I bought an EEE two years ago and have been questioned about it ever since. My original purpose for buying it was two fold: I had just broke the keyboard for my palmpilot and a new one cost the price of the refurbished EEE, and I am a sucker for mobile computing. Several of my friends have just never understood my purchase, since I own several laptops and desktops, and they didnt know what to think when I told them the way I envisioned using it.
For the past five years Ive used a Tapwave Zodiac as my pda. It is a great device with a bit of heft, brilliant screen, and a decent library of games. More importantly it had a fantastic emulation scene. But when the keyboard broke and the EEE was the same price as a new one, well I bit the bullet, but kept the same mentality.
I did not view the EEE as a replacement for my desktops or laptops, but more as a Gameboy for pc gaming. What do I mean by that exactly? Well the Gameboy is usually a generation down in power and has a handful of ports from the previous generation. So a Gameboy for PC gaming would play games from 5-10 years ago as well as some new ones. So when I got it, I threw on XP and a copy of Lucasarts Outlaws and went to town. Sure the 9inch screen is not big enough for some genres, and the GMA 950 really hinders what 3d titles you can play, but there are still quality games out there for you to lose track of time with.
Overtime I had to replace XP with a variant of linux for work it was Ubuntu but is now Mint, and only kept Dosbox and a handful of Scumm games installed on it. Recently my old man decided to pickup an iPad and no longer needs his EEE with a bigger harddrive. So what was the first thing that rolled through my head? Thats right boys and girls, I am getting a new Gameboy (one that wont be converted to work).
A fresh install of an nlited version of XP, updated drivers, and I was set. I threw on Dosbox, Scummvm, a couple console emulators, MAMEUI, and decided to do something wild. I went back to the Goldbox and installed Pool of Radiance on it. I had never played Pool for more than a few minutes, but I had been told more times than I care to think of that I had to play it. Ofcourse it ran fine and ate away the rest of my night.
The linelevel Netbook runs an Intel Atom at 1.6ghz, with a gig of ram, and a GMA 950 gpu. So if you think of it as a good gaming pc from 2000 you will be on point for what games can run on it. Sure you can play some more modern games (you can play a lot of them if you play with tweaks (I got Battlefield 2142 to run on one and Oblivion [via Oldblivion] on another), but that is a lot of work for not much reward.
But if you look back there are hundreds upon hundreds of great PC games just waiting for you to play them on a netbook. To keep things legal, lets go to our good friends in Poland, Good Old Games, and see whats on sale. For those of you who dont know, Good Old Games (GOG) is a website that takes old pc games, strips them of DRM, and sells them for digital download. They have sales every weekend and are just a bunch of great folk. The game selection is growing weekly (today 8/10 they added Raptor Call of Shadows) and I am sure there is a game there that will fit your fancy. From Kings Quest to Unreal Tournament 2004. Ofcourse there are abandonware sites out there if you are into that sort of thing.
Whats the point of all this? Simply, dont dismiss netbooks as puny internet only devices since they cant play relatively modern games well. And sometimes it just takes a different way to look at something to make it all click. Many of my older gaming friends have all gone out to buy netbooks simply to have a portable DOS machine. One surprised the hell out of me and hacked a Zipit2 (Instant Messaging device) and to run DOSbox. Very similar to what this guy did:
http://hunterdavis.com/archives/40A DOS gaming pc, in your pocket. Oh how I longed for you twenty years ago. Loderunner and Fate of Atlantis in my pocket.
I am still waiting for a cheap enough tablet pc/ipod knock off that I can turn into the ultimate ScummVM device. For now I will sick with my G3 iMac:
[img width=700 height=525]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f394/fastbilly1/Videogame%20Related/DSCF2849.jpg[/img]
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Interesting read! I have not been really able to get myself into PC gaming. I might try again down the road when I get a new Mac Book, but I guess we shall see.
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Very groovy. My thesis was on the netbook being the largest security hazard in IT since the USB thumbdrive, so I had quite a bit of research on hand regarding them. Somewhere along that path I fell in love with them, but have not given in to my urges despite the recent drops in price and the increase in power to the Intel Atom. I'd looove to install Baldur's Gate on one of those things...
For Goldbox try Hillsfar. It's kind of dumb and basic, but once you get in a groove it's hard to put down. Also, I love the pic of the old iMac. I personally keep a 1999-ish computer around running DOS 6.2. Why? TIE Fighter, baby!
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I used to use my EEE to play games like syndicate and simcity 2000. I also had loads of MD and SNES games on it, then I let my girlfriend use it for facebook and she some home managed to completely knacker it,
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great read! Ive got a old '98 compaq desktop that ive striped down and use only for older pc games (kings quest, moto racer, etc ) and I run master of orion with dosbox on my laptop at least once a week.
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This is a fantastic write-up on the use of a netbook as a portable gaming device. Nothing wrong with using Linux to get the same job done. I know most people are used to and most familiar with Windows, but the same thing can be accomplished with a little Linux know-how. You have inspired me for a write-up.
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Thanks for the compliments folks. I am always glad to hear about anyone who is willing to give a new type of gaming a go. Especially if they are point and clicks (one of my favorite genres ever) and atmospheric platformers.
bombtaomba I am curious about your thesis, any way I can get a copy? Sounds right up my alley. And dont get me wrong, Ive got a 400mhz Celeron and a K6 sitting around for that specifically.
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