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Thread: Old games on new systems (ie NWN)

  1. #1
    Zzzzzzz sleepyhead's Avatar
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    Old games on new systems (ie NWN)

    Just been browsing through the Neverwinter Nights bioware forums and come across a nice little problem that seems to be pandemic across all platforms who are using a GeForce 8xxx series gfx cards and the latest (whql) drivers.

    Seems that the latest drivers makes the opening menu screen totally black, so you're guessing where to click (mouse pointer is present).

    Now I like my old games...I still have a copy of XCOM:Apocalypse which i think is DOS based.

    With the progress of technology, what luck would anyone have of being able to relive old games without having to resort to emulators or rolling back drivers etc.?

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Old games on new systems (ie NWN)

    Just use an ATi card OK even they aren't perfect, but I find nVidia drivers very problematic with older games - you have to go back to a driver of about the same age as the game, if they even exist for your card. Oh and turn off shiney water in NWN. I don't know what the devs did to it, but it creates a host of problems with openGL2.0 cards.

    Best hope I've seen of old games is actually directX - even very early versions of dx seem to remain compatible with much newer computers.

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    Senior Member UltraMagnus's Avatar
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    Re: Old games on new systems (ie NWN)

    odd you should talk about problems with Geforce cards, i had hell with KOTOR and mech commander 2 with an ati card...

    as for old dos games, the biggest problem i have found is sound, games like settlers II have settings for loads of different types of sound cards, of course none of the match modern ones, so its just a case of trying ones that look vaguely like yours.... only one that is perfectly compatible is integrated IBM buzzer sound.... and we all know what thats like

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    Zzzzzzz sleepyhead's Avatar
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    Re: Old games on new systems (ie NWN)

    To me, it really begs the question, why upgrade the PC?

    I like games old and new, so does this mean I need an old "out of date" rig that will remain forever static and a spankingly new rig for new games?

    I used NWN as an example to highlight the fact that I was disappointed to read that the game is playable as long as you used the different work around methods until Nvidia updates their drivers and corrects whatever issue it is (probably highly unlikely though).

    I am one of those people who go into a shop, look at the new games, go "WTF??! £30-50 for that??!" wonder over to the 'old games' area and go, "Woo hoo, 3 for £10 on F.E.A.R., DOOM3 and Theme Park!" (stupid example I know).

    I'm just an old man before my time....


    Old games rule

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Old games on new systems (ie NWN)

    Or you look at new games like Supreme Commander Gold for only 18 quid and wonder why you paid £45 for Wing Commander 3 all those years ago..
    Last edited by kalniel; 16-11-2007 at 11:02 AM.

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Re: Old games on new systems (ie NWN)

    dosbox for dos games (it's the official way to play old dos-based id software games bought from steam, for example)

    linux for nwn!

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    Zzzzzzz sleepyhead's Avatar
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    Re: Old games on new systems (ie NWN)

    I'm just stubborn, want one box for all games. Dual booting is like emulating you have two boxes.

    Quite possibly linux is the way to go...just need the guts to dive on over...

    Oh and consoles are a big no-no for me...I learnt my lesson years ago...I get quite obsessive...

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    Re: Old games on new systems (ie NWN)

    I've never been defeated by any game really. 99&#37; of dos games work in "DOSBOX", perfectly. (Better than they did originally even). There is the odd one which is a hassle, but I've always managed to get them working eventually (even if it takes a fair bit of faffing around and googling). It is technically an emulator (a dos emulator), but its not a big deal or anything. Its really easy to use and hardly uses any ram or CPU power. And its well customisable. (And its free).

    But none of this is since I've had an 8800gtx, so I don't know if that causes new problems.

    As for old, yet still windows based games, I have had more trouble with those than DOS games. But usually I get them working in the end too. Often it needs to be run using windows 2000 or Win95 compatibility modes etc.. Sometimes they need to be run (or installed) by using Start---> Run ---> and then using a command line that tells it to run, without doing certain checks.

    Most of them seem to work eventually, but there are some that stumped me. I probably could have got them working eventually, but I couldnt be bothered. (One was the latest in the Under a Killing Moon games I think - I was using Win2k and I dont think it was possible to get it working. Now I'm on XP I could have got it working though).

    With the likes of NWN though, there probably isn't much you can do. You would have to roll back your driver. Luckily thats only a 2 minute job though. You can have the old driver and the new driver on your desktop. So you click the old one and tell it to overwrite everything, reboot, and bingo. And then do the same with the new one when you want to go back. Thanks to google though, someone usually finds a solution to stuff like this eventually, and if they do, google will find it for you (if you search for the right stuff).

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