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Does anybody know how I can know if a PC game is compatible with my OS?

roberttitusroberttitus
edited September 2010 in General Chat
Like there are a few older games that I am wanting, but I run Windows 7. The thing is that a lot of the games that I'm looking at don't say that they are compatible with Windows 7. For example Sonic Adventure DX.... it says that its highest OS specification is Windows XP. Then again at the time of its release I'm pretty sure that Vista wasn't even out yet. Thats whats got me confused... does that legitimately mean that its maximum is XP or is it a product of the fact that it was the newest OS at the time?

BTW. Sonic Adventure DX is just an example, so please don't think that this question is limited only to it.

Comments

  • Sir Primalform MagnificoSir Primalform Magnifico
    edited September 2010
    In your example there's basically no way to know for sure. There's no guarantee of forwards compatibility but just because Vista and 7 aren't mentioned it doesn't mean the game absolutely won't work. Basically, do a load of googling if you're unsure.
  • FealiksFealiks
    edited September 2010
    If you're okay with it, you could always download a pirate copy of the game to see if it works and then buy it if it does.
  • roberttitusroberttitus
    edited September 2010
    Fealiks wrote: »
    If you're okay with it, you could always download a pirate copy of the game to see if it works and then buy it if it does.

    I have a terrible fear of going to prison man... I try to stay away from illegal downloads whenever possible. I mean I get what you are saying... to buy it later (& truthfully I would) but that is hardly a good defense when Sega of America (or the various other companies that I would be forced to do that with) would be suing me for everything that I own.
  • IcedhopeIcedhope
    edited September 2010
    What game are you trying to run? I have windows 7 and some old games running on my machine.
  • corruptbigginscorruptbiggins
    edited September 2010
    If a game says it's suited for XP then it should generally work with 7 with little to no tweaking. Usually at most you'd have to run it in compatibility mode which goes as far back as 95 though the older the less likely it'll run perfectly or even at all. It's even more of a problem when you have a 64-bit OS, which is still compatible with most things from the last 10 years as there is support for 32-bit programs but there is no support for 16-bit ones which I found out to my frustration when trying to replay Blade Runner.

    Best way to find out if a game will work on a system like yours is to search through the forums for the game or just general gaming places as there should be at least one other person out there who is wondering the same as you but may already own the game and so is able to inform the world.
  • roberttitusroberttitus
    edited September 2010
    Icedhope wrote: »
    What game are you trying to run? I have windows 7 and some old games running on my machine.

    Well mainly ones that I'm thinking about purchasing

    1. Sonic Adventure DX
    2. Crazy Taxi III
    3. The Prince of Persia Sands Trilogy
    4. Borderlands (Which is actually also compatible with Vista)
    5. Unreal Tournament (My favorite FPS of all time)
    6. Kao the Kangaroo


    Those are the main games at the moment.... they are cheap (well minus Borderlands) & fun so I figure... why not?
  • JedExodusJedExodus
    edited September 2010
    Just search the game name and windows 7 and see what experiences other people have had
  • roberttitusroberttitus
    edited September 2010
    JedExodus wrote: »
    Just search the game name and windows 7 and see what experiences other people have had

    It doesn't work that way....


    I did just that & most of the time no (valid) results pop up
  • RibsRibs
    edited September 2010
    Borderlands works fine, the only game I have that was a pain to run the first time was Halo 2 Vista.
  • TeaTea
    edited September 2010
    If it says 'for Windows XP', it'll work on 7. Difference being that you might have to install DirectX 9 (easy enough) or older versions of .NET and Visual C redistributables. You will find the Microsoft download centre links to any of these things as the first result on Google.

    If it says 98 or 95, you'll have a hard time. Especially if you're running 64bit 7 as 16bit executables (meaning most games from before 1997) won't run without emulation or interpretation (such as DOSBox, ScummVM etc) and not all games have such tools built for them.

    It's very strange that no one has built a 16bit library for 64bit Windows.
  • JedExodusJedExodus
    edited September 2010
    roberttitus wrote: »
    It doesn't work that way....


    I did just that & most of the time no (valid) results pop up

    1. Sonic Adventure DX
    2. Crazy Taxi III
    3. The Prince of Persia Sands Trilogy
    4. Borderlands (Which is actually also compatible with Vista)
    5. Unreal Tournament

    Bordelrands was already addressed and I didn't find anything on Kao the Kangaroo, either way it seems these games all work on 7, some albeit with some fiddling about
  • GraxerGraxer
    edited September 2010
    Sonic Adventure DX works for me on Windows 7, Crazy Taxi 3 works too, but it seems to be too fast, this may not be an OS problem.
  • WarpSpeedWarpSpeed
    edited September 2010
    If you spring for Windows 7 Professional, you get access to XP Virtualization mode, which is basically a Virtual PC with Windows XP running on it. I've found most things that don't work on my 64-bit Windows 7 PC (including 16-bit programs) do work OK in XP Virtualization mode.

    Or you could just do an Internet search and see if anyone has commented if the game you're interested in works on Windows 7 or not.
  • patterspatters
    edited September 2010
    UT99 works on Windows 7.
  • roberttitusroberttitus
    edited September 2010
    JedExodus wrote: »
    1. Sonic Adventure DX
    2. Crazy Taxi III
    3. The Prince of Persia Sands Trilogy
    4. Borderlands (Which is actually also compatible with Vista)
    5. Unreal Tournament

    Bordelrands was already addressed and I didn't find anything on Kao the Kangaroo, either way it seems these games all work on 7, some albeit with some fiddling about


    How you found all of that I'll never know.... but I do greatly appreciate it.
    Thank you :)


    WarpSpeed wrote: »
    If you spring for Windows 7 Professional, you get access to XP Virtualization mode, which is basically a Virtual PC with Windows XP running on it. I've found most things that don't work on my 64-bit Windows 7 PC (including 16-bit programs) do work OK in XP Virtualization mode.t.

    I have a tab under properties/compatibility of a few of my current games that says "Run this program in compatibility mode for". Is that what you are talking about?
  • WarpSpeedWarpSpeed
    edited September 2010
    roberttitus wrote: »
    I have a tab under properties/compatibility of a few of my current games that says "Run this program in compatibility mode for". Is that what you are talking about?

    No, that comes with every version of Windows Vista or Windows 7. That changes some system calls to try to behave like older systems used to, and it often works for older programs. It's not perfect, though.

    The XP Virtualization Mode is more complex than that. It runs an actual copy of Windows XP inside a Virtual PC that is running on your computer. You even have to load separate security patches for it. The reason it's there is that Microsoft is trying to tempt businesses that are still running Windows XP into upgrading to Windows 7. The businesses might be scared to upgrade, thinking their old custom-built works-fine-on-XP applications won't work anymore. With XP Virtualization Mode, you can tell those businesses, fine, here's a copy of XP inside your Windows 7, and if your old applications won't work on Windows 7, you can still run them inside this Virtual PC, while taking advantage of Windows 7 features for your newer applications.

    I'm not a business. Instead, I use it because I have some old external hardware that doesn't have drivers that work with 64-bit Windows 7. They work fine in XP mode, though. For example, I have a scanner here, and if I want to scan something, I start up XP mode and scan it there. It's also the only way I can run 16-bit programs, which absolutely refuse to run on 64-bit Windows 7 no matter what compatibility mode you choose.
  • FriarFriar
    edited September 2010
    Graxer wrote: »
    Sonic Adventure DX works for me on Windows 7, Crazy Taxi 3 works too, but it seems to be too fast, this may not be an OS problem.
    That could be down to having a much faster processor, or two than the game was built for.

    I can also say the Sonic Adventure DX does work on windows 7, but I think the windows key crashes the game.
  • xbskidxbskid
    edited September 2010
    TheJoe wrote: »
    It's very strange that no one has built a 16bit library for 64bit Windows.

    The world has moved on. :)
  • GraxerGraxer
    edited September 2010
    Friar wrote: »
    I can also say the Sonic Adventure DX does work on windows 7, but I think the windows key crashes the game.
    If I remember correctly the same happens in XP. It happens whenever sonic.exe isn't the top window.
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