Win 8 Game Compatibility

[decaro]

My XP has finally died its last death and w/o further MS support I have to upgrade and to Windows 8.

Is this OS compatible with most Matrix games, e.g., Command Ops, WitP:AE, etc.?

[junk2drive]

W8 is not as bad as a lot of people make it to be. My modest box runs faster with 8 than xp. It maintains itself as far as cleanup and defrag. Get the free Classic Shell and you get the start button and menu just like xp.

I have yet to find a game that doesn't work because of the OS.

Since the 8.1 update I can't get CMSF to work but BFC says it is a driver issue and ATI no longer supports my GPU.

[aaatoysandmore]

Try getting all your Win95 and Win98 games to run on it. Games like Medieval Total War 1 don't work well. Older dos games even with Dosbox or Defend Reloaded will no longer work. I had to buy an old netbook to keep my older dos games running. I hate Win 8. Most busy OS I've ever seen. I also don't see the speed increase of it over Win7 either. Maybe a little over XP but not worth the upgrade. i'll take even Vista any day over Win 8.

[Darkspire]

i'll take even Vista any day over Win 8.

Is it really that bad?? I will moving up to Win7 in the new year, keeping this rig with my other antiques purely for compatibility.

Darkspire

[Hotschi]

Battle Academy and World in Flames definitley run on Windows 8.1 - in WitP-AE some say the map scroll is incredibly slow but running the game in windowed mode remedies this - can't tell myself as I haven't reinstalled it yet.

[Hertston]

I can confirm the following are all OK, being the only ones so far installed on my 8.1 machine, Civil War 2, Command, Alea Jacta Est, WitP:AE, WitE, Red Storm, Conflict of Heroes (both), Distant Worlds, Pandora and Scourge of War, including all add-ons for everything.

IMHO Windows 8 is a mixed bag. Behind the hood it's very good (and boots like greased lightning), but the UI sucks b***s unless, presumably, you are using it with the touchscreen it was designed for. There just seems no reason for not including the 'proper' full desktop as well - 8.1 improved it some, but not much.

Actually, the only thing I've come across so far that runs in 7 and not 8 is Dangerous Waters for which, sadly, there seems to be no cure.

[aaatoysandmore]

ORIGINAL: Darkspire

i'll take even Vista any day over Win 8.

Is it really that bad?? I will moving up to Win7 in the new year, keeping this rig with my other antiques purely for compatibility.

Darkspire

Oh god is it ever. It's like trying to run your tablet on your high powered Desktop....totally worthless from a desktop point of view. The UI is just horrible....horrible. It may be ok for the new kids on the block but for older experienced gamers it will give you nightmares.

[CGGrognard]

Win 8 can be backward compatible to an earlier Windows OS (e.g. XP). If a game does not work, set the compatibly to the last known OS that it did work under. This can be accomplished through Properties of the game. To save a step go ahead and set the game to run in a window. For me this seems to have solved most of the challenges in getting a game running in Windows 8. Hopefully with these simple steps you can get your games up and running.

[Alan Sharif]

I have loads of wargames and they all run fine on Windows 8/8.1, with one exception. That is the very first 'Theatre Of War' title. I should also add that I am largely computer illiterate, so I have simply installed, patched and they work. Do note, a small number have needed to be patched before they worked correctly.

[Darkspire]

ORIGINAL: CGGrognard

Win 8 can be backward compatible to an earlier Windows OS (e.g. XP). If a game does not work, set the compatibly to the last known OS that it did work under. This can be accomplished through Properties of the game. To save a step go ahead and set the game to run in a window. For me this seems to have solved most of the challenges in getting a game running in Windows 8. Hopefully with these simple steps you can get your games up and running.

That's what they said when XP came out regards win98 and it really does not work to well in reality, I have a rig with 98 on fully updated and all the games from that era on there LAN'ed to this one, I will move on to Win7 with another new rig and LAN this one to that, much easier, just takes up a bit of space but does look kind of funky [:)]

Darkspire

[SLAAKMAN]

Joe D.

Joe, Do not....I repeat do not load Win8 on your machine. Its horrid. Absolutely horrid. My daughters laptop has it and its the most disorganized POS Ive ever seen. You can buy WinXP on ebay or amazon still and for gaming its critical. You can even buy a USB flashdrive with Ubuntu loaded followed by VMware to load Win98 or XP if you feel like experimenting.

[SLAAKMAN]

Dark-

That's what they said when XP came out regards win98 and it really does not work to well in reality, I have a rig with 98 on fully updated and all the games from that era on there LAN'ed to this one, I will move on to Win7 with another new rig and LAN this one to that, much easier, just takes up a bit of space but does look kind of funky

Eggzellent job! Someday I'd like to see that. [:D]

[decaro]

ORIGINAL: junk2drive

W8 is not as bad as a lot of people make it to be. My modest box runs faster with 8 than xp. It maintains itself as far as cleanup and defrag. Get the free Classic Shell and you get the start button and menu just like xp ...

Is that shell a download?

My Del Dimension is "broke" and supposedly I can buy a new machine w/Win 7 online.
However, I'm looking at a Win 8 AMD Elite Quad Core Accel desktop with radeon card at Best Buy for Xmas, but now I'm having 2nd thoughts.

Aside from the fact that MS won't abandon Win 8 before Win 7, is there any other reason to go with an oversized tablet?

And tnx for all your replies so far.
I already miss XP [:(]

[SLAAKMAN]

Joe D

There is very little advantage, if any at all, to Win8. Its mostly a step backwards, amateurish & disorganized. WinXP is readily available, simple & compatible with the majority of the important games. If your current OS took a dive then you could probably even order the WinXP Upgrade disk for less than the cost of WinXP OEM. I have a reason for nipping this problem in the bud because if people make the mistake of changing to Win8, we might lose opponents. I cannot over-emphasize the disaster that is Win8!

These are some possibilities but le me know before you order anything-

http://www.trustprice.com/555699/micros ... ndows.html

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows ... B00005MOTE

[junk2drive]

Classic Shell is a free download

http://classicshell.net/

Without it, you start 8, get the Metro screen, find the desktop rectangle picture and click it. That takes you to the desktop just like 7 and xp. It has been a while but I think there is an icon for IE. Use it to download Firefox or Chrome or stick with IE. Download and install Classic Shell then set it up to always boot to desktop.

There are several video tutorials on youtube for using 8. When in doubt, put your mouse pointer in a corner to see what pops up. There are a lot of key combos using the Windows key (next to ctrl). Windows key + q opens Metro in search mode for example. Windows key + prtscn takes a jpg of your screen and puts it in My Pictures/Screenshots. No more pasting to Paint and fiddling.

[junk2drive]

XP will not be supported after April 2014. No more security updates.

W8 comes with MSSE security essentials which includes a firewall and antivirus. You can still use things like zonealarm and avast but I don't. And I use IE11. It is faster and less resources than FF or Chrome. Am I safe? Who really knows until you have a problem.

[SLAAKMAN]

XP will not be supported after April 2014. No more security updates.

No problem. The sooner that Microscam disappears the better off we'll be. No need for security in a gaming system anyway. If a problem develops just reinstall the opsys. Simple & thorough. Stay with Winxp home sp2 oem if you possibly can. [:D][:'(]

[junk2drive]

That is fine for older games. Anything new will eventually require some .Net or DX version that won't work with XP. Some of the new W8 boxes have a security "feature" that stops you from installing another OS for dual booting.

Also 32 bit versions won't use more than 4 gigs of ram and I think there is a hard drive size limit with XP. I had to do some tricks to install XP on a modern hard drive because there is no driver.

[SLAAKMAN]

That is fine for older games. Anything new will eventually require some .Net or DX version that won't work with XP. Some of the new W8 boxes have a security "feature" that stops you from installing another OS for dual booting.

Also 32 bit versions won't use more than 4 gigs of ram and I think there is a hard drive size limit with XP. I had to do some tricks to install XP on a modern hard drive because there is no driver.

That trend is absolutely hideous. I will be hiring my own programmers to maintain continuity & compatibility to keep my Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Medieval Total War, Close Combat, Combat Mission, Colonization, World in Flames, Duke Nukem & Doom2 glory in full, uninterrupted by MS-BS in operation. [:D]

[CGGrognard]

The latest Windows 8, 8.1 puts an icon in the lower left hand corner (move mouse to activate) to switch to desktop mode. There are a number of tutorials on You Tube on how to boot directly to Desktop mode if you prefer.