Playing older games on newer systems?

I really really want to play The Neverhood again. I now have xp and a much better graphics card and more RAM. I notice when I play the game the graphics are not functioning correctly. It's almost like it separates the colors too much so some areas are just blue, red and green. Is there a simple way to play older games on new machines? or do I need to invest an old machine just to play older games? thanks

 

I do not know all the ins and outs but I believe you could just install an older OS then at boot up choose which one you want. Never done it but have been told you can.

Hope it helps and good luck.

 

No do not invest in an old box, do not install an OS.

Right click on the program, hit the compatibility tab and select the OS the game was meant to play in. If it is not checked, check it and now change the OS.

 

Hey thanks! That helped alot! Awesome, maybe now I can go back and play more old games.

 

That messed up my entire save game file. Now I cannot save the game and reload it! ugh. I even deleted the files off my computer but it's now unplayable unless I play the game without stopping. ugh now I am screwed

 

a related question:
I recently updated my graffics card from 9500pro to 6600gt. Shortly after i reinstalled BF1942 to play a quick game( test drive if you will). I was suprised that gaming preformance was not improved noticably. I still got slow fram rates when large number of people were in one area.
So my question is this, shouldn't I get lights out preformance since my new card is 2 generations newer then the game( I think the bad boy card when the game was released was 9700pro). Or is it just connectin lag ( although I have cable). my processor is a little older, XP2500 , but is newer than when i first got bf1942( I cant remember if I had the xp1900 or the thunderbird 950)
any thoughts