Since the question will continue to come up and I've not seen any other posts about people playing games on Windows 7, I thought I would do a compilation of my experiences. The list is not long, but now that gardening season is over, I hope to add to it. *I'll try to add other players' experiences to this first post to keep things in one place. Sarahandus also has a post with a list of games on page 6 of this thread. Collector has also added a list of games on Page 7 of this thread. Becky and Venus also have lists on page 13 of this thread*

I installed the Windows 7 final release candidate for the main purpose of testing it with games in May. Here are my experiences to date. I either played each of the games all the way through or nearly all the way through. I will be trying things like compatibility mode on some of the games that had problems when I have a little more time.

Basic computer specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate RC, Build 7100, 32-bit * As of December 1, 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium installed
Intel Core Two Duo, Wolfdale E-8400, 3.0 Ghtz
500 GB WD hard drives (3, one with Windows 7, one with XP Pro, one unused)
160 GB drive from my old HP computer (XP Home)
Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 video card, 896 MB
Creative SB X-Fi sound card
4 GB RAM

OLDER TO OLD GAMES THAT RAN WITH ONLY MINOR TWEAKS:

Grim Fandango/In 64-bit it would not install without an installer. Thank you, traveler! Grim Fandango Installer for 64-bit When I tried to play, I had several issues with sound and video. I tried playing in XP SP3 mode and then it played just fine.

The Hobbit/In 64-bit I also had normal installation and play.

Beyond Atlantis 2 (thanks, Jenny, for the reminder about the patch for the glitch in the first conversation with the guard)

Shivers 1/Installed and played fine in 32-bit, but does not install in 64-bit. As far as I know there is no installer for Shivers 1 as there is for Shivers 2.

Shivers 2 needed an installer from Squirt the Cat. But after I downloaded the installer, it played perfectly and in full screen - woo hoo! Same happy results on 64-bit Win 7.

Diablo

Diablo 2, Lord of Destruction

Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events

Dracula The Last SanctuaryOn my 64-bit Win 7 I got an error about having the wrong version of windows for the game. So I went to the CD and installed from there. I wanted to install in Program Files, but I told it to install to Program Files (x86). I did not install the old version of DirectX. No more errors and the game played just fine.

* Vampire Redemption - The only thing I had to do was change the in-game video options which I also had to do with my video card upgrade on my old XP computer. Played for about 2 hours with no problems at all. Needed to install and play in XP compatibility mode in 64-bit Win 7.

* Syberia - I had absolutely no problems with game installation or play. However, the Alt/Tab was a bit glitchy. It's been a long time since I played the game, so I don't remember if it was like that before or not. Played this one about 3 hours last night.

* Penumbra Overture - installed and played perfectly for about 2 hours.

* Clive Barker's Undying runs great

* Keepsake installed and ran perfectly for about an hour and a half on 64-bit Win 7.

* Misslilo reports that CSI-Deadly Intent and Nikopol both run great on 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

* Larvamortus, an arcade/RPG/shooter game, from Giveaway of the Day plays perfectly.

* Intrigue at Oakhaven Plantation

* Darkfall The Journal installed and played with no issues on both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7.

* Darkfall Lights Out installed and played fine on the 64-bit.

* Morrowind loaded and played - woo hoo!

* Grandson installed and played Counter Strike Condition Zero for a couple of hours. We had to play in XP compatibility mode, but it also played flawlessly.

* Adding The Polar Express to games that play with no issues on 64-bit.

*Venus could not get Runaway: A Road Adventure to work on her 64-bit Win 7. SharonB suggested the download from the GOG website and now Venus reports the GOG version of the game plays perfectly. A caveat from Venus on Runaway: A Road Adventure - the video in some of the cutscenes did some strange things like a head disappearing or lips stop moving. She has an 8600 GT video card and integrated sound.

* I'm adding the first three Carol Reed mysteries as I just tested them for Mikael Nyqvist after they rewrote some code so they could be played on Windows 7. Remedy, Hope Springs Eternal and Time Stands Still all installed and played perfectly on my 64-bit Win 7 without any extra steps or changes.

* Syd has played Sacred Gold with no problems.

* Nancy Drew fans, rejoice! Judith played all but three of them with no problems on her 64-bit Win 7. Stay Tuned for Danger had a error message related to the sound and Treasure in the Royal Tower would not install. She did not try Secrets Can Kill as she disliked the game the first time around.

* Adding Prey to the list of games that installed and played with no issues.

* American Magee's Alice installed and played perfectly on 64-bit Win 7.

* Judith played all three Delaware St. John games. The only game that had a problem was the second Delaware St. John. If she didn't reboot the computer each time before she played, all she got was a black screen. I don't know if playing in XP compatibility mode was tried.

NEWER TO NEW GAMES THAT RAN WITH NO TWEAKS OR ISSUES:

Tombraider Underworld

Bioshock

Crysis

Left 4 Dead

Oblivion

The Witcher Oldman notes that downloading the 1.5 patch takes care of the Tages copy protection update issues.

A Vampyre Story

Machinarium

* Dragon Age Origin needed a Tages copy protection update on the 64-bit, but otherwise play perfectly (thanks, Jenny!).

* Mary is playing Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper and Darkfall: Lost Souls on her 64-bit Win 7 with no problems. She did have to update the Tages copy protection drivers for the Sherlock Holmes game.

* Misslilo installed the Fallout 3 GOTY version with all the DLC and is playing with no problems.

* Becky and Venus had no problems with Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island on 64-bit, but misslilo has exhausted all options trying to get the game to work with no luck.

All my casual games from Big Fish Games run perfectly. Peter's Jigsaw Puzzles runs perfectly.

GAMES THAT WON'T INSTALL, PLAY OR REQUIRE A LOT OF TWEAKING:

Nautilus, of course.

Dracula The Resurrection - It installed and played just fine, but I did have some issues with not being able to access the inventory. Didn't try to troubleshoot it.

Myst, Masterpiece Edition - I finally got this game to install and play. It's not perfect, but it works. I had to uninstall my current Quicktime. Installed the game in XP SP2 mode and installed the 4.1 (I think) version of Quicktime. I then went to the "play" icon in the Red Orb game folder and right clicked to select Troubleshoot Compatibility. The only compatibility mode that I got to work was Win 95. But I moved everywhere around the first area in the game. All the video played in the book etc. One glitch was when I moved the books to get to the elevator. The sound stuttered for about 15 seconds and then the game picked up again. I was able to use the elevator and come back down. When I moved the books again, the game stuttered and then recovered as before. I saved the compatibility settings so now when I restarted the game a few times, I didn't have to go through any of the other steps. I didn't make any changes to my GTX 260. EXTRA NOTE: I downloaded and installed Real Myst from GOG which is supposed to work with 64-bit Vista. It worked until I would try to go inside any building - then the game would hang up.

Zanzarah installed fine and played until I tried to walk Amy out of the kitchen. Then the game froze - sound continued, but nothing else. I tried several times (using Ccleaner on the registry and getting rid of all other traces of the game between installs), but had the same result. I didn't try any tweaks on my Windows 7, but when I installed it on my XP Pro drive, it played just fine (same hardware, of course). I've exhausted all options to get Zanzarah running and nothing has worked.

* Scratches installed, but trying to play the game caused a BSOD and a memory dump. Upsydaisy reported the same result on her newly installed Windows 7. I tried playing both from a full installation and playing from the disk - same result.

EDIT for Scratches. Inland and I found a work-around posted by the game developer. You must edit the Scream.CFG file. To accomplish this in Windows 7, go to C:/Program Files/Nucleosys/Scratches. Find the Scream.CFG file and right click. Select Properties and from within that window, change the Open With option to either Notepad or Word Pad. Change the Rate from 0 to 60. Save the file, exit and restart the game.

* mcc could not install Sherlock Holmes Mystery of the Mummy even in XP compatibility mode. She had the combo CD version.

* Denotes additions to my original post for those who have already read it.

Thanks Draclvr!

Not to mention that DOSBox and ScummVM seem to run under Windows 7 without issue.

Thank you for your hard work, Draclvr.

Ya, Jenny, it's been just TERRIBLE having to get out all these games and play them again! My excuse has been that I'm doing it for a good cause... *he, he, he*

It's good to know that DOSBox and ScumnVM work too. Thanks, Collector.

Draclvr, you have done a tremendous job of keeping us up to date on Win7. I know it's been a real hardship re-playing all those games.

I will be installing Win7 on my pc in a few days and thanks to you I can do it with confidence now.

Thank You~

Let us know how it goes, sarahandus. I'm going to hold off on my installation for awhile because I've decided to install the 64-bit version of Windows 7. I would like to try a few more of the older games on this 32-bit to see how they work. Then when I install the 64-bit, I'll try them again to see what happens.

I haven't installed my WIN7 yet and wonder if I have a choice as it says 64bit on the disc. I have played quite a few of my BF games on the Vista 64 bit and actually got Chemicus to work plus The Hobbit. I should quit draggin' my wagon and get it installed but.... Can you lay it over Vista without consequential problems? I think I read somewhere, (probably here), that it is best to do a clean install. Has anyone experience in doing it either way? Always looking for new input,

Hi, Lotus777!

Only the retail versions contain both 32-bit and 64-bit. If your computer came with 64-bit Vista preinstalled and you ordered your upgrade directly from Microsoft, you will get the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

I received my upgrade from Microsoft on Thursday (like you, I have 64-bit Vista so I received 64-bit Windows 7), but haven't installed it yet. I prefer to do a clean install rather than an upgrade over the existing operating system, and that's definitely an option by clicking on "Custom" instead of "Upgrade" during the install.

If you choose "Custom", your hard drive will be reformatted, so make sure you back up any files and settings you want to save if they're on the same drive as your operating system.

Susan

Yes, what Susie said. Windows 7 will create a "windows.old" file, but it's not recommended that you totally rely on it to restore your files.

Thanks so much Susan. This is enlightening for me. Maybe just one more question?? There is a place in the Vista where you can back up files. I did this onto a flash drive. I have no idea what it backed up. Would it have saved my email and internet settings? Would it have saved my Documents and my email? If so, then if I use the Custom install and then later restore all my backed up items would I be good to go , so to speak? I sooo appreciate all of the help everyone gives here, btw!!!

EDIT: Just saw your post, Draclvr and thank you for that info too. Now if I can be sure of the back up it did...it took almost all the room on my 8 GB flash drive.

Hi, Lotus777!

Here's the link to Microsoft's website that provides detailed instructions for doing a custom install from Vista to Windows 7. I have bookmarked it and plan to print it out before I start.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-vista-to-windows-7-custom

I've never used the Vista backup function. When you backed up your files to a flash drive, did you have the option of choosing which files to back up or did it automatically back up everything? I would assume it would back up all of your user files, but I'm not sure about your emails or internet settings. Are you able to view the files on your flash drive? I would suggest you do a test first and delete a file you don't really care about, and then try to restore it.

I have all of my user files on a separate D: hard drive, so I just back up the entire drive. My operating system and program files are on C: drive and I have all of the original CDs so I can reinstall my programs once I have upgraded to Windows 7.

Susan

Thanks so much, Susan. This will be a great help to me. And no, it didn't give me an option of what I wanted to back up. It is mainly some emails I would like to keep such as lic. number of my Avast which is easier to copy and paste. However, I do have that on another computer and I do have all of my settings written down sooooo, I just might be able to do this on my own. If I get in trouble I can always go to the other computer and holler for help here or if worse comes to worse I can take it in and have it done for too much money, haha. I will do as you suggested and test the files on the drive just in case. Thanks so much again.

For the e-mails you want to keep, another thing you could do is set up a Gmail or Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail account and send the e-mails you want to keep to the internet account. That way you can access them after the install and send them back to yourself.

What a great idea!!! Thanks so much, Draclvr. One more itsy little question, please. What about drivers? I have never done anything like this before and haven't the foggiest about how do I know which drivers I need , where to find them etc. I have only updated drivers in the past. I thank you once more very much for all the help.