i know you want bitmapped, but you really should look at Total Annihilation.

https://youtu.be/UAxpc_LjPDY?feature=shared

It's not 'ugly', like warzone 2100.

The non-Definitive Editions of the first two Age of Empires games, not using 3D rendering at all.

I'd rather play serf city, settlers 2 & dune 2 with DOSBox over listed, top tier is top tier. dune 2 music, fx and ambiance is the best, same deal with serf city & settlers 2, later versions don't hold a candle to the OGs. windows 98 era; close combat: a bridge too far. I haven't played it but star trek away team (2001) looks good to me from the gameplay videos.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2023-10-01, 17:01:

Warcraft (error: no good sourceport exist)

This one is based on reverse-engineered code and is compatible with the original games (savegames and netplay). Windows and Android versions available. Here's a video showing it being played on Android against the original DOS version in DOSBox:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx5YchMOvX0

I see you want ports or engine recreations compatible with WinXP, but I have no idea if this one works on XP though.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2023-10-01, 17:01:

Dune (sourceport)

You mean Dune II: The Building of A Dynasty. Technically, no projects that exist are source ports, as the source code was never made public. Again, I cannot tell if Dune Dynasty works on XP. Other things like the old version of Dune 2 - The Maker very definitely do work on XP and even Win98, but they are not exceptionally accurate.

Have you tried "7th Legion", "Dark Colony", "Dark Reign 1", and "Earth 2140"? Though I think Earth 2140 was MS-DOS only, I don't remember if it had a native 32-bit Windows executable.

I think "KKND: Krush Kill 'n Destroy" is also a "bitmap RTS" as well, but I'm not sure if that was MS-DOS or 32-bit Windows native.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2023-10-01, 17:01:

I like to have all the RTS games that i can play mainly with a mouse and with cheap older computers, but not real retro. So the […]
Show full quote

I like to have all the RTS games that i can play mainly with a mouse and with cheap older computers, but not real retro. So the target is Windows XP. And i have managed to run my list with Windows 7 also.

The list:

CnC Gold
CnC : Tiberian Sun
Red Alert
Red Alert 2
Warcraft (error: no good sourceport exist)
Warcraft 2 BNE
Warcraft 3 (not really the target, because of full 3D)
Dune (sourceport)
Dune 2000
Starcraft
Zed Z whatever (sourceport)

So just looging for bitmapped RTS games. Early full 3D RTS and even FPS games look just ugly.

So maybe you have some aditions.

I downloaded this bin/cue recently : TZAR: Burden of the Crown
tutorial/beginning is a bit childish with weird road rash pc avatar art (don't get this type of artwork), which put me off. looks promising in youtube videos
Also, try stronghold 1, I enjoyed playing that on retro pc

Checked out TZAR: Burden of the Crown videos, serf city/settlers 2 with different graphics and sound.

DracoNihil wrote on 2023-10-02, 06:10:

I think "KKND: Krush Kill 'n Destroy" is also a "bitmap RTS" as well, but I'm not sure if that was MS-DOS or 32-bit Windows native.

Oh right, KKND. The original release is for DOS, but the Xtreme version is 32-bit Windows (it has the original campaigns plus expansion scenarios).

Here's a few more Windows native RTS games that should run under XP and later:
Astroseries
Seven Kingdoms + Ancient Adversaries (check out the unique demo scenarios as well)
Seven Kingdoms 2
Rise and Nations + Thrones and Patriots (this one has 3D models for units but everything else is sprites, and the two blend in very well together)
Stronghold (was already mentioned -- it looks very nice, but castle management isn't really my type here)
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
Rising Kingdoms -- this is like Warcraft III, but completely in 2D (from the creators of Tzar)
Submarine Titans (StarCraft clone under water, felt a bit boring to me)
TRIDONIS -- kind of a C&C clone with somewhat better graphics, a demo is available
Knights & Merchants (The Settlers meets Warcraft II)

gmaverick2k wrote on 2023-10-02, 06:45:

TZAR: Burden of the Crown
tutorial/beginning is a bit childish with weird road rash pc avatar art (don't get this type of artwork), which put me off. looks promising in youtube videos

This is one of the games which looked cool in the demo (I'm a big Warcraft II fan and this seemed like an elaborate clone/Age of Kings hybrid), but much less so in the full release. I bought this off GOG some years ago and when I started playing (mind you that before that, I'd poked around the demo and even played some skirmish maps in the demo, not just the campaign scenario which seemed ok), unit pathfinding was simply atrocious. I had to replay the second level, which is incredibly simple (walk from one corner of the map to another and defeat a small band of enemy units), twice, because the way my units had absolutely no clue how to group or move around obstacles resulted in a pathetic defeat the first time I played.

Later on I read some forum posts and people actually recommend playing on Easy difficulty to spare yourself some nerves because of these pathfinding problems. I did exactly that, but the game quickly became not very fun to me. Once you get to levels where the AI actually has a base, it has a tendency to dig itself up in strong defences, which easily tear through your forces, and even if you manage to take the base down piece by piece, and it rebuilds very quickly (unlimited resources I guess). As a result, dealing with this swiftly becomes a boring chore, so I finally dropped this for good.

Outlive is a Brazilian RTS released in 2001. Looks a lot like Starcraft.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2023-10-01, 17:01:

I like to have all the RTS games that i can play mainly with a mouse and with cheap older computers, but not real retro. So the target is Windows XP.

Emperor: Battle for Dune. Runs pretty smooth on an old laptop with GeForce 310M GPU.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2023-10-01, 17:01:

Warcraft (error: no good sourceport exist)

Can't you use DOSBOX for that one? I remember running the game pretty smooth in DOSBOX, on an Intel Celeron M 1.4 GHz CPU, Windows XP.

MrFlibble wrote on 2023-10-02, 18:56:

Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

You beat me to it. And yes, Majesty runs pretty well on something as slow as Intel® Atom™ N280. And I also like the gameplay so much.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2023-10-04, 14:00:

Emperor: Battle for Dune. Runs pretty smooth on an old laptop with GeForce 310M GPU.

As far as I can tell, the OP's looking for 2D stuff. Also I should note that while this game might work reasonably fast on hardware that is considered "old" today, I can tell you from personal experience that I played it back in the mid-2000s on a P4 with 256 MiB RAM and a 64 MiB VRAM NVIDIA card (Win98SE), and while it ran more or less okay on the whole, if I played on hard difficulty and the AI built a really big army, the frame rate would drop to a slide-show once this force started showing up on the screen, making the game unplayable.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote on 2023-10-04, 14:00:

Cyberdyne wrote on 2023-10-01, 17:01:

Warcraft (error: no good sourceport exist)

Can't you use DOSBOX for that one? I remember running the game pretty smooth in DOSBOX, on an Intel Celeron M 1.4 GHz CPU, Windows XP.

Actually, Warcraft should be fully playable natively on WinXP, which is also something that I did back then. One might want to use VDMSound to make the music work properly though. The same applies to Dune II and Command & Conquer.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2023-10-01, 17:01:

I like to have all the RTS games that i can play mainly with a mouse and with cheap older computers, but not real retro. So the […]
Show full quote

I like to have all the RTS games that i can play mainly with a mouse and with cheap older computers, but not real retro. So the target is Windows XP. And i have managed to run my list with Windows 7 also.

The list:

CnC Gold
CnC : Tiberian Sun
Red Alert
Red Alert 2
Warcraft (error: no good sourceport exist)
Warcraft 2 BNE
Warcraft 3 (not really the target, because of full 3D)
Dune (sourceport)
Dune 2000
Starcraft
Zed Z whatever (sourceport)

So just looging for bitmapped RTS games. Early full 3D RTS and even FPS games look just ugly.

So maybe you have some aditions.

Age of Empires/Mythology I guess any Microsoft published title

gaffa2002 wrote on 2023-10-04, 11:52:

Outlive is a Brazilian RTS released in 2001. Looks a lot like Starcraft.

I remember checking out the demo. It does indeed look like SC, but does not really play like it. Somewhat of an odd game but why not.

Also I think I forgot to mention Kingdom Under Fire, which is a South Korean Warcraft II/StarCraft clone. The setting is mediaeval fantasy but the interface isometric view and playing mechanics are more akin to StarCraft. A playable demo is also available.

You should add Cossacks and American Conquest to your list.

MrFlibble wrote on 2023-10-01, 20:34:

This one is based on reverse-engineered code and is compatible with the original games (savegames and netplay). Windows and Andr […]
Show full quote

Cyberdyne wrote on 2023-10-01, 17:01:

Warcraft (error: no good sourceport exist)

This one is based on reverse-engineered code and is compatible with the original games (savegames and netplay). Windows and Android versions available. Here's a video showing it being played on Android against the original DOS version in DOSBox:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx5YchMOvX0

I see you want ports or engine recreations compatible with WinXP, but I have no idea if this one works on XP though.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2023-10-01, 17:01:

Dune (sourceport)

You mean Dune II: The Building of A Dynasty. Technically, no projects that exist are source ports, as the source code was never made public. Again, I cannot tell if Dune Dynasty works on XP. Other things like the old version of Dune 2 - The Maker very definitely do work on XP and even Win98, but they are not exceptionally accurate.

WINWAR is a 64BIT windows program, so no dice. and yes I did mean Dune 2.

PS. I am no purist, so I do like modern mouse controls for Dune 2 and Warcraft 1.

Warrior kings was ok when I tried it years ago. Can't remember much of it, only that it was ok at the time.
Check this list out:
https://youtu.be/r7VYmj2lDXY?si=xQRIAnQu38SOeM81