It would help to know which games you have that aren't running, as well as how old they are (what year they were published). There are a number of reasons a game might not work, and "not super old" can mean a lot of things. Does "not super old" mean "2 years old" or does it mean "not DOS" (which could be 15 years old or more)?
Nancy Drew games will play on computers that can't run anything else besides casual games.
You should not use Nancy Drew games as a measure of what adventure games will require. Even the recent Nancy Drew games often have requirements less than many older games.
If your computer has no video card and is using Intel graphics, that's very likely the source of incompatibility. You can run a utility like
***speccy*** to find your video card (you don't need the pay version of speccy). Or run dxdiag from your Start Menu (type in dxdiag and run the dxdiag program it finds, then check the Display tab).
If you are trying to play older games that were made for XP or earlier, and if these games have not been updated to run on newer versions of Windows, check the GB
***Windows 7 and games*** thread to see if there are any tweaks that might help. Remember that even older games may have requirements greater than Intel graphics.
If you don't know what year a game was released, check
www.mobygames.com or
http://pagodagamedatabase.com/ for the information. Many old games from download sites GOG and Steam have been updated, but if you are using a disc version you may have to tweak, even if your computer meets the game's system requirements.
In some cases a game won't work on a computer that exceeds the requirements because of incompatible video drivers.
There are also some modern 3D adventure games, like "Vanishing of Ethan Carter" and "Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments" that are using game engines that were originally used by first person shooters. These will have much higher video card requirements than games that aren't fully 3D, and use 2.5D backgrounds (Syberia used 2.5D backgrounds).