PCs have been around for decades, but changes in CPU architectures and the Windows operating system mean today’s computers can’t easily run games made for machines of the 1980s and 1990s. Of course, installing and running games is now simple thanks to widespread and fairly common graphics accelerators, extensive multimedia support, and automatic driver settings, but these benefits only apply to games that can take advantage of them. When mice and keyboards use PS/2 and serial connectors, and sound cards and optical drives are considered high-end gaming hardware, you have to work hard to get games to run. Now, getting them to run is even more difficult.
Fortunately, you have several options for playing older PC games. Some games have been remastered or remastered and simply install easily on modern PCs. Others need some workarounds. Some require extensive workarounds. Here are your options for playing classic PC games on modern hardware.
However, this advice may not help PCs that are aging but not quite out of date. Steam has announced that it will stop supporting Windows 7 and 8 next year , so you’ll have to upgrade your OS if you haven’t already. On the plus side, almost any game that runs on these versions of Windows will work on the current version, so you don’t have to jump through a lot of hoops with Steam.
Where to Find Classic PC Games
Modern remake/port
Many classic PC games have been remastered or otherwise ported to modern PCs and are readily available on Steam and other digital distribution services . These games have been overhauled to run easily on Windows PCs without any processing layers or emulation, and often have graphics enhancements to run at higher resolutions than the original versions. They might just scale up the graphics or completely replace all textures and sprites.
Many remastered games are available on console and mobile devices as well as PC. Classic Bioware RPGs like Baldur’s Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic are available on everything from iOS to the Nintendo Switch. Remastered games are usually affordable, usually between $10 and $20.
Whether you want to play classic console or PC games, keep in mind that there’s a difference between remasters and full remasters . Diablo 2 Resurrection is a faithful recreation of the dungeon crawler game, with some quality of life improvements and better graphics. Resident Evil 4 Remake , on the other hand, is a completely overhauled game with very different mechanics.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive remains one of the greatest collections of digital media on the Internet, and that extends to software. The site catalogs and stores thousands of classic games for DOS, early Windows, and older computers such as the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. Many of these games can be played on the web thanks to browser-based emulation. Best of all, everything is free, as part of an important effort to archive software that is part of our cultural and digital heritage.
You can also download disc images, full versions of games, and even demos (although you’ll need to know how to do this by fiddling with compatibility settings or using an emulator (for example) dosbox) . The Internet Archive has tens of thousands of disc images from several Started a decade ago, if you don’t mind putting in the work to get them running on your computer.
Outside of the Internet Archive, various “abandoned software” sites also give away old software for free, provided the developer and publisher no longer support it. This is often a legal gray area, though, and files downloaded from these sites may not be as secure as Internet Archive downloads.
