Okay listen: I am less than tech-savvy, but I tried so many step-intensive things on my dinky PC, to no avail.

I use Windows10 home (yes, I know, bear with me!) and am just trying to boot games I already OWN!!! No dice. Now I just sit here, arms crossed, and seethe “I hate u, computer.”

Yes, I’ve enabled the IIS and tried to use the option to allow program to run 32-bit. No dice.

I’ve tried compatibility mode. Absolutely nothing (Windows, you useless-ass shitwad).

I struggled through DOSBOX as a non-tech person, managed to do the Windows 3.1 thing, tried to boot my files through there, got as far as the install screen!!! Stuck at 0% probably forever. So it was a failure.

Tried running old game files from some people who are smarter than me that emulate the D:\ drive instead of the physical disks. Zilch.

FrikkiN AHHHHH!!!

I JUST WANNA RELIVE MY NOSTALGIA AND SHOW MY KID ALL MY OLD AND SHITTY GAMES I USED TO PLAY AS A KID!!!

Could anyone give a solution that won’t have me downloading and installing 6 trillion new programs? Any helpful links a non-tech person could understand?

Swear to god, I’ll Cashapp 5$ to the first person to give a solution I can reasonably follow & that works.

Also you will have my adoration forever. Thanks.

  • 520@kbin.social
    26·
    11 months ago

    Consider installing a Linux distro and trying WINE.

    Sounds incredibly stupid, I know, but WINE has far better backwards compatibility than modern Windows.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
      11·
      11 months ago

      For some specific games for sure, but that approach has failed me more than it has succeeded.

      You can probably make it work, but I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone describing themselves “less than tech-savvy”.

      • 520@kbin.social
        5·
        11 months ago

        Yeah, not gonna lie, screwing around with WINE can be an aneurysm unto itself.

        Maybe there’s a decent QEMU setup available? One that can emulate a decent GPU for the time?

        • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
          2·
          11 months ago

          GPU emulation on QEMU isn’t at a level that you’d be able to play these games well, I think.

          86Box and the software it forked from (PCem) can emulate an entire computer, if your hardware can cut it. It works well for Windows 98 games, but it’s not exactly trivial to set up.

    • Grimpen@lemmy.ca
      4·
      11 months ago

      I used to use PlayOnLinux for exactly this thing. It’s a front end/manager for WINE. Heroic and Lutris are similar, but have carried the concept further.