Looking at the README for Red Alert specifically and the various requirements, how is it possible that these run on modern Windows?
OFC they're distributed via Steam as binaries + libs etc, but are they including these ancient versions of DirectX and the other dependencies with the downloads? Are these still compatible?
I know Windows has/had for years remarkable backwards compatibility, but that's always been a source of confusion for me.
Is there some monstrous "compatibility shim" somewhere for old DirectX APIs or something? What makes this possible?
Edit: Wait was this a re-release at some point more recently? If so, I suppose that specific question is addressed, but that still pertains to other old games. How does Half-Life (or whatever) still work? Same story?
Yes, windows provides backwards compatibility for these old DirectX versions. They are probably mapped to a newer version internally. It doesn't take that much work to pull this off.
OFC they're distributed via Steam as binaries + libs etc, but are they including these ancient versions of DirectX and the other dependencies with the downloads? Are these still compatible?
I know Windows has/had for years remarkable backwards compatibility, but that's always been a source of confusion for me.
Is there some monstrous "compatibility shim" somewhere for old DirectX APIs or something? What makes this possible?
Edit: Wait was this a re-release at some point more recently? If so, I suppose that specific question is addressed, but that still pertains to other old games. How does Half-Life (or whatever) still work? Same story?