Hardspace Shipbreaker runs fine on Win7.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute works on win7 with a small change here

Boltgun is just a *little* fohnkeh in Windows 7. The cutscenes don't work for me but the rest of the game seems to be fine, so far.

Do you happen to have any codec packs installed? Which reminds me that some of the games I could not get running on my Windows 7 VM yet might actually be crashing over a missing codec, as I had the same bare metal installation for almost seven years before I decided to move over to Linux and make it run my games on VMs, so at some point I had almost totally forgotten the days when video players for Windows didn't come with all the codecs included.

Which distro did you choose? I'm still on Win7, but soon or later I'll have to switch too (alas).
Also, how do you run it in a VMs, did you activate it properly or with tricks? And can it use the GPU?

For the host OS I ended up using Xubuntu and I activated the first successful gaming capable Windows 7 VM over phone on each of my host computers and then created clones for offline and online gaming use.

The latest version of the guide I used for GPU / KVM passthrough can be found here: https://mathiashueber.com/passthrough-windows-11-vm-ubuntu-22-04/

It should hopefully cover most things one may need to do to get a Windows 10 or Windows 11 VM working with GPU passthrough, but for anyone who would really want to get it to work with a Windows 7 VM too, it helps to know a learn about a the few extra details below that I had to learn more or less the hard way before I finally got it working over two and half years ago:

1. OVMF (UEFI for VMs) + GPU passthrough + Windows 7 VM combination doesn't like multiple vCPU cores being assigned to the VM, you don't want to know how long that little detail eluded me before I accidentally saw it mentioned on some reddit thread...
2. SeaBIOS (BIOS for VMs) does not have that problem, but with it you can't use Intel's integrated GPUs for the host OS because for some odd reason they apparently cause a "VGA Arbitration" problem between the host and the guest, even though the guest should not have any idea about any devices that have not been exposed to it.
3. This renders most consumer grade motherboards on Intel's side totally unsuitable for the task as while there are ways to deal with lousy IOMMU groupings, you need at least two 16x long slots for two dGPUs and they better work in 8x/8x mode unless you have obtained a board from GigaByte, as all other brands can only boot the host OS from the iGPU or the GPU on the first 16x long PCI-E slot.
4. The selection can shrink even more if you would like to passthrough an entire USB controller while still retaining ports for the host OS too or if you would like to passthrough a discrete sound card to the guest.

On the other hand, if you have a Ryzen CPU with iGPU, even an ITX motherboard might work just fine for a Windows 7 VM as long as you don't plan on also passing through a PCI-E soundcard and multiple NVMe SSDs to it.

And finally, you may wish to create a bit more up to date installation media with the Intregrate7 script and install MalwareByte's Windows Firewall Control for any Windows 7 VM you still want to expose to the internet.

I could be wrong, but unlike the good old codec packs, the codecs that come with VLC may not get registered for global use in Windows, which could explain why VLC can play those cutscenes despite them not working properly within the game itself on your system.

You can try out K-Lite Codec Pack which comes in different sizes. The largest one is Mega.

https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

Thank you and.. what a mess.
(but did you pay & activate Windows or it isn't necessary?)

True. I'd just try to install ffmpeg.

Nothing compared to what it takes to get GPU passthrough working on a notebook, as you often find no information online about the dGPU's MUXed/MUXless state on any model and even if you get past that point, the GPU drivers may require you to find a way to inject battery status information to the VM or you are stuck at running the guest GPU in a failsafe mode.

Not activating a Windows VM means the same as running Windows on bare metal without activating it, although with a VM it would be a bit more easier to roll back the clock by only running clones of the VM and manipulating the date of the host rather than restoring a bare metal installation from a backup image every time the trial period runs out and then setting the BIOS date backwards before booting the OS again.

So yes, I had to activate the Windows 7 VM on each of my host computers, but once activated, there is no need to ever activate the VM again on the same system, as I clone it and run that until I encounter issues that may force me to create a new clone of the original VM.

Except it may not be enough to get Boltgun's cutscenes to run in-game, whereas a more comprehensive codec pack might include a codec that does exactly that.

Has anyone here attempted to play GOG's version of UNCHARTED™: Legacy of Thieves Collection on W7? Does it work? Thx in advance for your feedback. ;)

The Sinking City appears to run in Windows 7. It might take 30 seconds or so to load.

Dice Legacy runs fine on 7.

Have enough digitally that I know would never run on 10/11, as well as my extensive physical collection. Going to be setting up a dual boot, as there is still value in maintaining Win 7 regardless, given the compatibility issues with older titles and Win10/11 (which probably will extend to 12 too).

Hands of Necromancy works fine on W7 (unsurprising given it's a GZDoom engine game) despite claiming to "need" W10.

"Tamarak Trail" run fine on Windows 7

A good dice/card game.