How to play old games on new computers

[NorseThing]

I do not know if this is the place for this but....

I am an old fart that wants to play my old fart game of Shogun on a newer computer. Other than using a web service, how can I as a computer numbskull play on a windows 7 or newer op system an old game such as Shogun. I know, but I just love the game despite its age and flaws. I would hate to buy an older system just to play it (and I do not know what my beloved would think of such a poor use of time and resources for such a purchase instead of replacing the old carpet in the den).

[Frunk]

Regarding Shogun specifically, I'm unsure what issues might exist, but there are definitely some problems with Rome 1 and Medieval 2. Workarounds exist for both the latter.

I suspect that since Shogun (and Medieval 1) are so old and not super popular any more, that you're probably just going to have to get your hands on some discs and try installing them. Then, if you happen to run into any issues, you can come back here and we can try and solve them.

[Sir Adrian]

Shogun works perfectly fine on Win 7 sp1. As do Rome and Med II. Medieval 1 tends to crash a lot.

Win 7 tip: Never install anything in program files, ever.

[NorseThing]

It was installed in program files (x86). Is this what you meant to not install it in? This is the same folder that holds M2TW which seems to work just fine.

The folder size is 1.6 GB.

[AqD]

older programs may have problem with space

"program files (x86)" is also confusing because the game still sees its location as "program files", but windows redirects it to "program files (x86)" automatically for 32-bit apps. It's even more confusing and error-prone that some applications have 32-bit installer but 64-bit program or vice versa, or mixed 32-bit and 64-bit parts in a single application or game.

installing to any other location would prevent such problem completely.

[z3n]

You could do the *fun thing of installing a dual boot installation (windows xp and windows 7 or 10).

*sarcasm

[NorseThing]

You could do the *fun thing of installing a dual boot installation (windows xp and windows 7 or 10).

*sarcasm

I know you know it would not be 'fun', but then I am clueless and would probably simply disable my system so even the very valuable I advice I get here would become a lost opportunity.

Seriously, I will look into doing that, but....

[AqD]

You can also run the game on an old windows running inside virtual machine such as VirtualBox (free), that way you don't have to deal with driver issue. If the games are old enough performance should be acceptable - everything is a bit slower inside virtual machine but nowhere as slow as an emulator like PS3's.

[LestaT]

I'm playing old Shogun and Medieval with windows 10, though the Steam version.

IIRC, last time (during windows 7 time) the issue not being able to run Shogun and Medieval was not because of windows 7 but because of nvidia gpu and driver (at that time) not supporting older win xp era games.

Not sure that is still the case but iirc, the issue is unheard of those using AMD gpu.

[Niles Crane]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned compatibility mode...

[z3n]

That doesn't work 100%, especially with older games. It's pretty rare it works, in fact, for anything in my experience. The last time I had it work was when I was trying to install a 32 bit Visio application (part of windows office).