PC Games

[Xalibar]

I have a question about the PC and their games. Do pc games become, not sure how to say this, but "unplayable" after a few years because you get a new computer or software? Like I tried to play Contract Jack, No one lives forever 2, and some tex murphy games on my pc, all of which are at least 6 years old or more(in the case of tex murphy) and i always get an error message saying it wont work for some reason. (I'm not too familiar with computer components). Do computer games become unusable on newer computers after a certain amount of years, rendering old games that you liked into ones that can't be played anymore and aren't sold?

[JKTrix]

I think PC games are designed with particular things in mind at the time, like graphics cards and processors and whatnot. Sometimes, you may have a graphics card or processor that is so outrageously different than what they had available when the game came out that the game doesn't know how to handle it. I imagine some bits of hardware can be 'backwards compatible', otherwise you may have to look around the 'net for a patch that would make the game work.

[Xalibar]

What exactly is a patch?

[JKTrix]

Patch: In computing, a patch is a small piece of software designed to update or fix problems with a computer program. This includes fixing bugs, replacing graphics and improving the usability or performance.

[escobert]

Depends what OS you are running. Most PC games won't work if they are older I believe and for mac games you must have 8.6 or before to play all the old games. (thankfully my only mac left runs 8.6)

[blim]

According to Playonline the reason FF XI wont play on my PC is beacuse my graphics drivers are too up to date. Grrrr £20 down the pan. (anyone wanna buy FF XI?)

[Madame Adequate]

According to Playonline the reason FF XI wont play on my PC is beacuse my graphics drivers are too up to date. Grrrr £20 down the pan. (anyone wanna buy FF XI?)

Surely you can patch the drivers back a couple of iterations? I know that sounds counterintuitive, but it should be possible. Or just wait until they update FFXI to be compatable.

And yes, there can be real problems with older games sometimes. Getting the X-Coms to run is pretty challenging. Getting them to run with stability is more difficult than actually beating the aliens in-game.

On the other hand, some things work fine. My copy of Little Big Adventure 2 works without trouble on my PC, and it's about ten years old now. ... as an aside, I wish Adeline/No Cliche were still active.

[fantasyjunkie]

CIVII and Warcraft 2 still play fine on my newest comp(Windows XP)

[escobert]

CIVII and Warcraft 2 still play fine on my newest comp(Windows XP)

Really? I can't ever get CivII to work on XP

[GNOME]

CIVII and Warcraft 2 still play fine on my newest comp(Windows XP)

Really? I can't ever get CivII to work on XP

Mine works fine. When I had XP. I use Linux. But I'm gonna try to run CivII: Test of Time on WINE when I feel like it.

[Nominus Experse]

SMAC and its expansion refuse to work on my CPU...

Makes me very, very unhappy. Very unhappy indeed...

[Shoeberto]

XP is very different from previous versions of Windows, which breaks old game compatibility at times. A little bit of Googling can usually point towards a fix.

[Madame Adequate]

SMAC and its expansion refuse to work on my CPU...

Makes me very, very unhappy. Very unhappy indeed...

Ooooh, that sucks. Mine runs SMAC just fine - in fact, so well I can start to hax things open and make the world much bigger, for example, without incurring slowdown. Don't have SMAX. Never even seen SMAX come to that - I've downloaded it from Underdogs but it doesn't work right. ;_;

[DK]

I have never missed a game as much as I miss SMAC. I will mourn the loss of my disc for all eternity.

[Odaisé Gaelach]

SMAC and its expansion refuse to work on my CPU...

Makes me very, very unhappy. Very unhappy indeed...

Aren't there patches on the SMAC website?