Best games for use with a TOUCHPAD?

I'm wondering if anyone has a comprehensive list of games that play well with a trackpad. Personally I'm looking for fairly simple games, ones that might work well on a netbook, but any would be nice to add to this list. I'm sure turn based strategy games work well with them. Here's a few I'm considering.

- Sins of a Solar Empire, I think its slow enough you should be able to
- Civlization games, all of them
- Mayhem Intergalactic, simple turn based
- Worms Reloaded
- Panzer General 2
- Pinball games (good ones??)
- Trackmania United

Well, at least its a start.

 

Good topic, I'm interested as well.

It would be neat if there were an iPhone emulator to play apps on multi-touch touchpads...

 

I play Civ 4 on my laptop occasionally (using the trackpad). Works fine although Civ 4 will bring any netbook to its knees. Older RTS games like Age of Empires are great though. SF4 is another one that just uses the keyboard.

 

Any RTS games are just too hard to micro with a trackpad, unless its something like Sins of a solar empire where things move at molasses time, lol.

 

Depends if you're playing online or casually against the computer I find the older AoE game slow enough to use my trackpad for, but for fast paced games like StarCraft, I can see how that wouldn't be sufficient.

 

none.. i can't play any game using a trackpad.. i always need a mouse... but easiest game with trackpad should be runescape.

 

Oh, forgot about TrackMania United, no mouse required except for getting around the menus, even there I think you can use tab or arrow keys.

 

Is that the 2D scrolling motocross game? I remember playing a demo of it (assuming that's it) on my laptop - fun, simple game.

 

Rollercoaster Tycoon. Only the first one and the expansions though, 2 and 3 are for scrubs.

 

no its a 3D car racing game. use the keyboard arrow keys. Fast tracks, damn near impossible to achieve gold time on some of them.

 

Games I enjoy on the go on battery and playing with no mouse: Braid, Defcon, Defense Grid (only annoying part is can't zoom in/out as easy as with a mouse), Eversion, Gravitron 2, Monster Trucks Nitro, Trials 2, Shatter, Uplink, and Zombie Driver... These are the simpler ones. I actually enjoy most racing games with the keyboard though as well... Dirt, Grid, NFS Shift all play great in my opinion with just a keyboard, but are more enjoyable with a controller.

To me the best setup is a gamepad (360) and a laptop... awesome gaming anywhere!

 

Oh ok, I tried searching for the game I was thinking of but I can't remember the name There are tons of free flash games online like it though - called Dirt Bike or something like that.

 

One more that is actually quite enjoyable with just a mouse is X-plane/FSX... as a hardcore flight sim fan I know this is total blasphemy, but they both have decent mouse/trackpad control modes, and in basic flying, navigating, managing systems, dodging weather, etc, it works out just fine. It only really becomes an issue when you get quite a bit out of the normal flight envelope and need serious control inputs.

Granted, not the best way to play them, but I've spent a lot of time enjoying these sims while killing time traveling with nothing but my laptop and it's trackpad.

Trials 2 is what comes to mind from your description, but this is a full blown 3d side scroller with some pretty good graphics... does have a lower setting though to help with slower machines.

RedLynx Trials 2: Second Edition on Steam

There's a free demo on Steam. Very addictive and fun!

 

That's the one!

 

And a small mouse for fps games.

 

While I use a mouse 95% of the time (I hate trackpads in general), when I sit outside monitoring my boys I take my netbook and leave it on my lap. Sometimes I just want a game to pass the time, well as long as it has pause. Nothing too intense so I can go beat one of them up if they get to out of hand. So mouse in this case is out of the question. I move around a lot

 

I use my W700's trackpoint and never find myself using a mouse...

 

Relatively few laptops use trackpoints as compared to touchpads.

 

In fact, the Lenovo Thinkpads are the only laptop brand I know that still has a trackpad.

 

Plants Vs Zombie's a classic and highly rated. And pretty easy to play with a trackpad. You can try out the flash-version of the game on popcap.com

 

I thought of that, but a touchpad? It's pretty tough in later levels with a mouse, placing your defenses in the proper positions quickly.

 

gog.com has (3) of the Pro Pinball games available for $6 each. I think the physics are well done and they're interesting tables. If I remember right, one runs under DosBox and the other two run under Windows (XP works great...don't know about Vista or 7). I'll check if that's correct on my laptop after I finish sleeping my nightshift off.

Other games besides turn-based strategy that I think work well are RPGs...both old and new. I never found myself missing the precision or quick response of a mouse while playing Mass Effect or its sequel. Drakensang, Oblivion and Witcher are good, too. I thought Fable was alright. And the older RPGs are even less reliant on precise input (usually because they are turn based). Neverwinter Nights or its sequel, KotOR or its sequel, Jade Empire, Baldur's Gate or its sequel, etc.

Adventure games, if well done, can be fun, too. The Monkey Island series are back with the first couple remade and available on Steam, and then they have the episodic ones which I haven't tried. Sam and Max are well done also...a lot more cynical than Monkey Island. Beyond Good and Evil...not sure whether it's RPG or Adventure, but it's well done.

And I always have to plug Freedom Force and its sequel. Tongue-in-cheek superhero RPG/Adventure hybrid...I guess if you don't like the campy tone then you won't like the games. I loved them.

If you don't mind a fantasy setting, Heroes of Might and Magic (pick your version), King's Bounty, Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy, or Age of Wonders or its sequel are decent. In warfare, you already have Panzer General...you might try Europa Universalis or Hearts of Iron, but they are more strategic. And in the sci-fi arena, Mission Force: Cyberstorm (if you can find it). Starfleet Command series is real-time, but like Sins of a Solar Empire is very slow paced so it's manageable with a track pad. All the good Activision Star Trek games are very difficult to find, and very expensive on eBay.

 

Any racing game works well. I play Dirt 2 since you don't even need the trackpad. I know that's kind of cheating based on the purpose of the thread...

 

chips challenge & tetris

 

I thought the Dell Latitude and Precision models still used them. At least, my mother's E6400 does.

 

Ah sorry I meant to say the trackpoint thing.. the little pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard. One of my roommates has an old E6400 and it doesn't have one of those.

 

I've played every game in my Steam list on on the built in trackpad, with little issue.

The big games I've been playing recently are Mass Effect 2 and Alpha Protocol.

Maybe it's my big hands.

 

As one other poster mentioned, point-and-click adventures are great fun, and while they're easier with a mouse, there are rarely any circumstances where it will make a difference. The whole Telltale Games arsenal is good (though a few of the games are comparatively weak), and between Steam and GOG, you can find many of the classic gems of the genre: The Longest Journey, Dreamfall, Sanitarium, the Gabriel Knight series, The Broken Sword series (okay not my faves...), Space Quest, King's Quest, etc.

Really, if you're willing to get some old-school nostalgia, there are hundreds of brilliant options, as long as you can find legal copies - arcade shooters, platformers, old-school RPG's, and on and on. And let's not even get started on console emulation (assuming you own the original cartridge, of course )...

 

No, that's perfect. Surprised you can get the precision you need with the keyboard. Maybe I'll try that.

 

yeah, i played alot of of NFS Shift with keyboard before switching xbox controller. Its not that bad, just have to get used to it. Wish they had forza 3on pc. One of the best racing games out.

Also, maybe GTA series might work well without mouse.

ummm other than that, diablo 2? i duno! haha good luck!

 

The Sims!

/10char.

 

Plants vs Zombies. or world of goo. perhaps

 

HP Elitebooks, and the Dell Precision series have them, I'm pretty sure.

 

My mistake, I should have said TOUCHPAD, but whatever.