non-GOG backwards compatibility

[DarklordKyo]

I showed my girlfriend Typing of the Dead: Overkill on steam once, and she liked it enough to add it to her wishlist (partially because of the educational value). The thing is that I'm kinda iffy on her computer's ability to even run it, and, seeing as though I heard the original is a better tutor overall (with the ability to turn off all gore & make it more child friendly so her brother can use it), I want to get her the original TotD. That said, since she doesn't have a Dreamcast, that takes away the possibility of the Dreamcast version of the original (too expensive, considering I'd need the console, the game, and 1 or 2 Dreamcast keyboards). Can the PC version of the original Typing of the Dead run on a relatively modern machine?

TL;DR I want to get my girlfriend the original Typing of the Dead for her birthday, can the PC version even run on a relatively recent machine?

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Hmm. I'm sure you could find an emulator and maybe, just maybe the right files to run it(it's pretty much abandonware if you can't find anywhere to buy it legitimately). The downside is that emulators generally take some juice to run unless you're going back to the SNES era.

 

[DarklordKyo]

Hmm. I'm sure you could find an emulator and maybe, just maybe the right files to run it(it's pretty much abandonware if you can't find anywhere to buy it legitimately). The downside is that emulators generally take some juice to run unless you're going back to the SNES era.

She probably can't run an emulator past the SNES era. Besides, I want to get her the PC version, not the Dreamcast version.

 

[Frezzato]

She probably can't run an emulator past the SNES era. Besides, I want to get her the PC version, not the Dreamcast version.

I've only ever used Steam on my one desktop, but couldn't you just log into Steam on her machine and download the game? It should work as long as you're not playing anything on Steam using your own, personal machine, correct?

*EDIT* I suggest this, of course, as a means to test the game out on her machine.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

She probably can't run an emulator past the SNES era. Besides, I want to get her the PC version, not the Dreamcast version.

Unless it's a really old, slow and/or low-spec machine, it'll be able to run any console/computer emulator there is. Apart from the (three-ish) most recent generations, PCs have vastly higher performance than consoles and the computing demands are very low.

On topic, there's no reason why it won't run, though worst case it might need some tweaking. On the basis that it's unlikely to cost that much for an old title, if anything (assuming it's an abandonware ROM) it is worth trying. If not, even the new version may well work just fine with some tweaked settings. Put everything on low and try, though might be worth waiting for a sale first. If it was a DOS game, you can try DOSBox to run it, but a dreamcast emulator should also run just fine too.