How Do Older Games Fare With Windows Vista

Microsoft has changed the formula drastically enough from XP to Vista that people are beginning to wonder if any of their “old” games (the ones with DirectX 9 and before) are going to be compatible with the new OS. Historically, Microsoft has been known to opt for expediency and profits over backwards compatibility.

Will they do it again? The short answer is no. At least not as badly as before. Reports from different reputable sources, including the folks at Gamespot, seem to agree that at the current stage in its development video card driver issues prevent a full assessment of the situation.

Even with immature drivers causing problems for a few games, many games work with very little extra effort. Since Windows Vista will come with both DirectX 9.0L and DirectX 10 backwards compatibility is increased considerably; giving gamers the option to continue growing their collection of games instead of throwing it out.

In a test of 35 games that were made between 2000 and 2005 only 12 of the games failed to work at all under Vista. The remainder of the games worked without too much hassle save a few driver related issues and some that needed tweaked settings in order to run properly.

The full article awaits after the jump!

Microsoft has changed the formula drastically enough from XP to Vista that people are beginning to wonder if any of their “old” games (the ones with DirectX 9 and before) are going to be compatible with the new OS. Historically, Microsoft has been known to opt for expediency and profits over backwards compatibility.

Will they do it again? The short answer is no. At least not as badly as before. Reports from different reputable sources, including the folks at Gamespot, seem to agree that at the current stage in its development video card driver issues prevent a full assessment of the situation.

Even with immature drivers causing problems for a few games, many games work with very little extra effort. Since Windows Vista will come with both DirectX 9.0L and DirectX 10 backwards compatibility is increased considerably; giving gamers the option to continue growing their collection of games instead of throwing it out.

In a test of 35 games that were made between 2000 and 2005 only 12 of the games failed to work at all under Vista. The remainder of the games worked without too much hassle save a few driver related issues and some that needed tweaked settings in order ot run properly. Above and below are the results of testing using Vista.

Via Gamespot