PC Help: Play old games on modern PCs

Q I have played the occasional adventure game in my time, and while having a clear-out the other day I stumbled across two old classics called 7th Guest and 11th Hour.

It would be great to play them again, but I suspect they will require some extra software to work with a modern Pentium processor and graphics card. Where can I obtain such software, if it exists?

David Britten

A Most older games (anything that isn’t designed to work with Windows XP or released before about 2002) are tricky when it comes to working with Windows XP and Windows Vista. Fortunately, there are a few people out there who keep note of which games work, and how to do it.

An excellent resource is located at http://home.earthlink.net/~angeldancer27/XpGameList.htm. There’s plenty here of use to anyone trying to get old games to work – check the list in the General Drill section for heaps of useful advice.

Alternatively, search for a specific game in the alphabetic sections at the bottom. You’ll find sections for both the games you mention at the top of the A-E page.

Games designed for Dos, the operating system before Windows, can be played using the free Dosbox utility (www.computeractive.co.uk/2129109).

Also of interest is D-Fend (www.computeractive.co.uk/2129120), a utility that makes Dosbox much easier to use.