Even with the amazing graphics and surround sound available to modern games, there are some classics that defy time.

Of course, nostalgia tends to look with rose tinted glasses. I have found that I think of the game graphics as I would expect to see them today, normally leading to disappointment when giving them another go.

There are several web sites with plenty of old games that are considered 'abandonware', that is to say the companies are not bothered that they can be downloaded for free. A website called the underdogs has a very large collection but it hasn't been updated for some time. Abandonia has regular updates.

Few old games will work without a helping hand in Windows XP or Vista. Help is at hand from the marvellous DOSBox. This creates a window running DOS that can be set up to mimic older computers. There are various utilities to give it a more friendly look including although my favourite D-Fend was sadly closed. DOSBox is open source and available for Linux and Mac.

Gamespy published a list of games they would like to see updated with modern graphics. Looking through the list, some games have already had worthy successors or updates.

One I've been playing recently is Titan Quest. There's nothing explicitly mentioned but it is very similar to Diablo. But in a good sense, as it is great fun and hasn't broken anything good about Diablo.

Sometimes the updates are enthusiast projects. I have been very impressed with the work by the Dark Forces mod for Jedi Academy. Dark Forces is one of my favourite games of all times, and was a brilliant first person shooter. It was more technically capable than Doom 2 and really felt like being in part of a Star Wars Movie. You will need to have a copy of Jedi Academy, but apart from that it is free.

Other games I think are worth a look are Carrier Command, Gods, Might and Magic II, Flashback and who could forget Elite?