A long time ago I realised that the best way to solve the problems encountered with onld games on new systems was to actualy emulate an old machine the same way you would emulate a SNES. So I looked for an emulator, and coundnt find one.
Things are better now though. 286 and early 386 games shouldn't be a problem with this:
http://dosbox.zophar.net
Anyhing that needs protected mode though wont run. To cut out the technicalities, protected mode is a method the CPU uses to try to keep programs from accidently totalling the entire system. It was introduced with the 386 and is insanely somplicated. Its also not yet emulated in dosbox. So you cant use it. If you try, youll get an error about DPMI.
Ill look for a better one tonight. There are a few linux ones out there that might be portable to windows.