Topic: Older PC Games Compatability

I just finished reading Game Informer's article on the new King's Quest game, and it really made me want to go back and play the old ones. I looked them up and found I can get all 8 for $20 on GOG.com, but I am wondering if there are any extra things I need or steps to take to be able to play these older games on a current PC. When I found an anthology of the first 7 on Amazon, there was something about needing to download a DOS Box or something to be able to play them, so I don't know if I would have to do that of if GOG has taken care of all of that. Or what if I happen to find my copies somewhere (I know I have at least 5 and/or 6 and 8 lying around where I can probably find them). Would it still be as easy as popping in the CD, or not? Thanks for any help.

No idea. Be aware of certain freeware when searching for a DOS Box, some freeware have "optional" downloads that have clauses in the user agreement that imply you said yes to downloading it regardless of whether or not you actually said so. Can't be too safe these days, read them when it comes to lesser known things over the internet.

GOG packages everything for you—you won't need to download DOSBox separately.

So if I decide to buy them from that site, I will be able to just download them and play them with no hassle, no matter what my current computer is like (assuming it's good enough)? That would be good.

Yup. You start the game up just like any other application.

That's one reason I love GoG.com I can play all my favorite old PC games without the hassle of extra stuff like DosBox. Just download and go.

GOG is really good about making sure you don't need to jump through hoops to play the games you purchase from them.

Awesome. Thanks everybody. I think I will still try to find my original copies of them since free is better than $20, but that seems like a great deal for 8 great games (well, at least 7 great games and 1 that I still think is fun even though it doesn't feel like King's Quest).

Not having to find out how to run them is worth GOG's price. Did this with Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) and the only thing I regret is how terrible the story becomes in the second half of the game.

I think the KQ games just work out of the box without any special setting in Dosbox. I have the KQ Collection on DVD and I could just put them in my DFend with a newer DOSbox without adjusting any special settings to play them right.

Alright, so I actually managed to find all of my King's Quest CDs. I have a collection with 1-6, and then individual discs for 5, 7, and 8. Naturally, none of them work (except maybe 8, I didn't really try that one because why start with 8?). Is there an easy way to get these to work? @SuperWiiU There is a site dosbox.com, so can I just download from there and it will both work and be safe for my computer (I would assume that site would be legit and free of spyware, but you never know)?

DOSBox is a safe and very well known piece of software, so it should be fine. Setting it up isn't the easiest thing in the world, but it's not that difficult either, and once you get it up and running playing your games becomes pretty simple. There are plenty of tutorials for it out there, and I've had some experience with it, so feel free to ask any questions here if you have any, and one of us can hopefully help.

OK thanks a lot. Yeah, I'm not that tech savvy, but hopefully I can figure it out.

You could also try SCUMMVM, although it was originally for the LucasArts point and click games it's now compatible with most of the Sierra adventure games (all King's Quest games should work with it). I love the thing, and no need to use DOS within it (although it only supports certain games, DOSBox is more powerful in that regard).

You can also use Dfend reloaded. It's a nice graphical interface for Dosbox(and comes with it included): http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

Alright so I don't know how much anybody can help without being able to see what is going on, but I downloaded Dfend reloaded like @SuperWiiU suggested because it looked good, and I still don't have a clue how to get the games to load into it. I think my biggest problem is when I put the game disc in, there are a million files on the disc and I don't know which one(s) to transfer over into DFend, especially with my collection where all 6 games are separate. The instructions at the bottom of the screen say "To add a new game just drop the archive file containing the game to the program window or copy the game to a subfolder of the games folder (see Extras|Open games folder) and add it via the wizard (Profiles|Add with wizard)." I tried these and just many new screens with instructions I did not understand and drop down lists to enter came up, so clearly I am missing something or just not capable of doing this.

Edit: Nevermind. I figured out how to import it directly from the source CD, and I got at least King's Quest 1 working, and I assume I can get the rest the same way. Thanks for all the help.