Classic Windows games on Windows 8

You can run the Windows XP versions of the game relatively easily, as long as you have a Windows XP installed on another machine or VM. You can just copy the game exe files over from C:\Windows\System32\. You can also copy them from the install disk, but the process is a little more complicated. Here is an article with full instructions.

To get the Windows 7 versions of the game working is even more work, involving modifying the game binaries. I am not a lawyer, and I have not read the Windows 7 and 8 licences in detail, but I am guessing this is technically violating at least the Windows 7 license, although in reality I doubt you'll attract that much attention. I found good instructions on howtogeek.com but I won't link directly here.