Okay, so I’ve been on this HUGE nostalgia kick lately, right? And it got me thinking about all those awesome medieval PC games I used to play back in the 2000s. I wanted to dive back in, but I also wanted to, like, document the whole process. You know, for posterity, and maybe to help some other folks rediscover these gems.
The Initial Search – What Games to Play?
First thing I did was hit up my brain. What did I even remember playing? I jotted down a few names that popped into my head. Then, because my memory is, shall we say, imperfect, I did some Googling. Just simple stuff like “best medieval pc games 2000s” and “top strategy games medieval”. I went through various online game databases. Browsed forums.
I ended up with a pretty solid list. Some of the standouts were:
- Stronghold Crusader: I remembered loving the castle building and sieges in this one.
- Medieval II: Total War: Huge battles, kingdom management… I sank hours into this as a kid.
- Age of Empires II: Okay, this one’s a classic, and it technically came out in ’99, but it was HUGE in the 2000s. I counted it.
- The Settlers: Heritage of Kings: More of a city-builder, but with a cool medieval vibe.
Getting Them Running – The REAL Challenge
This is where things got… interesting. See, these games are OLD. Like, really old. Getting them to run on a modern Windows machine is not always straightforward.
First, I tried just installing them directly from the old CDs. Sometimes I was lucky, and they install. but often got errors.
My main go-to was downloading them from a website. That worked okay for a couple of games. Easy peasy, installed, and… crashed on startup. Sigh.
So, back to Google. I learned about things like:
- Compatibility Mode: Right-clicking the game’s .exe file, going to Properties, and messing with the compatibility settings. Sometimes, setting it to Windows XP or even Windows 98 did the trick.
- Community Patches: Turns out, dedicated fans have created patches to fix bugs and improve compatibility for a lot of these older games. Found some amazing stuff on fan forums.
It was a lot of trial and error. I spent a good few evenings just tweaking settings, downloading patches, and rebooting my computer. It was frustrating at times, but also kind of rewarding when I finally got a game to run smoothly.
Success! (And Some Frustration)
After all that tinkering, I managed to get most of the games on my list up and running. I’ve been happily reliving my childhood (and yelling at my computer screen when my archers miss their targets).
It wasn’t a perfect process. Some games were just too stubborn. But overall, it was a fun trip down memory lane, and I learned a TON about getting old software to work on new hardware. Definitely worth the effort!
