Windows 7 Playing any games on every windows machine

[gamer4life]

Hi guys

I really like playing my old style games (from years 1999) and what I find is that every year or so I have to re-install, or freshly install my OS (right now I have win 8.1). I have many games which then need to be installed again (300Gb+) so doing so each time takes hours - if not days. What I have found out is that installing the game directories on my external hard disk with usb 3.0 solves this issue. As I can remove the HDD and plug it to any windows machine and it will be able to open up the games.

Unfortunately, I am still a noob in that respect of understanding the components which are required to run a game (such as Directx) so each time I try to run a game from the external HDD it always gives me an error to install some missing .dll files. Which I can usually find online, but it doesn't avoid the frustration of installing the missing files and installing more software on the OS to run some of the games. Since each windows version (windows XP, windows 7, and windows 8) have different .dll files finding all the required files for each OS is a great hassle

What I am looking for is an emulator or some sort of software which can be run standalone with only drivers from the components of the computer installed without any additional software from the os to be installed. This software/emulator could run games such as Stronghold Crusader, Stronghold 3, Age of Empires 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield 2, and Battlefield 3 without any software being installed on the OS itself. As you can see I play a diverse range of new and old games so support for some of them is very hard to find online.

Any help for such programs or emulators would greatly help my eternal struggle to play all my games anytime I want

 

[gamer4life]

no one?

 

[zirkoni]

Maybe search the net for how to make each one of those games portable? Although I doubt you'll be able to find a solution for each one, it just can't be done (easily) for every game.

There is also OnLive, cloud gaming:Link Removed
But then you'd have to buy the games from OnLive (or Steam) if they even have all of them...

 

[trog69]

I'm sorry I can't seem to find anything like what you're asking for. I haven't had to re-install this OS for well over two years. and almost all the games I enjoy, old, ancient, and new, are on Steam or Origin, and I don't install games from them unless I'm presently playing them, because I enjoy a very fast connection. The installation of the proper DX files is not something I remember being very time-consuming. My friend in Missouri is not as fortunate, with speeds approaching dial-up. Yeesh.

Good luck to you.

 

[Mike]

Hi there,

These games are a bit too new for emulators, or rather, their operating systems still are. You'll see EMUs for SNES and consoles like that because they're no longer in circulation, and many of the games became abandonware.

Some rebuilds of these games are available on Steam. But if you still have your old product keys and software, you could use a virtual machine for these games. Have you considered this?

Kindly,

 

[kemical]

Hi guys

I really like playing my old style games (from years 1999) and what I find is that every year or so I have to re-install, or freshly install my OS (right now I have win 8.1). I have many games which then need to be installed again (300Gb+) so doing so each time takes hours - if not days. What I have found out is that installing the game directories on my external hard disk with usb 3.0 solves this issue. As I can remove the HDD and plug it to any windows machine and it will be able to open up the games.

Unfortunately, I am still a noob in that respect of understanding the components which are required to run a game (such as Directx) so each time I try to run a game from the external HDD it always gives me an error to install some missing .dll files. Which I can usually find online, but it doesn't avoid the frustration of installing the missing files and installing more software on the OS to run some of the games. Since each windows version (windows XP, windows 7, and windows 8) have different .dll files finding all the required files for each OS is a great hassle

What I am looking for is an emulator or some sort of software which can be run standalone with only drivers from the components of the computer installed without any additional software from the os to be installed. This software/emulator could run games such as Stronghold Crusader, Stronghold 3, Age of Empires 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield 2, and Battlefield 3 without any software being installed on the OS itself. As you can see I play a diverse range of new and old games so support for some of them is very hard to find online.

Any help for such programs or emulators would greatly help my eternal struggle to play all my games anytime I want

The games which won't play, have you tried right clicking on the start up icon choosing properties, compatibility and running them in compatibility mode for maybe XP or Windows 7?

 

[ussnorway]

You can use vmworkstation to play all those games on the host machine… assuming the host is windows 7, 8 or (best) 8.1. The trick is to purchase an somewhat older graphics card that still has xp drivers.

Boot up workstation and install a xp64* system with a physical data drive… install the game on that data drive i.e not on the c drive.
* assume the host is a 64 bit system.
Then attach the data drive back onto the host machine with the same drive letter as it had on the v-xp… i.e it was the G drive on the v-xp so assign it as the G drive on the host and the game will play.

I use the above trick to play SWKotor (knights of the old republic & Sith Lords) on my windows 8.1 laptop… as far as the game is concerned it thinks it is installed on xp and so the integrity check (written at a time when nobody had heard of windows 8.1) stays happy.