Strategy
Info: Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Red Alert/Red Alert 2

Compatibility: Running on windows 7, Mr MM has posted the game installs fine from CD running on Win XP SP2 compatibility mode.
Available on Amazon, Ebay
Genre: Strategy
Info Red Alert 1, Red Alert 2

Starcraft

Compatibility: Running on windows 7, Mr MM has posted the game installs fine from CD running on Win XP SP2 compatibility mode.
Available on Amazon and Ebay
Genre: Strategy
Info: StarCraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Master of Magic

Compatibility: Running on windows 7, use DOSBox (included on GOG.com edition)
Available on GOG.com , Amazon, and EBAY
Genre: Strategy
Info: Wikipedia Entry GOG.com entry


Panzer General Series

Compatibility: Running on windows 7, use DOSBox. Later versions of the game may be able to just use XP SP2 compatibility mode. Thanks IWantMyMTV!.
Available on GOG.com, Amazon and EBAY
Genre: Strategy
Info: GOG.com for Panzer General 2
Total War series

Puzzle

Myst

Compatibility: running on Windows 7: Myst installs, but won't even load..... - Myst series - Forum - - GOG.com
Available on Amazon, Ebay, GOG.com
Genre: Puzzle
Info: Myst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


In que
Games I haven't had time yet to format/organize/research feel free to help with games on this list. I make no promises that everything on this list will ever get a full entry, since I'm sure this list will continue to grow.

Rollercoaster Tycoon (original w/ expansions)
The Sims (original w/ expansions)
Need For Speed Underground 2
Tom clancy's rainbow six series (especially the first one or rogue spear)
Splinter Cell 1
X-com collection on steam
Crazy Taxi
Legacy of Kain series
rise of nations

xwing vs tie fighter and the expansion balance of power
day of the tentacle

C&C
Tiberian sun
Homeworld 1/2
C&C Generals Zero Hour
Descent 2
Descent Freespace & Freespace 2
Operation Flashpoint (original + expansion)
Celtic Kings: Rage of War
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Morrowind
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Diablo Battle Chest
Warcraft Battle Chest

Revenant
Wing Commander
No One Lives Forever

Titan quest
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Serious Sam(s)
master of orion 1,2
galactic civilization 2
Civ Series
Unreal
The Seventh Guest
Aliens v Predators (Classic)
Blowdbowl (Classic)
Jedi Knight series
Dark Forces
Shogo: Mobile Armor Division
Ultima 7
Dungeon keeper
Krondor series (including Antara)
Dune 1
Quake 1 and 3 (or Open Arena)
Jagged Alliance series
The Horde
All Lucas & Sierra classic adventures
Planescape: Torment
Fallout 2
Quake 2 (I think very under rated)
Quake 4 (This is actually a great game)
Need for Speed: Porche Unleashed



Ultima Underword/2 (eBay?)
Alpha Centauri (gog.com)
Battlezone (Good luck...)
Beyond Good & Evil (gog.com and Steam)
Missionforce: Cyberstorm (???)
Dragonshard (gog.com)
Dungeon Siege/2 (both are included with Deluxe Edition of DSIII on Steam...)
Freedom Force/2 (gog.com and Steam)
Interstate '76 (gog.com)
Independence War (gog.com)
Myth/2/3 (??? one of Bungie's other franchises)
NOX (gog.com)
Rise of Legends (Nations) (???)
Silent Storm (???)
Star Trek - Armada/2
Max Payne and Max Payne 2
Grim Fandango
Gabriel Knight
Fallout and Fallout Tactics
Ultima - 7
Commander Keen
Duke Nukem/Nukum
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Kroz
Paganitzu
Aldo's Adventures
Skifree
Pipe Dreams
Chip's Challenge

The Longest Journey
Psychonauts
Evil Genius
Sacrifice
Star Wars: Rebellion
Chaos Island
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms
Dwarf Fortress
Evochron
Arvoch
Star Wars Battlefront 1/2 (added 6 Oct 11)
Fury3 (added 6 Oct 11)

 

What a great list. I love Classic Shooters!!
Nice thread Wildcat11.

 

Add Starwraith Games to the list: Evochron and Arvoch games.

 

add x wing vs tie fighter and the expansion balance of power

 

Thanks hopefully, this will eventually turn into something useful for people haha.

Added!

Added (its towards the top of the in que)

 

Oh yeah, and good luck. That's a major endeavor you're taking on.

 

For monkey island 1 and 2, you can add that its a simple buy from steam.

Lucas arts will launch more games on steam, which makes them compatible with newer hardware and OS.

C&C red alert is a simple go install, run it in compatibility mode, much like C&C red alert 2 and its expansion

The sims, works without a hitch


Starcraft also works with compatibility mode

rise of nations, works without a hitch

C&C Generals Zero Hour

call of duty 1 and 2, only needs compatibility mode

PS: all compatibility modes = win xp sp2

there are more games there that I have played last year in windows 7, I will chime in when I have more time

 

Thank you so much for the help! Just a couple of questions. Only Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate seem to have compatibility mode correct (I am using the feature chart found here as my reference http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Win...GMK0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1317341425&sr=8-3 )? Is this the same feature or something totally different Download Windows XP Mode ?

Regarding Steam games, from the research I have done it would seem that you are correct and a very large majority of games that are sold on Steam will run fine either right away or with a patch. There does seem to be a very small minority that just don't play nice with windows 7, monkey island apparently is one of them. A lot of people are posting problems in the steam community forum about it. Usually installing Microsoft's .Net software fixes the problem, other common solutions seem to be changing the resolution (which works in a lot of older games it seems), for Monkey Island 2 copying Monkey Island's 1 .ini file over seems to fix their problems.

 

GOG.com is a good place to get ahold of older games legitimately. Also Windows XP mode is different than compatibility mode. Compatibility mode has been around forever. Windows XP Mode is Pro and Ultimate only. However it doesn't support Direct3D or any other 3D API so unless it's a sprite based game like Starcraft 1 you won't be able to use it for games.

That being said there are several options for virtual machines like VirtualBox that support Direct3D, but you will need a copy/license of XP in order to run XP virtually.

 

Ok thanks. So its been a while since I've had a PC if I recall correctly you right click on the program and then setting and then somewhere in there you can set to run as Win XP SP2 correct? Yeah I am trying to stay clear of VirtualBoxs and the like and just trying to figure out ways to make all these just run in Win 7 more or less natively.

Edit: Did you guys prefer it before or with the pictures? Was taking a look at the recommend me a game thread and thought it could be a good idea but, wasn't sure.

 

Dunno, I think that .net install was standard on the steam games first start up procedure. I wouldnt notice either since I had visual studio 2010 in there, so any .net issues wouldnt have risen

 

Cool thread idea, but very ambitious...

You may lose sleep, friends and family over this project; but I gave you some rep to offset the loss.

I can't help you much with compatibility issues on Windows 7 since I play all my "classics" on my m1710 which will forever be an XP machine...

If DOSBox 0.74 works well with Windows 7 then any MS-DOS based game should work fine...my m1710 has a C2D 2.33 GHz and I can run Mechwarrior 2, which is probably one of the more CPU-taxing MS-DOS games, under DOSBox at acceptable frame rates...all the MS-DOS games on gog.com come with a DOSBox installation (which I never use because I've spent considerable time tweaking my DOSBox installation and config file)...

Anyway, you may want to start by separating out the MS-DOS games since, for the most part, they will run with DOSBox...no other tweaks required...and you can get those off your to-do list quickly...(PS. the original Monkey Island 1 and 2 are MS-DOS games and play very well with DOSBox as does Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Full Throttle, and Indiana Jones & Fate of Atlantis...that's how I run them...I don't use the Steam installation...of course, I'm a pack rat, and still had my original CDs for the enhanced [voice and better music] versions...however, if you don't want to mess with DOSBox, you can use ScummVM to play the above plus a lot of other adventure games including Myst and the Sierra adventure games...you just have to buy the floppies/CDs to get the data files...)

All of the games at the link in my signature run under XP with the only problems being that I can't play Crimson Skies, Dungeon Keeper, Flying Corps Gold and Tropico in D3D mode...I have to use software mode. I believe Crimson Skies is an issue with nVidia's 6-series and after cards...some legacy "power of 2" issue that nVidia won't fix with a driver...

The only game that I really want to play that completely defies me (since I don't want the hassle of a virtual machine) is Entomorph, a Windows 3.1 RPG...

 

IWantMyMTV - Welcome back. Not sure if you left, but haven't seen you around. Figured you might pipe in here.

 

Yeah I plan on this thread kind of being the never ending project between finding new/better ways to run games and then I'm sure there is going to be a constant trickle of requests. I am hoping to have the initial list done maybe end of October but we'll see. I see you have a few You Don't Know Jack titles, you sir are awesome! If you have any other feedback please feel free to PM or just post in this thread, it would seem you know quite a lot about older video games!!!

Simply put this is great, thank you so much! Btw the hard drive you installed all those games has to be HUGE! When I get a chance I think I'll take your advice about and sort out the DOSBox ones. According to their forum it installs fine on Win 7 (just need to be careful about the file path)

 

Not to derail this thread, but it's two separate HDDs...the internal 640GB drive and the external, USB 1TB drive which is also where I have my steam installation...plug in the external drive and the entire game catalogue is available at the click of a shortcut...

And I used to know a lot about installing/tweaking older games, but as I got them to work by googling, trial-and-error or luck, I didn't document what I did (I really should have) so I'm not much help now...I rely heavily on backing up the drives whenever I install another game...

And you seem to have a good strategy for your thread...I would suggest being careful with the technical side of it...that could bog you down...and a little bit of googling can fix most problems...it may be more important to simply determine if someone, somewhere has been successful in running the game under Windows 7 (and is anybody running 7 on a single core CPU? So if the game runs under 7 then the user probably has it running on multiple cores and with modern graphics cards)...after we know that it can be done, we individuals can do the looking...

And like ScummVM, there are other Windows-based emulators that run the Build engine (DukeNukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood...that's how I play them...google "JonoF Build"), Descent engine (Descent, Descent 2, Descent to Undermountain *blech*), etc

 

I had this issue with The Dark Eye - I actually created a Windows 3.11 installation that ran via DOSBox (with the help of a few guides and some ancient driver sites). Performance was horrible and a lot of stuff didn't display in the game, but it's a start... Really, setting up a Win 3.11 environment via DOSBox was as much fun as I got out of the game because of the poor performance, but I feel like it was a couple hours well spent.

 

I've been around...but the hardware world has moved way beyond me so I don't comment on any of those threads...always try to champion some of my older favorites though...

DCS stuff went on sale recently on Steam, and I thought that was heaven for you...and then I figured that you had probably already purchased Black Shark and Warthog and figured that it might be a bit of h*ll...

Very few mentions for older sims (and there aren't many new ones)...I guess sims don't hold up as well...but you'll occasionally catch me playing a scenario in Flanker (I have to start in the air since I hate trying to find the manual to get the plane off the APUs and rolling down the runway) or trying to trap on Jane's F-18...

 

Yeah I have A-10 and bought it direct from DCS. Haven't had the time to play that I'd like to though. My free time comes in 10-30 minute chunks now and can' really get into anything that requires 1-2 hours at a time like flight sims usually require.

But I've been playing more classic games again because nothing new is really that interesting to me.

 

you should say that the games are available from piratebay!!!!!!!

jk


anybody like SWBF 2?

 

hell yeah! the engineer was the best class in that game, missile from afar, mines up close, although I usually get kicked out of servers because of that. Its not my fault that they dont enable friendly fire. The rifleman was the second best, if you got enough kills to get the upgraded rifle you are golden.

BTW I was playing COD 2 today, played it for 2 hours without a problem, without compatibility mode, straight from the install

 

Fury3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fury3 isn't really a CLASSIC, but it is old, and it was fun.

 

Added!

Original Post Updated Change Log:
Added Fury3 and Starwars Battlefront 1/2 to in Que

Updated Entry for Star Wars: Tie Fighter
Added Entry for Master of Magic, Category: Strategy
Added Entry for Panzer General Series, Category: Strategy
Added Entry for Magic Carpet Series, Category: FPS? Flight Sim????
Added Entry for System Shock Series, Category: FPS? RPG?
Added Entry for Ultima Underworld Series, Category: RPG

Thank you all for the help and suggestions. Please feel free to add.

Does anyone know how to create a link inside of a post, IE I would like to post a link to the start of each category at the start and can't figure it out. Also how do I make words a larger font size, I have tried the font size and used the largest on the scroll down menu and it doesn't seem to do anything? Thanks in advance!

 

I would probably characterize Magic Carpet as an FPS. It's definitely not a flight sim. How would you classify Descent? Same type of deal in a fantasy setting with open environments. In my shortcuts folder, I just list it as an "Action" game.

And if Doom is an FPS and Ultima Underworld is an RPG (and I agree with those classifications), then System Shock is more akin to an RPG than FPS. It's a moodier (scarier?) Ultima Underworld in space. In fact, Looking Glass Studios developed both the Underworld and System Shock series.

Origin (publisher of Looking Glass Studios' efforts) was such a great publisher in the early 90's. And *snif snif* Microprose made some of my all-time favorites in the 80's on the C64 and the 90's on the PC. EA (synonymous with greed) wrecked Origin. But once upon a time (eg, the 80's), EA was amazing: Archon series, Dr. J-Larry Bird One-on-One, Racing Destruction Set, Adventure Construction Set, Mail Order Monsters, Seven Cities of Gold, and M.U.L.E.

Of course, Activision wasn't that evil either in the early 80's. All the best Atari 2600 games were made by Activision.

And sadly, look what they've become. Where once those publishers were the bastion of independent developers (who weren't companies, but just a couple of people who were programmers not artists) with amazing creativity based on the limitations given, now they are just holding the line churning out spectacular, but somewhat derivative titles using the same IP over and over. It's safe and it makes money, but not sure it's fun...

Oh well, enough nostalgia...time to fire up Madden 12 or CoD:Black Ops...never mind...I'm going to go play M.U.L.E. on CCS64...