Netbook Games List
This is the master list of all the games I have managed to get installed & running under my netbook, an Acer Aspire One 8.9" in onyx black, purchased December 2008.
This is not a definitive list or guarantee that any particular game will run under any particular machine. Many of the newer (3rd gen+) netbooks are capable of playing much more modern games than these, this list is for the 2nd generation netbooks, with an Intel GMA950 GPU and an Atom N270 or N280 CPU.
My netbook specs;
- Acer Aspire One (Model # AOA150-1049)
- 1.6GHz N270 Intel Atom Processor
- 1.5GB DDR2 533MHz[1]
- 8.9" 1024 x 600 WSVGA glossy LED backlit display
- 160GB 2.5" 5400RPM Western Digital Hard Drive
- MS Windows 7[2]
1. upgraded from stock 1GB
2. upgraded from Windows XP SP3
If you've got another game to add to the list, or a question about these games? Feel free to leave a comment below.
The working games
Some of these games are stated as "installed & working", this basically means I've installed the game and it's running fine so far, but either I haven't had enough time playing it, or I haven't had enough time to do a proper write-up on it yet. The notations indicate whether the game was tested on Windows XP, Windows 7, or both.
- 1503 A.D.[XP]
- Age of Mythology - installed & working[XP]
- Arx Fatalis[XP,7]
- Beyond Divinity[XP]
- Caesar 3 - installed & working[7]
- Command & Conquer Generals, and the zero hour expansion[XP]
- Diablo 2 - installed & working[XP]
- Fallout 1 - installed & working[XP]
- Fallout 2[XP]
- Freelancer[XP]
- Jagged Alliance 2[XP]
- Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader[7]
- Max Payne - installed & working[XP]
- Max Payne 2 - installed & working[XP]
- Patrician 3 - installed & working[XP]
- Red Faction[7]
- Sid Meier's Pirates[XP]
- Sim City 4 Rush Hour[XP]
- Stronghold[XP]
- Tropico Paradise Island[XP]
- Tropico 2 - installed & working[XP]
The non-working games
- Torchlight - awesome game, however it's totally unplayable on a 1st or 2nd gen netbook (I imagine even the ION netbooks would struggle due to the crappy Atom CPU), despite the vaunted "netbook mode".
- Port Royale 2 - installed fine, played one game fine, now freezes at main menu.
- Far Cry - installed fine, cutscenes OK, games plays OK when not outdoors, outdoors/jungle drops to single digit frame rates, GMA booster running at 400Mhz shows little improvement.
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines , game installs fine, but the Intel GMA video card is too weak and the game crashes on start.
- Children of the Nile: Alexandria - installs fine, game always crashes after opening cutscene.
Looking for the old Netbook Gaming spreadsheet from Google Docs?
This is what I have: Netbook_Gaming.xls. It looks like the wiki page mentioned in the docs never came to fruition.
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izam
TheWORD
intel atom cpu n280 @ 1.66ghz
mobile intel 945 gma
1gb of ram
the games that runs great:
I-ninja
Warcraft 3 + frozen throne (can play dota on low settings)
Duke nukem Manhattan project
Cave story
Beat hazard
Swat 4(on safe mode and low settings)
resident evil 3
Clive barker's Undying
Grim fandango
American Mcgee's alice:D-
Chris
Matt
I'm not even sure that Trapped Dead's minimum requirements aren't over what that netbook can handle, but I don't know of any way to manually set the game's resolution lower.
This is a problem with many games running on netbooks, they require 1024x768 or larger resolution.
You can try this tweak to change your netbook resolution; http://goo.gl/mb53H
Keep in mind that this doesn't change the number of pixels or anything, it just downscales. Good luck.
rewiwer
lawrence
Damien
I'm yet to try any serious games, but I can't wait to try it.
Thankyou everyone for making this list. Gives me hope I can use it as a baseline gaming pc
ISCARIOT
acer aspire one Intel Atom CPU N450, IntelGMA 3150,1.66 ghz.
Run the game in compatibility mode win98/Me, 256 colors, 640X480 resolution, run as administrator.
luqas
my specs
intel atom n270 @ 1.60ghz
cpu speed:1.6ghz performance rated at 17.664ghz
ram: 2gb
operating system: windows xp service pack 3
directx 10
for video card i just use the swiftshader 3.0 software.....very cool software
video ram: 224 mb
mowe15
Matt
Matthew
Matt
Looking at the reqs; http://universe.lego.com/en-us/help/systemchecker.aspx I doubt it.
There's a note on that page... "Note: This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5)-based Mac systems, or Intel® GMA 950 class of video cards", so that rules out any of the 1st/2nd gen netbooks with the GMA 950.
Brian
Matt
Unfortunately I don't think it will. The Atom 330 doesn't doesn't have enough juice.
Just to be sure, you should try the tool at http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/intro.aspx they have Tropico 4 among their games.
SHARON
Matt
There's a bunch of different versions of Spider Solitaire. I can't see why it wouldn't be able to run any of them, so long as it can play at 800x600 resolution.
There's online flash-based versions of Spider Solitaire you can play as well.
The Dude
its an ibm x120e
amd e350 1.6ghz dual core
upgraded to 4GB ddr3
500GB 5400rpm
11.6" screen 1366x768
bluetooth webcam abgn wifi.
ati 6310
windows 7 x64 home premium
also it only takes about 45 mintues to charge up to 96%
i have been able to play lots of games. at low settings i can play battlefield bad company at 25 to 30fps.
battlefield 3 at 14 to 20fps but sound gets choppy.
counter strike sourse.
wow
battlefield 2 runs at 100fps at max settings
farcry 2 about 30fps
starcraft 2 runs good at medium settings
call of duty modern warfare 1 runs at 45+fps at medium settings mw2 runs at 30+ on low settings. black ops runs at 20fps with low settings
flatout 1 2 and 3 run alright 30+ with medium settings
torch light runs good.
gta 4 runs at 15 fps on low settings.
The Dude
i also get great battery life. i can game consistently for about 2 and a half hours before battery dies. if i set the cpu to 800mhz about 3 and a hould house. and with screen brightness all the way up and everything else on i can surf the net or watch videos for about 6 hours. if i turn everything way down i can watch movies for a little over 7 hours. i highly recommend this laptop its really nice and not to pricy either. but since ddr3 is so cheap right now. it only cost me 12 bucks to buy a 2GB chip.
thanks for the review man.
patrick
1.83 Ghz
1gb ram
250 hdd
intel gma 3150
i just want to ask if i can play diablo 2 on high resolution and maximum graphics performance without lag?
Matt
That HP Mini shouldn't have any problem running Diablo 2. I installed and played Diablo 2 on my netbook and it is much weaker than yours.
The only issue is you will have to run the game @ 800x600 resolution, due to the screen limits on the netbook (1024x600).
Neal
"An unknown dirctX error has occured. Please make sure your video card supports shader model 2.0 and that it is using drivers from the manufacturer."
I have a GMA 3150 in the netbook and according to what i have found this does support shader model 3.0/2.0. I am also using the standard drivers. Can you help?
Again its an Atom N450 @ 1.6 GHz,
1 Gb ram,
GMA 3150.
Matt
That netbook *should* run LoL, however I think the Atom CPU would be the biggest factor in limiting how well it runs. It does recommend a much higher graphics card, but the 3150 should run it.
When you say the "standard drivers", I assume you mean you have the latest drivers for the GMA 3150 from Intel: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect/graphics
You also want to verify DirectX, http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=35
Do a re-install if necessary.
Is your machine XP or Windows 7?
Neal
By standard drivers I did mean what you assumed and I went ahead and reinstalled DirectX and LoL just in case but I still got the same errors.
My netbook is an XP model.
To try and toughen up the netbook I am overclocking the CPU to about 2.0 GHz and for my GMA 3150 I have set the 3D graphics options (accessed through OpenGL) as follows:
Asynchronous Flip = On
Triple Buffering = On
Flippign Policy = Flip
Depth Buffer Bit Depth = 16 bit
Force S3TC Texture Compression = On
Force FXT1 Texture Compression = On
Driver Memory Footprint = High
Texture Color Depth = 16 Bits per Texel
Anisotropic FIltering = On
Would any of these options have a negative effect on shader model 2.0? Thanks for the help Matt.
Matt
If that doesn't do anything, then I would return the settings to default, if the game runs after that, you can always go through the settings & turn things up one by one & keep trying the game until you find what's triggering it.
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