Playing Older Games on a Newer Machine

COD4 has actually brought me back into the PC gaming fold. Wow have things changed in just a short time. Now that I have been playing COD for about two months I am starting to feel nostalgic. Where can I pick up some of these titles, and will they work on my laptop?

1. X-Com UFO Defense
2. Terra Nova
3. Crusader: No Remorse
4. Syndicate Wars
5. Dungeon Keeper


I used to have a lot of fun playing Duke Nukem 3D online. I played on Kali and on TEN. Loved the shrink ray and then stompin people, or the freeze gun, and of course lazer trip mines were a blast too. Does anyone know if they still play this game online?

Thanks,

Cory

 

yeah... but i dont know if you can play in native resolution... duke nuken... oh god that game is fun!

i play emulator game on my computer ... thats why i took the highest native resolution possible

and starcraft... you forgot starcraft...

 

Starcraft? Never played it, although I did enjoy Warcraft. Loved the sound the Orcs made when you clicked on 'em.

I have heard of emulators, I thought those were for things like NES and SEGA games?

 

yeah every console up to the ps2/dreamcast now

 

hey aplcr944 how did you get a 7200rpm hard drive with your inspiron?

 

It was an option, I think an expensive one that maybe I should not have done. I believe it was an option to pay $100 more and go with the faster rpm speed. The original build came with an 80GB 5400 rpm drive, so it was an upgrade and I recently ordered this rig from Dell online.

 

Well as for finding those games on the open market . . . good luck! Sometimes people sell them on e-bay like syndicate but for the most part I have seen people get them through quazi-legal/illegal ways. (Stupid companies going out of business and thus denying me my instant nostalgia fix!) Duke Nukem is awesome but i don't know if anyone is still running it online but the might be. Never know.

As for playing them on a modern laptop, especially one that can handle COD4 you will need something to slow your processor down quite a bit. It will just run too fast. I suggest DOSbox. It is developed specifically to run older games on newer systems and is incredibly stable with lots of community support. Oh yeah and its free! I've never had a problem with it but I have xp so on Vista it might be another story.

hope that helps

 

NEVER PLAYED STARCRAFT???

i would send it to you, but i just gave it to my friend the other day. starcraft is a must play. you cannot call yourself a gamer till you have played the ultimate game of starcraft!!!

 

Someone that remembers the good ol' days...

I second the Dosbox recommendation. I play Crusader: No Remorse and No Regret with it, and I also play Terra Nova. The cut scenes are a bit choppy, but then I'm playing on a 5-year old laptop. Your processor should have no problems with it. I also play Syndicate and Magic Carpet...wasn't Bullfrog great?

I thought Syndicate Wars and Dungeon Keeper were Windows 95 games...those are a bit more problematic with XP...usually, you have to find game specific patches to get them up and running...Microprose (or whoever bought them) did an X-Com Windows bundle right around 2000, and with an XP fix patch, you can play UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep on XP...LucasArts actually released a patch for the Windows 95 version of X-Wing and Tie Fighter so those are playable on XP...there's a 3dfx sleeve out there that allows you to play all the mid-90's games (ie. Wing Commander: Prophecy and Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries) with full 3D effects on modern DirectX hardware...someone actually programmed a Build Engine emulator for XP so Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior are playable if you have the original files...same goes for Descent...I believe the Build Engine emulator is TCP/IP (internet) compatible but I've never tried it...I only used Kali once or twice back in the day and it was usually Descent...Diablo ruined online gaming for me very early...too many idiots...just start googling for the patches and discussions on running the games under XP...

It took me months, but I got all my old favorites running under XP with no glitches...everything except for the original System Shock and I'76...there are lots of workarounds for System Shock, but I'm not willing to learn the ins and outs of VDMSound...I'76 gameplay is almost perfect...cutscenes are a disaster...Now, I'm dreading the upgrade to Vista...

As far as finding the original programs, google (or yahoo) on dos abandonware and you can find some old demos and full games for free...as far as the other stuff, try eBay, and if you don't have any luck, I can probably help with what stuff I have...for some reason, games that only required 50 MB of free space seem to be as fun as the modern 5 GB juggernauts...

And yeah...emulators for arcade (mame) and consoles are another favorite of mine...although I've migrated my console emulators to my PSP and rarely touch them on the computer anymore...

 

You need Dosbox for the Crusader series, it was coded specifically for DOS and none of the windows compatibility options will work for it. The latest versions should allow playback of high-quality FMVs.

Dungeon Keeper should work for Windows 95 compatibility mode, although you might want to look into the D3d update for the game (old as it is) since it improves graphics slightly.

 

mmm Duke Nukem 3d was amazing, i jsut started playinmg that agian, they just came out with a hi-res pack which improves all the graphics dramaticly

and starcraft is a legend
i cant wait for starcraft 2

 

I can't play Duke Nukem 3D anymore; the perspective(which feels unnatural) when you look up or down, just make me want to throw up.

 

From wiki:
About the Build engine used in Duke3D
"However the sizing for perspective only depends on the horizontal distance (most noticeable as the fact that wall vertices are always straight vertical lines on screen). This can cause noticeable distortion when looking up and down and so most Build games restrict this to a fairly limited range of angles."

 

Ah, Terra Nova... I still have the disk... now that's a game that more than deserved to be remade...

 

The Home of the Underdogs abandonware links:
1. X-Com UFO Defense Collector's Edition
2. Terra Nova -> propably need to buy it somewhere
3. Crusader: No Remorse
4. Syndicate Wars
5. Dungeon Keeper Gold
Prepare for very slow download speeds.
To make the games work, you may need some of these programs (usually DOSBOX should do the trick): http://www.abandonia.com/en/node/23027

To look up more classics make a google search with "underdogs -game name here-" or
go to http://www.abandonia.com/

 

Amazon links

1. X-Com UFO Defense
2. Terra Nova
3. Crusader: No Remorse
4. Syndicate Wars
5. Dungeon Keeper

A couple of them aren't quite cheap anymore, but most of them are below $10.