I don't remember patching any of the versions I downloaded, and they play as I remember the patched versions playing. So Peter2, you won't be able to play vanilla, but as you say, it's getting to the point where current hardware/OS won't handle vanilla anyway.And there's a generally a reason for the patches!
You can definitely play locally - GOG does have a client, but I don't know if you *can* even play the MM games on the client: there's no co-op options, and they are too old for anyone to have bothered making "achievements" etc for them, which would be the only other reason to play via client (Ubisoft with MMX is an entirely different story, however)
