Win 7 fails @ old games?

[MissingNYC]

Hi, this is mainly a general question...
i know that Win7 can't play Starcraft, Dungeon Keeper (1, gold or 2), now apparently i need to add rollercoaster tycoon (1) to that list...

i get a system freeze... mouse, keyboard stop responding, i do not get a bbod or an error... but i can't ALT+F4, or ALT+TAB or ctrl+alt+del what so ever.

Why is it that Win7 seems to fail at... old games?

same issue with starcraft, DK goes to a black screen and doesn't EVER work, DK2 graphics fail to load properly, and RCT1 is the same as starcraft.

I've ran compatibility modes on all, tries the fixes on the starcraft thread and nothing (http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/11659-starcraft-freezes-after-1-5-minutes-playing.html).

any other ideas?

 

[alphanumeric]

You have to draw the line somewhere in terms of backward compatibility. It may not be a windows 7 only problem per say. It's also conceivable that the older games can't handle the new hardware/drivers, especially video cards. It would be nice to have your cake and eat it too but it doesn't always work out that way.

 

[swarfega]

If theyre old dos games, have you tried DOSBox?

 

[Darician]

And also, I've noticed in some instances, a game may not work right in Windows 7 64-bit but in 32-bit, it will not have a problem. Sometimes it's not Windows 7 itself but the type of OS it is (x86 or x64).

 

[Petey7]

Also, since you have 7 Ultimate and a good amount of RAM, you can try XPMode. Some games will play in XPMode that won't in 7.

 

[tannim]

Free Route - Sun Virtual Box + Linux + Wine = GamePlay : ) The speed of those old games probably won't be affected.

Not Free Route - Sun Virtual Box + XP = Gameplay. Easiest way to do it short of going back to XP

DosBox will work for most DOS games