A lot of the newer games are beyond my computers specs. The computer is fine except for it's gaming ability so it's hard to convince myself that I need a new one. Plus, I don't have a couple of hundred dollars to plop down for it.

I find myself pushing my luck and wonder if I am the only one who does it. Buying games close to my specs and keeping my fingers crossed.

So, I loaded Dracula Origin and all was well, I thought; I walked around and then I thought the game switched from 3rd person to 1st person because I couldn't see the guy anymore, then I realized I was talking to an empty grave but there should have been a man there.

I can't see any people, I am really enjoying the scenery though. I can hear the conversations but to be honest I just feel silly.

Anyone else pinching their pennies and not wanting to lay them down for a new computer but still want to play?

Hi, chesnut

I have done almost everything to get newer games to play on older computers....I tweak this & that....Finally I save up enough money to buy a new computer that will play the newer games...Unfortunately we live in the world where after you buy a great computer this day...It becomes obsolete in an week

Oh well That is technology for ya

Actually its obsolete when you buy it because the new model is just waiting for the shelf space before its put out.

Yes I have! I didn't check the specs on Broken Sword 4 (requires pixel shader). Instead of just selling or trading the game, I tweaked and used a 3rd party 3d emulator and got it working -- sort of. It was a little choppy but I suffered through it just to play the game.

There are a few newer games that also use pixel shader and I've been fussing with the 3d settings in the emulator to try and get the demos to work. If I can get the demos to work, then I'll buy the games.

Full disclosure though, my desktop has the proper specs but I prefer to play on my laptop.

I will also try and play old games on a new computor .Some times you get no sound .Always worth a try .Save the game if it dos nt work till you have the pennies for a new one and then ....Christmas all at once

lol, nice try chesnut. Whenever I have a problem like that, I start playing the 2nd monkey island again. Then I tell myself that they no longer make games like this, and calm down a little.

Hi davidlynch and welcome to GameBoomers!

I knew I wasn't the only one.

I may try a little motherboard tweaking to ramp up the cpu but "pixel shader's and 3d emulators" are far beyond me Misa.

I looked at some use systems on Craig's List last night and might just have to bite the bullet.

Although, I have plenty of games waiting to be played that will run on my current computer, no problem. What can I say???

You must just like doing that sort of stuff .Its like when some one says ...You cant do that ...But I l have a dam good try Yep dos nt matter how many games you have ..The one that wont run right ..Thats the one you want

Isn't that the truth, the one that won't run right is the one I want to play.

I love this site because I'm not weird for being that way here. Someone else usually has it way worse than me.

All the time but not successfully!
I have a poor quite obsolete system I think, and sometimes the tweaking doesn't accomplish much. A lot is just compatiblility and age of game in my case.

Cases in point:
Original Myst plays but constantly crashes at certain (always crucial!) points. Have to rely on saves to jump ahead. Kinda defeats the purpose and takes the pleasure out of it.
80 days - can't play due to video card issues.
Clue (live action 3 cd rom version) - need application to slow it down I think - divide by zero error.

I still hold on to the games though, hopefully someday I will find a way to get these to function properly or play at all.

Chesnut, you are definitely not alone! Every time I loaded a new game, I hoped and prayed that the game would run. It seemed like for every game that would run, two wouldn't. My laptop is only three years old but I knew sooner or later I would have to get a new computer.

With help from the boomers in the tech and glitch forum, I found a refurbished Dell online and got it last week. It is sweet! Now I have a backlog of games that I can finally play. I had a hard time too trying to justify spending money on a computer strictly for gaming but now that I have it, I can honestly say it was worth it.

Well I have been lucky to be able to play all games that come out, although not all of them at full detail. That's how technology is nowadays, you need constant upgrades in order to be able to play anything at full detail and high res. If you don't want to keep updating your system you need to start tweaking as mentioned before but again, there will be a point where even the tweaking will be ineffective and the only way to play the newer games is to put your hand in your pocket and take out the green.

I saved my money, but bought vista, thinking I had it covered in that I have older xp and newer one with Vista, there are games that wont play on either...

I was trying to save money thinking if everyone had to go eventually to vista, I would save the 100 -200 that it would cost,
I think now I made a mistake..
oh well, wonder how much it would cost to get XP??
its hard to make some GAMES work...
Marcia

I was able to play some of the higher graphic games on my little 32MB NVIDIA laptop. I managed to play a 128MB spec game once and I was flabbergasted yet there was a 64MB game that I couldn't play. I will never understand that stuff.....LOL

I'm sad to say that Dracula Origin was removed from the computer and put in the "play in the future pile". It looked fun and I was looking forward to it.

The worst part was that I checked my computer specs and I actually met the minimum requirements; maybe that was just the minimum for scenery. To see the people in the scenes I might have needed more power.

Well, at least I have other games to play. I wish I could get more interested in The Lost Crown, it just hasn't captured my attention yet. I may have to keep plugging away at it. It recieved such great reviews from everyone I expected to love it from the start.

My computer is about 4 years old. It has a 1.5 gig processor, 2 gig memory, an onboard Realtek sound card and an ATI X1500 video card. Even though the computer shows below specs for some games there has not been an adv game I haven't been able to play yet. They all run perfectly no vid or sound problems at all,

Regards,

Barry

Yes, I do. Mostly rpg games and some fps games, though. Many adventure games do not have as high system specs as say modern rpgs and fps games have. I can play Bioshock at medium graphics on my 5 year old computer....

I don't know of any adventure game that has system requirements that are higher than my 4 year old computer. Recommended requirements, yes a few call for more than what my computer has. But minimum requirements, no it meets them all -- and it was not even a top of the line computer when it was new.

I have a 1.5 gig AMD with 512 mgs of ram and my video card is a VisionTek XTASY 9200 SE.

It's getting to be a slow machine for some of the newer gaming.

All the time!
If you think your machine (yes they are that!!) would be a match try it.
I just got the The Dig to run fine on my XP3: not even in compatibity mode!
Crazy ain't it?

I had to look up "The Dig", I thought it was a new game I don't have yet. Oh, that's an oldie.

I noticed someone else played The Eleventh Hour on XP but with a patch. I thought most of the old games needed a slow down patch because the computers are too fast. I haven't tried any of the old ones but I've wanted to give Shivers a try just didn't want to get the slow down patch.

It's very strange.
It's really.
PoTAeto
POTAtao
If you know what I mean.......