Run Legacy Games on Windows 10 and Windows 11

If you are a older person,  You may miss the times when Windows 95 and Windows 98 operating systems were used. You may want to play those games that entertained you in your childhood and made you have a good time with your existing computers with Windows 10 or Windows 11 operating system.

However, older games have major problems with current operating systems. Especially when we run old games, there is a very serious incompatibility problem between the video card driver and the game. The game either does not work at all, or even if it does, the image of the game does not appear on the screen as it should. The game runs on your device in an unplayable state. Likewise, even if the game works, the sounds either do not work properly or you have to continue without all the sounds of the game.

Long story short, when you run old games from Windows 95, Windows 98 operating systems on Windows 10 or Windows 11 operating systems, you usually encounter the following problems;

The game doesn't run at all. It shows an error report immediately without opening. 

The game opens. However, the image is distorted. The FPS value is very low and the game has constant freezing and stuttering problems. At the same time, the game crashes frequently. You have to constantly restart the game. 

The game works, but there are serious problems with in-game audio. Some sounds may sound distorted or there is a general problem with all sound and music of the game.

Yes, this is how old games have problems with current hardware. What if we told you that you can solve almost all of these problems? What if we told you that you can play those games from the times of Windows 95/98 without any problems on Windows 10 and Windows 11? Follow the steps below to play your childhood game smoothly on current systems.

• Troubleshoot OS compatibility issue

• Fix D3 graphics mismatch

• Troubleshoot sound

With these three steps, you can solve all the problems and play your game smoothly. Now that we have explained why old games do not work on current systems and hardware, and briefly explain what the problem is, let's move on to the solution steps.

How to Run Legacy Games on Windows 10 / Windows 11

Windows 10 or Windows 11 operating system may have problems running older games. In this case, we need to resolve the incompatibility issue. You need to run the game you want to run in Windows 98 mode – if it is a very old game – or in Windows XP mode if it is a relatively old game.

Let's show this step in practice on the Carnivores 2 game;

STEP 1 :

Right-click on the .exe fileof the game you want to runThen click Properties. From the top of the window that opens, go to the Compatibility tab.

STEP 2 :

Select Windows 98 / Windows Me mode (or Windows XP Service Pack 2)under Compatibility Mode as seen in the image belowThen check the Run this program as administrator box. Then click the Apply and OK buttons. 

After the second step, the operating system incompatibility problem will be resolved. Proceed to step three so that the game does not have problems with the updated graphics card hardware.

STEP 3 :

You will use a small software so that the game graphics do not have problems with the current video card drivers. First , open the Zeus Software site. 

STEP 4 :

At the bottom of the website that opens , install the latest version of the nGlide software. 

After Installation run the nGlide software.

STEP 5 : 

When you run the nGlide software, a small window will appear as seen in the image below. You can set the 3Dfx logo splash screen optionat the bottom of this window to Off. Other options You can leave as default. 

Then click the Apply button.

STEP 6 :

If you have done all the steps correctly until this step, run the game. Go to the display tab in the settings of the opened game.

Every old game has a Video Driver section as seen in the image below. Make sure you write 3DFX Glide or Glide in this section . If Glide is not written in this field , Direct 3D or Software is written, it means you have not activated the nGlide software in the fifth step. If this software is not active, the graphics of the games cannot be rendered properly.

If the game you are playing has sound problems, after activating the nGlide software, you can try the Audio Driver option as Direct Sound 3D or Software from the in-game settings as in the image above .

Remember;

We changed the compatibility settings so that old games can run with older operating systems. Thanks to the nGlide software, we have ensured that the game graphics are compatible with the video card drivers. After performing all these steps, you can run old games smoothly on Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices.