What do I need to do do upgrade the wallets? I am apparently trying to load an old wallet and it needs some type of upgrade?
Do you remember which OS the wallet was created on? If so, download the binaries from the getmonero website for that same OS. Extract the binaries, go to the extracted folder and open bitmonerod (the daemon). Bitmonerod first has to sync fully before you are able to restore your wallet. If bitmonerod is fully synced (you can check this by typing "status" into bitmonerod, it should be equal to the blockheight displayed on moneroblocks.info), place the wallet.bin, wallet.bin.address.txt, and wallet.bin.keys in the same folder as bitmonerod and simplewallet are located. Subsequently, open simplewallet and type in the wallet's name. Simplewallet will automatically update you to a new version and you should be able to see your coins (and transact with them).
Link: https://getmonero.org/downloads/
Sidenote: if you need help with setting up bitmonerod and simplewallet, you can follow these guides:
https://github.com/monero-project/monero-site/blob/master/knowledge-base/user-guides/create_wallet.md
https://getmonero.org/knowledge-base/user-guides/simplewallet