Quite simply retro WINDOWS gamers (as opposed to DOS games which have DOSBox as an easy solution) need to invest in one of the emulation titles mentioned above. I use Virtual PC with an old Win98 OS disk I have to give me a Win98 system within my XP system. This allows me to play games like Star Trek Generations and Dune 2000 (to quote just 2 titles!). I also ran 7th Legion in my Virtual PC with no problem, but then found a patch that let the game play in XP. Virtual PC allows you to use your CD/DVD Drive and allows access to shared folders. This means patches can easily be applied by copying to the shared folder then starting Virtual PC and accessing that same folder to bring in the patch/mod whatever. A Win98 OS Disk can be got for very low prices on ebay etc, and is an excellent investment in my book, as I have nearly as many early win95/win98 games as I do DOS games, and it's these early Windows games (especially the ones that weren't big hits so don't get much support today) that Virtual PC can generally run wonderfully!All I hope is that Virtual PC keeps getting upgraded to a slightly more powerful PC, as some laterWin98 won't run on it as it is not powerful enough, and yt they won't work in my XP system because it's too powerful!
As a 20 year plus PC gamer, I can see the writing on the wall for AAA PC titles. The choice will become drastically small, and any genre outside of action games (FPS's/TPS's, etc) likely to practically disappear. Those that do arrive are likely to be further dumbed down as each generation arrive with more and more publishers looking at the console/casual market alone. You only have to look at the Morrowind/Oblivion debate, or the 'streamlining' of games like Dawn of War 2 versus Dawn of War, or Empires Total War versus Rome or Medieval II TW, or even GTA IV versus GTA San Andreas!
I have been quietly building up my retro game collection via ebay, etc, and now have over 300 PC games from 1990 onwards, and now own pretty much every game I originally bought and loved but lost over time fo various reasons. Games like the Thief series, System Shock 1 and 2, Ultima Underground 1 and 2, Wasteland/Fallout 1/Fallout 2, Terra Nova: Task Force Centauri and Darklands!
I would recommwend every reto PC gamer to invest in a Win98 OS disk and downloading Virtual PC or one of the others. It will be an excellent long-term investment! 😀