As you can see work is progressing on the software organizing project. I manged to knock off all the Windows 95 games. Some of them still run on the Vista desktop but the XP laptop may be my only chance to play most of them. The funny thing is I got a few things to run…but that doesn’t mean they were playable.

If I have any more problems I’m going to have to break out another CD rack, and I think I have a second one like this. These are all the games that won’t run or run right on my Vista computer. Some of them I really want to play again while others I didn’t even finish. Among the software tested this week was a Spider-Man video game that ran but I think my computer is too powerful for it. For example, during my test play Spider-Man is supposed to be headed to the bank during a tutorial level. She jumped around way too fast to catch up, which might be in line with the character but it made playing it hard since I also had to keep track of the thugs I was supposed to be taking down. Then in one rather amusing moment I was getting taught the controls by a character called Black Cat, who in the comics is a sometimes ally sometimes enemy one-time lover of our hero. For some reason Spider-Man was doing laps around her. After the cutscene ends I’m still doing laps until I do something with the controller. I either need to mess with the settings or hope the laptop plays it. It’s one I finished although I wanted to go through the tougher second play because it’s a fun game.

Another game was a copy of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, based on the TV game show. It doesn’t run on Vista at all but I was able to load some bonus software featuring the Merriam-Webster dictionary and thesaurus. I’m not sure how dated the definitions are, but it’s not like my physical copy is all that new. It’s just an option in case I’m not online at the moment and don’t want to waste time logging on.

And here is the current set of games that will run on Vista from the ones I’ve tested. The image isn’t that great because I didn’t have much light in the corner but it’s only six games and a cybercomic, plus a few data CDs that were already there. It’s not much, but at least I know I can still play these. One of them is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, based on the first season of the Fox Saturday morning cartoon. I want to go back and complete the game for each of the four Turtles. It’s one I enjoy playing and had to stop myself while doing the test. Don’t bother with the fighter-type “versus” mode though. There’s a bug or something where the computer character is already in running mode and gets a number of shots in before you have a chance. So it cheats. The actual story game however is a lot of fun and I recommend it.

Now I have the XP games and some sampler CDs to go through and see what works and what doesn’t. Some of these games I just want to finish while others I want to play again and again. I hope to get a few in this week but I have some other projects I need to complete. I’ll keep you posted.

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