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(More) Netbook Gaming - Possible ideas
Doronron
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This weekend, I picked up an Asus EEE PC 1000HE netbook. It'll get used for the things netbooks are commonly used for, but I'd like to also have a couple of games installed as time wasters to replace Solitaire and Minesweeper.
After digging around way too long in my library, this is where I stand gaming-wise. It's a lot of indecision combined with a bit of frustration.
So, what other games would be good choices for netbook gaming on the go? This thing is practically screaming for some old school RPGs and turn based strategy. What similar games have you guys run on your netbooks?
After digging around way too long in my library, this is where I stand gaming-wise. It's a lot of indecision combined with a bit of frustration.
- Civ 3 - My primary choice. The Asus isn't likely to run Civ 4 all that well, so Civ 3 would've been the comprimise, if it didn't have this pesky 1024x768 fixed resolution issue. It won't launch. Internet research has pointed to a possible fix, but has shown it doesn't always work. I'll try tonight, but...
- Diablo 2 - Runs perfectly, even with mods. Downsides, however, are that I've run Diablo 2 into the ground since its release, and that it'll cause the onboard cooling fans to kick into high gear pretty quick.
- Baldur's Gate Series - Runs perfectly, from what I've read. I'm just not in the mood to pound through 40 levels of modified 2e DnD.
- Icewind Dale Series - Same as Baldur's Gate.
- Planescape: Torment - Should run fine, but that's a hell of a lot of text on a 10inch screen.
- Temple of Elemental Evil - With the Circle of Eight mod, this is a strong possibility for installation.
- Arcanum - Should run fine, but the game's animation caused me to uninstall not long after leaving the crash site. I doubt a 10inch screen's going to make combat look any sexier.
- Divine Divinity - It's a thought, but it's a tad overwhelming.
- Paradox Games - I understand EU2, Vicky, and HoI2 will run with a bit of scrolling about the screen. Not sure if the CPU would handle the stress, though.
- X-COM - It's X-Com, but I need to be in the right mood to deal with high casualty rates.
So, what other games would be good choices for netbook gaming on the go? This thing is practically screaming for some old school RPGs and turn based strategy. What similar games have you guys run on your netbooks?
Doronron on
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The following may be a sod to get working but none should have high system requirements:
Spacehulk
Spacehulk: Newer-Edition-That-Was-Released-On-3DO-And-PC
Incubation - I loved it on release and still play it on and off. I'm RUBBISH at it though. It was a sequel to the Battle Isle games.
Dungeon Keeper
Populous 3 (I'd recommend the others too but they're even more of a nightmare to get running)
Theme Hospital
Any of the early Ultima games?
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
I doubt it would work well enough to be worth playing.
Morrowind works great on netbooks with all the settings at minimum. Oblivion can run at a crawl if you use the Oldblivion mod. KOTOR's in between somewhere.
Weekend research yielded the following:
Spore runs.
WoW runs.
Thief 1/2, System Shock 2, Deus Ex - run great.
GTA3 and Vice City - run great.
Halo runs on low settings.
Age of Empires 2 runs.
Command and Conquer will run.
Conflicting reports on whether or not Rise of Nations will play, mostly revolving around RoN's resolution.
Dawn of War and its expansions run at low settings.
HoMM3, HoMM4, and HoMM5 all apparently run, as well.
I'm just rying to avoid FPS because small screens and small targets are a major pain in the ass. I've also never been a serious fan of RTS.
I have CS 1.6, Day of Defeat, and Deathmatch Classic from Steam. I also have Spectromancer, I remember someone saying it wouldn't work, but I guess they patched it because it allows a 1024x768 squished mode so it runs 800x600. I also have Guild Wars running on this.
I just downloaded Warcraft 3 + Exp. from Blizzard, but I haven't installed it yet.
For those interested, you'll need to set the screen resolution to something like 1280x1024 (anything higher than 1024x768), then add the following lines to the conquests.ini file:
KeepRes=1
Video Mode=1024
After the game has actually launched, then the resolution on the EEE can be dropped to 1024x768 compressed (the 1000HE ships with a utility for this, and there is a third party app available on the EEE PC Forums for those models that don't come with this). The game runs w/o scrolling. Better yet, after that first launch, it'll load without having to drag the resolution higher than the compressed settings. Next chance I get, I'll see if running 800x600 w/o screen scrolling is possible. Maybe test one of the better mods available?
Next thing to do is decide between Diablo 2 with the Back to Hellfire mod or a Bioware/Black Isle/Troika RPG as my second game.
I don't know if HoMM3 would be a good choice. You have to have the CD in the drive and last I checked netbooks don't have a disc drive, and I haven't found a good no-cd crack for it yet.
If we're talking HoMM3 Complete or Armageddon's Blade, there is a good fix for it...
According to the EEE PC forums, they should. Rome apparently can as well on the 1000H models, but I imagine only at the lowest settings. MTW2 or ETW, no.
Not one bit beyond downloading it to begin with, and looking stuff up on the wiki when you're inevitably confused. If you've never played, make sure to either read a tutorial or watch the [vidURL="
It's a rather overwhelming game at the start, but insanely addicting when you understand it.
I know, it's weird to say given how it looks, but trust me. I've tried to play it on a 1.5 GHz processor and every dwarf step is somewhere from 1 second to 5 seconds, and that's with very few dwarves.
Compared to my Core 2 Duo which has the dwarves zipping around.
I guess slow is better to learn on? You'd get fed up pretty quick, though.
I also like Spiderweb Software's games and they're definitely on the nonpowerhungry side of things.
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/
Spiderweb Software's game are great for any computer, I was really sad when my copy of Nethergate got scratched up. Go get some demos from the site there, they're freaking huge and even if you don't buy the full game you'll still have tons to play.
That's a bummer, I had no idea.
That's just my experience, maybe it's worth a shot. And I thought I'd heard he was improving speed somehow which is admittedly odd considering how things have gotten more complex, not less...
Off the top of my head:
system shock 2, world of goo, puzzle quest, HoMM3, audiosurf, HL1, HL2 with some major tweaking, defcon, UT99, Ut2k4, PS:T, BG1, BG2, Fallout 1 and 2, Curse of Monkey Island, Dark Forces, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, Undying, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Quake, Quake 2, NWN 1 with ndubyaconfig, Serious Sam, Worms: Armageddon. edit: how could i forget Diablo and Diablo 2
There's a pretty wide selection of games to pick from if you know what to look for. If I can get that shit running on the 701, then it shouldn't be that hard to get some more running on the better hardware.
I can confirm, DF is pretty CPU heavy, I had a 1.6 dual core laptop that would heat up and slow down quite a bit while DF is running. I couldn't imagine what the long term consequences of running on a netbook would be.
Steam, PSN, XBL, Xfire and everything else JamesDM
Seriously... get on that.
Rich Cook.
PSN ID - WildSpoon
Nah, it always confuses me when people recommend DF in threads like this. It's incredibly CPU-intensive. Which makes sense, given how much is actually happening all the time.