With a good 20-odd years of history behind it, nothing can rival the PC as a gaming platform. It has bona-fide classics in every field, from the most cerebral of pursuits to the most joyously brain-dead action, rendered in anything from four colours to 16 million. Of course, the PC hasn’t stood still during all that time – the massive evolution in hardware and software means that older games don’t always play nice with a modern machine.
So, while Windows Vista brings some pretty nifty improvements for modern games, its significant changes from earlier versions of Windows mean a few doors are shut to older games. Not, however, permanently – almost any troublesome title can be restored to full functionality with a bit of tinkering.
In some cases, it’s simply a matter of installing an update (aka ‘patch’) provided by a game’s creators. The critically acclaimed shooter STALKER is a good example of this – played straight out of the box in Windows Vista, it regularly crashed due to a change in the folder where save-game files are kept from earlier editions of Windows. An update released just a few days after the game fixed this, and now it runs fine in Windows Vista. You can find patches on games’ official web sites, and they’re usually mirrored on third-party sites such as 3dgamers.com.
3D check
Resurrecting ancient games
Get your favourite pre-Windows titles working in Windows Vista
1. Old Games. Pre-Windows 95 games are designed for a different type of operating system, and usually don’t work at all in Windows Vista. Administrator and Compatibility mode (see ‘Making newer games play’, page 62) is an occasional solution, but generally you’ll have to tinker around a bit.
2. Really old games. The most reliable way of playing pre-Windows 95 games is an application called DOSbox. This emulates DOS, the textbased OS that preceded Windows 95, making it possible to play games that would otherwise require a complicated DOS installation.
3. Easier Interface. By default, DOSbox is, like DOS, text-based, so for the sake of ease it’s worth installing a Windows frontend, too – DOG is a good choice. Install DOSbox, browse to the DOG. folder, run DOG.exe, then point it at Program Files\DOSbox when prompted.
4. Installing old games. For each DOS game you want to play, you should copy all files from its original media to a folder on your hard drive, rather than trying to install it from a floppy disk or suchlike. Then, in DOG, go to Profiles ➜ New Profile, and type in the game’s title under Profile Name.
5. Configuring Profiles. Click Select after Exe filename to browse to the game’s executable. You may also need to click Setup and pick the game’s setup/ install file to confi gure sound settings. Also click Conf filename and enter a name of your choosing. Click OK, then double-click the game name to run.
6. An easier way. SCUMMvm is an application specifi cally made to run old LucasArts point-and-click adventures, such as Monkey Island or Sam & Max. Grab it from Scummwv.org, run it, then add games by browsing to their folders.
Older games are something of a different matter – initially complicated to get working, but easy once you know how. But whatever the age of the game, there are some general tips worth following to ensure the best performance. First of all, always, always remember to check for new graphics card drivers on a monthly basis. Both ATI and Nvidia, the two leading 3D card manufacturers, are still ironing the creases out of their Windows Vista behaviour. The earliest drivers at the time of the release of Windows Vista suffered slow-down, display errors and even total unplayability. They’re much improved now though, so if you haven’t updated your drivers in a while, do so.
If you’re not sure what 3D card is in your PC, right-click on the desktop, select Personalize and then Display Settings. Underneath the image of your monitor, you’ll see your display adaptor listed – if it’s called a Radeon, it’s made by ATI, and if it’s a GeForce it’s made by Nvidia. Visit ATI.com or nvidia.com as appropriate, and then click the Drivers link at the top of the screen to find the most recent release. Download the file, run it and it will take you through the rest of the install process.
If your display adaptor is listed as being Intel Extreme Graphics, it’s not great for modern gaming performance anyway, but you can rely on Windows Update for new driver versions rather than having to manually track them down.
Even with the latest drivers, the forwardrather than backward-looking nature of the game support in Windows Vista means that some titles will run a bit slower than you may be used to – usually fractionally, occasionally noticeably. If it becomes a really serious problem, one thing you could try would be buying more system memory. Modern games running under Windows Vista often benefit greatly from having 2GB or more of RAM.
If expanding your memory isn’t possible right away, try Windows ReadyBoost – plug in a memory card or USB flash drive and, if it’s fast enough, you’ll get the option to use it to speed up your PC. It won’t always help though, and improvements will be negligible if you have over 1GB of RAM already.
Surround stereo
Another issue you might meet is a neutering of your fancy-pants surround sound card. A major change in the way Windows Vista communicates with such hardware means a lot of games that previously pumped out their violent noises through multiple speakers now only do so in stereo.
This is particularly annoying if you’ve got one of the expensive Creative X-Fi cards, but fortunately there’s a way out. Creative ALchemy ‘transmutes’ many games that suffer from this into using a different audio system that has surround sound and special effects restored.
Officially, this only works on X-Fi cards, but unofficially it also works on other surround sound cards. You might be lucky – give it a go from the website. Just run it, select the name of any games on your system that it’s recognised then hit Transmute to perform the trickery.
The best advice for any malfunctioning game, though, is simply to type its name and ‘Windows Vista’ into your internet search engine – chances are high that someone, somewhere has worked out how to get it running properly and has posted the solution on the web to save everyone else the trouble.
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