GatorDeb

What are some great PC games from past generations that will run on most non-gaming machines out there today? Not talking 386, talking something like AMD Sempron 2 GHz with integrated graphics.

Brian Shannon

What kind of games do you like? Role Play, Strategy, FPS, MMORPG?

matome

Worms!

GatorDeb

All Especially those with cheat patches since I suck at games (but love playing them).

Brian Shannon

Well then I will list some that I have played and liked

Age of Empires RTS
Half-Life FPS
Unreal FPS
Dark Age of Camelot MMORPG
Starcraft RTS
Command and Conquer RTS

Groucho

You should give one of the Civilization games a try. From your specs, Civilization 3 would run fine on your box. Another good game along the same lines is Alpha Centauri (many prefer it to the Civ games).

DodgingCars

Starcraft
Warcraft II
Warcraft III
Diablo
Diablo II
Half-Life
Command & Conquer
Empire Earth

yeah.. I used to work for Vivendi (owns Blizzard/Sierra)

taffer

With an integrated graphics chip, you are not going to be able to play any 3D game released in the last 3-4 years. Integrated chips lack advanced features like pixel shaders that these games require.

Here are some older games that I enjoy:

RTS:

Warcraft 2 and 3 (not sure if Warcraft 3 will run on integrated chip though, you might want to download the demo to find out)

Starcraft

Age of Empires series (AoE3 will NOT run on integrated chip)

Command & Conquer series


FPS:

Half-life (the sequel will probably not run on integrated chip)

Doom 1, 2 and Final Doom (Doom 3 is a no go on integrated)

No One Lives Forever 1 & 2 (my favorite FPS games of all time, they are humorous 1960s spy games similar to Austin Powers but without all the sexual jokes although there a few)

Deus Ex (this is a FPS/RPG hybrid, and it is my second favorite FPS after NOLF)

Max Payne 1 & 2 (technically these are third-person shooters)

Thief series (technically they are first-person stealth games, but they blow all other stealth games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear out of the water)

Rainbow Six series (the latest one Rainbow Six: Vegas definitely will not run on an integrated chip. These games may be a little too "hardcore" for the "casual" gamer though as it takes the one-hit=kill very seriously)


RPG:

Diablo series

Baldur's Gate series (these are hardcore D&D rpgs so unless you are familiar with D&D they may have a steep learning curve)


Sim/Strategy:

Rollercoaster Tycoon (building your own theme park and custom rollercoasters is awesome)

Theme Hospital (a humorous hospital building sim. All the diseases are fictional. Bloaty Head is a disease that cause your head to swell up and the doctor cures it by popping it like a balloon and reinflating it. King Complex is a disease where you think you are Elvis and dress up and act like him. A psychiatrist cures you by telling you how stupid you look. Hairyitis is a disease in the game. The game is full of humor like this.)

Heroes of Might and Magic 2 & 3 (Avoid #4 as it was pure crap and #5 is brand new so it won't run on integrated chips. These are turn based strategy games with dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, etc.)

GatorDeb

Will a $100 graphics card let me play most games released in the last 3-4 years?

Mikey

I imagine that you could play some great 3D games from a few years ago.

Some great titles include:

Tron 2.0 - a first person shooter, and a sequel to the 1982 Disney film.
Anachronox - A action/adventure/RPG set in a sci fi world.
Star Wars Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy - great action game that uses force powers.
Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 - Some of the greatest RPG's of all time.
Homeworld - A real time strategy game that is difficult but rewarding.
Armed and Dangerous - a quirky, funny action game.
Thief 1 and 2- rewarding first person game where you must steal items. Can be very scary!
Deus Ex Machina - A first person/RPG known for its impressive gameplay and story.

All of these games are HIGHLY recommended.
Finally, don't neglect the program called DosBox. This program enables you to play Dos games in XP, so you essentially play games that run the gamut of 386 to 2ghz.

Groucho

Yes, but you'll be spending a lot of time adjusting the settings to get them to work right.

For $100, you're better off buying ten $10 games (almost everything listed in this thread can be gotten at that price or better).

Might I suggest you check out GameTap? It has a large selection of classic games (on multiple platforms going back to Atari 2600), including many of the games mentioned here. They offer a free trial, and after that it's a subscription service. But it's perfect for somebody who wants to play a lot of older games on their PC. IMHO.

taffer

Yes. I just looked on newegg and they have Geforce 6800 cards for about $100. Those cards will run any game decently, although the newest games might chug a little bit.

One problem I see with buying a new card though: what are the rest of your PC specs? If you have an old crappy PC, then that will bottleneck your card. It would be like putting an awesome Ferrari engine into a Ford P.O.S.

taffer

The title is just "Deus Ex" although yes it does come from the term deus ex machina.

GatorDeb

AMD Sempron 3300+ 2 GHz, 1g+256m memory, plenty of HD space.

taffer

That isn't bad. With a Geforce 6800 card, it should play new games on lowish-medium settings.

GatorDeb

Someone said they were playing Oblivion with that $95 GEForce 6800 card Ok so with a GEForce 6800 128 meg card, what are some good games?

I can count on one hand the games that I've spent 100+ hours on (Advance Wars 1, FFTA, Mario World GBA, Denki Blocks), so I'm giving Gametap a try. $1 first month trial. About to fire it up.

slop101

Grim Fandango

C-Mart

Can you add a graphics card to a machine that has integrated graphics? I was under the impression that you could not.

Mikey

Oops! Sorry, I was thinking of the phrase as I typed it out, but I didn't mean to include the extra word, machina.

Eelkram

As long as you have the appropriate slot available(PCIE,AGP,etc), you can.

Mikey

I forgot to add:
Star Wars KOTOR 1 and 2 if you can play them
Neverwinter Nights 1
The first 2 Splinter Cell games might work as well (similar stealth style as Thief but set in current times)

murray731

Depends on the machine. The Acer I bought a while back had a PCI-E slot and you could disable the onboard graphics. However, I imagine that would be an exception to the rule and most store bought PCs would not have a PCI-E/AGP slot unless the specs specifically stated so.

Jake77444

If you have a PCI-E slot, your better off with a 7600GT, its a great card for the money....its about $110 after $20 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130073

JasonF

Seconded. A lot of the games that have been mentioned (Baldur's Gate series, Worms, Deus Ex series, Command & Conquer series, Heroes of Might & Magic series) are available throught GameTap. I'm currently playing Beyond Good & Evil on GameTap and loving it.

Mikey

Gametap is a great way to play many classic Sierra adventure titles such as the King's Quest games. You could also play the new Sam and Max episodes through this service.