Good older games?

H

Hulk

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
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I have a budget computer, 256MB ram and a 6100 video card and I'd like to get into some older games. What are some good ones that will run very nicely on this rig?

What is the best command and conquer game?

Also, I tried simcity 3000 but it ran like crap, i think thats due to the low amount or ram.

I remember back in the day when computers were like 150mhz, you could buy any game and they all ran like butter. Remember Mega Race or Magic Carpet?
 
Anything based on the Quake 3 engine would run very well on that hardware.

Q3A
Alice
Heavy Metal FAKK2
Soldier of Fortune 2

Other cool games that would run well are:

System Shock 2 (second best game ever made, (second only to SS1)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (won't run extremely well, but should be playable I think)
Dungeon Siege (okish game, but provides a decent amount of hours of Diabloish play)
Freelancer
Deus Ex
Warcraft 3
Morrowind
Max Payne
Prince of Persia Sands of Time (this one may or may not run well, it seems like the requirements weren't too steep for smooth play though)
The older Age of ... games should run fine
Rise of Nations should run pretty well

This is all of the top of my head, if I sat down for a few with my game collection, I could probably dig up quite a few more. Most of these can be found for $10-15 at http://www.gogamer.com
 
He doesn't have enough memory to run Q3 based games well.
 
depends on the OS. If he's running WinXP, then you may be right. If he's still got Win98 on there he may be ok, because I remember running q3a and some of its variants on a machine with 256megs ram.

btw I wholeheartedly agree with SS2. Just played through that a couple months ago and it's fantastic, even today.
 
dotK said:
He doesn't have enough memory to run Q3 based games well.
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Entirely not true. Q3 based games will run fine on 256MB. Minimum spec is 64MB. I've seen it run just fine on 128MB, and with 256, you can bump up the caches a little in the CFG file, and it will run great.

However, like I mentioned above, it's questionable as to whether UT2K4 would run or not. I have a feeling it would, but not well at all.

Edit: Didn't think about that (the OS,) but yeah it probably would run better on Win2K or 98SE or something of the sort than XP, but with a bit of tweaking, I bet it would run totally fine under XP.

Edit Again :D I can actually test this theory when I get home from work. I have an old P3 system with 256MB and a TI4200 in it. It's running Win2K, but I'll see what it can do with Q3A. My guess is that it runs perfectly. I have to assume that his PC has better than a P3 933 in it, so if we figure in the possibility of XP with a better proce and do a little guessing and interpolation...

I know that I used to run it on a P3-800 with 256MB, and a GeForce 2 GTS, and it was perfect. I believe that's the hardware I was running when it came out.
 
Deus Ex. You should definately try out the original Deus Ex. Excellent RPG! I've played through it at least 5 times, and it never gets old! You can pick up a copy really cheap, check half.com or amazon.com for used copies.
 
Yes, Deus Ex. Absolutely. I beat that game so many times on my mom's old computer back in the day with 256MB of RAM, a Matrox G440 and a 500 MHz P3. And it was awesome. It ran even better on my 400 MHz dual-Celeron / Kyro II setup. I've been wanting to see how it runs on my current system, but I'd probably just die laughing when I get 300 FPS.

dotK said:
He doesn't have enough memory to run Q3 based games well.
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Average computer had 128MB of RAM when Quake III came out...
 
Dude there is no better way to break in a computer than with some classic rpgs. I recommend:

Baldurs gate 1,2, and Throne of Bhall expansion
Morrowind
Icewind Dale 1 and 2 with expansions
Neverwinter Nights and expansions
Fallout 1 and 2
Final Fantasy 7 pc version
KOTOR 1 and 2 if you are a big starwars geek

Hands down these are the best rpgs ever made in the history of the world. :eek:
 
With the ones suggested you could check out....

Jedi Outcast and/or Jedi Academy
BF1942 (maybe....)
Diablo II + Lord of Destruction
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (+ Enemy Territory if you want)


Those are some more I can think off the top of my head....
 
RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN

ONLINE WITH THE BANIMOD!!!!

/vsay wah

"WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
 
Rogue
Maniac Mansion
Pango

or something with a little more eyecandy, with a little luch your box might be able to handle it

Commander Keen
Ultima Underworld
 
PWMK2 said:
Yes, Deus Ex. Absolutely. I beat that game so many times on my mom's old computer back in the day with 256MB of RAM, a Matrox G440 and a 500 MHz P3. And it was awesome. It ran even better on my 400 MHz dual-Celeron / Kyro II setup. I've been wanting to see how it runs on my current system, but I'd probably just die laughing when I get 300 FPS.



Average computer had 128MB of RAM when Quake III came out...
Click to expand...
The average computer also saw no more than Microsoft Word. The mimimum memory requirement for a gaming computer was 256 MB when Q3 was released but reccomended was 512 MB. Of course, you could get by with 128 MB of memory, but performance would drop to unacceptable levels. I just fired up a quick game of Q3 and it used 124 MB of memory during gameplay (no mods).
 
We still play starcraft...
one of our spare (i'm to lazy to bring my computer to a lan) computers is a 300mhz celeron with 128megs of ram...
 
NOLF and NOLF2 if your system can handle it. Excelent fps games set in the 60s, true classics.
NFS:pU is a good racing game, it is nothing like the ricer games EA puts out now like NFS:MW.
 
Jon855 said:
Half Life - yeah the first one... U'll love this ;)

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Oh yeah, Half life is AWSOME, Runs very well on older systems. Also, RTCW (or if you are just interested in MP, Enemy Territory is free without that), Call of Duty Might work, Myst 1-3 work well on older systems, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Star Trek Voyager: EF, Painkiller, Star Wars Jedi Outcast/ Jedi Academy, Mechwarrior 3/4, Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Empire Earth 1, and America's Army might work. Me? I would add another 512 stick of ram in there and it would run most of those games. My lowend rig (see sig) plays all of these fairly well, and even plays HL2 alright, Farcry, and FEAR (though at 640x480 res all low), so there just all of my list! Have Fun! ;)
 
dotK said:
The average computer also saw no more than Microsoft Word. The mimimum memory requirement for a gaming computer was 256 MB when Q3 was released but reccomended was 512 MB. Of course, you could get by with 128 MB of memory, but performance would drop to unacceptable levels. I just fired up a quick game of Q3 and it used 124 MB of memory during gameplay (no mods).
Click to expand...

Are you kidding me? 512MB when Quake III came out? I don't even remember seeing retail computers have 512MB until early 2002 and Quake III came out in 1999. Many gaming computers back then had 128MB - it is like how 1GB is now. Yes, many had 256MB (although it didn't become commonplace to have 256MB of RAM until late 2000). But many good systems had 128MB.

And looking at the original system requirements on my copy of Quake III, it says minimum is 64MB of RAM. Recommended is 128MB. The reason why Quake is using up 124MB for you is because you have the settings turned all the way up. Trust me on this. When I first played Quake III, it was on a computer with 64MB of ram and a GeForce 2 with 8MB of video ram. I got about 40 FPS with medium settings if I remember correctly.
 
tacosareveryyummy said:
Dude there is no better way to break in a computer than with some classic rpgs. I recommend:

Baldurs gate 1,2, and Throne of Bhall expansion
Morrowind
Icewind Dale 1 and 2 with expansions
Neverwinter Nights and expansions
Fallout 1 and 2
Final Fantasy 7 pc version
KOTOR 1 and 2 if you are a big starwars geek

Hands down these are the best rpgs ever made in the history of the world. :eek:
Click to expand...

These are way older (most of them DOS,) but if you're going to make a list of the best classic RPGs, you can't leave out the Ultima series. So....

Ultima series. :D
 
No One Lives Forever 2 -- A Spy in Harm's Way. Best FPS in my opinion. Multiplayer action is awesome. You must get it. LOL!
 
C&C Red Alert 2 //great strategy game from Westwood !
C&C Renegade //Very nice FPS with tanks/bases gameplay
age of empire 2
Civilization 3

half-life 1(Counter-Strike)
unreal tournament
quake 3
Return to castle wolfenstein

EnjoY :p
 
PWMK2 said:
Are you kidding me? 512MB when Quake III came out? I don't even remember seeing retail computers have 512MB until early 2002 and Quake III came out in 1999. Many gaming computers back then had 128MB - it is like how 1GB is now. Yes, many had 256MB (although it didn't become commonplace to have 256MB of RAM until late 2000). But many good systems had 128MB.

And looking at the original system requirements on my copy of Quake III, it says minimum is 64MB of RAM. Recommended is 128MB. The reason why Quake is using up 124MB for you is because you have the settings turned all the way up. Trust me on this. When I first played Quake III, it was on a computer with 64MB of ram and a GeForce 2 with 8MB of video ram. I got about 40 FPS with medium settings if I remember correctly.
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Well, all my computers from that era have 512MB of memory in them and they were built for gaming. I never spent a ton of money on any PC I had back then either.
 
I had 512MB back then, but that was definitely not the norm.
 
dotK said:
Well, all my computers from that era have 512MB of memory in them and they were built for gaming. I never spent a ton of money on any PC I had back then either.
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Back in late 2000, I remember for a brief period memory prices crossed over into a rate of about 1 MB a dollar. You could get a stick of 64MB of ram for in between $60-$70, and 128MB of ram for $120-$130. You couldn't really find sticks of 256 because that was the maximum for many mobos but there were some mobos that supported up to 512. I don't see how you could have gotten effectively $500 worth of ram for cheap.
 
I didn't even look at the specs, but the infocom collection should run very nicely. They are good (much) older games.
 
The old Command and Conquer (my favorite is RA2 + Yuri's Revenge) games along with Warcraft and Starcraft are great RTS games. Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights are really good RPG games from a few years back. The Myst games are fun too if you enjoy puzzle games with a good story.

A good deal for games is Command and Conquer: The First Decade, which is a full pack of all the CNC games ever released (12 in total) for about $40.
 
Freespace
Freelancer
Fallout
Fallout 2
System Shock
System Shock 2
Half-life
Deus Ex
Starcraft
Diablo
Diablo 2
blah blah blah blah
 
NOLF Games, Thief series, System shock 2.

Stay well clear of Deus Ex and Half Life... Deus Ex was always bad. Half Life 2 was good but playing it now it just feels old...

NOLF, Thief and System shock has aged better :)

Otherwise Civ 3 and alpha centauri is awesome.
 
Deus Ex bad? Wow, can see you getting a few post directed right at ya for that one lol ;).

NOLF series was awesome & its a game in dieing need of another part to the series. Just to satisfy the many fans it has.

Contract Jack is a spinoff of the series, if you want to continue with that kind of game style. Will warn ya though that it was pretty crappy giving how good both NOLF games were.

The Unreal Series, Not Unreal Tournament, is pretty fun to. Unreal II would need a pretty solid rig to run effecientl though. It was one of the games that forced system upgrades when i came out =).

Diablo & Diablo II if you are into those kinds of dungeon crawler games.

If you are looking for older games. I would suggest to look up some website archives of older PC games. Certain sites have that. Will help you choose games easier =). Since Im sure you will not be going out to "buy" alot of the much older games ;).

-DarkLegacy
 
oqvist said:
Stay well clear of Deus Ex and Half Life... Deus Ex was always bad. Half Life 2 was good but playing it now it just feels old
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Everyone's entitled to their opinions, I hated Doom3 when everyone else thought it was the shitza, but I think Googling these games will put yours distinctly in the minority (if not statistically voided altogether).
 
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