09-03-2005 03:54									#1
	Running games on PCs with less than minimum specs(paging CoT) Increase Your PM Length

inspired by Child of Thor who played EU2 on a system it wasnt supposed to run on, i installed my new copy on my P2, 266Mhz, 48MB Ram, dinosaur. And you know what - it runs, and im having fun. Its choppy, slows down at odd times for unclear reasons, and takes a very long time to load things - i presume cause it wants a faster CD drive than ive got. I presume the RAM is stretched too. Dont know if it will get worse or better as i continue into the game. But its plenty fun now - so thanks CoT.

	09-03-2005 03:59									#2
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

I suspect it's the RAM or the processor rather than the CD drive. A 2x or 4x speed drive is often more than enough for older games, and for newer games too. The game would have to be loading things from the CD all the time for the drive speed to have any noticeable effect.

	09-03-2005 23:58									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Can't you do a full install?

	10-03-2005 03:30									#4
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I did a normal install, I suppose i could try a full one.

	10-03-2005 03:37									#5
	Remove this text

In all Paradox games, it's basically memory, memory, memory before anything else.

	10-03-2005 04:36									#6
	Put an end to popups!

Also try adjusting the CD drive's settings - in Win98 and before I believe there was a cache setting or similar that when adjusted can help sometimes ...

	10-03-2005 19:54									#7
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

I remember running Caesar 3 on a Pentium 1 - 75 MHz with only 24 megs of RAM.

Asmodean

	10-03-2005 20:59									#8
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

That can't have been very successful...

	11-03-2005 00:13									#9
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quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark I did a normal install, I suppose i could try a full one.

You should always if you have room.

	11-03-2005 00:15									#10
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Originally posted by Nikolai That can't have been very successful...

Let's just say it was.....slow

Asmodean

	11-03-2005 01:07									#11
	Inflate your Upload Space

I ran CtP on a machine with under minimum system requirements, as well as SMAC back in 1999. Drove me insane. I still enjoyed both a lot. I'm glad, though, that my machine exceeds the minimum system requirements for any game currently on the market.

	11-03-2005 01:56									#12
	Suffering from ads?

I'd echo the RAM statement...

I was running EU2/Emperor/civ3 on a system that was below processor specs, but I had above-spec RAM. All were slow, but very playable.

And on my new system, I upgraded to 1GB RAM and noticed a lot better performance on MTW.

	11-03-2005 03:08									#13
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

quote: Originally posted by DrSpike You should always if you have room.

Ok. I'll try that.

	11-03-2005 03:09									#14
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

quote: Originally posted by Kassiopeia I suspect it's the RAM or the processor rather than the CD drive. A 2x or 4x speed drive is often more than enough for older games, and for newer games too. The game would have to be loading things from the CD all the time for the drive speed to have any noticeable effect.

yup, ive got 48 meg and the min spec is 64. Dont ask.

	19-03-2005 01:26									#15
	Tired of ads?

Yeah LotM - i might be sputtering along with puny Mhz etc, but i always do a full install(like you my P166's cd-rom is a pretty slow one, 24x i think?). The opening animation has never run smoothly though on that system.
And the further into the game you go the slower it gets, but its not crashed out on me yet - no sarcastic warning pop-up 'Get more memmory or i'll kill this crap pc' etc.

Still now i've got a PIII 566, 128MB ram(i upgraded from the 64) and 32MB geforce2MX400 - so i'm running all the Paradox games upto Crusader Kings at present(well at least 4 paradox games). This new PC is now maxed out i think(128MB is its max memmory.....HP...on-board....grumble).

But when i want to play a bit of Xcom, or Elite3, or Cosmology of Kyoto, or Monkey Island, Xwing etc - then i'm back on my sweet fun P166 48mb.

Old games are often better than new games, therefore this leads me to believe(maybe wrongly?) that Old Pc's are better too

PS. LotM, i think i could love your PII 266 - i'll send it vibes of goodness to keep it in great game playing shape for you

Last edited by child of Thor on 19-03-2005 at 01:33

	19-03-2005 04:13									#16
	Get a bigger avatar today!

Old PCs are good. But you should have them in conjunction with new ones.