How did I get into netbook gaming? It's a good question - a netbook is far from being anyone's gaming platform of choice. I bought my netbook about 18 months ago to use as a work computer, and it has performed its duties admirably. However, being a lifelong gamer, I found myself unable to resist the temptation of installing a few games to while away the hours spent on trains, in conference hotel rooms, and so on.
Unfortunately, the somewhat limited hardware capabilities of the machine meant that most of my early gaming experiences were slow and frustrating, and changes needed to be made. The first of these changes was a RAM upgrade. Most netbooks nowadays are sold with a 1GB RAM chip, but this can normally be easily replaced with a 2GB chip. On upgrading the RAM, a massive performance improvement was immediately obvious. I should add that it was great for work too - the newfound ability to open more than two programs together with a web browser was something I'd sorely missed.
Armed with 2GB RAM, an external DVD drive and my collection of old games, I set out to test the capabilities of my netbook. To my delight, many of my old favourites worked perfectly, including such classics as Neverwinter Nights, Age of Empires 2 and Black and White. This was particularly satisfying as Black and White utterly refused to run on my gaming rig, due to issues with the 64-bit processor. The 32-bit netbook handled it superbly.
An old favourite, namely Starcraft: Brood War, runs brilliantly on a netbook, albeit with the Windows 'graphics options' or 'screen resolution' menu left open in the background. This seemingly bizarre work-around fixes the common 'psychedelic graphics' glitches familiar to anyone who tries to run old games on modern hardware. This allowed me to play Starcraft while sitting in the middle of a street in Stockholm, waiting patiently with hundreds of fellow gamers for the Starcraft 2 Midnight Launch Party last summer.
The big question is: can you play World of Warcraft on a netbook? Amazingly, the answer to this is yes - I have successfully played WoW on my HP Mini 210 (post-cataclysm with all expansion packs installed). It certainly isn't the smoothest gaming experience you'll ever have, but with all graphics set to minimum, no addons, and avoiding populated areas, I could achieve a staggering 10-15 fps. Granted, it's not perfect, but better than expected. I should probably mention that this was after I upgraded to 2GB RAM - I think trying it with 1GB is asking for trouble.
So there you have it - netbook games of all sorts, from MMOs to RTS. If that doesn't ruin your productivity, nothing will.
Gwen Wyn is a pc gaming enthusiast and all-around nerd. She enjoys gaming on both her netbook and a more conventional gaming rig. You can find out more about games that run on netbooks here:
[http://netbookgames.net/]
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