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General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Nakura on March 03, 2014, 08:38:22 pm

Title: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Nakura on March 03, 2014, 08:38:22 pm
I am buying a laptop with these specs:
Windows 98
Intel Pentium 233 mHz
192 MB RAM
4 GB Hard Drive

Can I run FreeSpace 2? On the highest settings?
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 1 & 2?
Post by: General Battuta on March 03, 2014, 08:43:17 pm
I - okay, first, how much are you paying? If it's more than $10 you are being ripped off. Second, it's really going to come down to the video card, and the answer in that case is probably 'no'.

You can get a dirt cheap laptop with much more acceptable capabilities than that. You're talking about something 15 years out of date and effectively worthless for any contemporary computing task.

e: and I misremembered processor specs, so the answer is almost certainly 'no'
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on March 03, 2014, 08:45:50 pm
Intel Pentium 233 mHz
That can't even run Descent 3. This laptop sounds like it would work better if you just used it as a DOS box.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: niffiwan on March 03, 2014, 08:47:53 pm
I'm pretty sure everything except the video card would meet Freespace2 minimum specs.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Rodo on March 03, 2014, 08:50:38 pm
Maybe he's joking around?, I doubt you'd be able to get a laptop that old in working conditions as of these days.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: General Battuta on March 03, 2014, 08:55:26 pm
If 'the highest settings' include any FSO/MVPs content, i.e. everything we've been working on since 1999, the answer is 'no'.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: niffiwan on March 03, 2014, 08:59:18 pm
Oh yeah, that laptop would only have a chance of running retail, definitely not FSO + mediavps.

(and on the minimum specs thing, I think this is the page (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FreeSpace_2_game_information) you want to look at, there seems to be a bunch of wierd requirements elsewhere on the web that don't gel with my memory)
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: deathspeed on March 03, 2014, 09:29:04 pm
I have a Dell laptop with a 400Mhz PII and 256 Mb RAM, running Win 98 2nd Edition.  I tried installing Freespace and Freespace 2 years ago; neither would even start (I'm guessing because of the crappy integrated graphics - the only games that ever ran smoothly on it were strictly 2D).  I ran both retail games fine on my desktop PII-350 with the same amount of RAM and an Intel I740 3D accelerator, along with Windows Me.

Anyone wanna buy the laptop?
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Mongoose on March 03, 2014, 10:55:07 pm
If by "buy" you mean "you'll pay me to take it," then yes, I do!
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Dragon on March 04, 2014, 11:31:54 am
I am buying a laptop with these specs:
Windows 98
Intel Pentium 233 mHz
192 MB RAM
4 GB Hard Drive

Can I run FreeSpace 2? On the highest settings?
What century do you live in? :) You could probably try your luck with retail, but no guarantees, and highest settings might not work. Playing on such a museum piece might not be very smooth, I'm afraid.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Luis Dias on March 04, 2014, 01:48:25 pm
ahah oh god those specs! :D :yes:
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Wobble73 on March 04, 2014, 03:25:03 pm
I am buying a laptop with these specs:
Windows 98
Intel Pentium 233 mHz
192 MB RAM
4 GB Hard Drive

Can I run FreeSpace 2? On the highest settings?

That's only sightly worse than my first desktop computer from 18 years ago! Although that did have a voodoo graphics card and came with Freespace 2: Colossus!  :D
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: headdie on March 04, 2014, 04:54:23 pm
I am buying a laptop with these specs:
Windows 98
Intel Pentium 233 mHz
192 MB RAM
4 GB Hard Drive

Can I run FreeSpace 2? On the highest settings?

That's only sightly worse than my first desktop computer from 18 years ago! Although that did have a voodoo graphics card and came with Freespace 2: Colossus!  :D

Voodoo was awesome
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Goober5000 on March 04, 2014, 07:34:53 pm
I am buying a laptop with these specs:
Windows 98
Intel Pentium 233 mHz
192 MB RAM
4 GB Hard Drive

Can I run FreeSpace 2? On the highest settings?

:wtf:

Much as I wuv Windows 98, I have to wonder if you really are here just to troll, as some people claim.  Your use of the phrase "on the highest settings" might have tipped your hand.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: yuezhi on March 04, 2014, 07:42:52 pm
It looks better than that time machine in Kung Fury.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Shivan Hunter on March 04, 2014, 09:14:38 pm
can I install fs on my slide rule
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Snarks on March 05, 2014, 04:26:21 am
In the case of Freespace Open, I'd imagine the newer Intel integrated graphics might actually work. Don't quote me on that though. All things considered though, I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a Windows 98 machine so I can play some old games that won't run on modern operating systems. So, does anyone actually have a Win95/98 machine they want taken off their hands?
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: jr2 on March 05, 2014, 06:04:15 am
Yeah, laptop graphics cards back then mean a definite 'no', unless you manage to find one with an actual 3D card.  Post the model of that thing, and we can tell you.  Most likely not though.  (For the record, you can turn down all the settings and get most old games to choke along on below par system specs, but the graphics card will get you every time if it requires 3D and you don't have enough Vespene gas.  Some will let you do software emulation, but if you're already choking, that's not gonna work out for you.  ;) )
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Rhys on March 06, 2014, 07:27:45 pm
I am buying a laptop with these specs:
Windows 98
Intel Pentium 233 mHz
192 MB RAM
4 GB Hard Drive

Can I run FreeSpace 2? On the highest settings?

Possibly. I was running FS2 on high settings with similar hardware back in ye olde days of 9x with no problems whatsoever.

But we are talking about vanilla FS2, right? I mean, I seriously doubt you would be able to run any FSO build post-2003 with that hardware.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Klaustrophobia on March 07, 2014, 01:19:39 am
i remember fs2 retail stuttering like a mother****er way back in the day when played on a pIII 1000 mhz, 128 mb ram, and integrated graphics.  and then when i got my very own self-built computer for the first time (amd 2400+, 256 mb ram, mx440 graphics, but best of all windows XP) it was GLORIOUS.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: niffiwan on March 07, 2014, 01:40:18 am
I'm sure I ran it fine on the 1st computer I personally purchased, a Pentium 166 w/ ... ??? RAM (I forget) and most importantly, a Voodoo2 video card.

/me wonders when Nakura is going to reply in this thread...
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: headdie on March 07, 2014, 02:09:37 am
suspect it was a drop and run
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Wobble73 on March 07, 2014, 08:13:55 am
I'm sure I ran it fine on the 1st computer I personally purchased, a Pentium 166 w/ ... ??? RAM (I forget) and most importantly, a Voodoo2 video card.

/me wonders when Nakura is going to reply in this thread...

That was pretty much my first PC, with 128mb ram, later upgraded to 256mb. And of course the wonderful Voodoo2 Graphics card
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Luis Dias on March 07, 2014, 08:51:50 am
lol reply ahah
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Mongoose on March 07, 2014, 02:41:32 pm
Man, you guys had it nice for your first machines.  Our original family Gateway 2000 had a Pentium-166 and a whopping 16 MB of RAM.  I don't even know what the video card was, some Matrox something-or-other.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Wobble73 on March 07, 2014, 03:53:43 pm
This was 18 years ago and my first PC was a friends cast off that I bought off him cheap and then I had to buy the graphics card, cd drive, cd re writer and ram seperately, and it still wasn't the top of the range then as Pentium II's were coming out and maximum Ram was 1GB (IIRC). Also NVIDIA and ATI were becoming the best video cards!
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Dragon on March 07, 2014, 04:29:43 pm
lol reply ahah
Well, he might be busy sending his computer to a museum. :) The answer to his question was a definite no, so it's not like there's much to discuss, aside from old computer nostalgia. And there's nothing nostalgic about this kind of rigs for him...
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Trivial Psychic on March 07, 2014, 04:52:52 pm
My first system was a Pentium MMX-166 with 64MB RAM(?) and an ATI 3DXpression 4MB video card.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: niffiwan on March 07, 2014, 05:28:04 pm
Man, you guys had it nice for your first machines. 

Well, that PC I mentioned earlier wasn't the 1st computer our family owned.  My Dad was an old school COBOL programmer in the 1960's, and we got into the home PC market pretty early.  Started with a Commodore64, later he bought an 80286 12Mhz, 2MB RAM, 40 MB hard disk (keyboard only, no mouse!).  And the all important "turbo" button, which halved the clockspeed to 6Mhz!!! Mind you stepping down was damn important if you wanted to play "The Ancient Art of War at Sea", it was ludicrously fast at 12 Mhz  :lol:  I even managed to play X-wing and Wing Commander 1 on that old piece of junk :) (IIRC Elite 2 demanded a math co-processor though, so no luck there).
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: headdie on March 07, 2014, 05:38:18 pm
I think the first pc in the house was a Toshiba MSX, followed by a C64, first IBM was a 80286.  my first PC was a hand-me-down from my dad which was an 80386 with a 30 mb hard drive.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: LHN91 on March 07, 2014, 05:44:39 pm
Just to get in on the nostalgia trip - the first system my family had was a second-hand Digital Rainbow 100 (With only one working 5.25" drive). After that it was a second-hand IBM PS/2 with the entry level 386 and a clearanced Packard Bell with a Pentium MMX 233 with 32MB Ram, some onboard 2MB graphics chip and a Yamaha sound chip that sounded wonderful.

And that was what I used until I bought my first Prescott-based system (Celeron D 2.4 w/256MB Ram) in (i think) 2004-2005.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: swashmebuckle on March 07, 2014, 06:56:21 pm
My first computer has an lusty 512K RAM. Can FS2 B&W at 512x342 resolution on 8-bit mono sound? I have 8MHz chip.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Luis Dias on March 07, 2014, 07:20:59 pm
count me in in the 386 bandwagon thing. 20 MHz with "turbo" at 40. Lol "turbo". An amazing hard drive of 12 MB. Man those were the days. A few months later we got it switched to a 486 33 MHz.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: ShivanSpS on March 07, 2014, 07:21:23 pm
I did played the original FS2 on a K6-266 with 128mb of ram and Savage 4 PCI gpu, and FS1 even ran on software.

I have a old pc with a sis igp, let me check something.

If the IGP supports D3D the original one will run.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Wobble73 on March 08, 2014, 12:06:35 pm
Actually if we are talking Commodores and their ilk, I had an Oric Atmos as my first Computer, then a ZX spectrum followed by a Commodore 64 and then an Amiga. The PC I mentioned earlier was the first computer I had that run MS Windows.

The Oric Atmos was abominable and you could only get games on it if you were willing to type lines of basic yourself and then save on a tape. I got a book of games with it but they were terrible, best game I had was a slot machine game. I got bored after three spins and I had spent an hour typing out the code for it!  :lol:
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: niffiwan on March 08, 2014, 09:28:34 pm
The Oric Atmos was abominable and you could only get games on it if you were willing to type lines of basic yourself and then save on a tape. I got a book of games with it but they were terrible, best game I had was a slot machine game. I got bored after three spins and I had spent an hour typing out the code for it!  :lol:

Wow, we had one of those books.  There's nothing quite like spending an hour painstakingly typing in the games code and then finding that the game is terrible! (looking at you, you horrible shoot-the-sniper "game") :lol:
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Grizzly on March 09, 2014, 08:04:29 am
Let's just go full Poe's law and answer the question fully:

Nakura, whatever laptop/desktop you are using currently to post all this stuff is most likely able to run FS2, as long as you use FS2_open, of which I am quite sure has mac executables if that is your problem.
Title: Re: Can I run FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Kolgena on March 11, 2014, 07:02:38 pm
Wow, those specs are amazing. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a cellphone from the last 3 years that would be slower.