Apart from the legendary Nintendo console gaming, PC gaming in early 2000 was a big part of my life when Windows XP was the mainstream OS. I started to miss some of the old-school games I used to play all day back then. Most of them are Chinese games that can still be found on Baidu forum thanks for the gaming enthusiasts. And soon I realised there is a huge barrier between me and those games.

Most of them are not compatible with Windows 10

Now I can understand why some of my hard-core gamer friends are still reluctant to upgrade to Win 10 from Win 7 as it as better compatibility to old 32-bit games. Not only I could not install some of the old games on the my Win 10 PC, most of them running in weird resolution and do not allow to run in windowed mode. That could simply spell disaster. I have to find an alternative or else I have to kiss-goodbye to the goodies that used to bring me much happiness.

Virtual machine solves all the problems!

There are couple of benefits that make running old games on VM is the best idea ever:

• No more compatibility issues as you can just install any OS that suit the games. We can choose to install any OS that suits the game.
• While old games image are usually extracted and consolidated by strangers on the Internet, we do not know if the image is maliciously infected. Running games on a VM could eliminate all the worries as the host OS is not affected.
• Full screen of windowed mode gaming, it’s all up to you!

How do I set it up?

1. I decided to go with Windows XP as it is old enough to host all the retro games while being one of the most reputable Windows series. Here is the name of best Windows XP variant, en_windows_xp_professional_with_service_pack_3_x86_cd_vl_x14-73974.iso which you can download from here.

2. Next step is to get a Virtual machine, I use the simple yet powerful VirtualBox. There are plenty of guides online or you can just follow this one.

3. Make sure you enable the Install Guest Additions inside the VM for a seamless experience. I would say this is a must do step for all VirtualBox user as this trick will make the VM run as another app in the host OS without any delay and lag. You can discover more tips on this VM by following this guide.

4. Depending on what games you want to install, since most retro games are extracted in ISO form, you will need a Daemon Tools Lite installed as well.

You should be all set after following all the step above now. Happy Gaming!

Related topic:
Retro gaming on PC

想回味当年的 PC 旧游戏却因为当前的系统太新而装不了？Virtual machine 可以帮你解决一切！

下载个 VirtualBox，然后再下个 Windows XP安装就可，如果需要安装指南网上有很多，亦可以参考这篇。

这里切记装好XP 之后要安装 Guest Addition， 参考这里。开启完毕你会发现 VM 的运行真的是无缝对接，宛如是原生系统上的其中一个软件，顺畅无比。

在 VM 上玩游戏除了可以解决系统兼容问题，还可以杜绝病毒‘。而且那时候的游戏都不支持窗口模式，用 VM 就能窗口全屏一手抓！

其实这次想玩的上古游戏是台湾的《百鬼夜宴》，不知道这里有没有知音？

往期回顾：
Retro gaming on PC

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