Windows 7: How do I play Old Games on Windows 7?

There was game I loved that I played on Windows 98 called Operation: Inner Space. It is an old game and I seem to be having problems installing it. When I try to install it, I get this error:

The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you're running. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need and x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher.

Is there some way I can get this to work? Is there some kind of software that can play these types of games like an old game emulator or something. Anyway I can play the game?

First, try compatibility mode:

Compatibility Mode

If you have Win 7 Pro or Ultimate, you can use XP Mode:

Download Windows XP Mode

Well I don't have pro or ultimate so I don't have xp mode and the compatability does not work so I'll have to upgrade it to pro or ultimate unless there is some way I can get it to work without xp mode on.

Daniel,
An OS is an operating system.

WIN + Pause/Break key combo
in the Windows Edition section you will see info on your OS.

Filling out your System Specs info will help us give you better answers.

Thanks,
Karl

Oh yes, WIN is the key with the funny looking, wavy flag on it.

Well, VirtualBox might be able to help you.

They claim to be able to run some old games with hardware acceleration in their XP virtual machines but only upto Direct X 9.0 b (I guess that means SM2 but I'm not sure)

www.virtualbox.org

P.S. This is what I mean:

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#guestadd-3d