Just bought a laptop for $30. What games should I try playing on it?

[TurtleCrusher]

Not very long ago I bought this laptop off craigslist for $30. Specs are as followed:

Dell Studio 1737
Core 2 Duo T6400 2Ghz 2MB L2
4GB DDR2 PC6400
Radeon 3650 256mb (Didn't even know it had a discrete card, HUGE BONUS)
17" 1440x900
Slot loaded DVD/Dual Band WIFI

It was $30 as the battery was shot and the CPU was running really hot. A little arctic silver ceramique on the CPU and a $12 battery from amazon and I was in business.

I have been playing SC2 at the native res on all low, mostly fine. Source games run well at 1024x600, all on low. What games would be fun on a laptop like this? When my wife is on my desktop or I can't game in the bedroom, this is what I got.

I've got several XBOX 360 wired controllers for gamepad games, as well as a spare mx 518 for FPS and RTS.

 

[mnewsham]

Star Wars knights of the old republic would probably run on it, but KOTOR generally requires some tweaking to get running on newer OS's so, you might need to run it in compatibility mode if you are on windows 7/8. If you are still running XP however it would probably work without much tweaking required.

I recently replayed the entire game about 3 months ago and had a great time with it. Really stands up well despite being released in 2003.

 

[KeithTalent]

Halo CE. I used to play it on a crappier laptop than that. Deus Ex should work too.

KT

 

[Kalmah]

I would try games like:

Neverwinter Nights
Prison Architect
Faster Than Light
SPAZ
Game Dev Tycoon
Dwarf Fortress

 

[Raduque]

Prison Architect
Faster Than Light
SPAZ

I have the same laptop. These games all run great on it. Many games from GoG will run on it, too. I also used to play Eve Online on it.

Bioshock, Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout 3, Bastion, All the Half-Life games, Mass Effect 1 and maybe 2, should all run well on it.

 

[WiseUp216]

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

 

[xantub]

Turn based games (even recent ones) should be ok, like Divinity original sin, lords of xulima, valkyria chronicles, heroes of might and magic, kings bounty, etc.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Seconded. Having a blast with it myself. Almost no hardware required.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Binding of Isaac: rebirth requires a core2duo as a minimum. Is my lower tier C2D going to have any issues with it?

 

[sweenish]

Star Wars knights of the old republic would probably run on it, but KOTOR generally requires some tweaking to get running on newer OS's so, you might need to run it in compatibility mode if you are on windows 7/8. If you are still running XP however it would probably work without much tweaking required.

I recently replayed the entire game about 3 months ago and had a great time with it. Really stands up well despite being released in 2003.

There was a re-release with compatibility fixes.

I haven't pushed my laptop too hard, so the 2D indie scene has been great for that. Also classics.

 

[Omar F1]

Currently I'm playing Star Wars Republic Commando, basic FPS game play and I'm enjoying it.

FarCry the original, if you didn't play it yet.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Binding of Isaac: rebirth requires a core2duo as a minimum. Is my lower tier C2D going to have any issues with it?

I highly, highly doubt it. I'm pretty sure it could run on the original NES hardware if it were coded in the right format. There is absolutely nothing in that game that should demand any significant amount of processing power.

 

[WT]

Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty 2, Half Life 2 come immediately to mind.

 

[yoda5]

Another vote for Unreal Tournament and Far Cry. Maybe Star Wars Empire at War

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I'll try far cry. I've been playing counterstrike source and Day of Defeat source decently at 1024*600. They run surprisingly better than the non-source counterstrike games.

I bought a CPU upgrade from eBay and they sent me an AMD Turion x2... Long story short, they're now sending me a P9500, which is a 25w 2.5ghz 6mb L2 CPU. $12.50 well spent lol.

 

[mnewsham]

I'll try far cry. I've been playing counterstrike source and Day of Defeat source decently at 1024*600. They run surprisingly better than the non-source counterstrike games.

I bought a CPU upgrade from eBay and they sent me an AMD Turion x2... Long story short, they're now sending me a P9500, which is a 25w 2.5ghz 6mb L2 CPU. $12.50 well spent lol.

Just make sure it's the right socket, the P9500 had two versions. But, its a much better CPU for sure. 25w vs. 35w of your current CPU, so you will be using less power but getting 4mb more L2 cache, and a 500mhz CPU bump.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Yeah, socket P. The other was soldered in (embedded) iirc which I doubt can be taken out. I also checked other people's threads about upgrading the same laptop and the p9500 was a compatible fit. Any 45nm socket p CPU besides the extreme editions and core 2 quad works.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

SLB4E is it. Looks like it'll be good.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

simcity 2000, which is free on origin right now.

 

[JumBie]

Head over to GOG and take your pick.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The Steam versions of KOTOR 1-2 run great on Windows 7, no tweaking required.

Vampire the Madquerade: Bloodlines with the Wesp basic patch

Defense Grid ? -- graphics are pretty simplistic so it ought to work

Torchlight 1 - I played this on Intel HD2000 graphics

> Head over to GOG and take your pic.

Fallout 1-2-Tactics, Jagged Alliance 2, the Infinity Engine D&D games, ....

 

[TurtleCrusher]

simcity 2000, which is free on origin right now.

Just picked it up!

Head over to GOG and take your pic.

Lifeless Planet looks pretty good.

So many choices there...

 

[sweenish]

The Steam versions of KOTOR 1-2 run great on Windows 7, no tweaking required.

Vampire the Madquerade: Bloodlines with the Wesp basic patch

Defense Grid ? -- graphics are pretty simplistic so it ought to work

Torchlight 1 - I played this on Intel HD2000 graphics

> Head over to GOG and take your pic.

Fallout 1-2-Tactics, Jagged Alliance 2, the Infinity Engine D&D games, ....

Classic Fallout games are not available for purchase from gog.com any longer.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Classic Fallout games are not available for purchase from gog.com any longer.

D'oh! You're right, I forgot that Bethesda got the rights back from the ghost of Interplay and pulled them for now. Steam has them though.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

The Steam versions of KOTOR 1-2 run great on Windows 7, no tweaking required.

Vampire the Madquerade: Bloodlines with the Wesp basic patch

Defense Grid ? -- graphics are pretty simplistic so it ought to work

Torchlight 1 - I played this on Intel HD2000 graphics

> Head over to GOG and take your pic.

Fallout 1-2-Tactics, Jagged Alliance 2, the Infinity Engine D&D games, ....

Torchlight and Defense Grid are games I played on my old Thinkpad T61 that I gave to my parents. The GMA X3100 really struggled on Defense Grid, but I'm thinking the Radeon 3650 in this laptop is substantially better than it. Downloading those ones right now on Steam.