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Windows 7 x64 & Classic/Win95/98-era Gaming Compatibility

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CatSoup:
Hey all.  I know we have a few Win7 topics, but none really focused on something I'm really interested:  older game compatibility.

I'm talking about older DOS games, and "newer" Win95/98 games like Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8 (PC versions).  Basically, I really like having these games available to play any time, since the PC versions had some graphic enhancements, etc.  You could also use hacks to make some geometry/text/etc higher resolution, which you can't do in the PSX emulated versions.  However, these games came out when video cards were just becoming commonplace.  Many of them have finicky code that presumes you have an old Nvidia or 3dFX (!) chip, and took some work to even get them to work on XP.  Now, is that all broken again in Win7?

I'm on XP (32bit) right now and thinking about going to Win7 x64.  I guess there are two main issues and one general issue: 

1.  Does the upgrade to Win7 from XP create a lot of problems (compared to XP compatibility) with these games?  I have a student Professional Win7 license, so I think I have XP Mode (see chart) available.  I think(?) XP Mode is basically just a virtual machine install (Wikipedia), though.  Seems like compatibility would be limited by the virtual machine's virtual hardware, which may not be the right mix to be compatible. 

2.  Does the change from 32-bit to 64-bit lower compatibility for these games? 

3.  Does either of these changes result in significant performance drops, even if ultimately the games "work"?

As a side note, I know there's no direct upgrade from XP to 7, but has anyone tried upgrading to Vista as an intermediary, then to 7?  Does that preserve any programs?  Sounds crazy, but I've got so much stuff installed that I'd be literally looking at months of free time to get things back to "normal." 

(I'm running a rock solid XP installation now that, literally, is the same upgraded installation from a 1996 install spanning Win95->98->98SE->XP  ::) .  It's survived 2 HD transplants, 3 mobo changes, 3 CPU changes, and 4 video card upgrades.  Never really tried, but a clean install was always a last resort I never really had to use.)

GoGeTa006:
32 to 64 will drastically change your compatibility.
sadly there are plenty of games that arent compatible with 64bit OS. specially the older ones

from XP to 7 I dont think theres much of a hassle since (IIRC) Windows 7 has an XP emulator or something like that.

sdedalus83:

--- Quote from: GoGeTa006 on December 07, 2009, 01:09:00 AM ---from XP to 7 I dont think theres much of a hassle since (IIRC) Windows 7 has an XP emulator or something like that.

--- End quote ---

It won't work with a lot of games.  VMware Player is a much better option.  You can also create a virtual machine using an image of your current XP installation with vConvert.

zherok:
XP Mode is definitely not meant for games, there's no 3D acceleration.

Personally I'd just emulate it. The PC version isn't notably better looking.

fohfoh:
I agree. It's not the XP to 7 that's going to be the biggest issue, but 32bit to 64bit that's going to be the big issue.

As stated. Use VM. 7 is quite the improvement from XP, but throwing in VM gives you the best of both worlds.

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