Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
Posts: 2,817
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Post by Cervantes on Sept 27, 2017 10:57:41 GMT
MeleeMonk - The GOG copy is already fully updated, no need for patches. And looking at the forums, they even updated the game very recently (April 2017) to support the GOG overlay. The good thing about GOG is that they have refunds, so if you decide to buy there and their version still doesn't work, there's the possibility of refunding it.
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MeleeMonk
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
Part-time gamer, full-time environmentalist, and member of PAPO (People Against Palm Oil)
Posts: 3,651
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Post by MeleeMonk on Sept 28, 2017 10:49:52 GMT
MeleeMonk - The GOG copy is already fully updated, no need for patches. And looking at the forums, they even updated the game very recently (April 2017) to support the GOG overlay. The good thing about GOG is that they have refunds, so if you decide to buy there and their version still doesn't work, there's the possibility of refunding it. *jaw drops* Wish I knew this sooner....my physical copy is a bother anyways. It comes on five cds and one of the discs was scratched beyond repair (thankfully I got a refund and a replacement disc). I don't understand why a 2004 game wouldn't just use a single dvd instead of 5 separate discs, which takes forever and is very annoying to install.
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MeleeMonk
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
Part-time gamer, full-time environmentalist, and member of PAPO (People Against Palm Oil)
Posts: 3,651
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Post by MeleeMonk on Jan 22, 2020 6:13:53 GMT
1. No 32-bit program is incompatible with a 64-bit version of Windows (only the inverse is true); you should always go with the 64-bit version. In Far Cry's case, the 64-bit patch exists to make it run even better on Windows x64, but it should run anyway. Your problem is an incompatibility with Windows 10, Far Cry being a 2004 release made for Windows XP. From what I've read online, it runs on W10. There are some instructions on this forum. And you can find any necessary patches on PC Gaming Wiki. Also, remember to try running the game in compatibility mode (right click, properties, compatibility; choose Windows XP SP3). 2. It's not available for free, unless you count piracy. Online, I've seen people selling it on Ebay. You know, looking back at these posts, you really didn't give me the right advice as an old-school gamer, Cervantes. :/ All I really want to do is play physical games in the comfort of my internet-free apartment, and every day I learn about more and more 2000s or 90s PC games I want to play that won't work on Windows 10. If I had this knowledge back in 2016 when I was shopping for a PC, I probably would've still been able to find a 32 bit Windows 7 machine (used for sure, maybe new) from online retailers, but now it's impossible to find Windows 7 machines on sites like Newegg. They're collector's items now. This is sad. No offense, but I should have listened to Armored Core Raven instead. He and I are old-school enthusiasts who share the same taste when it comes to PC hardware. I don't give a shit about Steam, GOG, or the internet. I just want the damn discs, and I want them to play on my computer correctly.
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Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
Posts: 2,817
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Post by Cervantes on Jan 22, 2020 8:26:13 GMT
MeleeMonk - No problem, mate. But keep in mind your original question wasn't what was the best way to play old-school physical copies, it was just about how to downgrade from 64 to 32-bit (which was unnecessary and would change nothing)... And in my answer I still pointed out that Windows 10 itself was the reason you had compatibility issues. The second question was if there was a free way to get Windows XP or 7 (there's not, unless you count piracy). If the question was "which PC is recommended to run physical games from late 90s/early 2000s?", then yes, I would say "install Windows XP" - even Windows 7 was already incompatible with a ton of stuff, XP is just the best for that era. Since you already had gotten a Windows 10 PC, then my recommendations are "look for workarounds on PC gaming wiki" and "GOG has patched a lot of those older games to run on current systems if that's an option". It just sucks that older pc games need workarounds and older systems aren't easily available depending on your area. That's the worst side of pc gaming, for sure.
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MeleeMonk
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
Part-time gamer, full-time environmentalist, and member of PAPO (People Against Palm Oil)
Posts: 3,651
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Post by MeleeMonk on Jan 26, 2020 4:47:22 GMT
MeleeMonk - No problem, mate. But keep in mind your original question wasn't what was the best way to play old-school physical copies, it was just about how to downgrade from 64 to 32-bit (which was unnecessary and would change nothing)... And in my answer I still pointed out that Windows 10 itself was the reason you had compatibility issues. The second question was if there was a free way to get Windows XP or 7 (there's not, unless you count piracy). If the question was "which PC is recommended to run physical games from late 90s/early 2000s?", then yes, I would say "install Windows XP" - even Windows 7 was already incompatible with a ton of stuff, XP is just the best for that era. Since you already had gotten a Windows 10 PC, then my recommendations are "look for workarounds on PC gaming wiki" and "GOG has patched a lot of those older games to run on current systems if that's an option". It just sucks that older pc games need workarounds and older systems aren't easily available depending on your area. That's the worst side of pc gaming, for sure. Yeah, but a 32 bit Windows 7 rig would probably require only a fraction of the workarounds for 6th gen PC games that any 64 bit Windows 10 rig (which is ALL of them) would require, right? Why wouldn't these XP era games run better on 32 bit architecture than 64 bit? Makes no sense.
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Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
Posts: 2,817
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Post by Cervantes on Jan 26, 2020 20:59:56 GMT
MeleeMonk - In any case, you should just go with Windows XP for the era of games that you want to play, it's the safer bet and most compatible one - your only problem would be running DOS games, for those you would need DOSBox. My point was that your compatibility problems didn't have much to do with Windows being 64 or 32 - the problem was it being Windows 10 itself, and usually with Windows 10 hating old DRM schemes. Far Cry and all the other 6th gen stuff ran really well on my Windows 7 x64 PC, as 64-bit will run any 32-bit programs without any incompatibilities. The only limitation for 64-bit is when you try to run a 16-bit program; in PC gaming, that means very few installers (not the games themselves, just the installers) from the middle 90s. In that case, you would need a workaround (either extracting installation contents with 7-zip, or virtualizing a 32-bit installation, or looking for a patch). Keep in mind that even with XP, your most compatible option, you will still need to eventually look for patches for some of your games; physical pc games are just hard to work with. For old pc gaming nowadays, I think the best option with almost no hassle is really GOG, since they throughly patch the games they sell - even the DOS ones come with DOSBox already fully set up for those games.
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MeleeMonk
Cartoon Pony Wrangler
Part-time gamer, full-time environmentalist, and member of PAPO (People Against Palm Oil)
Posts: 3,651
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Post by MeleeMonk on Jan 27, 2020 22:44:11 GMT
MeleeMonk - In any case, you should just go with Windows XP for the era of games that you want to play, it's the safer bet and most compatible one - your only problem would be running DOS games, for those you would need DOSBox. My point was that your compatibility problems didn't have much to do with Windows being 64 or 32 - the problem was it being Windows 10 itself, and usually with Windows 10 hating old DRM schemes. Far Cry and all the other 6th gen stuff ran really well on my Windows 7 x64 PC, as 64-bit will run any 32-bit programs without any incompatibilities. The only limitation for 64-bit is when you try to run a 16-bit program; in PC gaming, that means very few installers (not the games themselves, just the installers) from the middle 90s. In that case, you would need a workaround (either extracting installation contents with 7-zip, or virtualizing a 32-bit installation, or looking for a patch). Keep in mind that even with XP, your most compatible option, you will still need to eventually look for patches for some of your games; physical pc games are just hard to work with. For old pc gaming nowadays, I think the best option with almost no hassle is really GOG, since they throughly patch the games they sell - even the DOS ones come with DOSBox already fully set up for those games. The reason I'd prefer to seek out a Win 7 rig over XP is because 1: they are cheaper, and 2: they are far more common (in working condition) nowadays. I'm confident that I could find a working Windows 7 rig locally, but for XP rigs I've noticed that buyers usually have to do a lot more digging to locate them. One example is this comparison of the versions of Glover: The PC version ran so shit on Windows 10 that he was forced to by an XP rig, and the easiest way for him to do that was through Ebay, which suggests that he couldn't find one locally. It wasn't cheap (over $200), and personally I would hate to pay an extra $50 or so for shipping. Maybe I'm just a shrewd shopper but an XP rig just seems like it would be more trouble than it's worth, especially since I'm not all that great with computers to begin with. I was not aware that the problem with software compatibility had more to do with the OS than the architecture. I always assumed it was the other way around.
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