It really isn't that difficult. Most Windows installations actually come preinstalled with Hyper-V virtual machine environment, you just need to configure it. There are lots of step-by-step guides online on "How to Install Windows 7 in Hyper-V". The hardest part is actually finding an installation image of an earlier OS, be it Windows 7 or XP, assuming you don't have an old installation disk lying around.
All-in-all, it doesn't take longer than a few hours even if you have to start from zero, but as the reward you will get to play the original game so you can compare everything side-by-side. I imagine doing so will be a huge help in ensuring feature and gameplay parity :)
And now that another user has seemingly verified my theory and personally assured that this method will indeed work, I seriously recommend you to look into it. If you need any help - feel free to reach out to either of us. Sounds like @wyrd-agyo knows about this even more than I do, but I'll be happy to help in the process too! Heck, I may actually install Win 7 just to play the original soon, I think I already have Linux VM installed, so it shouldn't be difficult to override it or add another one :P