Do these games run on Vista 64?

[Bob]

For Xmus I'm going to buy a laptop and put Vista 64 on it.

Civ4
SH3
Falcon Allied Air Force
Anno 1503
MTW2
Saitek X52

And any opinion as to which brand of laptop?

Thanks a lot,
Bob

 

[Paul Smith]

For Xmus I'm going to buy a laptop and put Vista 64 on it.

Yes.

SH3

Yes. BUT you'll need to use a no-CD crack to remove the copy protection -
as the StarForce driver it ships with is only 32-bit.

Falcon Allied Air Force
Anno 1503
MTW2
Saitek X52

Don't know about the above.

And any opinion as to which brand of laptop?

Just make sure its got a decent graphics card if you want it for gaming.
Don't cheap out on it either, as unlike a desktop you're stuck with the
graphics card for the life of the machine.

 

[Matt Hart]

If you want a good brand of laptop, alienware is your best bet.

You can get decent ones through Dell. As said earlier, stay away from cheap
laptops. What you buy is what you get, only the memory is usually upgradable
without an expensive dock.

 

[Joe]

If you want a good brand of laptop, alienware is your best bet.

You can get decent ones through Dell. As said earlier, stay away from
cheap laptops. What you buy is what you get, only the memory is
usually upgradable without an expensive dock.

Look at ASUS's sometime Matt, I used to think Alienware was good, but why
spend $3000 when a $1000 notebook does the job, looks better is actually
still considered a laptop (because you can hold it on your lap without
crushing your pelvis, and actually runs for more than 20 minutes on
battery)

Bob was looking to run a bunch of older games, technically he could
probably run it all on a $500 dollar 17" HP notebook.

Also, if money is no object I think Voodoo PCs are built better, but that's
IMHO, so don't get mad.

 

[Matt Hart]

Apparantly you've never tried running Civ 4.

A 1000$ notebook may do the job now, but what about the next game he wants
to play?

Laptops are almost non-upgradable. It's not worth it to get a cheapie laptop
and regret it later. I'm not a big fan of ASUS to be honest, but they are an
okay brand. Alienware just guarantees that you're getting everything up to
date.

As for being big laptops, What's wrong with that? Someone created the notion
a while ago that laptops have to weigh under a pound for them to be good,
but what's the point? You can always set it on a desk or tv tray regardless
of weight.

 

[Matt Hart]

Again, though...

I can almost guarantee you that he's going to eventually play different
games, newer games. Especially with that lineup that he listed.

CIV4 isn't that old of a game.

 

[Bob]

Yes. BUT you'll need to use a no-CD crack to remove the copy protection -
as the StarForce driver it ships with is only 32-bit.

So that means that all my old software for winxp will not run on Vista 64?
(I know nothing about laptops, disabled and in a wheelchair). And if they
got a cracked SH3, how about SH4?

 

[Joe]

Apparantly you've never tried running Civ 4.

A 1000$ notebook may do the job now, but what about the next game he
wants to play?

Laptops are almost non-upgradable. It's not worth it to get a cheapie
laptop and regret it later. I'm not a big fan of ASUS to be honest,
but they are an okay brand. Alienware just guarantees that you're
getting everything up to date.

As for being big laptops, What's wrong with that? Someone created the
notion a while ago that laptops have to weigh under a pound for them
to be good, but what's the point? You can always set it on a desk or
tv tray regardless of weight.

Actually my point is the $1000 asus will run circles (performance wise)
around the Toshiba $1500 Qosmio gaming laptop, so bang for your buck for
gaming, ASUS.

ASUS has a modular video card, but honestly, with a 9800m, you'll be
fine. After 3 years you'll want to buy a new computer (Desktop or
otherwise) instead of trying to upgrade anyways.

Also I have played Civ4 on and off for the last 2-3 years (or so it
feels), it's the only game I have installed on my $500 toshiba notebook.
That thing won't run WoW smoothly, but Civ 4 is turned based and while
it's not amazing, it still runs better. You don't need a $3000 PC to run
Civilization.

Nothing wrong with big laptops, but when I think laptop I think portable,
and I don't consider Alienwares "portable". Maybe that's not a selling
point for him, so whatever.

Quality, Alien sure has the OS dialed in and running smooth, but so does
ASUS, more so than any other system. I trust ASUS as I've used their
products since the 80386 days, and no major issues/failures (talking
mobo's of course), now they are doing notebooks that look and feel good,
run good have a ton of extras above and beyond what the big 3 mfgs do. I
look at aliens and I see bloated everything, bloated cases, extra plastic
everywhere, etc.

guy brings an alienware desktop to a lan party, that's 1 less spot for
another system. Just saying.

Hell, if we were talking desktops I'd rather get a Voodoo or a Blackbird
(and I dispise HP).

imo,

 

[Joe]

Again, though...

I can almost guarantee you that he's going to eventually play different
games, newer games. Especially with that lineup that he listed.

CIV4 isn't that old of a game.

http://www.gamershell.com/news_23334.html

"Civilization IV, the game in the works at Firaxis Games, will hit the
store shelves on September 30, 2005"

Not that old? dude, it's a RELIC by todays standards. Coming up on it's 4
year anniversery!

I won't even go into (http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_msr.htm) System
Specs:

Processor: 1.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent

Memory: 256 MB RAM (Windows 2000) / 512 MB RAM (Windows XP)

Hard Disk Space: 1.7 GB Free

DirectX 9.0c-compatible 64 MB video card with Hardware T&L support (
GeForce 2/Radeon 7500 or better)

A toaster would run this game, and given the list of older flight sims,
he's not playing new games, he's playing good games. Of which I can
almost guarantee you, NONE of them are FPSs or "twitch" games.

a $500 notebook would do the job, a $1000 asus g70 would be almost
overkill, a $3000 notebook (assuming he's not made of money and isn't
planning to play too many modern twitch games) is... well.

 

[Joe]

So that means that all my old software for winxp will not run on Vista
64? (I know nothing about laptops, disabled and in a wheelchair). And
if they got a cracked SH3, how about SH4?

The problem is Vista 64 will only run 32-bit applications and 64-bit
applications.

If the game (or the game installer) is older it MAY use a 16-bit
application to run. In which case Vista 64 just won't run it. (it can't).

You may run into compatibility problems with OLDER games.

If you search for Silent Hill 3 and Vista Compatibility online, there are
some people who seem to have problems with SH3, but a lot of people are
saying it works fine.

Vista runs most games, sometimes though you have to tweak the settings a
little to get the game to fire up.

If you get the system and have problems find someone who knows games and
Vista to help you out.

 

[Paul Smith]

So that means that all my old software for winxp will not run on Vista 64?
(I know nothing about laptops, disabled and in a wheelchair). And if they
got a cracked SH3, how about SH4?

No, it means the specific game I said won't work - because its copy
protection installs a driver onto the system, a driver which is 32-bit.
64-bit Windows can run 32-bit or 64-bit applications, but not drivers - they
need to be 64-bit.

I don't know about SH4, I prefer to serve with the kriegsmarine.