The witcher doesn't run under 7.

I've heard Fallout 3 won't work properly on Windows 7 without patching.

BSA Starfire wrote:

The witcher doesn't run under 7.

False.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

I've heard Fallout 3 won't work properly on Windows 7 without patching.

I'm not really sure (since I have the GOTY on steam). Though, indeed, you need to change two variables to avoid crashes every now and then.
I'm not sure what's the link between "broken" multi-threading and w7.

If you have any other problem then, it's probably GFWL's fault (and that's what you would need to update)

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

I've heard Fallout 3 won't work properly on Windows 7 without patching.

To run F3 under W7 you must disable Aero and desktop composition. I finished it that way. Without doing that, it's a crash feast.

mirh wrote:

BSA Starfire wrote:

The witcher doesn't run under 7.

False.

I was about to say, I can play Witcher just fine with Windows 7 64-Bit.... Or, at least, I've played about 30 Minutes worth after first installing it. Been busy with other things since then, and haven't actually started playing the game through again.

Of all the games I play:

Doesn't work: None of them.
Requires patching: All of them.

This is on any Microsoft OS, XP included, not just 7 and 8.

Also, is there really any point to building a period correct XP box?

Not until you run into a game that needs it. Figure out how to play a game when you want to play it. Don't try to figure out how to play every game on the planet right now, because you won't.

BSA Starfire wrote:

The witcher doesn't run under 7.

I beat Witcher under Win7 x64 last year, so that's definitely not the case.

eL_PuSHeR wrote:

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

I've heard Fallout 3 won't work properly on Windows 7 without patching.

To run F3 under W7 you must disable Aero and desktop composition. I finished it that way. Without doing that, it's a crash feast.

I'm surprised there isn't a patch, Windows 7 came out just the year after Fallout 3, 09 vs 08.

I haven't really ran into games that flat out don't run, but many games with little glitches and things that don't work as well.

F.E.A.R. and Far Cry for example. And there are likely a lot more.

Haven't had any issues with F.E.A.R under Win7x86. Haven't tried under Win8/x64 yet. Was actually planning to pretty soon.

ZellSF wrote:

Haven't had any issues with F.E.A.R under Win7x86. Haven't tried under Win8/x64 yet. Was actually planning to pretty soon.

Little glitch when it quick saves. Otherwise works great 😀

Hyperbowl and The Labyrinth...........Plus! editions 🤣 given it's only functional on licensed Plus! for XP installs on XP.

Also it's important to distinguish Windows 7 issues apart from typical nVidia "THE WAY ITS MEANT TO BE PLAYED IS A CRASH!!!" issues. Nvidia has been the root of so many old "help game dont work xp" issues

The most significant XP game one I ran into that didn't run on W7 was the first generation of the Strike Fighters series ["Wings Over..." by Third Wire]. This was a bummer since there was a very good Korean Air War mod for it. But the upgraded re-release Strike Fighers II picked up the slack for W7/8.

My dedicated XP build has few 'runs on XP only' games; mainly the Strike Fighter series and a few dozen older games that play nicer or are less hassle to set up with XP than W7.

On the other hand XP had very good W9x backward compatibility so a fair number of games from the previous era that still hung on with XP were lost to W7. But these are not strictly XP games so not really the issue of this thread.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

I've heard Fallout 3 won't work properly on Windows 7 without patching.

I've got a release-day DVD copy and it installs and runs fine on Win7x64 out of the box. Now I have patched it up (and I suggest anyone else to do the same) because it fixes various things in the game itself, and a lot of mods (and some of the official DLC (interestingly you can actually install all of the DLCs without patching, and the ones that aren't supported just silently fail to load - nothing crashes or breaks though)) require the game to be patched to latest (including FOSE, which requires latest build). I didn't have to mess with Aero or mess with any other compatibility settings either - I could've just installed and played the base game right out of the box with no problems. There is a switch in the conf file for multi-threading (mirh linked to it) that can improve stability for SOME systems IME - on my Core 2 Quad system it never made a difference on XP or 7 (I never needed to set it, and setting it didn't hurt or help anything), on my Core i5 (Win7 only) it seems to help (it wasn't really a "crash fest" beforehand, but all-day gaming sessions weren't always possible - with that switch set it isn't a problem).

Oblivion also works fine on Win7, and I've got release-day DVD of that too. It also requires patching for DLCs and mods, especially if using OBSE.

Fallout New Vegas also works fine on Win7, again have release-day for that, and again it requires patching for DLCs and mods, especially if using NVSE.

In all cases these games require patching for some DLCs, and many mods, especially if you need script-extender. The patches also fix various issues in the games, so there's no reason not to patch (I'd also suggest the various "unofficial patches" for them too - as those fix a lot of other problems). I would also suggest using the GFWL disabler for Fallout 3, as GFWL can cause problems with save-games and DLC/mod content. It also makes the game start and load faster with GFWL disabled.

Something else to keep in mind for all of these (the above) games (and Skyrim): the most common cause of crashes that seem to "develop" as you get into the game is save-game corruption. If you have a save-game that crashes on load, crashes shortly after load, crashes upon a new cell load after you restart, etc the save is very likely corrupted. For Skyrim (and I think NV) there are utilities that attempt to clean the saves, but I've seen very mixed results with those over the years. It's usually easier to just dump the bad saves and try again. Much like The Sims 2, corruption-creep is a problem with these games, and is something to keep an eye on; it's best to keep back-up copies of known-clean saves if you're worried about losing a favorite character. You may have to re-play some quests or re-tread some territory, but it's better than continuing on a broken save (because it only gets worse as you go along).

As far as games I've had trouble with in Windows 7 (and run on my XP box):

- I've had consistent problems with Morrowind (crashes, doesn't install right, bad performance, etc) on multiple Windows 7 builds that represent all three major graphics vendors (Intel, nVidia, and ATi) and a fairly broad range of other hardware.

- ORB's CD installer does not work properly in Windows 7, and I've never gotten the game to even install.

- I've gotten Empire Earth to work with compatibility mode changes (set to Admin + WinXP), but the performance is very bad.

Overall that's a pretty short list compared to the number of old games that've worked right out of the box or with very minimal intervention under 7x64 IME.

Some quirky-mirky stuff:

- The Sims 2 from the original release CDs will usually appear to have issues with modern machines. The root of the problem is that it uses a hand-written text file to compare your VGA adapter's ID string to in order to set display options (including what display options you're allowed to change in the game). If your adapter doesn't appear on the list (and anything newer than around 2005 when the game came out won't 🤣 ) you will have extremely limited choices as a result, because it drops into a fail-safe mode (all minimum settings, no shaders, etc). The Origin release of the game has an updated list that includes modern adapters, or you can add your card to the list by hand (or even easier, just bypass the list and force all "Settings tiers" in the conf file to whatever settings you want so it has no other choices). There's guides online for this if you're stuck in this situation.

leileilol wrote:

Hyperbowl and The Labyrinth...........Plus! editions 🤣 given it's only functional on licensed Plus! for XP installs on XP.

Also it's important to distinguish Windows 7 issues apart from typical nVidia "THE WAY ITS MEANT TO BE PLAYED IS A CRASH!!!" issues. Nvidia has been the root of so many old "help game dont work xp" issues

I've been an ATI/AMD user for years, so I wouldn't really know. 🤣

Last time I tried (admittedly a while ago and it may now have a fix)
is MechWarrior 3

Davros wrote:

Last time I tried (admittedly a while ago and it may now have a fix)
is MechWarrior 3

MechWarrior 3 was around Win98/ME, but it does have a ton of issues on Windows 7. It's the only MechWarrior game I haven't played because of those issues.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

leileilol wrote:

Hyperbowl and The Labyrinth...........Plus! editions 🤣 given it's only functional on licensed Plus! for XP installs on XP.

Also it's important to distinguish Windows 7 issues apart from typical nVidia "THE WAY ITS MEANT TO BE PLAYED IS A CRASH!!!" issues. Nvidia has been the root of so many old "help game dont work xp" issues

I've been an ATI/AMD user for years, so I wouldn't really know. 🤣

That unfortuntately might even apply to ATI/AMD users.
In particular I remember splinter cell broken shadowing

obobskivich wrote:

- I've had consistent problems with Morrowind (crashes, doesn't install right, bad performance, etc) on multiple Windows 7 builds that represent all three major graphics vendors (Intel, nVidia, and ATi) and a fairly broad range of other hardware.

Works pretty nicely here. It's even true I have steam version though.
Hopefully this can help you

obobskivich wrote:

- I've gotten Empire Earth to work with compatibility mode changes (set to Admin + WinXP), but the performance is very bad.

http://www.save-ee.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5532
http://www.save-ee.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1029
http://www.save-ee.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5748

And thank your for your extensive explanation

SpeedySPCFan wrote:

Davros wrote:

Last time I tried (admittedly a while ago and it may now have a fix)
is MechWarrior 3

MechWarrior 3 was around Win98/ME, but it does have a ton of issues on Windows 7. It's the only MechWarrior game I haven't played because of those issues.

Isn't this enough?

mirh wrote:

That unfortuntately might even apply to ATI/AMD users.
In particular I remember splinter cell broken shadowing

This game needs to "die" as a discussion topic, because it's been done TO DEATH. 😵 The "broken shadowing" is not actually broken, it's an nVidia-specific feature that is only fully supported on certain nVidia GPUs/drivers. Otherwise you're running the game with "normal" shadows that will work fine on basically any compatible 3D hardware (e.g. ATi, non-NV20 GeForce, etc).

What leileilol is talking about is nVidia's awful tendency to break compatibility/support for older games with newer driver updates and never go back and clean up their mess. There's a reason people run ancient nVidia drivers on their equally old nVidia hardware, whereas ATi tends to maintain compatibility with forwards driver releases. I've yet to see anything "break" with my 290X running latest 14.x drivers, and I've had no problems running the final Legacy builds on Radeon 9550, 9800, X1600, HD 4800, etc even with running older games, where nVidia solutions may get somewhat touchy.

Hopefully this can help

That is 100% unrelated and irrelevant to my situation, but thanks anyways. 😊 Something that did remind me of though: Oblivion will not run properly if certain versions of Nero are running in the background.

http://www.save-ee.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5532
http://www.save-ee.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1029
http://www.save-ee.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5748

I'm not using Windows 8 - just Windows 7. The game installs just fine off the CD, and when set to run as admin + compatibility mode it will start-up just fine, and allow me to set any options I like (and will default to hardware TnL). The performance is just worse than it should be relative to the machine's specifications; the same hardware with Windows XP runs the game much better. I'm not sure what the root of that is, and it isn't that the game is unplayable on 7, but I'd rather have higher performance when available - so I go with XP and don't worry about it. 😊

That's one thing in response to the "is there a need for an XP box" - I don't think it's fair to say that there's a game that absolutely will never work under Windows 7 that runs in XP, but IME there's plenty of games that "just work" in XP that require more intervention, hacking, modding, etc to get working in 7. Having an XP box, or even a dual-boot if your Windows 7 machine supports it, can eliminate a lot of that time-spending in the long-run.

Something else to note on EE, that I remembered after posting - it is affected by the AMD dual-core timing bug. If I remember right it is one of the games the optimizer can fix, but it's been years since I've tried it out.

And thank your for your extensive explanation

😀