10 Awesome Games You Can Play with Your Old Laptop
June 11, 2009 at 06:06:49 AM, by Gilberto J. Perera
Netbooks and old laptops usually have a hard time running modern games, but don't forget that there are plenty of great classics that will run smoothly even on an aging laptop.
I write this article and gear it towards old laptops, but you will soon find out that based on the specs required by the games listed below; a netbook could easily run most of these games.
Talk about the ultimate portable gaming machine. The word old can be quite subjective depending on the number of years you’ve been around computers, so for the purpose of this article and my familiarity with video games and laptops, we’ll use my age as a reference. I was 18 when I bought my first laptop 7 years ago and up until then all I could barely afford was a desktop, so laptops that are about 6-8 years old will be used as a benchmark.
So what did a 2000-2002 model laptop look like? Let’s start with specs, the typical laptop sold during 2000 though 2002 had the following specs;
- The fastest mobile processor was Intel’s Pentium III running at a ‘blazing’ 850MHz with a single core. In September 2002 Intel released Pentium III – M running at 1.33GHz (single core).
- The average computer had between 32-256MB of RAM
- The Radeon line of graphics cards was introduced the same year
- Microsoft was working on Windows XP for release the following year and Millennium Edition was the standard operating system that shipped with new computers. Windows 98 and 2000 were also used.
Again I’m using my age and experience with laptops to create a reference and determine what an old laptop is, so if you’ve been around computers for as long as I am old, then you might reference some really interesting DOS games and you’re welcome to post them as suggestions below.
The criteria for choosing the games in this list were partly driven by the games success and popularity. After sifting through numerous lists that proclaimed the greatest games of all time, I narrowed the list further to include games that ran nicely with the specs listed above. Again if you have any suggestions add them below.
1. Civilization II (1996) - One of my favorite game series, Sid Meier’s Civilization takes you back to the ancient times to build your own civilization. It is a turn based game and one of the best in its genre. It is a single player game and it is the first time that it is viewed in 3D, the previous version was a 2D environment. The game has very low system requirements and should run nicely on any Windows PC.
2. Doom (1993) – Another one of my favorites. This is a great first person program that will run incredibly fast on any modern computer. I still load it up once in a while just to play with the chainsaw.
3. Pirates! (1987) – It’s old, but it’s a great game. Just make sure you have the manual laying around so that you can actually play the game.
4. StarCraft (1998) – We can’t list great strategy games without listing one of the greatest sci-fi real-time strategy games, StarCraft. I remember playing this game in high school…those were the days.
5. Quake II (1997) – This game got me in trouble when I was in high school. As the assistant to the school’s IT administrator I had Admin access on all computers. Needless to say I installed Quake on a couple (10) computers in the computer lab and had some of the most exciting multiplayer experiences ever…until we all got caught. Luckily I remained the assistant to the admin after that.
Great thing about this game is that if you get bored you can run over to PlanetQuake and download new maps or mods and start all over again.
6. Half-Life (1998) – The first time I ever played this game I knew that it was going to be a hit. I loved this game as I did the sequel. This games has the highest requirements of all those listed here, specifically the video card so make sure that you have at least a 16MB video card on your laptop.
7. The Sims (2000) – This is such an entertaining game, you could spend hours and hours playing this game. It’s a great game to let out the alter ego. One of the things that drove me nuts was trying to stay awake to maximize my time. I would drink coffee to be able to stay up longer, but then I had to go to the bathroom all the time, it drove me nuts.
8. Diablo II (2000) – Don’t worry, I didn’t forget one of the greatest and most addicting hack and slash games of all time. Need I say more? Boy did I hate those shamans.
9. Thief: The Dark Project (1998) – I love these sneaky games, there’s nothing more exhilarating than trying to make sure that you’re not seen when attempting to approach someone. This game capture this emotion quite well as did others that followed, subsequent Thief versions, Hit Man, and Assassins Creed.
10. Command & Conquer Series (1995-2000) – Every one of these games was simply amazing. I loved to tank rush against the soviets…so much fun and Tiberian Sun was simply amazing. The Red Alert series was also great. Like I said you can’t go wrong with this strategy game.
The great thing about some of these games is that you can legally download them for free from developers and authorized websites. If you think of any other games that should be listed here please post them below.
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Comments
Justin Frelin at 09:43, September 29, 2009
that is pretty cool and i am definitely gonna do that
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Fritz at 10:53, June 20, 2009
Very nice list, thank you! I have an older laptop that I still use and am very grateful for such compilations... a few games that I like... X Operations (FPS) http://www.xoperations.freehostia.com Liero and LieroX (google them) Hidden and Dangerous Deluxe (google it) All are free to download. Happy gaming!