: It is true that each GPU, including licenced clones, need specific drivers
: and firmware upgrades to work with all types and ages of games. Being an
: old game does not make it immune to incompatibilities.

: Playing old stuff may be a cool thing to say these days (lots of people say
: it) but it won't cut it in the long run. Eventually the new shiny stuff is
: all that will be of interest. I can't actually speak for you or guarantee
: you'll not be happy going retro. I know I wouldn't be happy. I'd probably
: give up gaming altogether.

PCs aren't as expensive as they once were. An eight hundred dollar laptop can run Skyrim at or near maximum settings. The days of "oh shit I just got this graphics card and now it's obsolete" are gone; we've hit a plateau. That's why MS did what they did with the Xbox One: they saw that improved hardware would only marginally enhance the device and sought to expand its capabilities.

You get a decent PC now, it's going to last you for five or six years at the very least (more with incremental upgrades), and you won't have any problems playing the latest games. Part of that is because a lot of big titles are multi-platform and so none of them can be terribly intense, part of that is the stuff I just described.