Is it possible to run these games in Win 10? For that matter, how about other operating systems like Win 8.1, Win 8, Win 7, Linux, etc?

I do not know offhand, not heard of them. You would need to try. Follow some (really good in any circumstances) procedures:
Install outside of windows folders, e.g c:/mygames
Ensure directplay is enabled
Check pcgamingwiki
Which links to:
https://www.patches-scrolls.de/search/node/Heavy%20gear
For some patches

You might need to copy all the files yourself if the installer does not work. Also try running game under multiple comparability settings, e.g. For win 98 or xp etc.
One other thing, if you have a disc version and it has securom or something like that, then you will need a replacement exe (a nocd) as win 10 dropped support. Alternatively you could try running in a virtual machine.

thank you for the information. Once I get around to trying it out, I will update this thread to see if it did work. I am trying out other games as well that are not available on GOG to see if they work on Win 10.

most of these games I do not have the disc version but I am going to try to see if they work or not.

Some years old discussions:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/heavy_gear_1_2/page1

https://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/heavy_gear_ii/page1

https://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/heavy_gear_2_culling_fix/page1

So at least HG2 had a technical (Z-buffer?) issue on modern graphics cards/drivers, which might be fixable, at least on Windows 7.

Not sure if the copy protection used on HG and HG2 is compatible with Windows 10?

For Heavy Gear 2, I think a no-cd patch may be required on Windows 7 onwards (not sure about Vista).
dgVoodoo 2 solves the graphics issues and allows forcing higher resolutions.

I'll have to take another look at the original Heavy Gear sometime - last time I tried it, it had some weird speed issues.

Oh hey, I used to watch the TV series of this when I was younger. I didn't realise it had a whole history as a BattleTech rip-off. Those miniatures are pretty sweet.

I think a No-CD fix is necessary for any game with a disc check if one puts any value on their discs and optical drives.

Indeed, and in that case you should be disc imaging them in the first place so the cd never gets used again. Clonecd is a good one. Did all my cd's years back now, haven't used physical media since.

As it happens, years ago (back when I decided to play Heavy Gear on a laptop), I wanted to make a 1:1 copy of my original retail CD, as I figured it would be easier to run the game when the optical dive on the laptop wouldn't swirl all the time.

At least I didn't manage to make a working copy of it (that wouldn't need a no-CD crack, but would run using the image). I don't recall which program(s) I tried, but I recall CloneCD and some other that used to be popular back then, for making 1:1 CD image of it. I just couldn't do it, I recall I googled for how to make it but it seemed quite complicated, having to edit some sector values manually blaa blaa blaa, felt like using some freaking hex editor (maybe it even was one).

I was kinda amazed frankly, I assumed that since Heavy Gear was such an old Windows game, its copy protection should be quite simple to overcome. Apparently not quite, but then I didn't have much idea how to do it. I was assuming it would be just clicking some "make a clone image!" button and that's it.

I don't recall how I played the game then, either I used the original CD, or then I used a generic disk image of it and a noCD crack. I played it on Windows XP IIRC, on one of my retro PCs which are meant for old games that have problems with newer PCs.

As far as I know, it wasn't supposed to crack the DRM, but circumvent it. To make an exact 1:1 copy which still includes the copy-protection, but looks like the original to the system (and game).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CloneCD If your intention is to merely to make a disc image that needs a separate noCD crack, then such more advanced CD-image software (like CloneCD) shouldn't be needed.

However, I am unsure if it was CloneCD, or some other similar "optical disc authoring software" that I tried back then, maybe even several. EDIT: I think the other tool I might have tried was Alcohol, I recall it was also supposed to be able to make perfect 1:1 copies of original CD games. Anyway, maybe their use wasn't quite as simple and straightforward as I thought, and you always needed to jump through certain hoops depending what kind of copy protection was on the original CD...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_120%25

Anyway, since Windows 10 apparently refuses to run many forms of older CD copy protections, I guess making 1:1 copies (images) isn't that hot idea anymore, but you do need some kind of noCD or whatever. Which in itself is a true pain in the butt, trying to find the exact noCD for the exact version and language version of the game that you have... Quite often those noCDs have been for the initial, non-updated, version of the game.

I don’t know about CloneCD, but some other CD cloning programs didn’t detect some of the tricks that were used to make it difficult to create 1:1 copies. I finally used Alcohol something something % to image Silent Storm Sentinels good enough to launch the game properly, only to almost immediately needing to find a modified executable that supported GPUs with too much RAM and finding out that the CD-check was also removed. SSS also had a nasty ability to unmount all virtual drives during launch that luckily was incompatible with Windows 7, otherwise my image may still not have worked and I would have waited a few years more before trying again.

Near 99% of the physical editions I have bought got all of their updates cracked or the fix was a mini-image that works with all vetsions. The only exception I can name on the spot was above mentioned Silent Storm Sentinels, which got the NoCD crack for the final patch about six or seven years after release and only as an undocumented bonus feature to GPU RAM fix.

Of course not buying games before making sure that cracks were already released for them might have helped to me to avoid entirely most of the other badly ”supported” games.

...vetsions... ...damn mobile version of the forum doesn’t seem to support editing out typos...

...except apparently it does and new posts under the previous post, so I guess I learned something new today...

...OK, I am going to stop now, before I add even more typos.

Ironically I pirated the alchohol software at the time, really didn't get on with it so removed it. Ended up going with clonecd which I use to this day. Some of the old drms, starforce in particular was a real pain for any cloned image. As I say daemon had a secure rom option for securerom emulation, but it didn't work well. Hence why I have nocd patches for those games where I have the image, use the image to install then drop the image and use the patch. Or, in several hundred cases I just re-brought the game here.

Ah thanks for the info! these are very useful.

Just for curiosity I downloaded Heavy Gear from an abandonware site since I haven't played the game in ages. And the Rip worked (almost) fine, I didn't even have to change the compatibility. The videos/FMVs are not playing however and the game speed is different I think or maybe I remember it wrongly?