Do you game on your laptop?

[Generic Eric]

I was given a laptop for christmas.  After I set up chrome and all of my bookmarks, the first thing I thought of was "can I play games on this?"

Is that normal?  What are realistic expectations out of a laptop?  How much do you have to spend to play games decently?  I've been told the graphics chip is what is holding things back. 

I have played Portal on it, Super Meat boy won't launch, MAME is next.

[SavannahLion]

I go through cycles when it comes to what I game on. Right now I'm in my console and EVO phase so the answer to that would be, NO.

If you asked me that five years ago, the answer would have been yes.

I never really liked gaming on my laptop other than casual crap. The problem is that if I'm with my laptop, I'm not usually in a position to get comfortable for any reasonable gaming session or worse, I'm mobile and I don't want to chew the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of my (now dead) battery.

If it's any indication on how my current laptop performs. It can run Half-Life 2 reasonably well but it does stutter on some intense sequences and definitely chokes on the "video" portions. The sequences with the G-Man is the worst with the most stuttering and complete stalls. Enough that I get disgusted and quit playing.

MAME plays OK, but I don't generally use my laptop for playing MAME except for testing configurations.

[Mikezilla]

I just recently got a laptop, and I fool around with it on my downtime at work. I installed Diablo 2, because I never got a chance to play it when it came out. I dont have wifi here(the building sucks) so Im limited to stuff that doesnt need the internet. Works fine for me. Im thinking about getting MAME on this thing when I get home, or some sort of emulator. SNES maybe, so I get in on some RPG action!

[missioncontrol]

I replaced my desktop with a laptop last Christmas and game on it every Friday night. Our current flavor of games right now is Blur and Split/Second. Both of which play fine. The other games we play are older and not so graphic intensive.

[knave]

I replaced my desktop with a laptop last Christmas and game on it every Friday night. Our current flavor of games right now is Blur and Split/Second. Both of which play fine. The other games we play are older and not so graphic intensive.

Me too. I was surprised how comfortable I am gaming on the couch or in bed. Got to use a wireless mouse but it's great. I play alot of the steam indie games and Left for dead ocassionally. Eufloria, Zombie driver, Torchlight, And recently Company of hero online.

Your Laptop should play most non hardcore games just fine. If you can play portal, Meat boy probably just needs a new flavor of direct x or some other plugin. I suppose that your Laptop's GPU doesn't support the shaders. 

Super meat boy requirements.
System Requirements OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP / Vista / 7
Processor: 1.2GHz processor
Memory: 256 MB RAM
Graphics: Graphics Card that supports Pixel Shader 2.0 and Vertex Shader 2.0(Vertex Shader Support can be supported with software emulation)
DirectX®: DirectX® 9.0c
Hard Drive: 300 MB

[Generic Eric]

MAME was delayed by snow in the driveway this AM, so I'll check that out now.


About Super Meat Boy: 
Steam downloaded directx and something else, but as soon as I launch Super meat boy, it kicks right back to the desktop.  I've posted on other forums and I'm told the intel graphics chip doesn't support many games.

[Generic Eric]

MAME works. Until I finished Portal last month, thats pretty much all I played anyway.

[popsicle]

I pretty much exclusively play Master of Orion on my laptop through dosbox.   

[Mikezilla]

I pretty much exclusively play Master of Orion on my laptop through dosbox.   

Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- Master of Orion is still around!? I used to love that game. That and XCOM UFO Defense were my favorites. Is that around somewhere too?

[knave]

You bet, in fact some time ago they released a windows updated version that allowed it to run better on modern PC's. There's always the freeware version too.

...And they are developing a Xcom Themed 1950's FPS...that actually looks pretty fun.

[hypernova]

the first thing I thought of was "can I play games on this?"

Is that normal?

Frankly, considering what forum you're posting on, I'd be concerned if that WASN'T your first thought.

[SavannahLion]

the first thing I thought of was "can I play games on this?"

Is that normal?

Frankly, considering what forum you're posting on, I'd be concerned if that WASN'T your first thought.

You mean people actually buy PC's and not play games on them?   

That's just wrong.

[Mikezilla]

You bet, in fact some time ago they released a windows updated version that allowed it to run better on modern PC's. There's always the freeware version too.

...And they are developing a Xcom Themed 1950's FPS...that actually looks pretty fun.

Where can I get this! Im not doing ANYTHING at work today, and Im sick of playing Diablo 2 (no internet connection), and I would LOVE to play me some Xcom!

[Malenko]

www.retrouprising.com


i play on my laptop all the time, seems a waste to not make the i5 processor do some work!

[Mikezilla]

www.retrouprising.com


i play on my laptop all the time, seems a waste to not make the i5 processor do some work!

Does that need internet in order to work!?!? Please GOD say no!!! 

[Generic Eric]

You bet, in fact some time ago they released a windows updated version that allowed it to run better on modern PC's. There's always the freeware version too.

...And they are developing a Xcom Themed 1950's FPS...that actually looks pretty fun.

Where can I get this! Im not doing ANYTHING at work today, and Im sick of playing Diablo 2 (no internet connection), and I would LOVE to play me some Xcom!

http://www.homeoftheunderdogs.net/search.php?search_game=x-com  there are 4 X-com games there. 

[Malenko]

www.retrouprising.com


i play on my laptop all the time, seems a waste to not make the i5 processor do some work!

Does that need internet in order to work!?!? Please GOD say no!!! 

sry, it does   I skimmed past the "no internet" part and just saw diablo II my bad.

[knave]

In case you havn't already found it the most recent version is on "steam" for $4.99. so you should be able to play in "offline mode".
This version has been optimized to run on modern PC's.

You can find an older version on some abandonware sites for free but its status as abandonware is contested. (plus it might take some fiddling to run)

[Mikezilla]

Thanks Knave, I checked it out, it was on sale for 1.69 so I bought that and I am playing it. That game is awesome. REALLY frustrating at times, but man, its great. Way ahead of its time. Too bad the other ones suck.

[Samstag]

The best place to get Master of Orion is at Good Ol' Games.  They wrap it up with a dosbox emulator that will work on pretty much any PC with no fiddling around with settings.

And I think that's the only place to get a legal version.

[popsicle]

abandonia is a great place for old dos games (it seems MOO is no longer available there for download, sadly).

If you haven't played Death Rally, you're missing out!  http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/28518/Death+Rally.html

[DillonFoulds]

smastag beat me to it, but Good ol' Games is an awesome site for retro PC gaming!