Possible games?

Hi there

I posted earlier about getting games running on a packard bell easynote e6310 notebook with an S3 unichrome pro IGP gpu and I whilst I get the point that current games won't work on it I have been doing a little bit of research and was wondering:

Would Age of Mythology or Age of Empires 2 and it subsequent expansion packs work with this graphics card - I have all the RAM and other requirements going by what Microsoft say they need it's just the gpu I'm stumped on.

I can get a demo of Doom to run so I thought maybe AOE2/AOM would work - I'd be most grateful if someone could confirm this for me, I've bought a notebook to pass the time on long journeys by gaming and I didn't realise I wouldn't be able to

 

Which Doom did you run? Doom 3? If you can run Doom 3 then Age of Empires 2 should run too. I cant find any benchmarks or anything for your chip. Can you do a 3dmark 2003 benchmark and post it?

 

No it was the original Doom demo from 95ish, I was using that as an example just in case anyone said NO games would run.

I haven't got a clue how to do a 3Dmark 2003 benchmark, if you could tell me how to do it I can have a go, but I've left the laptop in the office and I'm not back in until Tuesday PM.

I did try to install the Age of Empires and Age of Empires 2 demos but they wouldn't run, not sure why though, I've had problems with the laptop running slow and playing up all night

All the tech specs posted on the Ag of Empires sites seem to indicate that it should run but the gpu is probably a problem area?

 

Do you use Windows XP? I am not sure if Age of Empires 1 will run on XP. It must have been made for Win98 or so. Also try to find driver updates.

To run 3dMarks 03 just download it from here and run it. Leave everything on default and post the score.
http://www.futuremark.com/download/
If 3dMarks 03 doesnt run the try 3dMarks 01.

Here is a list of free open source games that are great fun and many are not graphic intensive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_games
If you like Age of Empires have a look at Freeciv and Freecol.

 

try playing the game Carmageddon 1, 2 or 3. they are all great games and have very low requirements. u get to run peeps over and crush other cars

 

Cool thanx for the help guys.

 

HAHA i second Carmageddon 2. I discovered it about 2 hours ago in a pile of old cd's. That game is almost timeless in its voluminous amounts of gore, utterly random power ups, and totally open play style (though I don't know anyone who actually did the race mode...).

Gaming nostalgia is the best thing in the world. It's better than finding, say, an old high school year book, since they make you wish for 'the good ol days'.

 

Thanx for the advice guys.

I've just downloaded demos of Age of Empires and Age of Empires 2 + The Conquerors and Rise of Rome Expansion packs.

They all run fine so would I be right in assuming the full versions of the games will run fine as well?

 

yep the demo's have the same graphics requirements as the full versions, you should be right with aoe1 and 2

 

Civilization II (maybe 3)
Baldur's gate 1 &2

If you're into TBS or CRPGs respectively; it's not everyone's cup of tea, but they're great games!

 

Yeah I like Baldurs Gate type of games for the RPG element, not to fond of the button bashing hack/slash element though.

Civilization is a bit pedestrian for my tastes I prefer RTS to TBS, AOE, C & C etc. I've just downloaded the Red Alert Demo and that works, bit old but hey I'm not a graphics tart, if I was I'd have chucked my laptop in the bin - the GPU is a load of rubbish.


I'm assuming that the principle of if a demo of a game runs the full game will - that applies to AOE 1 and 2, I've just borrowed them from a mate and they work ok, so I'm assuming that applies to all games?

If someone could point me in the direction of a Baldurs Gate demo in the meantime that'd be great.

 

Try Jagged Alliance 2, awesome strategy game.
Also Fallout 1 and 2, best RPGs of all time IMO.

 

Try Red alert 2 it´s very nice and used to run on my ATI mach64..
And I don´t know why you thought these games wouldn´t run, after all they are only 2d, you can try some old fps, I think that the ones based on quake 3 engine should run too, quake 3 run on intel865....

 

Well everyone I've asked is very dubious about games running on an S3 Unichrome Pro IGP GPU with 64mb RAM. It can't handle pixel shading or transform and lighting for a start.

I can't find a demo of Red Alert 2 to try out, I don't want to buy the game and find it doesn't work, that's what I did with Dawn of War, Call of Duty and Medal of Honor Allied Assault

The Doom 3 demo I tried doesn't work, the Age of Mythology demo doesn't work either and the reason they won't work is they can't use the memory card, at least that's what the error message says, so I'm kind of left playing russian roulete trying to find out what works and what doesn't.

Age of Empires and Age of Empires 2 works, Doom 2, Quake, Simcity 2000 and Red Alert all work, I've got a DOS emulator called DosBox which helps with some of the older games like Red Alert which won't run in XP at all unless it's run in a DOS emulator.

So apart from the fact I can't play Medal of Honor which I love playing because it's set in the real world and the graphics are good (the only sort of game where I'm bothered about the graphics are FPS's) I'm actually getting games to work that I'm happy playing.

But if anyone can come up with any other suggestions please do, the more games the better.

 

Aha I've just found a decent FPS that runs on a S3 Unichrome IGP Pro GPU - Quake 2, well make that 4, Quake, Quake 2, Doom and Doom 2, that'll probably mean that most of the FPS's that were made around the time of Quake 2 would run, shame Medal of Honor wasn't made back then.

Still I've got AOE, AOE 2 the expansion packs for those two and the above mention FPS's to keep me occupied.

Now all I need to do is work out how to use the mousepad/keyboard controls on the FPS's

 

Ha I just got Medal of Honor to install and run. Who said a Via S3 Unichrome Pro IGP card won't play games. Mind you I did install an extra 512mb of RAM to boost my laptop to 1024mb (well 960mb to be exact)

Wicked I am now officially loving my laptop.

 

sweet, as MOH is about 7 years old, just about anything will run it. awesome game though, i still play it with my mates.

If you like FPS, try the other old ones like BF1942 - low settings should work
Quake 3 - same as above
And get the expansion packs for MOHAA - like spearhead and breakthrough. they improve on it heaps.

 

Yeah apart from Call of Duty I don't think anything has beaten MOH yet. But then I love my WW2 shooters, obviously Halo, Half Life etc are better but they're not based on WW2.

I've got Return to Wolfenstein also running.

When I originally posted asking what games would run on my GPU I was told that I wouldn't get any decent ones to run, I might be stuck in the past but there are some good games from the last 8 or so years that I haven't played so I'm happy.

And MOH stands the test of time IMO.