Running old games on Windows 10

Have you ever come across your old CDs of Dungeon Keeper, Diablo or Starcraft and wonder how much fun it would be to play them again? These games, which took away countless hours of our time and many sleepless nights with friends and family. Only when you try to install them on your laptop running Windows 10, do you realize that many of them no longer work! Fret not, dear friend, as you will shortly be playing your favorite game on Windows 10 if you follow the instructions given below.

Please note that this article is about running 32-bit games on Windows 10, and NOT 16-bit games or DOS games. To play a 16-bit game, you would need another computer running an older OS like Windows 95 or 98, or a virtual machine on your computer. Playing DOS games on Windows 10 is much easier (you just need an app called DOSBox) and there are countless articles on the web explaining how to do so.

1. First, you must install your game on Windows 10. This should be easy as most old games have no problem installing on a modern OS, even if they don't run later.
2. After installing the game, check if there is a No-CD fix or some other patch available on the web. You can just google game-name patch or visit a website like MegaGames to find a patch for your game.
3. Install the patch or No CD key. Most patches can be installed in two ways: they have an installer where you have to enter the path of the your installed game and click run/install. The second type of patch is a compressed archive with a .exe file which you have to put in the directory where you have installed your game (click yes to replace).
4. Some old games will be running flawlessly at this stage. If not, go to Desktop, right-click on the game's shortcut, click on Properties, click on Compatibility, select Run this program in compatibility mode for and select Windows XP (Service pack 3). Click on Apply and then try running the game.
   

If the above steps do not work for you, then there are two ways to run the game.

1. Using DxWnd

DxWnd is a FREE utility which allows you to run full-screen programs in a Window. More importantly, for our case, it helps us run old Windows games on Windows 10. You can download DxWnd from SourceForge.

• After downloading, extract the compressed archive using WinZip or 7-Zip.
• After extracting the files, open the folder and run dxwnd.exe. Click on the Edit menu and click on Add.
• In the main tab, put some name (any name) for the game you want to run. Click on the ... button below the Path field and navigate to the folder you have installed your game. Select the .exe file of the game. Click OK.
• You will be back on the main DXWnd window. You can now see a thumbnail image of your game with a name. Double-click on it or select the game, click on File menu and click Run.
• At this stage, most games will work without problems. If yes, you may ignore the rest of the steps. If not, continue reading.
• If the game doesn't run despite following the above steps, select the game, open the Edit menu and click on Modify.
• Click on the Video tab and try selecting different screen resolutions (SVGA, Native, etc.). If this doesn't work, reopen the Modify window, click on the Direct3D tab and select Emulate 16bpp D3D8 backbuffer in the Emulation field. Try running the game again.
• If you have issues with the mouse pointer in the game, open the Modify screen and select all the options beginning with Correct .... Try running the game again.

2. Using DgVoodoo 2

DgVoodoo 2 is a FREE graphics wrapper which transforms old graphics APIs to Direct3D which helps older games run on Windows 7/8/10. You can get it from here (Ignore the warning about unwanted software. it's perfectly safe)

• Unpack the compressed archive, navigate to the MS\x86 folder and copy the DDraw.dll, D3DImm.dll, and D3D8.dll files.
• Paste these three files in the game installation folder. Now the game should run successfully on Windows 10.

Please note that you need to follow only one approach, the DxWnd one or the DgVoodoo 2 one. While, the above steps should work for most old games released in the late 1990s - early 2000s, it is not a sure fix for ALL games. I hope this article helped you to relive those joyful moments of the past on your latest computer! Go ahead and have some fun!