thanks for the info. you might have thought that i was "going around blaming something i don't know about" but if you notice i was asking a question. if you see above, i was referring to the older (more than a few months) games. i don't think anything i said up there would count as "blame", merely a question. :/
Hi!
^_^
I misunderstood too since you said that Windows 7 "apparently not a great as it seems" but, after watching the "?" next to that I can say that you're not blaming and you're just wanting to know how this OS works.

Anyway... I'm using Windows 7 since VERY early pre-Beta stage (builds 69xx) and even in that old builds I haven't had problems with lots of old and new games that still are working in my PC with my final RTM version and worked before with Vista and XP.
But, in spite of that, I'm surprised to see lots of that games posted in this forums because they doesn't work properly, hangs or even doesn't works at all.
Usually that problems are caused by outdated drivers (usually for 7's Beta editions or Vista), modified drivers (for example, tweaked drivers or custom drivers for discontinued hardware that Windows 7 doesn't support), malware, conflicting software, user inexperience, etc.
About old games, I can say that casually this last days I was feeling nostalgic and I've been playing on my Windows 7 RTM x64 my old copies of Sonic CD (with unofficial XP patch), Sonic & Knuckles Collection (with official "Fast PC" patch), Soul Reaver 1 & 2, Mega Man X4 and lots of others oldies and not-so-old games like Melty Blood Act Cadenza, GTA Vice City & San Andreas, Bike Banditz, Devil May Cry 3 & 4, Prince of Persia (the last one), Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter 4, The Queen Of Heart 99 ~Dream Match Never Ends~, Virtua Tennis 1 & 3, Crazy Taxi and... oh, sorry. My list is very long.
^_^U
The worst problem I've had was with old 256 colors, fullscreen games, Like QoH '99 and Sonic & Knuckles Collection, but nothing that can't be fixed disabling Aero and tweaking here and there.

So, if you've some really old game that you can't run on Windows 7, just search or ask on this forums and you'll get your answer and your game working.
Hope it helps you.
Sayonara! 