I have this and I have this to say about it....... PC version is smoother looking than the PSX version, period. The graphics just look better. Theres no copy protection on the game per-say. As far as I remember you DO need the disc in the drive, be it real or a virtual drive. I think it requires some files that remain on the disc even with a full install. If the game is blocky looking, play the damn PSX version if you can't remember how blocky that was. Compared to todays games (And MGS2) it's VERY blocky, Snake doesn't have a face FFS....just a blur really. It should still look crisper and smoother however. Having a newer machine is irellevant, even my PC is far beyond the minimum requirements for this game. This isn't a DOS game we're talking about, where the HAL is an issue.