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. As the post has grown, I've added added other players' experiences to this first post to keep things in one place.

* Sarahandus has 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 have lists on page 13 of this thread

* Jenny100 has a link on page 24 of the thread to a GOG forum discussion of games from there working on Win 7.

* cas1701 has added more games on page 24 of the thread.

I installed the 32-bit Windows 7 final release candidate for the main purpose of testing it with games in May 2009. I've since installed the full 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium.

Basic computer specs:

Intel Core Two Duo, Wolfdale E-8400, 3.0 Ghtz
500 GB WD hard drives (3)
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 PERFECTLY OR WITH ONLY MINOR TWEAKS:

Al Emmo and The Lost Dutchman's Mine installed and played with no problems on 64-bit.

Alida This game has the odd feature of requiring that you copy the game file to your hard drive. I used the Win 7 snap feature to open a CD window and a C:/Program Files (x86) window and dragged and dropped the Alida game file there. From there I played it for about an hour with no problems at all. This is the 5-CD version.

American Magee's Alice installed and played fine on both 32-bit and 64-bit.

Barrow Hill installed and played with no problems on 64-bit.

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

Carol Reed mysteries. I tested the first three 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.

Clive Barker's Undying runs great on both 32-bit and 64-bit.

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

CSI-Deadly Intent

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.

Delaware St. John games. Judith played all three. 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.

Diablo

Diablo 2, Lord of Destruction

Divine Divinity Both the GOG and CD versions are playing.

Dracula The Last Sanctuary On 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.

Dracula Resurrection As with TLS, I got the error about having the wrong version of Windows for the game. I installed from the CD in XP SP2 compatibility mode. It's playing better than it ever did on my XP computer as I had to play it in 98SE compatibility on that machine.

Fable: The Lost Chapters installed and plays perfectly.

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.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Templeton Peck played the game with no issues on his 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban plays on Windows 7 64-bit edition with no problems.


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Templeton Peck also played this one with no issues.

Intrigue at Oakhaven Plantation

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

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

Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events

Morrowind loaded and played - woo hoo!

Myst 4 Revelation Judith bowed to her masochistic side and braved the triple slider chair puzzle in on her 64-bit Win 7. She installed both patches and the game played fine. *NOTE* After losing large patches of hair trying to get this game to run on her 64-bit Win 7 without success, Cissy found the culprit was her dual monitors. When she turned one monitor off, the game played just fine.

Mysterious Journey 2 Judith is having no problems with this game.

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.

Nikopol

Post Mortem

Penumbra Overture

Prey

Ratatouille This action game installed and played with no issues.

Runaway: A Road Adventure Venus couldn't get it 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.

Sacred Gold played for Syd with no problems.

Schism Judith is playing the 4-CD version on her 64-bit with no problems.

Scratches plays perfectly, but needs a fix. See Scratches notes below in the section on games that need tweaking.

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. Look under "S" Shiver 2 Installer.

Simon the Sorcerer MsMercury downloaded the 1993 game from GOG and it is playing fine on her 32-bit Win 7..

Syberia 1 - 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.

Syberia 2

The Hobbit

Thomas & Friends Railway Adventures Playset This game was made for Win 95 and Win 98 and comes with a playset you attach to the keyboard with a Velcro strap. Six year-old grandson was able to drive Thomas all over and do all the little jobs on grandma's 64-bit Win 7. You can find the game and playset at Amazon for $120 up new and $60 up used. I think I paid $20 for it in 2001.

The Longest Journey Inland has the 4-cd version and it plays fine.

The Messenger is playing for carlahelp on her Win 7 Professional

The Polar Express plays with no issues on 64-bit.

Tomb Raider Legend The downloaded version from Steam is playing with no problems.

Vampire Masquerade

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.

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

Alter Ego While several people have had problems getting this game to run on Windows 7, JKEerie installed and played the game with no problems on her Asus gaming laptop. This gamer has some serious hardware including 6 GB of RAM and a dedicated 1 GB ATI 5870 video card. The processor is a Core i7 720 QM.

A Vampyre Story

Avencast: Rise of the Mage

Bioshock

Bioshock 2

Black Mirror II People who played it on both 64-bit Win 7 and XP have noted that the ambient sounds sometimes drown out the dialogue. Enabling the captions option ensured that no dialogue was missed.

Crysis

Darkfall Lost Souls

Darkness Within In Pursuit of Loath Nolder

Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage Becky notes that after she download the Nvidia PhysX drivers from the Nvidia website, the game plays fine.

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

Fallout 3 GOTY Misslilo has the GOG version with all the DLC and is playing with no problems.

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

Left 4 Dead

Machinarium

Magnetic Revisited Peter Hewitt's new game is a download and is playing perfectly.

Oblivion

Rhem 4 Inland played this one on Win 7 with no problems.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is playing fine for judith on her 64-bit Win 7. She did install the Vista Patch.

Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper Mary said she did have to update the Tages copy protection drivers.

The Whispered World Jenna was having issues with the game locking up on her repeatedly. However, once she updated her ATI HD5570 video card driver to the 8/25/10 version, the game loads and plays fine.

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

Tombraider Underworld

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:

Egypt II Heliopolis Ikonious has tried all options and cannot get this game to install.

Nautilus, of course.

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. When I installed it on my XP Home drive, it played just fine (same hardware). I've exhausted all options to get Zanzarah running on both 32-bit and 64-bit Win 7 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.[/b]

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.

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

Martin Mystere: Operation Dorian Gray Judith has tried installing in all available XP compatibility modes on her 64-bit Win 7 and playing in different compatibility modes, but had no luck with getting the game to play.

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.

To be honest, since you are upgrading a Vista machine, I have a feeling Windows 7 is going to find all your drivers for you. I only had to manually install one drive for my video card. Windows 7 found everything else, down to my 7 year old HP printer!

I had to do a clean install of Win 7 because during the upgrade installation my computer froze and I lost my OS.
When I logged on all my emails for the past 2-3 years were in my folder. Even ones I had deleted. This was great because I had kept all my registration codes for games etc., and were able to re-install.
Are emails kept by servers for a couple of years? or are they floating about in cyber-space.

I've edited my first post to add two more games to the lists.

Hi Draclvr, have you tried to play Scratches (not the Directors Cut version).?
It installed fine but when I tried to play it, had the BSOD and a memory dump.
Caesar IV runs beautifully so does Harry Potter-Prisioner of Azkaban.

Funny you should mention Scratches, Upsydaisy! I got it out last night and it's next on my list.

EDIT: Added it to the list as unsuccessful. Upsydaisy, is your Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit?

Did you apply the patch?

Nucleosys

You can find some interesting comments by Agustin in the thread below -

Nucleosys Forum Index -> Technical Support

And on the second page, a work around -

Folks, I have some bad news. I did manage to reproduce the error: thing is I was testing the game in windowed mode and that works perfectly fine - it crashes badly when it attempts to switch to fullscreen, which means this is a very, very odd behavior. I can't say when (and if) I'll be able to look into this strange problem, but in the meantime you can definitely run Scratches in Windows 7 by simply editing the SCREAM.CFG file and setting FULLSCREEN to 0. It's a quick fix and far from ideal but at least you will be able to run the game.


Followed up with -

Forget what I said! Great news - after further testing, I realized what the problem is. Automatically detecting the refresh rate doesn't seem to work in Windows 7 as it previously did (again, I've NO idea how this could be causing a BSOD).

Just edit the SCREAM.CFG file and set RATE to 60. Then save and run the game. It will magically work again

Obviously great minds think alike, Inland! I finally had some time tonight to look into the Scratches issue and found the same posts you did. I will edit my original post with the word-around and how to accomplish it.

Hallo all
Draclvr - I have 32-bit.
Inland - Will have a go at the patch and work around but am just settling into playing the new CSI!! I'll see if Draclvr has any success.
Thanks

I installed Windows 7 Professional yesterday, the 32bit version on a new, clean hard drive using the "custom" install. Aside from the nail biting about whether it was actually installing on the new drive,(I have 3 hard drives) I can say that was the quickest and easiest OS install I have ever done. It did add another step in the OS selection on start-up. The list shows a choice of Windows 7 and "older versions", then I get to the choice of the earlier 2 XP drives.

I have to install some drivers yet, but things look fine so far. The introductory screen is really pretty.

Upsydaisy, I edited my first post with directions on how to do the work-around for Scratches.

That's great sarahandus! I had my other drives unplugged when I installed the Windows 7 release candidate - for the same reason you mentioned. I was too nervous about it installing on the correct hard drive! So I don't get that screen at the beginning - I have to go into my BIOS and change the boot order. Hopefully when I do the upgrade, that will change.

Hi, Draclvr!

I'm moving into the 21st century tomorrow and getting a high speed modem. Then I'll be installing Windows 7.

I have two physical hard drives, and all of my user files are on D: drive. Even though I back up my D: drive on a regular basis, I'll be sure to do so immediately prior to the custom install because it never even occurred to me that Windows 7 may install on the wrong drive.

Susan

I don't think it will! I was just nervous and inexperienced with this new OS..

Hi, Draclvr!

I didn't run into any glitches when I upgraded from Win98 to WinXP, but it's better to be safe than sorry, especially when Windows 7 is responsible for reformatting my hard drive .

Susan

Words to live by, Susan!

Susan,

At that stage in the installation where it asks which drive you want to install the OS on take your time to look carefully and you should have no problems. But I'd say Draclvr idea of removing the other drive(s) would certainly be a less stress full option.

I do have a problem with my DSL modem, there are no USB drivers for Win 7.

However, as I found out, if you unplug those other drives, you will not get the nifty option of which of your drives you want to boot into. To boot another drive, you will have to go into the BIOS each time and change the boot drive order.

Hi, sarahandus!

Actually, for me, removing the other drive would be more stressful, so I think I will stick with backing up my user files on D: drive and keeping my fingers crossed !

Susan

Can't you just go in through the Ethernet port?

Collector, Unfortunately I don't have an Ethernet port so I'm having to order an adapter card. Next time I upgrade the motherboard I will make darn sure it has an Ethernet port. Of course, by that time it will be something else I miss. (sigh)

Can't you put a ***network card*** in it?

edit:
Sorry I read "adapter card" as USB adapter.

She said that she is ordering one, but I wonder if the motherboard is not new enough to have an onboard NIC, will it be able to handle Windows 7? 7 may not be the resource hog that Vista is, but it has been many years since an onboard NIC has been standard.

Are you positive you don't have a LAN (Ethernet) port? What is the model of the motherboard?

You can download and run CPU-Z to identify it - (look on the Mainboard tab)

CPU-Z

Collector, I put a new Gigabyte MOBO in the build I did this spring that does not have onboard NIC. It does have ethernet. Actually, while shopping for my components, I didn't see any MOBOs with onboard NIC, but they all had on-board ethernet. It does seem odd that Susan doesn't have it.

EDIT: I meant that it's odd that Susan doesn't have ethernet.

Here's a picture of a motherboard with an ethernet port.
See the blue, green, and pink audio ports arranged vertically?
To the left of that is an ethernet port with two USB ports below it.



Draclvr,
Do you have a picture of what you mean when you're referring to an "onboard NIC?"

I have no idea, Jenny. Collector mentioned that most all new motherboards now come with on-board NIC. My experience is that none of them do.

NIC stands for Network Interface Controller. A few occasionally refer to it as "Network Interface Card". "On board" just means that the function is built into the motherboard and as such would not be used to refer to an add in card. But all of this is semantics and is beside the point. The point is that whatever you want to call the Ethernet Adapter, the feature has been built into most motherboards for nearly a decade, now.

Ah, now I understand. I thought NIC referred to a wireless card or controller. I have to install wireless "NICs" in my computers as I live out in the country and have wireless broadband from a tower for my internet.

Thanks for explaining, Collector... One of the reasons I hang out here is to learn new stuff.

Like Draclvr I learn something new from here. On checking again with the motherboard manufacturer I see it does list a LAN/Ethernet port. I had assumed it was only for LAN. I had tried to use it and it doesn't work at this time. On checking with drivers for it, I found some and downloaded them.
Downloaded the CPU-Z you suggested Inland. We'll see what it says.

This won't be the first time I've ordered an unneeded item, and I'm sure won't be the last either.

Make sure it is enabled in the BIOS as well as Windows.

Check your Device Manager to see if it is under the "Network adapters" category. If it is not there, be sure that it is enabled in the BIOS, as InlandAZ said. If it is listed under a category called "Other devices" it need to have the driver installed for it. If you find the "Network adapters" category expanded and there is an explanation point icon over it, it means that Windows couldn't load the driver for it. This may be from a resource conflict, corrupt driver, etc. If this is the case you can try uninstalling the device and reinstalling the driver for it.

Under device manager the 1394 net adapter is enabled and "working properly".

CPU-Z was very interesting and listed the net adapter and "from Texas Instruments". I tried to find drivers from them but failed to find any for Ethernet devices.

In the Network Connection in the control panel the 1394 connection is working and connected online. But Firefox can't get online with that connection, only the local connection with USB.

I have e-mailed Gigabyte about this problem, but have yet to hear from them. It's a GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard, installed in January.

Did you get a disk with your motherboard? That's where all the onboard device drivers were for the Gigabyte motherboard I used last February.

For what it's worth I'm playing Sacred 2 on Windows 7. It has "issues" mainly with dropping back to desktop without warning after about an hour of playing (found out the hard way when I lost a quest item because of it). Never had that problem with Vista. I also had to uninstall and re-install the game after I upgraded. The save I had while playing with Vista became unplayable after installing Windows 7 - which meant I had to start over - not necessairly a hardship but I did have some pretty neat armor and weapons with the old save - sigh.

I can't see any difference between Vista and Windows 7 to tell you the truth - still takes forever to boot up and I still can't find anything without hunting forever for it. Not all that impressed with this latest wonder child from Microsoft. Maybe it'll grow on me but right now I feel like I've wasted my money.

There's always that learning curve to deal with. Don't feel bad, it took me nearly a year to get warm and fuzzy with Vista. Once I got the hang of it and stopped trying to make it act like XP it ran just fine.

I agree that it takes awhile to get the hang of a new OS. I went straight from XP to Windows 7 and was completely lost at first!

One of my favorite things about Windows 7 is that it boots up in just 65 seconds. And that's counting about 30 seconds while the BIOS does its thing. When I run one of my XP hard drives (same system, same hardware) it seems ponderous and slow. Maybe going from Vista to 7 isn't that much of a sea change.

Ignore the 1394, that is just your Firewire. Look on the back of your PC. Is there a jack that looks like an extra wide phone jack?

Sarahandus, here is a picture of the I/O panel for your motherboard. As Collector says, 1394 is your Firewire port. In this picture the ethernet/LAN/RJ45 port is right above the 2 e-SATA ports.

Sarahandus Motherboard I/O

Syd,
Did you do a clean install or did you do an upgrade of Vista?
The clean install might be faster.

Jenny I bought the upgrade. Just don't have the time nor the energy to reformat my hard drive and start over. I use my home computer for work and right now I have way too much stuff on it to risk a disaster

I'll deal with the slow startup etc. I'm used to it after having Vista for a year now.

Besides, won't I have to buy the full version in order to do a clean install?

Absolutely. An upgrade carry over all the accumulated detritus from your old system; all of the things that can grind a system down to a crawl. You end up with all the same needless garbage in your start up, disk fragmentation, left over registry entries, no longer used system files and drivers, etc. By far, most people's experience with Windows 7 is that it is less of a resource hog and more responsive than Vista.

Another thought, do you have enough RAM?

Hi, Syd!

I just installed Windows 7 this afternoon, and the process is effortless. All you do is start the install and then you can pretty well walk away until it's time to input your product code. I have the upgrade, but I chose "custom" (or clean) install. As long as you already have a valid copy of WinXP or Vista, you don't have to buy the full version.

Personally, I prefer to start off with a clean slate rather than simply upgrade from one operating system to another. That way, if there were any problems, they're gone!

Susan

I'm totally with Susan. When I do my upgrade, I have to do a custom/clean install as I'm upgrading from XP. But if I had a Vista machine, I'd be backing up and doing a clean install there too.

But at least if you have Vista, you have to option to do a clean or upgrade install to suit your needs.

It is common for many users to occasionally do a clean reinstall, even when not upgrading their OS as a kind of maintenance. Starting with a fresh clean install fixes a myriad of problems and makes for faster, leaner machine. The only time that I don't do a clean install is when all I am trying to do is a repair install.

It's good to have confirmation that the upgrade from Vista without the clean install doesn't improve the startup time (for those who aren't sure whether to do a clean install or not).


No. As long as you already have a valid Windows license for your computer, it's both legal and possible to do a clean install. There's an article on doing it at Paul Thurrott's website
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

So if you ever you have the time, energy, and inclination, the option is there for you.

Oooops! Oh am I embarrassed. In trying to fix the damage done by the Texas Instrument driver I read all the list in the BIOS. Lo and behold the LAN was disabled. Enabling that got the Ethernet working just fine. However the damage done by the TI driver was so extensive I spent the weekend re-installing the OSes again. Also I installed the new Ethernet adapter, it has compatible drivers and I surely don't want to deal with TI again. So far I have XP fully working, but 7 still has drivers and programs to install.

Thank you all so much for all the help and instructions, really learned a lot of new things.

Let us know how you like your new Windows 7 OS!

I'm such a glutton for punishment, I installed the new Linux Ubuntu OS on a partition! Whew, talk about a learning curve!

I think it will take me the rest of my life to get Win7 figured out, that one is really different!

I've found one game that does not like this new OS, Jigsaws Galore ver6. It plays fine, but won't close. Have to shut down to get it closed.

I have thought about trying out Linux, but that's as far as it ever got. We'll bet waiting to know how that goes.

Why not just kill it with the Task Manager?

Indeed. Ctrl/Alt/Delete works the same as always in Windows 7.

Hi Guys
I have just installed Windows 7 clean install from windows xp, no problems with that, but, I have installed 2 games Perry Rhodan and Dracula Origin both installed without any problem, but when I try to run them I get a pop up box stating "insiufficient prevliges: you must be an Administrator to run these applications for the first time", have I got some of my initial setting wrong, the only thing I did was set a password to initially log onto my PC, any help will be gratfully received

Cheers
SAFC

You can try to right click on the executable and choose "Run as administrator", otherwise don't install the games in the Program Files folder.

Collector and Draclvr, Task manager couldn't shut it down either. Very reminiscent of the days when I had to deal with Win ME. Now there was a really bad OS.

Sometimes you can't kill the program, but you usually can kill the process.

Hi Guys
I have just installed Dracula 3 onto my PC having installed Windows 7 and updated all drivers, on running the game, the initial screens are flickering and shortly after I have read the letter in my room, the graphics start to go into what I discrbe as like having double vision as I move my cursor around, anyone else come across this issue, I have searched for a patch, but the only places I have found want me to subscribe etc before download, any help gratefully received
SAFC

safc, I just loaded up Dracula 3 and had exactly the same issue. I don't think there are any official patches for this game, but I might be wrong. The only ones I found were unofficial and I doubt they would have anything to do with this problem.

I checked in the game options, but didn't find anything there that would help. What is your video card? I'm running a GeForce GTX 260. I'm going to try adjusting the framerate.

EDIT: Well, nothing I did helped. I couldn't find the familiar video acceleration in Windows 7, but I tried manually adjusting the screen resolution and turning off PhysX GPU acceleration with no change.

I just got a new computer with Windows 7 64 bit. I wanted to play the first Last Half of Darkness and after install it won't launch because it's missing the D3drm.dll file. I did uninstall and reinstall and restart. I read that this file was not on Vista and assume it's not on Windows 7. Don't know if the solution is to D/L the file and copy into the WoW64 file or if there is something else I should be doing.

I have Beyond the Spirit's Eye, but I don't have the first one, tazmanw.

Thankyou, Draclvr for your response. I installed Beyond the Spirit's Eye just now to see if I encountered the same problem. But it installed perfectly and launched perfectly. So for now perhaps I will forgo replaying the first one and play this one as a warm up to Tomb of the Zojir.
Margie

I have switched to 64bit Windows 7 and find that Jigsaws Galore now works fine. Whether that was because of the 64bit or just a general clean-up is an unknown.

I am playing Outcry at the moment. Have loaded Chronicle of Mystery-The Scorpio Ritual and Barrow Hill with no problems, so far.

And I played Penumbra Overture for a couple of hours last night. Will update my first post...

I might have time to get the 64-bit installed today. I will still have my 32-bit RC on another HDD, so will be able to compare on the two systems.

Tazanw has the same problem I have. What is D3drm.dll file and what do we do to fix this. I tried to install and play Crime Stories and Still Life but got this message. Can anyone help?

carlahelp

That's part of DirectX 9 - if the game prompts you to install DirectX, let it do so. If not, download and install the latest version of DirectX 9.0c (even when your PC is running DX 10 (or greater).

Thanks, Inland. I was hoping to find out what that was. In each of the older games I've installed, I've let the game install it's version of DX - except for the Shivers games.

Now that makes me wonder-- when I load a newer game I let the game install their version of DX in case I am missing something- and it says something like-"we are checking your DX and will add what is necessary---missing. So the thought I am having now is--- if you load an older game does it take out the newer version and files??

I never knew for sure about that either, Winfrey. I can't remember if it was Inland or Jenny who explained to me that it doesn't.

It does not remove older versions. And in the case of DX 10 and 11, the libraries are maintained in different folders so no harm will be done at all to the newer versions of DirectX.

Installed Beyond Atlantis (Atlantis 2) last night and it runs fine with no tweaking. Also Aura and The Sacred Rings.
Can not get Beyond Atlantis 2 or The Riddle of the Sphinx to run. They both install but won't get beyond the intro. The Riddle of the Sphinx seems to have a problem about Quicktime, even though I let it install it's version.
Echo-The Lost Cavern installs but won't even start, the curser does it's little spin for a second or two and stops and that's it.

Nikopol (Big Fish version) and Casebook Episode III: Snake in the grass both perform well under Windows 7.

Here's a list of the games I've tried on my 7/64.

install and run-

Agon The Lost Sword of Toledo **
Amerzone
Aura-Fate of the Ages
Barrow Hill
Beyond Atlantis (Atlantis II)
Dracula-The Last Sanctuary
Dracula Resurrection
Dark Fall The Journal **
Keepsake
Last Half of Darkness-Beyond the Spirit's Eye *
Last Half of Darkness-The Tomb of Zogir *
Return to Mysterious Island
The Sacred Rings
The Lost Crown
Voyage
* there is a lot of black and forth flashing before the game starts, but after that it seems to play fine.
** with some hiccups.

Won't install or run

Echo The Lost Cavern
Byzantine - The Betrayal
Connections
Egypt II the Heliopolis Prophecy
Egyptian Prophecy
Dark Fall Lights Out
Shivers
Torin's Passage
The Dig
Last Half of Darkness-Shadow of the Servant

Amber & the Kyrandia series I didn't even try.

This will be interesting to see what works in 32-bit vs 64-bit. Which Shivers did you try? Shivers 1 installed and played perfectly. Shivers 2 required an installer from SquirtTheCat.

I tried Darkfall, Lights Out last night and so far it's playing perfectly.

I just installed Scratches Director's Cut and got the BSOD when I tried to run it. Found your earlier posts about changing the value to 60. My problem is that I cannot save the cfg file. When trying to save, a window pops up and says that scream.cfg already exists and asks me if I want to replace it. If I say yes, it tells me that access is denied!!?? Am I doing something wrong? Here's a picture:

You need to elevate notepad - From the start menu, right click notepad and select Run as Administrator.

Also you need to install the game in anywhere but Progamme files, otherwise you can't have access and save any changes.

My Scratches game is installed in Program Files in the Nucleosys folder and it plays just fine from there?? I also made the Notepad changes from there and was able to save.

Thank you, thank you!!
Just to be safe, I uninstalled and reinstalled somewhere else. I was also able to make changes in notepad and the game is running now!!

Great, Sherlock!

For Torin's Passage use this installer. Shivers 1 is a 16-bit game and won't run on 64-bit Windows. If you have 64-bit Windows you will need to run the the non-DOS games in a virtualizer. For the DOS games use DOSBox. Also, don't forget about ScummVM. It supports the Kyrandia series and the LucasArts Scumm games, including The Dig. Even though jafa did not test his installers on Windows 7, I would be surprised if they didn't work on Win7.

On a side note, I just installed Windows 7 Pro 64 on my workstation and will be able to start experimenting, myself. One thing that I want to do is to start testing some of my new Sierra installers to see if there are any issues with them on Win7 that need to be fixed.

Collector, I can't wait for your results. When you get them working, would you like that million dollars in cash or as a check?

I absolutely LOVE my Win 7 Pro 64!
It plays everything I throw at it - also applications. So Cool.

I have Microsoft's Virtual Machine installed on the other HD with XP as well as Scummv, that's where I play those old games. Yes, I received the error message they were 16bit and non-workable for 7 64 bit windows.

I don't love this new fangled thing. Maybe some day when I figure out how to find things like restore and documents without trawling through mounds of files. In the meantime it does play the games that work very nicely.

Two clicks for Documents and after opening up Control Panel, 3 clicks for System Restore. Easy!

It may be easy for you but I can't find documents from control panel, have to use start menu. And the restore seems to be erratic, some time it's as you say three clicks but the last time took wandering around to find another way in. Of course that time was because of a crash and resulting problems with the folders.

But there are so many things that won't work in 7 that were a snap in XP, for instance moving things from one folder to another. Just point to move was so easy as compared to drag and drop.

Ah well, I'll get use to it some day.

I don't think you can find documents from control panel. I use the folder looking icon in the taskbar which is also called Libraries. From there, I have access to everything.

Hey, I've had - oh, about 5 more months of wandering around in the OS than you have, so I MIGHT have an advantage on you!

Here are my initial results on Windows 7 Pro 64. I have many more that I can check. Note that I only checked to see if the games started and that I could do basic game play, such as in game navigation and interaction with objects, etc. and did not play any of these games very far, so there may be specific bugs that may arise at later point in the games. Also I do not think that it hurts to have multiple reports on the same games, as some may have issues with certain games and others not. This can eliminate Windows 7 specific issues and what may just be problems with hardware, driver or configuration differences.

Works for me without issue:

A Tale of Two Kingdoms (AGS game)
Barrow Hill
The Black Mirror
Culpa Innata
Dark Fall
ECHO
Indigo Prophecy
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Keepsake
The Longest Journey
Dreamfall
Paradise
Penumbra
Sinking Island
Stargate Adventure (AGS game)
Syberia
Syberia 2
Sam and Max - Season One
Titanic: Adventure Out Of Time

Runs, but with tweaking and/or issues:

The Last Express - Compatibility issue message on close.
The Neverhood - Win 95 compatibility mode for installer, color artifacting
Sanitarium (2nd release)- color artifacting
Scratches - BSOD, but runs by editing config file as previously noted.

Requires XP Mode:
Obsidian
NOIR - Requires XP Mode to run 16-bit game on 64-bit Windows, had to disable integration features for compatibility mode to get 640x480x 256 colors.

Will not even start for me, even in XP Mode:

Crystal Key 2 - Does not work on XP/Vista, either
Still Life - Black screen only, game does not load.
The Legend of Lotus Spring - Does not work on XP/Vista, either
King's Quest: Mask of Eternity - Does not work in Vista, either

It's great to have multiple experiences and I see that they seem to be consistent with mine so far. Did you figure out a fix for the color artifacting in Sanitarium? I got it too, but have not had time to troubleshoot it.

I don't seem to be able to change to 256 color depth through Compatibility mode and an old stand by tool that I have used for this does not work right on 7. Even changing color depth through the advanced display settings does not help. Setting "Disable visual themes" in Compatibility mode fixes the color artifacting for The Neverhood, but not Sanitarium.

I have a couple of ideas that I want to try, but it may be an issue with my graphics card's drivers and I am having trouble getting the ATI installer to work. I had to manually update my driver.

Ahhh... Let me know if you figure something out.

That's probably due to the StarForce copy "protection" used on it, which is an older version that isn't compatible with Vista (and apparently not with Windows 7 either)

Even the none starforce version has the same problem. Currently playing it on VirtualBox and it plays great on that.

Runs fine on my Vista. I have not spent any time investigating it.

For some reason it didn't work for Inland
http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=481869

Are there some versions without StarForce?

Yes, mine is SecuROM. Still didnt work.

There is no message, just a black screen. I'll try a no-CD patch, just to make sure that it is not StarForce rearing its ugly head.

I can pretty much assure you it's the version of Starforce (The Black Mirror and Still Life - each shipped with Starforce V3).

The nocd wont work (famous last words) but there is a French hack/patch if you hunt arround which some people had some success with.

I got it working on Windows 7 with the No-CD patch and compatibility set to NT4.

I had the same problem with Still Life - the non-Star Force version - and got it to run using the NT4 compatibility mode. I didn't even need the No-CD patch.

I tried the compatibility after I tried the No-CD, so I was not sure if the patch had anything to do with it, but you are right, restoring the original files works with NT4 compatibility, so it is not a Starforce issue. I had forgotten that that is what I did to make it run on Vista, too.

In NT Compatibility Mode I see this -



Which version of the game are you running?

I assumed I had the Starforce version, but never bothered to check. The No-CD patch I tried was only identified as for the English language version. I am getting ready to leave town and won't have time to check until I get back.

I added Clive Barker's Undying to my first post as one that installed and ran perfectly. I am now running the 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium.

I have been playing Chronicles of Mystery-The Scorpio Ritual for some days now and find it is giving me a few problems. At first it was the voices fading at the end of sentences; which would be a real setback without the subtitles. Now, however it is a serious problem of the pc shutting down unexpectedly, not freezing but actually shutting off. I have changed to a compatibility setting but haven't had time to test that yet.

later: Well none of the compatibility settings I tried worked. Since I don't have the patience or knowledge to experiment, I'll finish this game in XP.
Hope someone with more patience has better luck.

Perhaps he can use the Starforce removal patch (which is downloadable) solve this problem?

Hi Guys
I am running the 32 version on my PC and I am encountering the same problems with some of the mentioned games Still Life, protection problem, Dracula 3 as mentioned in an earlier post, I have just loaded Art of Murder FBI Confidential, it runs no problem but I have no sound what so ever, I have selected all 3 options from the flash screen with the Graphics, Sound etc in the sound option, anyone else found this. Windows 7 is excellent but its starting to frustrate me with not being able to run certain games, I got the latest CSI(a prestent from Santa. so I havent tried it yet) also I have ordered the 3rd in the series of Art of Murder and Treasure Island and I am very worried that none of these will play on my PC, are Microsoft aware of these problems, if not I might have go back to good old XP
A very frustrated
SAFC

I should be back home later tonight or tomorrow and will be able to check which version I have, then.

I'm running the 64-bit version of windows 7 and CSI - Deadly Intent plays just fine
The same does Nikopol.

Hi All
Just installed Nikopol and its running ok, but what are Microsoft going to do with all the games that now wont/dont run on Windows 7 (for various reasons), is it going to be like the old windows 92 etc after windows XP arrived, they just dont work anymore unless you use alternative methods like ScummV or Dosbox etc, I have well over 100 games that will run on XP, but after the last couple of days I will probably only get a handful of those to run on Window 7. Are most of my games now resigned to the Gaming Graveyard, or do I have to go back to XP, what are your thoughts guys
A now totally frustrated
SAFC

safc,
You may have to wait until someone comes up with a good emulator for a 3D video card that can be used inside programs like Virtual PC.

Have you made a list of which games work for you and which don't? Also do you have the 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows 7? Have you compared which of your games are working (and not) with the results other people are getting for the same games?

Hi Jenn100
I have been checking games, I tried the VirtualBox for Secret Life, but that didnt work, got an boot install failure, the other games I have tried people have had problems with, I have had no response to Art Of Murder FBI Confidential yet, it loaded but there was no sould, I am using the 32 Bit version, although when I had my processor replaced I was told it was an Athlon 64 3000+ Dual Core, excuse my ignorance but how do I find out if I can install the 64 bit version of Windows 7
SAFc

An Athlon 64 has 64-bit capability. That's what the 64 in Athlon 64 is about. But installing the 64-bit version of Windows 7 (as opposed to the 32-bit version) is not going to help with game compatibility.

Although, as Jenny says, 64-bit won't help your game compatibility, if you want to know whether your computer can run the different versions of Windows 7, you can download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor here.

A-Ray identifies the StarForce on my copy of StillLife as 3.4.65.11. I did a clean reinstall of the game, just to make sure that the No-CD patch was a factor. That version of StarForce will not install. I reapplied the No-CD patch and without Compatibility mode (thus eliminating StarForce), again got a black screen. Reapplying Compatibility mode to NT4 the game runs fine. If the black screen occurs on the non-StarForce version and the StarForce version after removing StarForce, I would suspect that the problem arises from the way that the rendering engine interacts with changes to the APIs on Vista and 7.

Agustin has a similar problem with Scratches under Windows 7.

Scratches works on Win7 by editing Scream.CFG value for Rate from 0 to 60, as noted earlier in this thread by Draclvr. I, too was getting BSODs with the game, but this config file edit worked for me, too.

Yes, Agustin pointed this out on his own web site (nucleoSys.com) - His speculation was that Windows 7 handled the refresh rates differently.

Edit -

Thought I'd posted this earlier (but I can't find it) -- Here's his final response.

Forget what I said! Great news - after further testing, I realized what the problem is. Automatically detecting the refresh rate doesn't seem to work in Windows 7 as it previously did (again, I've NO idea how this could be causing a BSOD).

It might actually be in this thread, Inland. I remember that both of us found Agustin's solution on the website the same night.

You mentioned it on the second page of this thread, Inland -- at least it's on the second page for me after I log in: Post #563685 - November 02, 2009 11:33 AM

And the info was originally on the ***nucleosys forum***

I have been testing my installers under Win7 and have yet to encounter any issues. There are a lot of "under the hood" changes to Windows 7. Not that it affects games, but one bug that I had to deal with for my installers in Vista has thankfully fixed. It was with the file copy dialog. After a large file has been copied from a CD, the copy dialog will remain until another message box, other than another file copy dialog, is generated.

With some of the larger FMV games like Phantasmagoria or GK2, when enough of these dialog boxes pile up, the installer can crash. The NSIS developers are aware of this, but dismiss it as just a Windows bug. I have developed a workaround to it, but it gives the installer a bit of a pulsing look as the installer looses and regains focus.

So far from this thread it looks like most of the games that ran on Vista will run on Win7 in spite of these changes, even if a few, like Scratches need a bit of an extra tweak.

I was inspired by a new member, Sincerely Sam, to install and see how Keepsake did in my 64-bit Windows 7 and it was perfect, so will add to my first post.

I am taking the advice of you all and getting Windows 7 Pro. My computer man is ordering it and will come out and put it in when it comes. I can't wait because according to all of you I will be able to play most of my XPs. Thanks for all the info I got from this thread. Will let you know how it does.

I know someone in communications any everyone recently got new laptops. The company switched the operating systems to XP because they hated WIN7. It didn't function for them in any capacity.

Like what?

I don't understand what you mean. The company changed all of their new laptops to XP. I don't work for them, but noticed they overwrote the new format with XP. I asked about it and was told the company hated WIN7 and it didn't work for them, nutshell.

Could be the company had software that didn't work with Windows 7. I wonder if this company got the Windows 7 Professional which has XP compatibility for software issues.

Definitely not enough information here...

Added Darkfall The Journal to first post as having no issues...

Businesses are usually slow to adopt new OSs. They will wait until an OS has proven itself, first. Compatibility is another big consideration. It is not uncommon for many big businesses to still be using ancient programs. I wouldn't expect too many to make the transition before at least the first service pack.

I agree, Collector. I retired from state government and I pretty much guarantee they will be the last to make any move. Hey, I was excited when they moved from WIndows 2000 to XP about 5 years too late!

I had a problem early on with random crashes while on the net with my new Win 7 computer, usually when the site had some animation. The crashes stopped when Adobe updated Flash a few days ago -- though that may be a coincidence.

Now if Adobe would get off their butts and release a 64-bit version of Flash.

All I know is they haven't been wrong yet. They preceded most people when it came to the updates for WINDOWS until things got corrected. I don't know what they find out when they find it out, but I tend to follow suit before I update or buy new. I haven't changed my XP except for updates and I haven't been sorry. I recently got Black Circle and when it didn't start right up, I kinda figured I probably hadn't done something right. In the past, I would have thought SOMEBODY ELSE was wrong. Check here at GB if you don't believe me. I STILL don't know what I did wrong with Black Circle, except it did load and IS playing correctly. I won't do a thing until her company gets things right with WIN 7. They don't like Vista either, I do have a Vista laptop, but do not use it for much.

I just added a couple more older games to the first post that played flawlessly in Windows 7 - Morrowind and Condition Zero.

Okay, so general concensus here....
XP ~vs~ Vista ~vs~ 7

Is 7 going to be for Vista
what XP was for ME?

And is it 'un-buggy' enough yet
for this blonge g'ma
to dive into it? :rolleyes12:

BTW~I would keep XP on my laptop
and change my desktop to 7.

I have been running the Release Candidate since last May and did a clean install of 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premiun over my XP Media Center about a month ago. I have run into no bugs or issues at all. And I've been very pleasantly surprised at how well it does with older games.

I'm not sure what you mean by your first question. If you are happy with Vista on you desktop, I would stick with it. If you aren't satisfied with Vista, you can upgrade it to Windows 7. You will find that it feels very similar to Vista, but is a lot faster and easier to navigate.

You can download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft to see if your computer can run it. Upgrade Advisor

Draclvr, do you own Runaway: A Road Adventure? The reason I ask is this is the only game I am having serious issues with on Win 7 64-bit, and I was wondering if you were experiencing them as well.

Sorry, Venus, I sure don't have it. What is the game doing? Have you tried running it in compatibility mode?

Yes, I have tried running it in every single compatibility mode, and none of them work. All of the videos freeze for long periods of time. They start up again after that, but the game is really unplayable that way.

Yeah, I agree that would be unplayable. I'm really not very good at tweaking the video card, but I wonder if that could be part of the problem. What video card do you have?

I have NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT. Actually, I've tried to change the video card preference so that it actually runs from my video card rather than the primary display driver, but the game stubbornly refuses to do it. I switch it in options, and the game switches it right back again.

And it could be that this is just one of those game that won't work in Windows 7.

Yes, it looks as though that may be the case. Thanks for trying though, Draclvr.