Silent Storm 2 and 3 play well at lower/medium graphics settings on my lowly Lenovo S-10 with 2 gigs of ram and Win XP, Jagged Alliance as well but that has already been mentioned.
So I'm planning on getting a netbook and have an external CD/DVD drive for installing things (namely Baldur's Gate II and Civ III) but do not know of a reliable/trustworthy site for no cd cracks: is that something we can discuss here?
All kinds of netbook goodness on sale on steam right now. World of Goo, Braid, Deus Ex, Civ 3, all sorts of adventure games, KotOR's on sale again, HoMM 5, the early-ish Prince of Persia games, a lot of other games already mentioned. I also like Crayon Physics and Aquaria, but only if you have a mouse.
GoG's got a sale too with other games- HoMM3, Fallout 1+2, Freespace. Duke Nukem MP is on sale and is a pretty fun side scroller that runs fine (except for widescreen).
Does anyone know if Rome: Total War will run? The requirements look fine, but the screenshots don't look like something I'd normally be able to run. For $2.50 it's at least worth a try if no one knows. What about Gothic 2?
edit-
Darlan- this isn't the most space efficient way to go about it, but you can rip an iso image and keep it on your netbook, then mount it using something like this.
Deus ex runs very well but if anyone can find a widescreen patch they are a better man than I. I played the whole thing bordered at near max detail. Fantastic.
Deus ex runs very well but if anyone can find a widescreen patch they are a better man than I. I played the whole thing bordered at near max detail. Fantastic.
Deus ex runs very well but if anyone can find a widescreen patch they are a better man than I. I played the whole thing bordered at near max detail. Fantastic.
Considering that Defense Grid is $2.49 for another 39 hours on Steam, it works well enough on a netbook to justify the cup of coffee price.
If you have a ION netbook then perhaps, but with a minimum requirement of a 1.8Ghz CPU I'm not quite sure. What I am sure of however, is that it most certainly isn't playable at all on a N280, 2 GB RAM, Intel GMA 950 netbook. It runs at about 4 fps (and down) on low details at 640x480.
OK, I've been busy with typical family Christmas stuff, but I'm going to update the list in the next couple of days.
I should point out that ION equipped netbooks are much less common than their 3d-chip challenged brethren, so I'm not crazy about listing those games. Personally, I think if you're going to spend that much, you may as well buy a decent laptop, but that's my 2 cents.
I'm still having trouble getting Torchlight playable on my Eee PC (1005HA 1GB RAM). It may have something to do with power modes, but I've tried every in-game setting including the painful to look at 640x400 resolution.
I also tried Gratuitous Space Battles due to the basement price on Steam yesterday. It threw an error at startup about not being able to start the 3D engine.
For shame, I searched this thread and nobody has mentioned Gog.com yet? It is especially important to note that they are having a huge holiday sale on most games.
For shame, I searched this thread and nobody has mentioned Gog.com yet? It is especially important to note that they are having a huge holiday sale on most games.
If only it had been mentioned in the OP, under the second spoiler. Oh, if only...
For shame, I searched this thread and nobody has mentioned Gog.com yet? It is especially important to note that they are having a huge holiday sale on most games.
If only it had been mentioned in the OP, under the second spoiler. Oh, if only...
Ha, thanks for the correction. Gog.com didn't come up in a search, and I didn't think of searching for the full name. But hey, there's a sale! :P
I'm still having trouble getting Torchlight playable on my Eee PC (1005HA 1GB RAM). It may have something to do with power modes, but I've tried every in-game setting including the painful to look at 640x400 resolution.
If you read their support forum, you'll see that you're not the only one in this situation. Everyone with performance issues, whether they're on a netbook or laptop or desktop, aren't seeing any difference in performance when they adjust settings like these. Setting all the details to low, the resolution, using the low-res texture mod, etc, no change in framerate. I think there's something screwy in the code, but they haven't acknowledged anything, and since the first patch came out they've really cut back on the developer communication so I don't know if they're looking at it.
OK, I've been busy with typical family Christmas stuff, but I'm going to update the list in the next couple of days.
I should point out that ION equipped netbooks are much less common than their 3d-chip challenged brethren, so I'm not crazy about listing those games. Personally, I think if you're going to spend that much, you may as well buy a decent laptop, but that's my 2 cents.
I'm still having trouble getting Torchlight playable on my Eee PC (1005HA 1GB RAM). It may have something to do with power modes, but I've tried every in-game setting including the painful to look at 640x400 resolution.
I also tried Gratuitous Space Battles due to the basement price on Steam yesterday. It threw an error at startup about not being able to start the 3D engine.
I also have a 1005, only with 2GB RAM (running Win7 Pro) and the game isn't anywhere close to being playable no matter how low I drop the settings.
I wonder if it's possible to run GOG games on Linux. Hmm...
edit: Yes, it is. Specially for games that use dosbox, you just need to use wine for the installer itself but then you're free to use dosbox for the game itself. Sweet. I guess I'll be playing Fallout and Duke Nukem 3D on my EeePC. I might even try Rise of the Triad...
Hey, a question: What would you fine folks suggest as a good gamepad for a netbook? Something nice and compact, as opposed to a big bulky thing that wouldn't fit well with the tiny awesome device.
So that list of games has made me go (!) in my head.
1. One hour train comute each way to work
2. Complete Baldur's Gate (I+II) collection on CD
3. ???
4. Profit!
given I don't have a USB CD drive how do I get them on my netbook? Is the obvious idea of installing to a SD card going to work or are there going to be issues about having the CD in the drive to play?
Warzone 2100 is a pretty rad game that's open source now and ought to run on netbooks. It can't hurt to try at any rate, it's not a very demanding game.
So that list of games has made me go (!) in my head.
1. One hour train comute each way to work
2. Complete Baldur's Gate (I+II) collection on CD
3. ???
4. Profit!
given I don't have a USB CD drive how do I get them on my netbook? Is the obvious idea of installing to a SD card going to work or are there going to be issues about having the CD in the drive to play?
You'll probably run into cd check errors unless you do some shady business.
The solution I used for most of my games had to do with PowerISO and a virtual cd drive.
Fuck yeah! I bought a netbook this morning (a Toshiba mini with an N280 Atom) and can finally consider looking at PC games again. I haven't had a Windows machine to call my own in about 4 years, so I can have something to play my old copy of Grim Fandango again!
If I have a wired 360 controller, will I be able to use that with no worries? Alternatively I might still have a PS2 to USB converter.
I have an old USB>Gamecube adapter that I've been able to consistently use on any operating system. The worst case scenario is that I have to map the buttons, but that's not a huge deal -- there's remapping software that's widely available nowadays.
For the OP, perhaps a good addition would be to put a viable source for the older games right next to them? I mean, I've got Planescape:Torment on CD, but that's not gonna do me a lot of good for a Netbook. I've also got The Longest Journey on CD, but that's available on Steam so that's a good source (Incidentally I would be surprised if The Longest Journey didn't run, given the laughably low requirements it has).
Might save people from hunting through a particular store, at least.
argh. civ4 should run, but it wants a minimum of 1024 x 768.
my netbook (the Asus 1005HA) is only 1024x600 so it pukes at the onset.
I've got a 1005HA; you can set it to 1024x768. Fn+F4 will change the resolution. You'll have to scroll up and down to see the full screen, but it works.
Oh god. 24 hours into my netbook purchase, I'm quickly remembering why I pretty much abandoned PC gaming years ago. I installed Steam and have been dicking around with demos, and I know that my machine isn't a powerhouse but little things like DirectX problems and resolution settings are building up all over again. I tried the demo for Time Gentlemen, Please! which looked like it should run with no problems, but it wouldn't even launch due to some kind of Direct3D problem. I'm new to Steam, so I'll have to figure out exactly where my problem lies, but I'm weak so this is why I went to consoles ages ago. :P
Machinarium runs great since it's Flash, but I can't seem to access the menu at the bottom of the screen. My resolution is 1024 x 600, is there a way to force it into a smaller window or out of fullscreen?
EDIT: Huh, the non-Steam Ben There, Dan That works fine on my machine.
If I have a wired 360 controller, will I be able to use that with no worries?
Yes, works like a charm. As an aside, you can use stuff like Joy2Key (free, clumsy) or Xpadder (cheap, lovely) to use it even with games that don't support gamepads.
[edit] You shouldn't really be having DirectX problems at all, low resolution and CPU speed don't cause those. Have you fully updated your system?
Small KotOR update. I ran into some problems when I hit the undercity on the first planet. I needed to turn the grass off, and maybe tweak some other settings, but I'm pretty sure it was just turning the grass off.
So I went to gog and found out that not only they have all Tex Murphy games there they are 50% off until tomorrow! You can get all 5 games for 18 bucks! I´ll just have to see how they will run since I can´t get Pandora Directive to run with sound since I had a Pentium 3.
I highly recommend these games, I still think that Pandora Directive was if not the best adventure game I ever played the best experience I had with a game. Oh the joy of being 15 and exploring Area 51 for the first time and almost shitting my pants more than once, its the only game I ever had to turn off for being so scared...
Posts
GoG's got a sale too with other games- HoMM3, Fallout 1+2, Freespace. Duke Nukem MP is on sale and is a pretty fun side scroller that runs fine (except for widescreen).
Does anyone know if Rome: Total War will run? The requirements look fine, but the screenshots don't look like something I'd normally be able to run. For $2.50 it's at least worth a try if no one knows. What about Gothic 2?
edit-
Darlan- this isn't the most space efficient way to go about it, but you can rip an iso image and keep it on your netbook, then mount it using something like this.
I look here first for widescreen fixes. http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Deus Ex - http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Deus_Ex
Oh no. Now I will have to play through again. What a terrible predicament.
I should point out that ION equipped netbooks are much less common than their 3d-chip challenged brethren, so I'm not crazy about listing those games. Personally, I think if you're going to spend that much, you may as well buy a decent laptop, but that's my 2 cents.
I'm still having trouble getting Torchlight playable on my Eee PC (1005HA 1GB RAM). It may have something to do with power modes, but I've tried every in-game setting including the painful to look at 640x400 resolution.
I also tried Gratuitous Space Battles due to the basement price on Steam yesterday. It threw an error at startup about not being able to start the 3D engine.
If only it had been mentioned in the OP, under the second spoiler. Oh, if only...
Ha, thanks for the correction. Gog.com didn't come up in a search, and I didn't think of searching for the full name. But hey, there's a sale! :P
If you read their support forum, you'll see that you're not the only one in this situation. Everyone with performance issues, whether they're on a netbook or laptop or desktop, aren't seeing any difference in performance when they adjust settings like these. Setting all the details to low, the resolution, using the low-res texture mod, etc, no change in framerate. I think there's something screwy in the code, but they haven't acknowledged anything, and since the first patch came out they've really cut back on the developer communication so I don't know if they're looking at it.
If you use EDuke32, it'll run flawlessly with all your widescreen resmolutions and what have you.
edit: Yes, it is. Specially for games that use dosbox, you just need to use wine for the installer itself but then you're free to use dosbox for the game itself. Sweet. I guess I'll be playing Fallout and Duke Nukem 3D on my EeePC. I might even try Rise of the Triad...
also, Jagged Alliance 2 v1.13
I haven't read it thoroughly but it looks like a good first place to look for a list of games that are netbook compatible.
my netbook (the Asus 1005HA) is only 1024x600 so it pukes at the onset.
Honestly you should do it even if you have a high-end rig.
You need to set it to windowed mode then just maximize it. It'll distort the image, but it's still playable.
1. One hour train comute each way to work
2. Complete Baldur's Gate (I+II) collection on CD
3. ???
4. Profit!
given I don't have a USB CD drive how do I get them on my netbook? Is the obvious idea of installing to a SD card going to work or are there going to be issues about having the CD in the drive to play?
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
You'll probably run into cd check errors unless you do some shady business.
The solution I used for most of my games had to do with PowerISO and a virtual cd drive.
If I have a wired 360 controller, will I be able to use that with no worries? Alternatively I might still have a PS2 to USB converter.
For the OP, perhaps a good addition would be to put a viable source for the older games right next to them? I mean, I've got Planescape:Torment on CD, but that's not gonna do me a lot of good for a Netbook. I've also got The Longest Journey on CD, but that's available on Steam so that's a good source (Incidentally I would be surprised if The Longest Journey didn't run, given the laughably low requirements it has).
Might save people from hunting through a particular store, at least.
I've got a 1005HA; you can set it to 1024x768. Fn+F4 will change the resolution. You'll have to scroll up and down to see the full screen, but it works.
Machinarium runs great since it's Flash, but I can't seem to access the menu at the bottom of the screen. My resolution is 1024 x 600, is there a way to force it into a smaller window or out of fullscreen?
EDIT: Huh, the non-Steam Ben There, Dan That works fine on my machine.
[edit] You shouldn't really be having DirectX problems at all, low resolution and CPU speed don't cause those. Have you fully updated your system?
http://swforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=441902&forum=80
http://swforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=434717&forum=80
I highly recommend these games, I still think that Pandora Directive was if not the best adventure game I ever played the best experience I had with a game. Oh the joy of being 15 and exploring Area 51 for the first time and almost shitting my pants more than once, its the only game I ever had to turn off for being so scared...
PSN - sumowot
Runs at 1024x600!
Let the time-wastage begin.