How will I know if an older game like Colin McRae Rally will be playable with my windows 7 64bit o/s. I ask this because Motorcross Madness and Superbike 2000 will not but Richard Burns Rally does. My previous o/s was XP
1- Properly programed games will run on Vista/7 64-bit 2- 32-bit game will also run on Vista/7 64-bit. Sadly, back in XP days, many games where still 16-bit.. like if anyone still used DOS back then :| 3- Some games require you use Compatibility mode in Windows 7 to make them run (but these games must be in 32-bit to start with. 16-bit support was removed in Windows Vista/7 64-bit). 4- You look on the internet for each of your games and hope someone else play them. Like everything in life, you have to let go your old stuff. They are just old games... not your life savings. Get new games.
Just to say I recently played through MDK2, CMR2, Hidden And Dangerous 2 and Hostile Waters on Win7Pro 64bit last week in a fit of nostalgia and they were fine. The usual compatability modes were required and one wall texture in MDK2 was flashing, but otherwise fine. If you don't want to arse about getting a game to work, don't forget GOG.com for nostalgic coolness with Win Vista and 7 wrappers for guaranteed working.